J.C. Bahr

Put me down for a cockpit set too! (If 1/72?)

Looking great so far. Interesting project! 👍

Love your site!... have referred back to it often though the years. Lots of nice builds and information! 👍

I agree, that looks like Lone Star stuff. Ask Mike West at his FB page, he could probably tell you for certain.

A buddy and I have been using clear transparent resins as they seem to work better with curing, in getting the light completely through everything.

Yamamoto's was an M1, not an M2.

Allison powered Mustangs and P-38's have left the chat... 🙄 Though, truth be told... I hope Arma Hobby will eventually get to these. 😉

Late to the party here I know (and awesome build BTW), but curious why you used Academy P-51B horizontal stabs? Is there a problem with the Tamiya ones?

Cost/benefit analysis?... the Mirage is cheaper! 😉😆

Well that's really encouraging! 🙄

Was just reading up on the IAF Avia's last evening and the thought is that D.123 shows signs of touch-up and not a multi-color camo. Believe there were only two done in any kind of camo and that was after they were out of service and doing gate-guard and airframe school duties. The gate guard was D.121 that still survives today and the other was scrapped in the early 50's. As Andre said above: "Any colour as long as it's RAL6013!" 😉

Which one was that?... last one out?

The 1/72 one does have a rudimentary cockpit (that could use some extra detailing), but don't know why they did it as a snap with no gear (There is a boxing with the Black Eagles Decals too). There's a fellow in the Philippines that is doing 3D printed gear and bays, along with a different vertical stab and the gun port, also includes decals for the Philippine FA-50 and does a separate weapons set too. He's also doing a neat conversion for the Italeri A129 Mangusta to turn it into the T129 ATAK. I recently received both and they're pretty good quality stuff IMHO. More info (amongst many other neat things) here: https://www.facebook.com/Philippine-Military-Scale-Models-1548733742048308

Yeah, I'm apparently banned from having a mailbox or something... 🙄

On the bird at Tinker, the designation may have been changed at some point, but that was originally an RB-47E and is the only one still in existence. Is a shame she's not restored to the level of the H-model at Dayton. The gray paint and covering over the window at the tip of the nose is just weird! On the second photo, those are not antennas but are blisters that cover the mountings for the ALD-4 pod that Silver King RB-47H's could carry. Dayton would like to have an ALD-4 to mount on it, but sadly none seem to have survived.

I might be able to help but don't have PM capability here it seems. Are you on Messenger?

The now defunct "Scale Modeler" was the magazine that did the Frog/Academy comparison and I used to have the issue, but let them all go many years back. What I do remember from the comparison was that they were not the same kits and two differences really stuck out to me... the crew entry door on the left side of the rear fuselage were in slightly different positions between the kits... and the Academy got the nose radome more correct as (when looking down on the nose from above) there's a slight pinch between the radome and the fuselage, whereas Frog represented it as a smooth transition. I think the fuselage and wing pieces met up pretty closely between their respective mirrored pieces in the opposing kits... but there were enough minor detail differences to show that they were not the exact same moulding... but how closely the Frog "influenced" the Academy is a whole another question.

Wish they would have released a boxing of the ones with the extended canopy.

Both single and twin-seaters on the V-6?

Thanks Chally! TheBaron's work has been both mind boggling and very interesting to watch and then there was also Navy Birds great work he did on the Cyberhobby kit!... have been hoping that between the three of us challenging the modeling Gods, would get Airfix to issue a proper Vix, but sadly alas, still no. 😥

Finished pics: (Again, sorry for the image quality... best I have)

I had posted about my "FrankenVixen" quite a while back, but it seems that PhotoBucket took a dump on the original unfinished pics I had, so re-upping them here. I used the upper center section and lower nose of the Highplanes kit (light blue plastic) with it's vac canopy, fused with the majority of the airframe from Cyberhobby (mid gray plastic) and the pinion tanks from Xtrakit (dark gray plastic), correcting a lot of things with Evergreen styrene and various fillers of choice... and spending a lot of time using the photos in Roy's book to get the shapes as close as possible. I also used the Highplanes nose gear and wheel, because all others are woefully anemic and just totally throw off the looks of their respective kits. Some may wonder why I did not use more of the Highplanes kit in the conversion and truthfully, its center-section is about the only thing accurate about it. The booms and the pinion tanks are way too thick. On the Xtrakit pinions, you'll notice on the sides of their noses the white spots... these are the areas that I back-filled with resin and had to get medieval with the sanding to get the proper shape to them. Sorry for the quality of the pics, but the best I've got from the time. I know this may seem daunting, but this is actually one of the more fun and enjoyable kit-bashes I've accomplished. I really liked a lot of the features of the Cyberhobby kit (especially their intakes/exhausts detail), but just couldn't stand how they cocked up the upper fuselage and nose. Also, since the time of my conversion, they've re-released their kit with the pinions, so one would not need the Xtrakit at all now... just the Cyberhobby and Highplanes to bash together... but be warned, they copied the Xtrakit overly thick pinion tank noses unfortunately. One other thing... I did some re-shaping on the vertical stabs from the Cyberhobby kit... seems if I recall correctly, I cut down several millimeters off the very top and also from the leading edge and then did some re-scribing of panel lines... as again, per pics in Roy's book, things did not look right in that area until after I did that surgery.

WHY?! Don't we have enough D-model Mustangs to choose from already?! Many other things out there that would be better served with a new kit.

Right now, if you don't want to do a lot of work... then the Airfix 1/48 kit is the only way to go. But if you want to do the work, "FrankenVixen" is the only answer in 1/72! 😆 It's a mish-mash of parts of the center section of the High planes kit, rest of the airframe of the Cyberhobby kit and pinion tanks from the Xtrakit (of which Cyberhobby has now released it with the pinions that are no doubt copies of the Xtrakit). And even with the conglomeration of parts, there was still nothing close to right... other than the wings, literally every inch of everything else had to be built up, filed down or re-shaped somehow it seemed!

Know anyone with a Cricut cutter? 😉