franky boy

Excellent work Gerard. This’ll be one impressive model when finished. Good luck with the intakes. James

Hi everyone Ive had a fairly productive week on the F-51 so hear goes with an update. Being Korean War bird the cockpit was repainted with black rather than the more usual interior green. The cockpit although consisting of several parts does build up quite quickly. I sprayed the cockpit floor red brown first and then used some liquid masking solution to create some wear and tear on the floor where the black paint had worn through to plywood floor. Onc I’d sprayed everything else with Tamiya NATO black I picked out a few parts with other shades of black and very dark greys not that you really tell. Then I stuck the pe parts. I also did a bit of sponge chipping over the black with interior green on areas of wear and tare like the seat and dry brushed with the same colour. This was followed by a wash and a mid grey dry brush around the mixtures and fittings and a flat coat. IMG_1851 by James Halls, on Flickr IMG_1853 by James Halls, on Flickr IMG_1854 by James Halls, on Flickr IMG_1856 by James Halls, on Flickr IMG_1858 by James Halls, on Flickr The fuselage is now buttoned up and started to work on making the pe inserts on the fuselage sides acceptable, sorry no pic. I also moved onto the wings. I need to replace the bar that runs front to back across the wheel well as it’s badly warped and beyond repair. I’ll use some square plastic rod for this. A bit of a pain but no dramas. IMG_1837 by James Halls, on Flickr That’s all for now. Thanks for looking. James

Nice start Matt. The Ultracast seat does look very nice. James

Thanks for the offer Martin. TBH I’ll probably build it in 1/48 when I get round to it as I have plenty of that scale Eduard Mustangs in the stash. James

No! I’m up for a weathered aircraft but I think that battered drop tank is a bit beyond me. Interestingly I think the drop tank on the other wing is a different type which will make for an interesting look. James

Just catching up with this one Craig, nice work on the cockpit. I’ve got a couple of these kits in the stash yet to be built but looking in the box it is as you say a real mixture of good and just a bit mediocre. James

Those sprue shots look very nice. It’s good to see Airfix are continuing to use the much nicer darker grey plastic of recent boxings. James

Nice choices Peter Will look forward to seeing both of them progress. You’re on a serious Mustang bent this year! James

Great work Martin. I think I may have to pinch this scheme sometime soon as it’s a very nice one and just makes a P-51 that looks a bit different from the standard WW2 stuff. James

Great work on the cockpit. As said above it’s not immediately apparent which scale it is. James

Nice start Matt. I’ve got started on my Eduard kit this week and like you was surprised at the parts count for the cockpit. Having said that it does build up quite quickly. Good start. James

Nice start Longbow. As said above the seat back looks great and that’s a great improvement on the wings James

Nice start Wellzy. Good quick work. James

An excellent choice of subject and it’s good to see your daughter involved. My 8 year old daughter currently has an Airfix Typhoon half built. Look forward to more progress. James

Top work Rich, especially getting that cockpit in and painted. Well done James

Great idea James Please add me to the list. James

@Retired Bob Thanks Bob. They’re solid as a rock in terms of strength but I’ll most likely do as you you suggest and something thick around the edges to fill and then rescribe. @Wings unlevel Thanks Gerard. There’s a possibility the second kit may come out to play but I still have to finish my Mitchell for the ww2 twins GB first. I can see what you mean about the mouth and the shape of the Mustangs nose. I also did a bit of test fitting last night and as expected the fit us excellent so far. @TEMPESTMK5 Thanks Patrice. Good to have you along. Thanks all James

Great start Patrice. I like your choice of markings for this one. Just a little off the beaten track. James

Nice start Rich This us going to be a very impressive model once finished. James

Great choice of subject and a nice start. It’s always good to see a personal link if some kind. Ive never seen it up close but isn’t the ICM P-51 family rumoured to be a copy of the Tamiya kit? James

Nice choice VP. Im right in the middle of Serenade to the Big Bird at the moment so it’s great to see Bert Stiles later mount being modelled here. James

Nice choice @Potato Pete I agree with @Wings unlevel that it’s hard to beat the box art markings. James

Hi everyone I’d like to join in the fun with what will hopefully be my first build here. Eduards F-51 Korean War Dual Combo kit. Nice box art! 93F5FE51-34FE-44A5-B3F2-47526E77D6ED by James Halls, on Flickr And lots of plastic, etch and decals. 6320AC6B-F96E-489D-95FB-CB5AAA38E2D4 by James Halls, on Flickr D5E11932-37DC-4747-BDBD-E89A70970E72 by James Halls, on Flickr E4EF5FF7-9A9A-405A-8D6A-B1E4582ED365 by James Halls, on Flickr As said above there are 2 kits in the box. Parts for an F-51 or an RF-51. I’ve wanted a Korean War Mustang for a while and decided to go for option B as I couldn’t resist the sharks mouth. E2038F12-9EFE-4C28-BE58-3A48E426BA57 by James Halls, on Flickr Heres a pic of the real thing. IMG_0046 by James Halls, on Flickr I made a start over the weekend. Some F-51’s sent Korea had a new panel fitted behind the wing root with cooling vents in. Eduard provide these as etched parts so the first job was to cut out the plastic and fit the etch. IMG_1834 by James Halls, on Flickr There are two parts to the pe, an inner plate and an outer that needs its edges folding. This went ok but the inner part is ever so slightly to big and doesn’t quite fit inside the fold lines on the outer part which resulted in the corners not being quite as sharp as I would have liked. This was the better of the two. IMG_1836 by James Halls, on Flickr And this one will need just a bit more filling and fettling around the edges. IMG_1835 by James Halls, on Flickr Thats it for now. Onto the cockpit next. Thanks for looking. James

Nice start Pappy. James

Good recovery Enzo. That’s some pretty bad quality control that you wouldn’t expect from Eduard. I was sorting out my build yesterday and my kit also has a warped part but nothing compared to yours. James