Academy P-51A 1/48

 

 

 

Matchstick spacer to push out fuse sides to mate up with nose cone section. 

Plenty of Tamiya putty required on the big steps on the underwing 

At least I'm happy with the instrument panel so far, just random colours for effect as not going for accuracy with this build. 

A bit of wet sanding outside in the winter sun! 

Have finished all the wing root filling and sanding. I prefer wet sanding with nothing but 1200 grit from start to finish. As the old saying goes you can always sand more off but you cant put it back on. Takes a bit longer this way but means you dont have to sand out the scratches from coarser grit paper! Had to give it a good wash as the wet sanded putty makes a big mess, zoom in to see the water droplets ? Prime next to see how well a job i have done ?
Some panel lines should be rescribed after this but as Im still in learning mode Im not going to try and run before I can walk so will leave that sort of tidy up for another kit in the future.? 

Gap filling finished and have resprayed gear bay and doors in Flat Aluminium as the early 51's were not painted all zinc chromate. Need to paint the rear spar yellow zinc chromate though.
 

Tamiya spray can primed and panel lineing done, just one little bit of filler still to sort on top of the cowl.
Trying to panel line with Vellijo Black Primer while learning how use your new airbrush was probably not a good idea ? 

First coat of grey on the underside. Its obviously too dark but while getting back into modeling and learning all the new techniques Im just using paint I have on hand.
In this case a spray can of Tamiya AS-10 Ocean Grey. I will do some mottling to knock this darkness back and then top coat with a lighter grey (will have to go buy some ?).
The AS-10 sure got rid of the panel line preshade so thats a lesson learnt, no more bloody spray cans other than primer! 

 

 

Attempted to mix my own Olive Green but not quite the result I wanted with these two mixed at about 5 XF-81 to 2 Ammo Pale Green. Happy with the shading at this stage but that will all change once I overspray with a better OG? 

Time to start adding the decals. 

Paint has had some weird reaction to the Microsol. Not sure why but will have to touch up with paint later. It was clear coated so not sure why this reaction has happened? 

Remixed a better zinc chromate colour and as per info obtained online have painted all alloy in the wheel wells except for the main spar. Have added a bit of pipe colour for interest but it isnt accurate just for contrast. 

Spot the decal printing error. The decal number for another decal has been printed directly on top of the yellow band decal! Yet another "fix" to be done. I was being lazy and used the decals rather than painting the yellow bands, oh well all part of the fun. 

Decals on. Had a couple of problems with them as the are very brittle once on and dry. Wanted to test out using the large wing stripe ones as they were in the kit. Lesson learnt and I will always paint large stripes etc from now on! 

Ready for clear coat and weathering.