Pappy

Count me in, I can't resist a Viper build, cheers, Pappy

So it seems I am in good company then Yup, in order to maintain the low drag characteristics and achieve optimum performance from the laminar flow wing, the panel gaps were factory sealed, sanded and painted Thanks very much fellas Thank you Patrice, It seems that the correct gunsight was in fact the N-3C. Following a brief online search I scratchbuilt my own version. There are resin AM versions available but this was meant to be a cheap and cheerful GB entry for me and I did not want to spend more time waiting for AM. I fashioned my own version of the N-3 using scraps of plastic sheet and resin. This was then painted up and a final touch was the reflector glass added from a piece of scrap clear acetate. I am pretty happy with how it turned out so the side transparencies were added and masked up. I was ready to add the windscreen but my references also suggested that the old ring and bead 'iron sight' was also present as a stand-by in the reflector bulb burned out or some other fault made the gunsight unserviceable. Many years ago I bought a set of PE gun sights. Being mostly a jet modeller, I have not had much use for them but at last the opportunity presented itself to utilise on of these. I added it to the rear of the windscreen frame and painted it up The last little job was to add the lens for the landing light in the port wing LE. The fit is not great. To be fair to Tamiya, I probably should have added it before I sanded the wing LE seams as it may have fit a little better but I thought that the legendary Tamiya fit would prevail, sadly not. I will have to blend this into the wing LE before any more paint goes on, cheers, Pappy

Noice! And it looks much better than a decal, cheers, Pappy

This is lovely stuff and 100% agree with masking the exhaust area, cheers, Pappy

There is another option. Since you are building in 1/72 why not try searching for 1/144 weapons and see if you can find something that fits? Pappy

Of course there is another option Since you are building in 1/72, why not do a search for 1/144 weapons and see if anthing suitable fits? Pappy

I fon't think you are allowed to say retarded any more

Weeeell, Since this is fictional why not just cut the middle out of the KH-31 to make a stubby variant KH-31K ('короткий' - 'Short') 🤔 Pappy

KH-31 Pappy

G'day Steve, Apologies, you are of c pourse correct, I should have stated it is a Mustang III that I am building, not a IV, I will edit my previous post. Thanks for the reference to the N-3C, cheers, Pappy

G'day people, I am currently building the Tamiya P-51B kit as a 3SQN RAAF Mustang III based in Fano, Italy 1944. I would like to know what type of gunsight was used. The kit supplied item looks like the later K-14 whilst I suspect that it should be the earlier N-9 I have a pic that seems to suggest that a traditional iron sight was also installed in front on the combiner glass The N-9 was thinner with a taller combiner glass whilst the N-14 was wider with a shorter combiner glass These 3SQN were aircraft were delivered from the NA factory. I believe that the the K-14 was not in general use until '45 cheers Pappy

Thank very much! G'day people, I managed to get a little bench time. This is basically only the third day I have spent on this kit and it is nearly together! The fuselage seams were dealt with and the fit of the upper fuselage was nothing less than superlative, I used a smidge of filler to blend in the one piece engine cowl as I had a very slight step and I suspect that this could have been avoided as well if I had paid a little more care Unfortunately I did no fare as well with the underside seams. The area around the air intake and radiator exhaust was particularly troubling and required some additional work I still need to restore a couple of panels but I think I am through the worst of it now The wing assembly was offered up to the fuselage and fitted together very well. The only area in need of attention was the forward section of the wing root fillets. I gave these a smear of sprue goo and let it set for a few days before sanding it back. The fit at the upper wing root was sublime cheers Pappy p.s. does anyone have any pics of the P-51B gunsight? I suspect that the RAAF Mustang IVs had the N-9 but the kit supplied gunsight looks closer to the later K-14 which did not enter widespread usage until '45 cheers, Pappy

Hopefully the re-worked title will now answer that question Thanks very much gents Thank you very much, everything fits so well it and there was really only one basic colour. I have to agree, this kit flies together (sorry couldn't resist!) and I can see myself building a few more. I am sure that the Eduard kit has finer detail but for the price, it is hard to beat the value of this kit. Thanks very much, I love doing cockpits so it does not seem like a chore. G'day people, Well I have spent most of the weekend doing the ol' fill-sand, repeat (FSR) dance. The issue is not to do with the fit of the kit, Tamiya have really excelled in that department but rather it is the detail. The kit features beautifully recessed panel lines but North American's practice at the time was to putty the seams on the forward half of the wing, prime, sand and then paint the wings in gloss silver dope to reduce drag and extract as much aerodynamic performance from the laminar flow wing. That means that most of the wing panels needed to be filled. I brushed on some liquid filler and lightly wet sanded. I did this twice and there were some persistent spots that needed additional applications. Once satisfied, I masked off the panels that would not have their seams filled and shot a primer coat over the top to see how it would look under paint. The primer was also wet sanded with sanding sponges to get a nice smooth finish as befits such a speed queen I am pleased with the result - smoother than a baby's proverbial! A cheeky test fit followed to ensure all the parts still play nice together The fit is still sublime. By way of reward and as a motivation during the rounds of FSR I painted up the u/c. I have added some brake lines to the main gear as well as decal data plates. My reference pics show that the airfield conditions that 3SQN was operating in were very basic and the aircraft were consequently quite grubby with the wheels being very muddy. The pics also show that the main fairings (the larger wheel door covers) were closed with only slight sagging evident so most of that wheel well detail will not be seen. This saves me the trouble of replicating all the hydraulic 'spaghetti' that is missing, cheers, Pappy

G'day people, I have been waiting for this GB to roll around. I have had this one in the stash since the last Mustang GB. I ran out of time to build it that time so hopefully I can get this one built this time around. I cracked the bags on this one today and while only intending to have a quick peek, one thing led to another and some paint brushes were used in anger.... The end result at end of day's play today I had some PE handy and although I dd not use all of it, most of it was handy. The seat beltswere especially welcome as I did not fancy using the provided decal. The only additional detail added by me was a couple of electrical cables for the radio Although there are some pretty healthy looking ejector pin marks, there were only a couple that needed removing from each fuselage half, the others will be hidden from view when the fuselage halves are joined. I also managed to get the wing together Plus a cheeky dry fit I have often heard this kit referred to as a 'mojo restorer', and I can see why, after a day it is nearly assembled! Despite owning a few Tamiya kits I have not actually built that many but I can see the appeal as Tamiya's reputation for excellent fit and engineering has not disappointed. The main gear bay does feature a major inaccuracy in the the rear of the kit bay features a bulkhead that follows the bay opening whilst IRL the rear of the bay was the main-spar which was recessed further back. Airfix and other contemporary kits correctly represent this feature but I am not bothered enough to correct it. I don't think the bite is worth the chew but of course others may feel compelled to correct it. I still need to source decals and and a few other bits and pieces so I expect there will some ebb and flow while I wait for these bits to arrive, cheers, Pappy

Be the first! Pappy

Great subject and agreat start, watching with interest, cheers, Pappy

G'day Enzo, The airbrakes were disabled for in-flight use on later variants (and the perforated doors replaced with the sold doors but there were excpetions) and they could be opened to access equipment for ground maintenenace. The early A-6As initially did not have the wingtip split airbrakes but this feature was added once the fatigue/cracking issues associated witht the fuselage airbrakes was discovered. As you can see in the pic of the EA-6A, these aircraft retained the use of their fuselage airbrakes as being based on early build A-6As, they did not have the wingtip speed brakes. The lack of actuator fairings above and below the wing is the give-away, cheers, Pappy

Deep Saxe Blue (DSB) is the correct colour for practice rounds (typically referred to as HES - High Explosive Simulated) but these rounds can vary in hue. Practice rounds do not contain any explosive fill and are rated for flight and can be dropped as their CofG and mass equivalence is similar to a HE round If the HES round has been built up to be dropped from new stock, then the colour will be more vibrant than a round that has been built up and just used to practice ground loading which may be stored outside in the weather and hence subject to fading, oxidation and other weathering effects. Just to confuse the issue, a practice round can also be painted olive drab but with a DSB band on the nose denoting an inert fill. This is rare and typically done when someone wants to make their air show display jet look tough. Drill rounds usually refer to rounds that are not cleared for flight and used for ground training only. These drill rounds are a darker blue like Oxford Blue and typically have the words "DRILL" and "NOT FOR FLIGHT" stencilled in white, As stated above HES rounds may also be used for the same task in which case they may take on a faded and weathered appearance. cheers, Pappy

I remember when I bought my first 1/48 Airfix Buccaneer kit (the legacy kit not the re-tooled one), I was also speechless, it was the WORST fitting kit I had ever seen. It did go together well once I learned that the secret to joining the fuselage was to do it is stages, cheers, Pappy

Maybe try looking at Zvesda, they do several MIL Mi-8/17 kits cheers, Pappy

One other thing, The Academy F-111 kits seem to include most of the EF-111A parts in the common sprues along with both the TP1/TP2 intakes. If you wanted to build a Raven and could not find their kit readily available, you could buy the Ozmods Raven tail and just use any of the Academy short wing F-111 kits as a workaround, cheers, Pappy

🤣 I just spilled my coffee! Great story! Pappy

G'day Filler, I believe these are resin copies of the Academy kit part(s), no extra detail or corrections applied. I think the intent was for people to paint them up as stand-alone examples of applicable 'tail art'. Unlike their USAF counterparts, most RAAF F-111s had art applied to the fin (instead of the nose) when special schemes were applied. These trophy tails allow people to just make the tails instead of the whole jet, at least that is what I think the intent was, cheers, Pappy

G'day Ed, Many thanks, that is exactly what I needed, gps dome and no tail sensor, it looks like ALE-40 mod as well, cheers, Pappy

G'day Mike, Thanks. I have read Mr Vark's guides previously and although they are an excellent source of generic information my questions are more specific. Thank you for the link to the flight manual, that is very much appreciated, cheers, Pappy