Squibby

So.. I tried to paint up the seat and while it looked pretty decent I thought I could do better and went a step too far. While trying to strip it back the Simple Green I was soaking it in apparently dissolved the super glue I was soaking it in and the seat bead came off. Instead of trying to refix it, and seeing what Olivier has been doing in this build I thought I'd try to scratch up a new seat out of Milliput. I sanded back the cushion as far as I could and ended up with some holes through the seat back (won't be visible so no worries there). There was still a small step but nothing I couldn't hide I thought... My Milliput experiment was a disaster, it's so incredibly messy and difficult to use I just couldn't get anything I was happy with. Instead of potentially leaving a rock hard lump of misshapen Milliput on my seat I pulled it all off to try again later with some alternative. I think I found it in a putty called Green Stuff (kneadtite) that wargaming miniature modellers use. It appears to be a lot easier to use and mold as it doesn't dissolve in water and holds organic details better. I've got some on order including some simple molding tools (dentists picks with flattened ends and some soft silicon tipped colour shapers). When it all arrives I'm confident I can makes something more cushion like to cover up my plastic destruction. While that particular trainwreck was being cleared up I decided after all to add some scratches to the plywood flooring below the anti slip paint. I just painted these in with a couple of shades of brown then lightly dry brushed some grey oil paint over to blend them in. I tried to keep it subtle and I think the effect adds a lot to the finished look. You might also notice I repainted some of the cables and pipes with a darker black to make them stand out better and add some contrast with the grey black components. I then turned my attention to the cockpit sidewalls. Before I started to paint these up I added the distinctive hole / slot pattern onto the canopy guide rails using embossed some aluminum tape. strip was about 0.5mm thick and holes were formed with a needle, slots were formed with a 1mm micro chisel. They are all evenly 1mm spaced apart. My handy new riveting guide ruler made sure I got this right. I then dumped a whole load of interior green (Gunze H58) on the sidewalls. I'm pleased to say the do look pretty good under paint. Now the momentous (and most enjoyable) task of detail painting starts, I can hardly wait... Oh and this is what the rails ended up looking like under paint. They'll be painted in dull aluminum to finish. Next time hopefully a painted up sidewall or two. Cheers for following!

That's some nice moulding work there on the cushions! Great stuff,

@Olivier de St Raph I think it's fair to say there was a hell of a lot of variation in what the seat cushion looked like. As there is likely to have been given it's a lot down to pilot preference. I'm thoroughly confused and given the choice I think for my build I'm just going to go with the yellow life raft seat. Primarily because it adds interest to the cockpit. I feel though that the Tamiya representation even modified as I have done is a bit too blocky. I've got some milliput to scratch up a new one but I'm really apprehensive about trying to remove the moulded representation. It just seems like a really difficult task, one you've pulled off quite well I'll add. I might paint up the current one and see what it looks like before biting the bullet on that.

Cheers guys, I don't actually use the digital zoom on the camera, but with low light conditions my physical zoom (i.e. standing closer) seems to result in a worse quality shot I think it may be the autofocus, when it locks onto something very close it's very susceptible to any movement. I've seen those contraptions before @Johnny1000 . Though I think I can make do without one for now. What I really need is some way to lock white balance. I find sometimes it goes haywire and turns the whole photo a nice tint of orange. When I take my proper RFI shots I use a similar setup, no fancy light boxes for me. Shine the modelling lamp at the ceiling and take a very slow exposure shot (5+ seconds) at very high F stop (F16 or more, for a wide depth of field range) using my DSLR and a tripod of course to keep it nice and steady. I use a 50mm fixed focus lens which gives a nice clear detailed photo even with the quality lost due to diffraction from the high f-stop setting . Oh I also set a 2 sec delay timer when operating the shutter otherwise even the little shake from pressing the button can cause a blurry photo.

Making good progress there, great stuff! I sometimes forget the most of you northerners are in the cold when we're sitting here in the balmy grasp of a summer heatwave

More painting progress, Finished off the floor console and dirtied up the non-slip paint. This was done by dabbing and blending / streaking oil paints (various greys and dirty brown colours). The little fasteners were picked out with a sharpened toothpick. Before I painted the floor console I re-did the set of levers. The previous depiction was appropriate for an early plane with no carb heat lever, I added the second lever as I'm modelling a fairly late war aircraft. Though this is probably another anachronistic detail to add to the pile I've got some cockpit placard decals that I'll add here to supplement my rough attempts to pick our stencils with white blobs Oh and apologies for the grainy photo my phone camera struggles when zoomed in. For anyone who is wondering how I'm taking these photos, I've just turned my modelling lamp up to the ceiling so there is only a dim reflected light on the part. The phone camera tends to do reasonably well even with these conditions though at times it can get a bit grainy.

Cheers all, @antonio argudo thanks for the photos and the info about the cross bar colour, I've seen some photos (Olivier posted one on page 2) which showed it painted green. I might just leave it in IG as it adds a bit of interest and contrast to what would otherwise be a blob of black on black parts. Plus it would be quite fiddly to paint now. It's funny thought that they only painted that crossbar black, all the sidewall behind and above it until the rear shelf bit is still in interior green I have seen on almost all photos the interior surfaces of the sliding canopy painted black including a curved cross bar inside. They also paint the top part of the seat headrest black. I'm intending to do this on my build.

@Olivier de St Raph Oh most definiitely, the Airfix and Meng kits get the wheel well right and looking at sprue shots they have all the right cockpit bits represented. The Airfix one is a little blobby but still fairly complete. But of course scratch building is equal parts fun and frustrating but you can't beat the feeling of pulling it off. Really gives the old modelling mojo a boost Speaking of boosts, I've slaved away on the radio bay and finished painting up, and I'm very happy with how it's turned out I still need to gloss it and apply some washes to bring out the shadows (and hide some rough paint lines ). I find I really enjoy the painting part of the build, especially detail painting. I went over the tank with some buff coloured oil paint, spattering it with a slightly wetted brush then dry brushing it around to get that rough rubberized canvas look.

Started painting up the cockpit floor and radios. This is just a preliminary shot after the 3 primary colours were masked off and sprayed, There is a tiny bit of touchup required but it worked quite well. I'm just waiting on the paint to dry to get in and paint the tank and radios. The rougher texture really does show up (surprisingly), though the photo grain masks it a bit. @Crimea River The issue I saw was that the sandpaper would create a bit of a noticeable step (sand paper backing is quite thick) that doesn't exist in the real thing I'd also have to cut it around the fuel gauges in the floor. Oh by the way if anyone is wondering why there is that unsightly gash on the side of the console with a lever awkwardly gummed into it. Once fitted against the sidewall it shows as a slot.

Looking good, I'll need to assemble mine at some point. Another major advantage of the PE ones is the little buckles and clasps. One thing that plain tape or foil belts always miss. As for bending them naturally I've got a set of the new 'steel series' ones which are apparently thinner and more flexible. I'll soon see if they live up to the expectation. On my 48th scale spitfire I used the 'super fabric' ones which are like a rubbery membrane, they drape really nicely but don't have nearly as much detail (very 'flat') and no detailed clasps and buckles. I ended up modifying those a lot by adding more straps and 3d detail with spare 'super fabric' material and aluminium tape.

Cheers all, @Biggles87 I'm using some builds of the Tamiya 1/32 'stang for reference, It seems like 80% of the stuff I'm adding is already present in that kit, and what is there is far more accurate. Miles ahead of the 48th scale offering and a much better starting point. If I had done a bit more research I would have picked up the Meng or Airfix kit instead of the aging Tamiya one. @javlin I'm just building this for myself, I haven't yet even stepped foot in a model show or contest, I'm sure they happen in Wellington, I'm just never aware of them. In any case this isn't a fancy diorama and for all extents and purposes looks like 'just another P51-D' build from outside, I'm not sure what chance I'd have. I normally build in 1/72 scale. When I step up to 1/48 scale it's usually for the most iconic aircraft so I try to do them justice. Any after working in thumbnail scale, 1/48 is actually quite big My last effort in this scale was the new Airfix Spitfire Mk1a which had a similarly detailed cockpit. The Airfix kit was very accurate and detailed out of the box which helped immensely. Unfortunately all the photos in the build and RFI threads are dead thanks to the scummy move Photobucket pulled @Bedders Cheers, I like the doors too I think the shiny skin strip turned out really well on them. Baffled as to what it's purpose is though... As a general question to anyone, does anyone have any info on what colour the seat cushions were painted? I've seen yellow with a USAAF stencil on them, and some in just plain brown leather.

Finally wired up the radio bay, and yes it was fiddly and frustrating as hell.... I also thought about how I'm going to represent the non-slip paint on the cockpit floor. I decided in the end to paint it on, I was tossing up cutting out a little bit of sandpaper but the effect may have been a bit overscale. I'll have to spray the control stick depression yellow zinc chromate first then very carefully mask it, spray the black on (I'm thinking a tire black colour), mask that, then finally spray the interior green. I'm not going to represent it scuffed down to the plywood beneath, this would complicate what is shaping up to be a fairly fiddly painting / masking process with chipping solutions (which I never get on with) and wood grain painting. I'll weather it moderately with some dirt and scuff marks instead, You may notice I've roughed up the surface a bit with some sandpaper, what's the bet this won't actually show through (anyone who has tried to clean up some missed sanding scratches from a finished paint job will see the irony of this...). Hopefully some painting progress on this part next update.

Nice work on the seat I think I used some really thin sheet for the side supports, 0.25mm or thinner, it was like plastic paper. With the seat cushion wrinkles, try giving it a light wash with Tamiya Extra Thin cement if you have it available. It softens the edges of the cuts and removes the swarf. Also I really need to get hold of some of the little beads you used as a knob. I used a little misshapen ball of milliput but this is so much better.

My sidetracking continues, Just to remember how to spray metal colours again I decided to paint up the gear doors. Also to see how rough my finishing was...thankfully not too shabby in the end I used Vallejo Metal Colours over a gloss black base (Tamiya X-1). To prevent the gloss black (and consequentially the metalliser paint on top) from marring under masking tape I gave it a solid coat of Aqua gloss Clear prior to hitting it with the metal colours. The doors were sprayed using Dull Aluminum as I wanted a decent contrast between this and the shiny strip. The strip was then carefully masked and sprayed with chrome. The chrome didn't turn out super reflective which was expected as I was intentionally applying it over dull aluminum. The overall contrast was bang on to my eye. I gave it another overall coat of Aqua gloss clear and a picked out the rivets with some dark grey enamel wash (mix of Tamiya black and grey). The Aqua gloss is really great stuff, it barely affected the reflectiveness of the strip. A nice bit of NMF spraying practice to shake the proverbial cobwebs off...

Can someone knowledgeable about these things please tell me if any P-51Ds had their cockpits painted in 'tamiya plastic grey', 'bare styrene white' and 'shiny aluminium'

Lovely work!

Looking smart, Great work up-detailing that seat! With the tape pads did you just fold the tape over itself a couple of times to get the thickness? I really like the way they turned out.

A little bit more progress... I fixed up the slotted backing plate behind the seat to be more like the real thing. The slots were formed by carefully pressing a 1mm micro chisel onto the tape. It took me several tries to get right. I also reshaped the seat a bit to incorporate a little step in the headrest and wrinkled up the cushion a bit using my scratch / scrape then drench in Tamiya Extra Thin method... Completely randomly I decided to tackle the main gear doors next. Tamiya have represented them fairly well though in reality the relief around the 3 slots is a little softer. I scraped and sanded it down until it was more undulating. I then added the shiny panel often seen on photos with some aluminum tape. I used a piece of masking tape burnished onto the part to trace the outline then transferred it onto the tape. The aluminum tape was then stuck on and burnished well using a toothpick. All that was left was to carefully run over it with a rivet wheel. Once the door is painted I'll mask and slosh on some chrome over this area. I'll have to tackle the radio wiring soon but I'm kinda over fiddling with bits of wire after the gear bay and it's hard to bring myself to get it done. Cheers for watching!

As much fun as adding the wire would be I'd avoid any drilling through a canopy if I could too much risk of cracking the brittle clear plastic. Also fitting it and keeping it tensioned would be tricky. On a different note if you want to drill holes in a straight line, you could try using one of those rulers with little indentations in them for riveting. I've got a set of 2x of them (the ones I have are made by a brand called Manwa, but you could probably find something similar in your neck of the woods), one with 1mm and 2mm spaced holes and one with 1.5 and 2.5mm spaced indents. Use a small needle to centre punch and drill out. If you're using a punch/die set (I also use the RP tools punch set, really useful tool) You could try punching the holes in the plastic before cutting out the strip using a guide to keep the holes on the same line (maybe a book or something straight edged placed perpendicular to the punch base). Then again I managed to get the holes slightly wonky on my build anyway Also I believe the cross bar has 4x holes in the centre, a small gap either side where the seat rails join in and a single hole in the outside sections. at least that's what I saw in the reference photos.

@Olivier de St Raph As people have been mentioning, those things you point out on the sliding section are rear view mirrors. The VHF radio antenna as I understand is actually housed inside the little dorsal 'blade'. The wire is for some other system, potentially an IFF or navigation system they used in theatres outside of the ETO. You can clearly see on the photo that the plane you're modelling does not have the wire. You can actually see the little plexiglass patch on the canopy as well. I'd cut out a small oval of clear acetate sheet attached with PVA to represent it. Hope that helps.

Just a small note, if the plane was in Europe it's likely that the antenna cable through the canopy wasn't installed. There was small patch of plexiglass fitted where the canopy hole was in this case. Otherwise keep up the good work! I went for the same type of seat with the slotted plate behind.

Time to show off what I've been beavering away with for the last week or so. Thanks to the great reference photos being posted up @Olivier de St Raph's thread I've managed to cobble up the rear radio compartment to the best of my abilities. The Tamiya kit is generally good here but the tank and radios aren't quite in the right position (too far back / tank too large). It makes modelling the structure behind the seat a bit tricky. I had to compromise here to avoid extensive modification for little gain. The air hoses are 26 gauge wire wrapped with 0.015" lead wire. The wire attachment points were replaced with bits of inset brass tube for future wiring to be added and the little handle on the battery was formed by cementing some slivers of 0.5mm rod together. I must have knocked some of the little levers off on the centre console about 10 times while adding the various details, but it's finally done (ish). I also built out the sidewall structure with 0.5mm square rod. Tamiya represented nothing back here at all. I also had a bit of a mishap, gouging out the 'shelf' behind the radio bay where the canopy slide rail sits, I think I was trying to thin the walls down or something... It did give me an excuse to rebuild this to be more realistic and detailed. Tamiyas representation is just a large empty slot. Looking at some reference photos shows the slot houses a rail and also doesn't extend all the way through into the radio bay. It also incorporates a little raised lip and some manner of weather seal. I carefully traced and cut out a thin bit of styrene to act as the 'shelf' then gradually built up the raised lip, weather seal and gusset behind out of more thin styrene. The canopy rail was formed by locking some 0.5mm rod in a vice and carefully cutting in a groove with a Tamiya scriber. Took me a few attempts but it certainly looks the part I think and eliminates the large empty void. I also did some work on the back of the seat headrest after thinning it out significantly with a file. And everything test fitted together into the fuselage. There is a small gap visible between the crossbar behind the seat and the fuselage. I might need to add a small sliver of plastic to the end to make it fit a bit cleaner. I might actually be ready to paint up the cockpit soon

Wow nice reference pics being posted up here, I'll keep an eye on this since I'm replicating the same detail myself currently. I can see now I was not entirely correct in getting their shape down. Not sure how I'll replicate them with open ends but I'll see what you come up with

Great work so far. I've just started on the rear cockpit area after a little mishap on my build. I'll certainly be taking a lot of inspiration from your efforts, it certainly highlighted the need to thin the seat back a bit, it makes it look much more realistic. @Crimea River Thanks so much for that little tidbit of info re: the springy thingies down the sides of the seat, I thought they were some funky shock absorption system for the seat. For my build I was going to use thicker (24 or 26 gauge) wire wrapped with thinner lead / soft wire and slathered with some mr surfacer to soften up the profile. Look forward to see how you tackle the cockpit areas and wheel wells.

@Crimea River Cheers , I feel wadding wet paper inside would still knock some of the fiddly wires and lever arms off. I find in my hands CA glue seems to be the most fickle adhesive known to man when sticking parts together.. accidentally get some on your fingers though... It seems to be a moot point however... I gave the kit bay doors a try one one side and surprisingly they actually fit like a glove, absolutely perfect with no gaps. I can secure them in with some strategic bits of tape on the inside, but they were almost a push fit. My apologies to Tamiya for my lack of faith in their precision engineering. That's a relief, now onwards with the rest of the build... soonish... Oh and this the photo I found with the noses, so I agree the green is really whatever we feel like https://www.pinterest.nz/pin/355080751850327224/