Airfix 1/24 Allison P-51 Conversion?

[Ossington 2]

I have a damaged carcass in the loft and rather fancy reducing the fuselage height be 3 scale inches and adding an Allison cowling to it, as per the Gerald Scarborough book. Now I thought that this conversion would have been done by others and be on the tinterweb somewhere, but I've had no look searching for it. Has anyone had a go at it? I can then use the Merlin for a Spitfire IX/16.

Just wondering.

[Graham Boak]

You also need a different belly intake, different wing leading edge strakes, and different armament,  I think I've got the Scarborough book somewhere, but if he did go into all these differences beware that the belly radiator and air intake on top of the cowling did vary with whichever Allison variant you choose, and I don't think that all these variations were appreciated at the time of writing.

[Work In Progress]

Ossington -

 

Sorry to break this to you but it is a rare example of a Scarborough book being wrong and unhelpful.

 

To build on Graham's point, It totally fails to address the fact that you would need the section the entire fuselage longitudinally, take out a slice and remate it. Which is not addressed in the book, and means all the other contours for the Allison Mustang shown are wrong.

 

It is the sort of thing you can muck about with in 1/72 quite easily, given the thickness of plastic in relation to the small size of the components, but I would not take lightly with a 1/24 kit.

 

As Graham suggested above, the fact that (even disregarding the engine and cooling system installations) the Allison and Merlin Mustangs have fuselages of different depth.somehow disappeared from popular modelling culture for a while in the 1970s. I've never been sure why.

Edited March 21, 2017 by Work In Progress

[Graham Boak]

Frog had it right back then, at least as far as the fuselage went..  I don't know what happened immediately after that but the later kits out of Eastern Europe got it wrong, and others just built on that.  There are some very dodgy plans around -  the Detail&Scale book being perhaps one surprising place to find the error.

[gingerbob]

Isn't the Airfix kit a D?  Which also means new spine and clear parts.  There's not much left to use without a lot of modification.  And I am not aware of any "conversion" available in the scale.

 

bob

[dragonlanceHR]

Here are some of the best Allison Mustang drawings to date, and they're free. 

 

http://www.geocities.jp/yoyuso/p51a/p51a-1.html

 

Cheers,

 

Vedran 

[Ossington 2]

I am aware that Gerald Scarborough did not remove the fuselage slice in his book. That's why I mentioned it, it is not immediately obvious until you realise it, whereupon it stands out. I know about the obvious changes and variants too, just that I haven't come across anyone attempting this conversion since the book was published. Nice drawings too, all in my ready-to-start pile, but I can't understand why this conversion is not more popular.  

[Work In Progress]

Well, you've just touched on it yourself. Because he doesn't section the fuselage all the other drawings for the nose and belly are wrong.

[Graham Boak]

I suspect this isn't a more popular conversion because once people stared looking at it, they realised that the conversion needed a new fuselage, wings, engine, propeller, canopy/cockpit and left lnothing of the original untouched but the tail and the undercarriage legs.  Not sure about the wheels.  Rather more demanding than Fw190 to Ta152, which in turn is more than Ju87B to Ju87D, but you don't see a lot of those either.  It seems that 1/24 isn't a common scale for any conversions, though a few people have tried later versions of the Spitfire.

[RZP]

I think Graham has covered most of the reasons in his responses. There is so much to change and correct that it would be a tremendous amount of work, and that is why you don't see it done. As much as I like the 1/24 Airfix P-51D/K Mustang kit, it's enough of a chore to build it into a decent P-51D/K. 

 

I love the Mustang and all its variants but I wouldn't want to attempt a 1/24 Allison conversion. I have the Airfix book by Scarborough and it really isn't that much help either, as it is short on details on how things were done. 

 

RIchard

[Admiral Puff]

If you REALLY needed a big-scale P-51A, maybe consider starting with the ancient, and horrible, Revell 1:32 P-51B kit. You're still in for a heap of work, but anything you do to that kit has got to be an improvement!

[Troy Smith]

13 minutes ago, Admiral Puff said:

If you REALLY needed a big-scale P-51A, maybe consider starting with the ancient, and horrible, Revell 1:32 P-51B kit. You're still in for a heap of work, but anything you do to that kit has got to be an improvement!

 

erm, or just track down a 1/32nd  Hobbycraft P-51A...

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/101504-hobbycraft-hc1712-p-51a-mustang

 

For info big projects like this, try Large Scale Planes.

 

Regarding the "Classic Aircraft and how to  model them " series,   some are better than others, and they assume in the case of the 1/24th kits, that they  are accurate.  They  are also rather dated, but they are 40 years old...  I pick them up when cheap,   though I have had the Hurricane and Spitfire ones for a long time.

 

I believe that the Spitfire, bf109, Stuka, fw 190 and Harrier to be basically decent shapewise, I read a thread on LSP  about how the P-51 has some  funny nose contours,  and the Hurricane has some major flaws.  

The others may have  problems,  I have not checked that carefully.

 

For the OP,  "I have a damaged carcass in the loft"  

in that  case you  have nothing to lose by 'having a go'  really,  I'm sure folks would be fascinated,  here and on LSP.

 

Note, you may want to check if the Mustang Merlin is 'too scale'  or to fit  with the cowling closed, the Spitfire  Merlin is reputed to be  undersize to fit, the Hurricane Merlin is too scale, and so the Hurricane nose is too deep/big to allow it too fit (one of the kits problems)

 

Finally, there was an Airfix Annual in the mid/late 70's that did an exposed engine conversion of the Airfix Mk.I to a  Mk.IX  using a Merlin from a Airfix Mustang, that being a leftover from a Cavalier Mustang conversion. 

this one

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Airfix-Annual-Aircraft-Modellers-Quarrie/dp/0850592941

(found from thread linked below)

 

also asked here

 

Maybe worth 

Heritage aviation (now Kits For Cash) did do a resin conversion set for the Airfix kit

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/206213-heritage-aviation-models-spitfire-ix-conversion

but I think that's OOP now.

 

I think the Spit I to IX would be easier than a P-51D  to A,  so do the Spit first and then do the Mustang  for an encore

 

Post a WIP here and you get plenty of encouragement and suggestions

 

Cheers

T

[Graham Boak]

If you do set out to produce an early F Mk.IX, see if you can track down a copy of Wojtek Matusiak's article on them in an old Air Enthusiast Quarterly, as it makes clear the differences between them and the later LF Mk.IXs, differences that are usually ignored in most references.  In particular, as I recall, and ignoring the early conversions from Mk.V airframes, the F Mk.IX had a larger air intake than the Mk.V and an oil cooler intake in the port wing root.  Plus the wide bulge over the cannon bay designed to fit four cannon - not used on the Mk.IX.

 

You will also have to alter the undercarriage as these had extra rake, with the axles 2in further forward, and the doors were bulged around the leg to remain flush with the well when closed.  The windscreen is different, with internal armour.  So although easier than converting a P-51D to and Allison variant, you're not without a fair amount of interesting work.

[Seahawk]

38 minutes ago, Graham Boak said:

If you do set out to produce an early F Mk.IX, see if you can track down a copy of Wojtek Matusiak's article on them in an old Air Enthusiast Quarterly, as it makes clear the differences between them and the later LF Mk.IXs, differences that are usually ignored in most references. 

 

Air Enthusiast 95 (Sep/Oct 2001), pages 14-31.