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Academy 1/72 P-51B


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hoping to build this one quickly and out of the box.

will unfortunately be using the kit decals- me an' Academy decals don't get on too well.

will however be painting the IID

have finally made a start and hope to post a couple of pics of the office tomorrow

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well managed to get the office sorted- took a little longer than i wanted so i didn't have time to make any more refinements other than the harness

could really have done with a bit of scratching of the side consoles

the tail and fuselage were attached to make the seperate halves:

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the fuselage is closed up now and wings on- will post pics tomorrow.

made a bit of a mess of the wings. Tried a technique new to me whereby i attached the wing uppers to the fuselage, before offering up the lower wing

it took a while to get the dihedral to look symmetrical

i finally figured it was the port outer wing that was squiffy. there was a divergence on the outer wings twixt top and bottom. the port wing was slightly weaker due to the light cut out

a little tweak seems to have sorted that out.

however my alignment was poor :banghead: so will need to fill and redrill the gun ports on one wing and do a lot of tidying up :doh:

and there will still need to be a smidge of filler on the starboard wing root

i do seem to create extra work for myself- wot a muppet :spudniksmurf: (was closest i could find for a muppet)

ps please remember the pics are a lot bigger than the actual bits - i ain't no old fogie wot needs jumbo sized parts :tease:

Edited by walrus
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Nice detailing esp for 1/72. I am not really an expert in these things: is that the floor colour in P51's?

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thanks for the encouragement guys

hi Maxidad

from the pics i found on the net, the Mustang had a wooden floor.

the kit part has a "grain" which would bean inch deep on the real thing :yikes:

i scraped it down

The colour may be a bit out if i am honest but against the interior green and all the OD to come it will hopefully sit okay

also looks different in the flesh

there are a couple of metal footplates under the pedals which don't extend that far back back - but when installed you can't see it any way so i left it

my excuse is self impossed time constraints :banghead::frantic:

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Nice detailing esp for 1/72. I am not really an expert in these things: is that the floor colour in P51's?

I'm sure the floors of the Mustang were left bare wood, restored Mustangs tend to have their floors painted black.

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Hi

The Mustangs coming along nicely.

Maxidad the answer is yes it could be, Merlin engined P-51's had wooden floors,some were painted in the field (interior green or black) but others were left unpainted :shrug: .

I understand they left the factory with a clear protective coat on the wood.

Malcolm

Edited by Mal
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..yeah nice work! You'll get a million different answers on the cockpit floor..here's mine.... it could be bare wood..but had a black anti-slip coating more often than not...

Academy 'B' is a lovely kit in this scale.. ..until you get to the canopy, which isn't really wide enough to fit the hole..wish they'd update their 'D'

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Fighter cockpits were nasty, nasty places. P-51s flew as far as Berlin and back - long trips, and I don't know if the P-51 was provided with a "relief pipe" like the Mosquito pilots were provided with (Mosquito navigators had to hold on). Add to this the high altitudes, violent maneuvres (let alone turbulence), and fear, and you can imagine what these would have smelt like. Doubtless, a lot of stuff would have ended up on the floor. Equally doubtless, some poor mechanic would have been charged with cleaning it up. I'm laying bets that any floor covering would be temporary. I think the wood finish is realistic.

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Interesting answers about the floor covering. As I said, I really know very little about it; my only knowledge comes from a colour call-out on Tamiya's P-51B in 1/48 - I don't recall it being wood.

But as many of you say, a wooden floor's pristine colour probably wouldn't have lasted long, whether it was coated either intentionally and "accidently" (yukk).

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Fighter cockpits were nasty, nasty places

Hi Brews

Thanks for that charming insight.

of course it isn't the stuff of heroic narratives, but biology doesn't tend to give a monkey's about such nicities.

i am sure you are right and i have now added, via a pipette, a 1/72 scale pool of bodily fluids for extra authenticity

i knew that bottle of MicroPee would come in handy one day

Academy 'B' is a lovely kit in this scale.. ..until you get to the canopy, which isn't really wide enough to fit the hole..wish they'd update their 'D'

affirmative! apart from self inflicted stupidity it goes together well and to my uninformed eyes looks close to accurate

just a couple of issues about the ejection chutes noted here and elsewhere.

There is the South Korean P-51D kit - is that as good FalkeEins please?

have checked the canopy and it seems okay in dry fit- of course as soon as the glazing sniffs the superglue it will refuse to fit correctly- is it just me where things go okay in rehearsals but as soon as you do it for real . . . :pig:

Edited by walrus
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Hi Brews

Thanks for that charming insight.

of course it isn't the stuff of heroic narratives, but biology doesn't tend to give a monkey's about such nicities.

i am sure you are right and i have now added, via a pipette, a 1/72 scale pool of bodily fluids for extra authenticity

i knew that bottle of MicroPee would come in handy one day

Don't forget the Micro diced carrots and tomato skins :)

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Thanks Sarge

just sprayed some white on for the IDD stripes

things getting back to normal so will hopefully make some progress and post some pics this week

have checked the canopy and it seems okay in dry fit- of course as soon as the glazing sniffs the superglue it will refuse to fit correctly- is it just me where things go okay in rehearsals but as soon as you do it for real . . . :pig:

told you so . it decided it didn't want to fit. also the glazing was damaged when it loosened from the sprue. tried to clean it up when the front section pinged into a gap in the floorboards. furniture moving floorboard prising peering and profanities ensued till rogue plastic was finally found hiding behind the central heating pipes!

it's supposed to be a hobby it's supposed to be fun and relaxing!!! :frantic:

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told you so . it decided it didn't want to fit. also the glazing was damaged when it loosened from the sprue. tried to clean it up when the front section pinged into a gap in the floorboards. furniture moving floorboard prising peering and profanities ensued till rogue plastic was finally found hiding behind the central heating pipes!

You can relax in the knowledge that if the canopy was lost or damaged beyond use, help is at your fingertips, a click away.

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Thanks guys

luckily the part was washed and came out okay

still a little concerned about the sprue attachment but am hoping i can get away with it.

i do have a Squadron vac form as back up as a last resort

The kit supplied drop tanks seem incorrect based on the photo at the top of this web page

http://www.cebudanderson.com/p51bdetailpage.htm

They are the shorter metal tanks or the paper tanks in the kit

if i have time will have to try and scratch build some unless anyone can shaow another pic with the teardrop tanks ?

also i like the look of the revetment so might try and make one for a base

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More set backs of a self inflicted nature. need a :shoot self in foot: emoticon

for some strange reason- possibly a combination of wanting to get a move on, tiredness and innate stupidity, i managed to get the measurements of the stripes wrong

so back to the start on that one

also the sprue removal damage (despite the polishing) is still there and bugging me man! :frantic::banghead:

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The Longest Day is seemingly apt for this build which i thought was going to be straight forward but i keep shooting myself in the foot.

Can't blame the kit which is good to build but then it was time for academy decals- for fools and heroes only.

i decided to paint the idd stripes which came out great- except they were too narrow?1!? :banghead:

scrubbed 'em down washed it off and started all over again.

the checkers surprisingly went on well but the white is as opaque as a harlot's nightshift. and the decals crumbled to dust as soon as it touched the holy water like a demon in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

then i realised the tailplanes should have a white stripe to so :banghead: yet again.

resorted to the decals for this and of course one broke into bits, had to use an idd stripe which was a tad too wide and so needed trimming- please don't ask why i didn't do that before applying and sealing in. :suicide:

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any way have painted over the white :tedious: and so just have a few itzy bitzy stencils to put on, but will leave that for a time when my head is not thumping- to be fair to myself it has been a struggle of late, but hey the ho

and now i was starting to get to feel more positive about old crow till i came across Steve's Tamiya P-51B and now i feel inadequate again :violin:

fuselage stars 'n' bars from the spares - some anonymous Airfix donor

will be leaving off fuel tanks i think until i can confirm the type used.

thanks for looking

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