Pappy

Saturday at 20:06

G'day Craig,

Very tidy work,

cheers,

Pappy

Saturday at 19:52

G'day,

I think the cockpit would look better with the digital displays turned on since the crew will be installed but it is looking very good so far,

cheers,

Pappy

April 15

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

cheers,

Pappy

April 14

On 4/1/2024 at 7:18 PM, franky boy said:

Nice work Pappy. It’s certainly coming together quickly.

I built a Tamiya P-51B a couple of years ago and remember having exactly the same problem areas as you have with the underside seam and left hand side of the cowl. Only small problems though.

James

So it seems I am in good company then

On 4/1/2024 at 9:13 PM, Farmerboy said:

Quick question, and I really should know the answer, we’re the wing panel lines filled from the outset or was it a later war dictate?

On 4/1/2024 at 9:19 PM, mark.au said:

From the outset, on all models in the factory.

Lovely work on a very user-friendly kit. I'm looking forward to seeing this one painted up.

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

On 4/1/2024 at 10:15 PM, Wings unlevel said:

Tidy work Pappy.

On 4/3/2024 at 4:35 AM, modelling minion said:

This is being built to your usual very high standard Pappy, excellent work.

Thanks very much fellas

On 4/3/2024 at 5:36 PM, TEMPESTMK5 said:

Good morning Pappy

After a quick search I 've found this

P-51 Mustang and Gunsights | Aircraft of World War II - WW2Aircraft.net Forums

Patrice

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

April 7

Noice!

And it looks much better than a decal,

cheers,

Pappy

April 5

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

cheers,

Pappy

April 5

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

April 5

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

April 4

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

April 3

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

April 2

KH-31

Pappy

April 1

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

April 1

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

April 1

On 3/17/2024 at 8:10 PM, Farmerboy said:

Brilliant work, l was right , it’s going to be a cracker, setting a high benchmark!!

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

March 17

On 3/10/2024 at 6:31 PM, RidgeRunner said:

Welcome, mate! I’m intrigued what you build will be

Hopefully the re-worked title will now answer that question

On 3/10/2024 at 7:11 PM, Wings unlevel said:

Nice Pappy 👏

On 3/10/2024 at 8:59 PM, franky boy said:

Nice start Pappy.

James

Thanks very much gents

On 3/10/2024 at 10:24 PM, TEMPESTMK5 said:

Good afternoon Pappy

Welcome abaord and very good start

Have fun with your build

Best regards

Patruce

On 3/10/2024 at 11:11 PM, Farmerboy said:

Very quick off the blocks, I’d take a few weeks to get that far for me, but I do agree the Tamiya Mustang is a joy to build and no doubt you will produce a cracking result!

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.

On 3/11/2024 at 1:23 AM, stevej60 said:

Excellent start cockpit looks superb.

On 3/11/2024 at 5:43 AM, HarryHobbyin said:

Cockpit really looks awesome. Super nice work.

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

March 10

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

March 8

Be the first!

Pappy

February 12

Great subject and agreat start, watching with interest,

cheers,

Pappy

February 6

On 1/2/2024 at 6:10 AM, Enzo the Magnificent said:

The white undersurfaces are masked off, ready for the grey to be sprayed. Oh... and I've already sprayed the red flap and slat interiors. They have been masked off as well.

Time to talk about airbrakes.

The kit has nicely detailed airbrake bays. The brakes themselves are detailed on the interior with no perforations. If you wish to display them open, then you open up holes in the fuselage sides to take the hinges. If displayed closed, the hinges are cut off.

Here's the thing... my research shows that the fuselage airbrakes were disabled very early in the service life of the aircraft. As the aircraft subject I am building is depicted in 1969, I should show these airbrakes closed. It also seems that later aircraft had the airbrake perforations plated over. That's definitely how the airbrakes in the kit are shown. However, a photo of 154147 clearly shows the airbrakes to be perforated. It shouldn't be difficult to drill the holes out as they are moulded as blanked off holes on the interior.

Courtesy Wikipedia: Public domain

I have managed to find a couple of photos showing airbrakes open, but they mostly show aircraft in museums. On the in-service aircraft, I wonder if they were open for servicing.

Courtesy Wikipedia: Public domain

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

February 5

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

January 23

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

January 23

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

cheers,

Pappy

January 19

Thanks for looking,

cheers,

Pappy

January 1

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

December 31, 2023

🤣

I just spilled my coffee!

Great story!

Pappy

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