Caerbannog Posted November 7, 2016 Share Posted November 7, 2016 This is a Tamiya kit I started long ago and abandoned it for whatever reason - I just do not recall. Actually I planned to enter it in the P-51 STGB but as it was quite advanced in build I concluded to enter it here instead. I want to build her as KIS which had an NMF fuselage with olive drab spine and early tail. The wings are olive drab over silver paint. I will putty the wings (well did by now) and rivet the fuselage (err... also done now - see below). This is what the kit looed a week ago (you can find it in the P-51 STGB chat: I am currently on a business trip in China and took the kit with me for riveting and what else I could do here. The trip is almost over now and I have completed all work I could do here, but left enough for the coming weeks. For easier "reading" I will post several seperate posts instead of a long one. Hope this is a good idea. Rene Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caerbannog Posted November 7, 2016 Author Share Posted November 7, 2016 Ok - this was last week in Guangzhou: The wing was once glued together but I seperated it again to install a self recast resin wheel weel. I was experimenting with RTV and resin at that time and used an existing Aires wheelwell for testing. The result was not especially fine but workable. The recast and the original part need plenty of work on the kit parts to get in. So I removed plastic from the inner wing until paper thin: Actually it took quite a while with test fiting: Rene Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caerbannog Posted November 7, 2016 Author Share Posted November 7, 2016 Next I started riveting the fuselage. I find it awfully difficult to get riveting diagrams - even of so popular subjects as the P-51. So I used mostly photos as reference. Plus some guess work and patience. This is the first time I use not a riveting wheel. Starboard side done: More progress tomorrow if I have access to the net - if not end of the week. René Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caerbannog Posted November 8, 2016 Author Share Posted November 8, 2016 Messing up the first hotel room it was time for a change: Next will be on the wings. René Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caerbannog Posted November 8, 2016 Author Share Posted November 8, 2016 I overdid thinning down the wings. The parts distorted and one even cracked, so more work was created by having worked too much before. Should be a warning to me... Rene Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caerbannog Posted November 8, 2016 Author Share Posted November 8, 2016 So that is it so far. The trip is almost over and I already packed the kit, as there is nothing left I can do here. I did not yet attach the wings for transport reasons and because I like to sand the fuselage seperately first. The wing will receive a primer coat which will be sanded as well so maybe I leave it off that long. More end of this week. René 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caerbannog Posted November 16, 2016 Author Share Posted November 16, 2016 OK - I am back at home and I am already behind my schedule again... Only repaired the wing, glued it to the fuselage, filled and sanded the seams and hope to get this primed with gloss dark grey for the NMF the coming days. Rene Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CliffB Posted November 17, 2016 Share Posted November 17, 2016 It's good to see that you've been able to do so much detailed work in a hotel room Rene. The lighting in the hotels that I end up in, is always much too gloomy! Cliff 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troffa Posted November 17, 2016 Share Posted November 17, 2016 Great work, that wing repair looks very well executed! amazing what you can achieve whilst "on the road"! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caerbannog Posted November 19, 2016 Author Share Posted November 19, 2016 I thought I had posted an update... Thanks guys. I always try to take someting to build with me. Sometime it works, sometimes not so. This trip was quite good in this respect. I am home for a week again now and managed to get on fairly well. I reached the painting stage and already painted the non NMF areas of the wings in Revell 99 aluminum, masked these areas and primed and polished for Alclad tomorrow. A bigger update with pics will follow soon. Rene 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caerbannog Posted November 21, 2016 Author Share Posted November 21, 2016 OK - bigger update: The flaps of the Tamiya kit have a recessed area which is not on the real deal. The kit has this so the flaps can be in the up position. Surely I want them down so the recess must be filled: The wings were now painted silver colour - I used Revell #99 Aluminum for this: Once dry the areas which are painted on the P-51 were masked off and those areas which were NMF were painted a dark grey base colour before they will be overpainted with Alclad. I have an aversion against the black base colours as in my view the end resuld looks too "strong". I just thing the dark grey makes them look more right. I polished the grey with super fine abrasion cloth to a very shiny semigloss - not super glossy. Then I sprayed Alclad Chrome sprayed over the dark grey: Aaaaand... masks removed: Thanks for looking, Rene 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caerbannog Posted November 25, 2016 Author Share Posted November 25, 2016 Black stripes on upper and lower surfaces masked and painted: The flaps and tailplanes are just stuck on - not fixed in place yet. Next will be olive drab on top. Rene 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caerbannog Posted November 28, 2016 Author Share Posted November 28, 2016 A little change from the plan - as usual. As the olive drab conforms closely to the markings, I decided to start with these and do the olive drab later. Having no decals except for a DIY nose art printed on decal paper I decided to cut my own masks and paint the letters on (stars and bars will be decals I think). SWMBO always taking care for my hobby needs put a new seasonal protective sheet on the table: it is probably me but I always end up with at least one crooked marking when I try to use masks for this job: Will be tricky to clean this up on the NMF finish I fear... Thanks for looking, René Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caerbannog Posted November 29, 2016 Author Share Posted November 29, 2016 Mini update: First decals on: René 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caerbannog Posted December 1, 2016 Author Share Posted December 1, 2016 This post was actually just a test - nothing to do with this build. I only needed to check photobucket. But while I successfuly checked it I can also let you know of my progress. I masked off the olive drab areas and added the tail planes. For doing so I had to remove a bit of the excess Miliput which was used for the tail conversion (no reinforcement wedge on this plane) inside the slots for the tailplanes. I should have better cut the taps from the tailplane as the Milliput broke away completely leavy a nice little hole at the base of the fin. So: Filling and sanding! Yeeeeha! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caerbannog Posted December 13, 2016 Author Share Posted December 13, 2016 So tail is filled and canopy attached. Should be possible to finally apply the olive drab. René 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caerbannog Posted December 15, 2016 Author Share Posted December 15, 2016 Finally I got the Olive Drab colour on: As you can see I used a mix of Tamiya tape and BluTac for masking. Nothing Special. The Steel colour is Humbrol Polish type ("Polished Steel") and looks a bit dark. It was slightly polished and sealed with a brushed on coat of Pledge. When removing the BluTac I was a bit too quickly and partially pulled of the starbord stars'n'bars decal. So this will obviously be replaced. A bit annoying bit no big deal. Regarding the Faded Olive Drab colour I guess I will use it only to highlight unfaded Olive Drab on later builds. I suppose it will be great for that purpose. René 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blitz23 Posted December 15, 2016 Share Posted December 15, 2016 Wow what a turnaround, looking very nice. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caerbannog Posted January 9, 2017 Author Share Posted January 9, 2017 After the Christams hibernation I started work on this again. First I think I solved the issue with the too light olive drap by toning it down with a mix of brown and green Valejo wash which was applied over the Testors paint: Satisfied with this I moved on to the remaining decals including the nude noseart which was laserprinted on clear sheet. Then I painted a part of clear sheet white and applied the nose art decal on this white painted decal paper. I trimmed around the decal with a sharp knife and put it on the model. You can still see some of the white outside the nude (look at the hand) which will need to be painted over in silver. And finally a shot of the underside before weathering: So maybe... maybe I can finalize the build this week. René 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caerbannog Posted January 11, 2017 Author Share Posted January 11, 2017 Had a short night but a long build! :-) This will be the last update before I put it in the gallery. PhotoBucket seems to work again so here I go: I obviously used the kits exhaust with the shroud on another kit. Well - at least they were removed from the sprue and not in the box. So an ICM Mustang box helped out. They are not a perfect fit and I consider replacing them with some aftermarket stuff in the future but will be happy with the ICM one for now which are just stuck in place without cement. The U/C and other small bits are attached minus the rear mirror on the still masked canopy and the landing light because the clear sprue is playing hide and seek with me.: I will add stencil decals to the NMF areas, paint some details and do some more weathering before this is declared "finished". But this will be seen in the gallery then. Thanks for looking! René 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caerbannog Posted January 22, 2017 Author Share Posted January 22, 2017 OK - finished early last week but did not manage to take pics for the gallery before this morning. And will have to take new ones later which will be posted in the RFI section as I am not happy with how my pics turn out at the moment. Anyway two last underwing shots of this build showing the Aires wheel well and the three lights under the wing which were filled with aluminum foil and then covered with clear and tinted clear cote: Thanks for looking! René 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caerbannog Posted July 31, 2017 Author Share Posted July 31, 2017 As Photobucket stopped third party hosting I moved my pics to Flickr. For the same reason the Gallery pics are now lost so I repost them here: Thanks for looking. René Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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