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P-51D Daddy's Girl (Or how to ruin a perfectly good Tamiya Mustang kit)


Squibby

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1 hour ago, Biggles87 said:

Excellent detail on the lower part of the IP, it's difficult to believe that it's in 1/48, I'll be more than happy if I can achieve the same result in 1/32.

 

John

:ditto: I thin we're going to have a stunning IP in the near future :worthy:

 

Ciao

 

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@antonio argudo I haven't decided yet. When I built my Spitfire mk1 I meticulously riveted the whole thing but it barely showed through the paint. I think if I do go down the riveting path it'll be on isolated panels where they are very apparent on the full size example.

Since you're an absolute goldmine of knowledge and references do you have any photos that show particularly noticeable areas rivets on the fuselage?

 

In other news I've finally finished off the IP.

 

This was possibly one of the most fiddly and frustrating bits of decalling I've had to experience. The dials from the Airscale set didn't always fit the relief on the Tamiya part. It was also quite hard to line up the fiddly little dials so they didn't appear offset.

The yellow stripe was also a real hair puller... The old decals weren't very 'sticky' and tended to move about unexpectedly flicking and getting stuck on the raised dial edges. To make matters worse it also started to disintegrate after prolonged prodding around. I eventually got all 4 little bits into a generally acceptable arrangement and called it quits. 

 

The smallest dials were roughly painted by hand using oil paint dots. Once fully flatted down I gave the dial faces a dollop of Tamiya X-22 gloss thinned with water to simulate the glass.

 

39504015992_fdebe2900e_b.jpg

 

When I get some good light I'll try and snap up some shots of the finished cockpit closed together.

 

I need to sort out the gunsight and turn my attention to the radiator before I can finally button up the fuselage. Not too much to do here however there are some very nasty gaps on inner faces of the air scoop outlet which I found very un-Tamiya like.

 

 

 

 

 

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Thanks @antonio argudo amazing stuff there.

 

I think most definitely the rivet lines around the panel perimeters are quite distinct and there are a few other areas with very visible fasteners. I'll have to think about what I want to represent without going overboard. The Tamiya kit does have quite a few of the more distinct areas already molded with rivets

 

@giemme I should have drybrushed over before I started detail painting and decalling. If It try to do it now I'll mess up my glossy dials and muddy up the detail painting. Generally with this build given all the fiddly little details I've been very reluctant to drybrush as I normally do for fear of knocking bits off.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Apologies for the lack of updates, this project is most certainly not shelved though I've lost a bit of motivation to continue at the very moment. After the immense amount of work put into the cockpit I'm a little burned out and the remainder of the work required to finish the build is a daunting prospect.

 

With summer in full swing and a new garden to establish I've been relatively busy in the meantime.

 

Rest assured I'll pick this up at some point soon. I just need to sit down and start knocking out a few small tasks and it should flow on from there. The radiator area is my next challenge and I'm still working the steps over in my head. Regardless there will be some annoying gap filling in my future. Then there is the fuselage riveting to look into.

 

Hopefully some meaningful updates soon. I might even put up the photos of the assembled cockpit I promised earlier.

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  • 3 months later...

*opens the door, pulls back the blinds and dusts off the cobwebs in this thread...*

 

Its probably about time I got back to this...

With an incoming major change in my life my modelling time is soon going to be very limited... Let's just say the theme of this build suddenly got a bit more literal ;)

It would be a shame to shelf this after all the work I've put in so far, I figure I've got about 3 months to finish this off so I cracked into it in earnest this weekend.

 

Anyway, where was I last time? I think I promised some photos of the completed cockpit parts, so first up here they are with the completed centre section mocked up into each side. I might need to tone back the out of scale dust effect :D

 

28203843808_1317106626_b.jpg

 

41176264855_49224be7d5_b.jpg

 

40268593120_2aa5964c6a_b.jpg

 

And here is the gunsight I was working on when my modelling block hit. It needs a flat coating and the projection glass to be added with some acetate sheet.

 

41356776374_645d3fd02e_b.jpg20180513_212526_HDR

 

Here is some new stuff, I tackled the canopy and framing, this is going to a be a real fiddle to paint and fit. I added a riveted strip with aluminum tape around the glass primarily as my attempt to rivet it the traditional way went a bit awry.

I'm going to mask and spray the interior framing before fitting it to the canopy base piece which I'll also have to paint beforehand.

The base piece got modified slightly to allow the canopy to overlap the sides when slightly open as visible in this photo, I also thinned down and drilled holes through the cross brace.

 

https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/view-of-an-unidentified-pilot-in-the-open-canopy-of-a-north-american-picture-id477565553

 

Looking at that photo though it appears I will need to revise the aluminum tape strip on the glass with wider spaced rivets.

 

40268594200_e2d5f9747d_b.jpg

 

And finally I cracked into the fuselage riveting, which was a strangely relaxing process, draw the lines on freehand then roll over them freehand with the rivet wheel, and soon I was out of lines...

 

41356777414_8d57ea4e5e_b.jpg

 

And that's where I'm at.

 

 

Edited by Squibby
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Another small update on progress,

 

I've spent the last couple of days rivetting all the main parts and really there isn't much to show here, aside from bits with scribbled lines all over them.

 

The main thing was deciding on what way I was going to take the wings. I started by sanding off these bunches of proud rivets on the wings adjacent the landing gear bay opening. I'm not sure what they are supposed to represent but they shouldn't be proud like that anyway.

 

41426330774_f5c5760378_b.jpg

 

I decided I'm not going to add any further recessed rivets to the filled wing sections although I'm not going to go to the extent of removing the panel lines. The main reason for keeping the panel lines was to add a bit of visual interest to what will be a fairly plain looking section of the plane... and to avoid a lot of annoying filling and sanding of course :D

 

However in that same vein I don't want the lines to be very apparent so I gave them a half-hearted swipe of PPP and when the time comes I'm not going to highlight them with washes. The PPP will likely end up being a waste of time given my usual success with filling but not washing them should hopefully create the subdued effect I'm after.

 

Anyway, the wing sections as they stand. The drawn lines show where some rivets were added outside of the filled areas.

 

41426330794_6b0db5fd16_b.jpg

 

I also redid the riveted strip over the glazing with wider spaced rivets, much better now IMO.

 

40339846910_5a327be04a_b.jpg

 

Edited by Squibby
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Glad to see you came-back to your workbench, Squibby. Your canopy looks very nice, your cockpit and gunsight too.

I hope you will find the time necessary to go on up to the end of your excellent build.

 

Olivier

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A small update...

 

When going through another build log I found out that the kit flaps have this recessed section on the ends to allow them to fit snuggly into the wing roots when modeled retracted. Unfortunately these don't exist on the real plane and are quite visible when the flaps are lowered so I had to fill them in.

The process was relatively painless, I glued some plasticard inserts into the recessed areas and filed / sanded them flush.

 

27429639977_a9038e5204_b.jpg

 

I also started tackiling the radiator area, I thinned down the exhaust door sides and softened the strakes by sanding them down a bit.

 

40492655380_f3906273f6_b.jpg

 

Edited by Squibby
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I've been doing a bit of work on the radiator duct areas,

I added some strakes on the top surface of the exhaust duct and a little inlet pipe thing I've seen in some photos. I also added a little stiffener bar to the inlet opening.

 

27508716227_4e5b67ab5d_b.jpg

 

 

 

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