P-51D Mustang

very nice detail in the sprues 

excellent really, in my opinion 

 

test fit of the closed rear wheel bay 

four canopies for 2 kits. i wish i could get that in all kits. and thin almost as paper.... can not be better! 

one will be "inflight" for the "flying circus" project, the other standing on the ground, alone 

i had to cut the covers of the rear wheel bay to make it inflight. test fit, not glued yet  

basic interior doeas not even have instrument pannel. only a basic seat... i will add some details. 

first details 

at the end, it will be almost impossible to see it... but it is fun 

some "instruments" 

 

maybe too much weathering.... 

air hoses 

side instruments 

lets start on new pilot seats..... kit ones are nice, but too simple 

cover with very thin copper.... 

starting to take shape 

beginning to look like a pilot seat? 

 

ready for paint 

 

seat belts, to be folded later 

 

 

inflight will be closed, the other need open cockpit... nerves wrecking moments, but sliced it in two without breaking it.... 

some aluminium to make instrument pannels 

maybe is should have drilled them as i did with the P38 

for the wooden floor.... painted aluminium 

joystick... crude maybe but.... 

 

 

metal plate added to back of seat 

some wires on the radio 

 

time to close the fuselage.... 

some details still visible 

added some wires to the wheel bay. and some small pannels 

 

do you see somethign wrong? i use the fuselage with closed rear wheel bay with the wings with open wheel bay... DOH!!! 

ok, now this one is solved. all closed. fly away 🙂 

original plastic part is nice, but it will not even survive the build.... lest get some metal in there.... 

almost forgot the visor for the pitot... what was i thinking? 

it shoudl be ok 

of course, NMF, of course, Alclad, so black alclad base it is.... 

grrrrrr. imperfections that will be to visible later..... #%$#@#$ what was i thinking? 

canopies dipped in future. 

 

black base revealed some imperfections... sanding and more sanding.... 

open cockpit, trying to protect the interior with tamiya masking..... 

closed cockpit, easier but should be masked too 

 

repeat with me, plastic shoudl be shinny before even you use black base... it will save you from sanding the paint later.....doh! 

and more polishing done here.... 

not bad from this angle... of course Petie 2 🙂 

 

hummm.... this side is not that good.... 

and there is a problem... i wanted the petie 2 in the inflight one.... and i have done it the one with open wheel bays, what do i do now, remove the paint and start over??? 

repainted the alclad in the wrong one and started over with masking on the right one....ready for the blue again 

one side, is what I want 

The other, was good, but Alckad was a bit damaged (masking tape probably) and repainting took the nice sharp edge of the blue...grrrrrr 

Added bit of Tamiya thin glue since part was a bit loose,Alclad needs to be corrected
 

decals on, protected with Future. and Flory models panel wash on 

Removed excess, new coat with Future 

Added thin layers of Future to protect decals
that decal was not easy to place... because it is composed two decals on top of the other.... the colors, and then the balck part of the cartoon, had to be place on top, unless aligned perfectly, it will not look good. took some time to place it. the same for the "petie 2nd" also two decals. one white, one transparent with color borders.... 

 

 

decal solutions (micro set/sol and Mr mart Setter, who is the guilty one? no idea) created some fogging in the layer of future.....  

but another layer of future resolved the issue.... that was a bit scary. 

some decals were not easy. The blue one right under the propeller (not the propeller itself) was complicated to set in place... but they look fantastic. in the tail, i choose to paint blue and use the yellow decal, instead of the blue decal with the omega on it. it looks good, i think 

cockpit on 

decals again got me crazy... you have to decals in each blade, one has the yellow/white, and then you have to place the second with the red on the exact spot.... fiddly to say the least.... i see that in the other boxing, they did the decals as just one, why they did as two in this one.... i can not begin to imagine 

there you can see the two decals that have to be placed on top of each other.... there is even a third one, only white (bottom right) that is not even mentioned in the instructions.... maybe to be placed underneath? yellow decal looks has good coverage, so i certainly did not even think about placing the white underneath
 

and this one is completed 

added fuel line from external tank to the wing,and a bit of oil streaking 

the decal with the thin line in the canopy was some fun, but it looks great in the picture  

cockpit open so details can be seen  

 

 

and this one is also finished  

 

added some details in the wheel wells. the hydraulic thing to open/close was a last minute addition just two very thin steel tubes inside each other.  

that canopy is so thin you can actually see details inside. and it is not vacuform. i love it.
looks like orange peel in this picture, but it is magnified so many times. pretty smooth to the naked eye