Cheshiretaurus

Mustang Mk III from No. 315 Polish Squadron flown by Squadron leader Eugeniusz Horbaczewski at RAF Brenzette Scale 1:72 Kit Academy P51B Decals from Academy Kit Paint MRP Weathering Flory grey wash, Mig oil brushers, Tamiya weathering masters, AK wethering pencils. Matt clear coat MRP Aftermarket, Eduard Canopy mask. Little lens landing light Scratch built Landing cover from OHP film, Ariel from 0.1mm nickle rod Part of a quad of Mustangs in the current Mustang group build Thanks for looking CT Mark

AFIK the Welsh models kit is the only one in 1/72 Im not aware of one in 1/48. I have a Welsh models one in the stash that Im going to do as an Eastern example. Think it is just the decals that are different per boxing. If you do get a Welsh models kit then you will need to reverse the blade angle one one prop as J41 props turn in opposite directions.

Really wasnt happy with that wonky 'C' on the Stbd fin of the Hunter Had been playing on my mind all day so had to change it 1 Wonky C. 2 Cut a new mask shaped to top of the tail to aid fitting. 3 Obliterate old 'C' with RAF dark green. 4 Fit new mask to fin as a whole. 5 Weed out the inner of the mask and seal the edges of the fin and mask surrounding area. 6 Spray white. 7 Unmask 8 Finished OCD satisfied. Now started the gloss work, and put few more coats of gloss on the Queen.

Jeepers that cockpit is so sharp you could almost fly it, Are you sure this is 1:72?👍

Looking at pictures of the Hunter it seem that that demarcation line was a sharp edge but done a bit roughy. So to try to recreate this I decide to draw the line on using the Molotow masking pen The star & bar outline is just to help get the demarcation line in the right place as it seems to follow the edge as it passes. Ive used MRP 110 RAF Dark green as I understand the Hunter was painted with RAF paints. Unmasking the Molotow bits was a bit fiddly and a bit of rework needed with the airbrush again in a few places. but overall this is the result. Wonky 'C' Gloss next ready for decals. CT

Started to gloss the Queen tonight. For the Hunter I used 3 shades of Alclad for the underside. ALC 106 White aluminium. Ailerons, flaps, panels forward of radiator intake, undercarriage doors, fuselage, tail. ALC 116 Semi matt aluminium, main area of wing. ALC 102 Duraluminim, wing tips, elevators. Difficult to photograph but this one shows it best. Photos of the hunter seem to indicate it had in the past a white band on the tail, this would have been a 12" band set 18" from the top of the tail. I had put this on along with the other stripes earlier. I've unmasked it now so when I do the green it should show though depicting a repainted area. I've not tried this trick before so see how it goes. Thats all for today, I'll have some more Apple Jim Beam and chill Goodnight CT

Eggstrodanary work

Yes, were watching. Now where did I put that popcorn.

Fuel filler caps and red 'L's on the flap were the last things to be masked. More painting. First the overspray from the masked off white and red area was marbled back with black paint so as not to be conspicuous and blend in with the rest of the black basing. Grey first I've used the AK putty to mask the line Olive drab upper, Ive used MRP 138 for aircraft after 1943 Un masking Think she came out well. I'll let all that paint dry properly for a few hours before starting the gloss, On the Hunter I've started the underside I'm going to do a few shades of Alclad on different panels so first bit is white aluminium, I'll mask that later and then put another shade on. Break time and dinner. Regards CT

Ive had that about 6 years and its defiantly been worth the investment. hadnt used it for a while until this mustang build though. They are not overly expensive either.

Ah, I'm cheating

Good spot and thanks for pointing it out, The test piece was just to see how the decal would fit to the masked silhouette and how it would look. I did use that picture you refer to as an aid for the positioning, Ive cut the mask for the actual model with a matching shape to to the panel lines. I cut it onto Tamiya masking sheet along with couple of other masks and used a bit of clear Frisket film to lift the whole thing and apply it to the model useing a couple of strips of tape applied against the panel lines to help positioning then once in position I removed the outer masking. voila! The scoreboard on the Airfix decal sheet for the Hunter isn't very well done so I''m going to paint it instead, think it should be red anyway. The score board on the Hunter went on in the same way I used MRP RAF marking red as the Hunter was actually painted RAF dark green so stands to reason that RAF paints were available at the unit. That's Cheshiretaurus logic. again voila! The whole board will now be masked off for the rest of the painting and the swastikas will go on later as an inkjet decal. Going dotty with that unmasking! few more codes cut, the 12" C goes on the top of the rudder. The Queens nose and spinner was painted insignia red, I also did the fuel filler caps the same. Then I decided I was going to do the same for the red 'L' s on the flap. this is also a decal on the Academy sheets but it goes over some lovely recessed rivet detail and the rivets didn't show through very well on the the previous build. So I;ll paint them on. Bands all masked off, and I'll mask the red later. regards CT

Thanks. Yes it's the test proof of concept and seemed to work first time. Hope it goes just as well on the actual build.

Here is the promised test piece of the lady in red and score board. Ignore the scratches on the white circles

More work on the Queen and the Hunter. Cut some more landing light covers from OHP film and put those on with UV glue along with a little lenses light. Masking the light was easy as i simply cut the same shape from Tamiya tape. Also guns are getting an upgrade. The old moulded representations were cut away and 0.6mm holes drilled to take some Albion alloys.0.6mm brass tube instead. Here is the difference. I've cut 10 2mm lengths of the tube and will fit them properly near the end of the build. But for now they are put aside in a poly bag. Painting. Wings spar got some zinc chromate primer first. The rest of the bays were painted in Alclad dull aluminium. Ive then put the undercarriage doors in place and held them in place with the AK masking putty. Black basing next using MRP white. The Hunter will be aluminium underneath so that bit stays in black primer. Following on from Johnsons build of the Rebel Queen where he has made a better decal of the lady in red. Ive decided to do the same. Im going to make a white background for the decal with paint. So have made a mask for this bit. Did a test fit of the decal and mask a few days ago on a unbuilt Italeri mustang 1 fuselage half. It all fits and looks good. Ill post a picture of that test later. For the Hunter I'm going to use the Airfix P51B decals but found the codes are too tall and seem to be 28" from studying pictures I think they should be 24" so im going to paint those too. Ive drawn and cut masks for those. The score board on the Airfix decal sheet is grey but sources seem to indicate red. So ill mask and paint another one. Again picture of that ill put up later. Last night i cut some more test pieces of all those masks just to test fit on the Academy kit. Look to fit well. So with that happy with that the test masks came off and I set to work painting the white areas of the kits. Queen is on the left and hunter on the right. Oops must have been a bit tired as i forgot to do the upper surface wing bands on the Hunter. More pics to follow. Regards CT

Brilliant build, lots of good stuff. Hot on your tail with the Rebel Queen as my Rebel Queen going into paint this week hopefully. CT

I normally use Gator grip. However in a moment of false invincibility and madness I thought it would be a good idea despite knowing the risks to use exta thin. The use of GS hypo I though t would be ok. Seems not. Oh well I'l not do it again.

First of a quad build of mustangs. Mustang Mk III from No. 315 Polish Squadron flown by Squadron leader Eugeniusz Horbaczewski at RAF Brenzette Scale 1:72 Kit Academy P51B Decals from Academy Kit Paint MRP CT

Bit of AK oil brushing on the bombs to give them that mucky covered in whatever bombs get covered in look. followed by a matt coat and they are done. Attached Think this one is now complete, I'll get some final ready for inspection pictures done for the GB gallery soon. Now back to the next two to come out of the paint shop, they will be Rebel Queen, and The Hun Hunter' Texas, They both have a very similar paint scheme so will be done in parallel. Start with the inside of the rear dog house done in underside colour, Medium grey on the Queen and Aluminium on the Hunter. Thanks and good evening CT

Thought I recognised it, I've been looking at buying that PSP kit, looks good.

Fantastic finish, I like the diorama, Is that the Academy jeep?

Busy weekend building and going to the South Cheshire model show as well, another great show. Decals are complete and after a few more coats of gloss to seal everything in a clay wash was put on. Once the dry the excess was wiped away with a moist tissue and the finished was sealed in with one more coat of gloss. At Halifax I picked up some AK oil brushers and added some more weathering with them. The result. Next was the matt coat followed by Tamiya weathering packs and some work with AK weathering pencils. and the undecarriage fitted. Couldn't resist the opportunity to a fit some actuating rods to to the inner doors made from 0.3mm Plastruct rod Pitot next and the recognition lights were made by punching a 1mm discs from adhesive foil tape, then once thay were in position a tiny drop of Tamiya clear colours then sealed with a drop of UV glue to seal in and make a lense. Nav lights, Silver followed by Tamiya clear again. Canopy mask came off, looks l fogged the windows in a couple of places, Well My own fault for using Tamiya extra thin on the rear windows,(Duh! should have known better) and GS hypo on the windscreen, I know not to do that again, FB387 had a whip arial instead of the usual mast so I made one from 0.1mm nickle rod from Albion alloys. Finally the wing mounted landing light, It kept falling off during the build resulting in carpet monster searches and re-attachment then it would come off again. Eventually the carpet monster won! So while the Silhouette cutter was out (see below) I cut an oval piece from over head projector film (remember those things?). After putting in a 1.5mm little lenses light . I attached the oval at one end with UV glue once that was secure I curved it round to attach it at the other end. Quick 30 second shine of UV and it was attached. Hopefully it will stay that way. I think it looks much better that the kit part so I'll probably do the other builds the same way. I wasnt happy with the bombs being too dark and was less happy with my attempt at the yellow band for them, didn't take any pics. So I decided to strip them and start again, where as I should have just painted over again. Anyway dont strip paint from plastic by dunking the whole thing in rapid thinnner it only makes even more of a mess and they went in the bin. Fortunately I have spares and started again, this time starting with the yellow. I was so Impressed with the cutting matt I got from Halifax that I bought another version for cutting long (not really needed for 1/72 scale bombs) lines of masking tape. down to 0.4mm width and is really easy to use. So with that I masked the bands. Worked great for the rear band but couldn't get the tape to go around they front neatly, Blew the dust from the Silhouette portrait cutter, haven't used it for a while, and cut some rings 1.6mm and 2.4mm inside and outside diameter. After a quick cut on some Tamiya tape. I had a suitable mask. I should use that cutter more often. Black based again Now the olive drab again but this time a bit lighter version. So far so good. Nearly there, once the bombs are complete and attached, that will be the first P51 complete. CT

Very nice cockpit,

Had it for a couple of years been a good investment. I used the 1mm one to make the harness QRBs from 0.12mm plasticard. CT

Resorted to that in the end. Thanks for the tip. Decals Decals Decals All the big ones are on just have about half the stencils still to do. I didnt like the ones for the fuel fillers (no.34) due to the excessive amount of carrier film around them. so I decided to partially ditch the Academy combined filler cap and text decal. I found that the filler caps are 1.7mm so punched out some replacements from red solid colour decal stock, and applied those instead. They bedded down quite niceley. I then cut out the text from the academy decal and applied that (only done the text on the wings so far) I did consider punching the hole in masking tape instead and spraying the red, but decided not to on this one as there are too many other decals already applied nearby and don't want to pull one off. I'll do that on the other builds before I start decaling those. Have the fuselage stencils to do to tomorrow, only 17 left to go. Hope thats just the sheen on the decals and not silvering. Progressing niceley Enough for today, goodnight CT