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Tamiya 1/48 RAF Mustang III


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So I've put the order in and when the time comes... well when I've completed my Emergency Service GB Firefly and SciFi GB Babylon 5 Starfury, I will be building the Tamiya RAF Mustang III, with Techmod decals and some other bits and bobs. I will try not to duplicate anyone else's choices, although it will be a camo'd Mustang as I'm not up to doing a NMF version just yet :)

Looking forward to this one, need to get my skates on with the other GB builds now...

Edited by Kallisti
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  • 4 weeks later...

Well the postman finally got his finger out and delivered the box from Hannants they've been holding onto since a week last Monday!!!

I got the Verlinden cockpit detail set, some masks and Techmod decals, but on looking at everything I've now got I really fancy doing the 112 Sqn verson that comes in the box with the shark-mouth and old-style canopy :) Sadly that means I've wasted a fiver on the aftermarket decals - anyone interested in them?

http://www.hannants.co.uk/product/TM48033

They are yours for a fiver (£5) postage included!

Edited by Kallisti
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and so it begins...

Yes Don, the June 1944-Feb 1945 period when they operated Mustang IIIs, this was during their Italian campaign.

I've decided to take a bit of a rest from the complicated stuff like the Babylon 5 Starfury and do something nice and straightforward like my RAF Mustang so here goes...

Box art

TA61047.JPG

Sprue shots

DSCF4868.JPG

Verdlinden Resin cockpit has been cleaned up from its castings so lets take a closer look

DSCF4869.JPG

Let the battle commence!

Edited by Kallisti
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Progress has been made over the Christmas holidays...

Let me first say that I think the Verlinden resit cockpit is complete rubbish and I would seriously try to dissuade anyone else from buying it. It takes a huge amount of work to get it to fit and the detail isn't anything special - I used the kit seat and pedals because the resin versions were just not very good. I wish I'd stuck with the kit console as well as the resin one doesn't have the same level of detailing as the rather nice decal that comes with the kit.

Anyway, criticism over lets look at the build... First the seat. Its The kit seat with some Eduard PE seatbelts left over from previous builds, cut down to fit the Mustang seat...

DSCF4934.JPG

Next the cockpit before the fuselage went together

DSCF4938.JPG

DSCF4937.JPG

Since then the fuselage has gone together, with just a touch of filler required around the rear of the radiator and a couple of spots on the underside. More to come...

Edited by Kallisti
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Let me first say that I think the Verlinden resit cockpit is complete rubbish and I would seriously try to dissuade anyone else from buying it. It takes a huge amount of work to get it to fit and the detail isn't anything special - I used the kit seat and pedals because the resin versions were just not very good. I wish I'd stuck with the kit console as well as the resin one doesn't have the same level of detailing as the rather nice decal that comes with the kit.

Yes, I think Verlinden have fallen behind some of the other resin 'aces'. I have a set for my P-39s which is a little disappointing. However, your model looks pretty darned good to me!

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Looks a good start. I don't think you can beat a camo finished Mustang like your doing I think they were made for each other.

Thanks - this is out of necessity however as I don't think I'm yet prepared for a NMF as without an airbrush the Alcad treatment isn't possible, so instead I'm happy with a camo finish.

Thank you for the nice feedback Don and Mish as well :)

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Yes, I think Verlinden have fallen behind some of the other resin 'aces'. I have a set for my P-39s which is a little disappointing. However, your model looks pretty darned good to me!

:ditto:

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Thanks for the feedback guys, glad I'm not the only one with the poor opinion of Verlinden resin!

I have a question now... on the lower wing there are two largish square holes that don't seem to do anything or have anything in them

DSCF4945.JPG

So what are they and what should I do about them? As you can see I have just attached the lower wing to the fuselage so now is the time to do something with them. Should I paint the inside of the upper wing interior green or black or what?

Thanks in advance...

Edited by Kallisti
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Thanks for the feedback guys, glad I'm not the only one with the poor opinion of Verlinden resin!

I have a question now... on the lower wing there are two largish square holes that don't seem to do anything or have anything in them

DSCF4945.JPG

So what are they and what should I do about them? As you can see I have just attached the lower wing to the fuselage so now is the time to do something with them. Should I paint the inside of the upper wing interior green or black or what?

Thanks in advance...

Just had a look at one of my kits, I would paint them black on the inside, these "holes" seam to line up with the .50 cals and look to be the shell ejection ports?

hope this helps

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I haven't updated this thread ina while because most of the work I've been doing has been a bit here a bit there so it hasn't looked like much.

Anyway, wings are on and cockpit masked up for painting

DSCF5035.JPG

Underside is also ready, I've filled the wheel well with wet tissue and added the bomb racks. At the time of 112 Sqn having Mustangs, the air war over Italy was pretty much over so they spent most of their time on ground attack, so I will be putting bombs on it.

DSCF5036.JPG

For the spinner, I gave it an initial coat of XF 16 flat aluminium and then used some maskol before painting the red on and scraping the maskol off...

DSCF5040.JPG

Not sure if I might have overdone it a little...

For the prop blades, these also got the silver undercoat treatment, followed by some dabs of maskol and then black and then some cleaning off to get some nicely grunged up blades...

DSCF5037.JPG

No I havn't lost one - I took ot off the sprue to test fit it into the spinner before I closed that up for painting. Sadly I appear to have lost the poly cap that should go inside the spinner so I think I'll just have to fix it on permanently...

More will be forthcoming - its fun building two things at one, two things that are so different - a Mustang and a chainmail bikini girl!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Lots of progress over the last two weeks but only one photo to summarise:

DSCF5055.JPG

Camo paint was done using Tamiya rattle cans AS-30 (Dark Green 2 (RAF)), AS-31 (Ocean Grey 2 (RAF)) and AS-32 (Medium Sea Grey (RAF)) which were originally bought for the 1:32 Spit I did at the beginning of 2011 and have showed sterling service for a couple of other builds last year.

After all that dreid, its has had panel lines picked out with a pin wash, then its first coat of Klear. Canopy frames have been painted both inside and out, undercarriage has been weathered and brake line added although it still needs to have a flat spot added to the tyre. Spinner has been assembled with the scratched prop blades and two bombs have been prepared.

I'll be adding another Klear coat tomorrow once I'm sure this one is dried and cured.

I've begun work on the base as well. This will be a rough scrub-like airfield in Italy, with some fuel barrels and maybe an RAF figure or two.

I'm saving the pilot figure that comes with this for the Revell Mosquito I plan to build at some point in the near future, but doesn't come with any crew. I want to portray it flying to avoid the well known problems with the undercarriage, but I then need a pilot and navigator... this sorts one of those out!

Back to the Mustang... Decals will go on over the weekend I'm hoping.

Next time I'll hopefully be able to show some progress on the base. Currently its just an old picture frame with a layer of claycrete coloured with yellow ochre and Burnt Sienna artist acrylics.

Edit: Here is another photo that shows the panel lines a bit better...

DSCF5056.JPG

Edited by Kallisti
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While the Klear has been drying, I took a little diversion to build a base. Now we're in Italy and I found a lovely photo of some of the airstrips in Italy, and its pretty rough and ready, so I took one of my old picture frames I picked up cheap at some charity shops in Bracknell (where thee entire town centre appears to consist of charity shops!) and added a layer of claycrete, landscaped to provide a nice flat bit and a couple of small humps on either side.

A thin smear of plaster of paris was painted over the flat part to even it out but still keep the surface irregular.

Once dry, artists acrylics were used to paint it the right colours. MiG pigment was then dusted over the flatter area while the paint was drying to give the surface a dusty texture.

DSCF5058.JPG

There are some plaster rock outcrops and some extra small rocks and branches, plus a light scattering of static grass with a selection of grass clumps added to give it texture. In the middle are two wheel chocks scratch built from balsa and cotton. In the corner is a small fuel dump under a tarp.

DSCF5061.JPG

which also includes a BUCKET!!!

Having looked at the pictures, I think the jerry cans look much to clean, so I'll have to dirty them up a bit. Now thats complete I can return to sorting out the decals!

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Grr, was putting the decals on this afternoon and all was going well (apart from the roundels being on the rather thick side and not settling over the aileron actuators properly) until to came to adding the sharkmouth. Up to that point the decals had been quite loose on the surface for a while, so I thought I'd have plenty of time to get the alignment right. So the sharkmouth goes on, Microsol blue underneath to give it some adhesion like the rest had been and now to move it into the exactly correct position as its slightly crooked.... er move you bugger... I said MOVE... no luck the damn thing had stuck fast almost immediately!

I had to soak the nose in warm water and tease the decal off with a soft brush... leaving some of the colour behind in the process. Needless to say I was somewhat annoyed...

Was able to reseat the decal in the proper place and with liberal use of the Microsol got it to conform to the curves properly. Then had to go over and touch up the missing colours. Its okay not but a bit messy - I'll have to use some oil leakage to hide some of the mess. Its really bloody annoying!

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Nearly there!

Just a quick one to be goign along with - if things work out, I shall be finished tomorrow...

DSCF5071.JPG

Decals and matt coat in place, just attached the bombs and u/c spinner almost complete but realised I'd forgotten the yellow tips!

Need to do a little more weathering on the tyres to get it in place on the base plus add a flat spot.

All that left is pitot tube, open cockpit door, radio aerial and dorsal light

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