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Missouri Armada P-51D Mustang: documents and partial scratch from the Tamiya 1/48 kit


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16 hours ago, galfa said:

I would get both and check which fit better.

Thank you so much for that info, galfa. I didn't know that an Aires kit for Tamiya did exist for the wheel bay.

I followed your hint, and ordered this item (12,07 € including shipping costs on Super Hobby.com) much cheaper than the Vector one (23,41 € including shipping costs on neomega-resin.com). 

This Tamiya kit, initially unexpensive, begins to represent a quite considerable cost, if you add the several aftermarkets items I bought and the books (O'Leary and Olmsted). But if you take in account that such a kit represents months of fascinating model making hobby, it remains an acceptable cost.

 

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I used the Vector one for my P-51B. It looks great now that it's in but was quite a bit of effort to get in. The kit wing skins needed to be thinned down a great deal.

 

5a0d7bd9-bc6f-435d-ad37-171be9b909b4.jpg

 

7a752026-eee5-488b-96b2-3a43574cd3b9.jpg

 

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resized_ef85d11e-7925-4fa7-87ac-61b43329

 

resized_4851377d-8896-477d-960b-f394a16b

 

I am going to lay off Mustangs for a while. I could not go back to Tamiya's incorrect rendering, but am not in a rush to do this again either!

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3 hours ago, Olivier de St Raph said:

Thank you so much for that info, galfa. I didn't know that an Aires kit for Tamiya did exist for the wheel bay.

I followed your hint, and ordered this item (12,07 € including shipping costs on Super Hobby.com) much cheaper than the Vector one (23,41 € including shipping costs on neomega-resin.com).

 

How much we can spend in our hobby is probably the most stricking evolution in our hobby. 

When you get both set in your hands, check carefully for the distance between the holes where to plug the undercarriage legs.

Thank you for sharing this great adventure !

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1 hour ago, galfa said:

When you get both set in your hands, check carefully for the distance between the holes where to plug the undercarriage legs.

Thanks for this good hint, galfa!

And thanks too Jamie for the useful tuto!

 

Cheers

 

Olivier

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In the post#920 above, I asked if someone of you would have a good view of the P-51D fuselage belly. Pity, no one replied to that request and myself, I didn't find anything. So, I have no choice and will trust in the Tamiya details, without any certainty.

But it is necessary also to sand the assembly joints in the internal portions of the air intake duct, as they will be visible:

gVoOXS.jpg

 

ExFJkA.jpg

 

Notice that, doing so, I also improve the edges, by thinning them...

 

 

I will not forget, after this sanding job, to add the small reinforcement bar we may see on our docs, like this one, fe:

jEzM0O.png

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In my post#897 p. 36, I asked a confirmation about the color to apply in the radiator area (I was pretty sure but wanted to be 100%). As I didn't get any reply, I had to look for the post where John T. mentioned what I quote below (in the post#713 p. 32). Info confirmed so, alu and not YZC there...

On 08/03/2018 at 23:54, John Terrell said:

For the vast majority of Mustang production, including most all P-51D production, the aft interior fuselage, interior tail cone and radiator section were not primered on the interior. Only the longerons, some stringers and a few ribs tended to get the primer treatment, where as skins, bulkheads, ribs, etc. remained bare metal on the inside.

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On 25/04/2018 at 06:54, Olivier de St Raph said:

In the post#920 above, I asked if someone of you would have a good view of the P-51D fuselage belly. Pity, no one replied to that request and myself, I didn't find anything. So, I have no choice and will trust in the Tamiya details, without any certainty.

I have realized that, in the lack of bottom pic of the fuselage, I could go and see the drawing John Terrell did to show the rivets lines and primered surfaces. And the comparison with the Tamiya proposition in this area is very interesting (at least for me...):

bIGFSm.png

 

In front of so many differences, you could say: why should we trust more in John than in Tamiya?

1) John is a very trustable source (I miss him, and Antonio too, these last days...)

2) the holes (I suppose these are holes) missing in the Tamiya kit can be seen on the pic below:

GJeaoq.jpg

 

3) on the contrary, the bulb present in the kit is totally invisible on the same photo...

... and it is missing too on this one:

ZcQ4vB.jpg

 

4) the fuselage bottom area in front of the wings, wrong (at least for an early version like the Missouri) on the Tamiya kit, is right on John's drawing (see Fencer-1 post#619 p. 25).

abHRLS.png

 

 

Conclusion: in the lack of close-up pic of this area, I will trust in John's drawing and not in Tamiya, at least for the main differences. That said, John, if you could tell us more about this, it would be fine...

An explanation about all these holes (and a confirmation all of them are holes) we can see on Laurent great pic above would be fine too... 

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Hi Olivier, I've looked through my Mustang references and have not found anything better than those already posted here ( particularly on page 26 ) so I can't help you here I'm afraid. You are right about your research being of interest to the rest of us Mustang fans.

 

John

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ogfZqB.jpg

 

N.B: I got today the Aires 4219 Wheel Bay resin set  for Tamiya (arrived very quickly from Czech Rep.), that includes too the doors. Looking very good. If I had known this set did exist, I wouldn’t have ordered the Vector, much more expensive and not looking better (to confirm when I have both in hands).

Thanks again galfa for the info...

Edited by Olivier de St Raph
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On 4/27/2018 at 9:29 PM, Olivier de St Raph said:

I have just received the stressed surfaces flaps from AMUR Reaver. This resin set is normally for the Meng kit (what I ignored) but I suppose it  may be adapted on the Tamiya one...

Hi Olivier,

The MENG flaps are slightly bigger, than Tamiya's offer and it seems more correct. Tamiya's ailerons slightly longer, than MENG, so it is possible to shorten them by 1mm and made cutout in the wing slightly bigger in depht and width. The broader chord will not be notiseable in extended position.

Have you seen the A.M.U.R. Reaver other PE bits for Tamiya P-51D?

Cockpit and Radio and Wheel Wells ?

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6 hours ago, Fencer-1 said:

Have you seen the A.M.U.R. Reaver other PE bits for Tamiya P-51D?

Cockpit and Radio and Wheel Wells ?

First thanks a lot Alexey for the hints about the flaps, I will try to adapt as well as possible the flaps to the Tamiya kit.

I had seen there was an A.M.U.R Reaver PE Wheel Wells set but for such an element (the wheel wells), a resin set seemed to me better adapted than a PE one.

On the other hand, I didn't know the cockpit and radio set, and this info will maybe be useful for some modelers...

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I am actually working on the Aires wheel bay and I confirm that it is not easy to fit into the Tamiya wings, as Jamie mentioned with right above...

But I think the result should be fine, and I will certainly use this set.

Would someone be interested by the Vector one, that I should get soon?

 

P.S: reading again his post# 931, I just saw that Jamie used the Vector and not the Aires set. So, both require a lot of time and care to get a good fit without damage... Finally, I wonder if I really earned time choosing this option instead of the scratch one. But now that I am close from the end, I will remain on this solution of course.

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AULrqK.jpg

 

N.B: my next step on this part should be the application of Alclad stencils, a real challenge for me, especially at this scale. As I said above, I am not familiar with clear decals and I will do trials first, hoping I will succeed this step...

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EDvCE1.jpg

 

N.B: I must say I am a bit perplex, because if I remember well, it has been said somewhere in the thread that the Alclad stencils had to be applied also on the walls of the gear bay. Yet I have no single photo (and I have many of the wheel wells...) showing that.

Though it seems logic, if no YZC protection was applied, to have these stencils on every alu sheet...

Pity, John T. seems to left the thread (no reply to several of my questions above), and Antonio seems very busy too...

 

N.B 2: the Liquid Decal Film was not thinned at all, I used a medium head and needle to airbrush this quite thick product

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I just said above (edited) that I didn't find any photo showing the Alclad stencils on the walls. But I have another small problem about these stencils. Matt kindly sent to me the doc Word John T. did (if I am right) to represent them. If the mentions are great, it seems to me that the spaces should be more important between the lines, as this example shows:

 

 

aRgecK.png

 

 

N.B: notice that, on the lowest part of this sheet, there is more space. As the inscriptions will be unreadable at 1/48, I will use this part of the doc...

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On 4/19/2018 at 3:59 PM, Olivier de St Raph said:

There you exaggerate, Johnny, only 5 little months (up to now...)

But for the 1/12 Italeri Fiat 806, I spent 13 months for the whole partial scratchbuild, and the thread "research and scratchbuild" (that is not yet over with especially Hannes) is now 191 pages!! 

Notice that I had needed only 3 weeks to build the Fiat OOB, that was however a much more complex build than the Missouri Tamiya at 1/48. All depends what you want to get, a fast result or a great satisfaction...

So I am the Leon Tolstoï of model making ;)!

And definitely a completely mad guy, for sure...

Ah quite right... chalk it up to  poor math skills. Regardless, that certainly wasn't a rebuke (I'm averaging around a year per build at this point, so I'm not one to talk). And agreed on goals. A crappy model doesn't get any better knowing the builder cranked it out in a few days/weeks/whatever. 

 

cheers

-J

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On 29/04/2018 at 13:22, Olivier de St Raph said:

I must say I am a bit perplex, because if I remember well, it has been said somewhere in the thread that the Alclad stencils had to be applied also on the walls of the gear bay. Yet I have no single photo (and I have many of the wheel wells...) showing that.

Though it seems logic, if no YZC protection was applied, to have these stencils on every alu sheet...

The only pic I have where the Alclad stencils appear on the walls (by transparency under the YZC coat) is this one:

FcCafv.jpg

 

I miss my dream team, feeling very alone in the research aspects... But I 'm not mad at anyone, I can understand some have no time actually or lost motivation. We got many infos on this thread, it is ever great, and I thank all the ones who brought their contribution.

 

Olivier

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P.S: I have got yesterday the Vector set. As I won't use it, if someone is interested by this set, he should send me a PM. I will sell it much cheaper than what I paid myself. It is not so different from the Aires one.

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