zaxos345

Thanks a lot Watto, realy appreciate John

Thanks a lot!!!! John

Andy, keep in mind that High shine plus aluminium, as most of the metallics, is a bit delicate color. I chose to paint everything else first, insignias, yellow ribs, etc, (except of the codes), mask everything and paint the bare meta afterwardsl!!! I did not want to mask over it!! Also i discovered, against all the inputs, that the X-22 gloss clear, really diluted, caused nothing on the bare metal finish!!! I even sprayed heavily diluted xtracrylix flat varnish, very light and few passes indeed, as the final one!!!! And i really like the patina that i finally took!!! As for the flaps is a real deal if can find them!!! But you have to pay attention on how to glue them in!!! It was a real PITA for me, you need a strategy hahahaha Feel free to pm me anytime if i can help!! John

Thanks a lot Andy, really appreciate your comments!!! For the canopy, i only used tamiya polishing compounts as i had to remove the molded line on top of it!!! After that i treated it with gloves and masking tape!!! The paint i used for the bare metal is a new line of mettalic paints from mig ammo A-Stand paints, similar if not the same as alclads, and especially a new paint called High shine plus aluminium!!! John

Thanks a lot!!! John

Thanks a lot George!! John

Really thank you a lot for your comments!! As for the clear parts are from Tamiya, all I did is to add as much as I could to the reality!!! The metallic color was new to me, as a brand, i had to try it, i liked it so I experimented...judjing from your comments I managed to present something like metal!!!! The exhausts are fron Rexx...very near to the real thing, you just only have to enhance the finish!!!! Thank you very much for your comments, I really appreciate!!! John Thanks a lot!!!

Thanks a lot for your comments!!! The flaps my friend are aftermarket from amur reaver... http://amurreaver.ru/?p=1212 John

Good morning, I finnally finished the Tamiya's 1/32 P-51D as the P-51D-5 "Little Eva III", Capt. James "Sully" Varnell, 52nd Fighter Group, 2nd Fighter Squadron, Italy, 1944. James "Sully" Varnell was the MTO's third-ranking ace with 17 victories and ranked as number 10 among Mustang aces. This little-known ace scored all of his 17 victories within 67 days, making him one of the fastest-scoring aces ever. Tour expired, he's rotated home to train other pilots while Dalebroux & Jones became Lt. Hans Zachmann's men. Killed in a Flying Accident 9 April, 1945, near Pinellas Field, Florida. Varnell is the 10th ranked Mustang Ace of WW2. Hope you like it, really appreciate any comments!!! John

Good morning gents, I finished painting and weathering the ''lady'', (everything is painted on, except of some decals),put on her shoes, the external tanks, wrapped up all the details and bits and i am presenting her to you!! Hope you like it!! I really loved my journey with her!!! Hope you like it, really appreciate any comments!!! John

Thanks a lot Keith John

Good morning gents, A bit of progress on the lady... I closed the fuselage and managed to get a perfect fit of the cowling covers! They are very thin and i read somewhere that some modellers did not manage to get a nice fit when they chose to present them closed. I made a lot of dry fits and used even thin strips of plastic to get it as best as i could!! those photoes are on a later state of the build as i forgot to take pictures Next stage the painting and upgrade of the wheel wells!! A lot of pin marks to deal with but at the end nothing too difficullt to accomplish!! Regarding the painting pattern, I followed the suggestion of my friend Christian (which happened to be in line with the Eduard's one if you see the pics on their brassin p-51d wheel wells page set.) And sarted to dress her up....here you see the final stages... After that i placed them on their position and glued the wings together. I also glued the machine guns parts and puttied them, you see no panels lines there also!!! I have also started to deal with the rivets and panel lines where they should be covered. I am following John Terrell's schematics for th job!! I have some more work ahead... And i finally glued the fuselage with thw wings...started to look as a P-51...love the shape!!!!!! I also dealt with the gear legs...regarding the leg sissors i followed the Chuckw's way, i took the metal ones that tamiya provided and glued some small strips of plastic on the inner side. Think the filan outcome is more than acceptable!! Thanks Chuck!!! Finnaly I painted the external wing tanks, i wanted to test the new metallic line from Mig Ammo, Astand paints, identical to Alclads and specifically a new color, but more on that later, i have some more tests to do...but as a first comment i really like it!!! Thats all for now, hope you like it John

Awesome build Ray!!! John

Thanks a lot Ray!!! Good morning 😀 John

So Ray, do you think is better to paint the insignia? And the codes maybe?? Really nice work there!!! John

Just awesome Jamie!!!! John

What can I say!!!!! Awesome thread and build!!!! Bookmarked!!!!! John

Thanks a lot!!! John

Good morning, Some fresh ones, i have closed the fuselage.... And i have started sanding the raised screw fasteners in front of the windscreen. I am going to do the same everywhere on the fuselage!! I will also delete the hydraulic fluid access door in front of the windscreen as i should not be there for a D-5!! More to the next update!! John

Good morning gents, Took me some time to update my topic, i work slowly, you see, hot summer time here!! I started putting some paint on the cockpit... Here you can see the rubber effect on the fuel tank.... I chipped the floor under pilots feet and placed the IP to see how it looks.. Side panels... pilot's seat... radio and battery...here i cut the barracunda offering regarding the cables and made my own ones as Chuck and Antonio suggested... gloss coat, decals and placing various detail items... weathering, for this i used, oilbrushers and modellers oil washes!!! I really recommend the latter, they smell like cologne, they are already thinned and if you want to use them as filters you can use their thinner, also smells like cologne!!! I have three of them, industrial dirt, one of the best shades i have ever used on oils (maybe you dont need anything else for panel washes as well as general dirt), dust and a black brown shade and I am covered!!!! I also used some silver pencils for chipping.... The final varnish is Mrp matt one, really nice and smooth outcome and not dead flat!!! I decided to scrach build the floodlights...tendious work, so tiny!!!! And finally the pilot's seat belts!! I used the hgw fabric ones but with the airscale's instructions as the hgw ones are not the correct ones for the job Hgw.. Aircale... washed and weathered.. And some ones before closing the fuselage, i forgot to take some photoes of the starboard side hehehe Hope you like it, John

And finally the rest of my progress so far... I stole the idea from Antonio a fellow modeller...i tried to ''rubberize'' the fuselage fuel tank, for this i used tamiya fine white primer decanted and applied with a brush.. Dont know if i managed to look like a rubber, i think so!!! Next on the side cockpit panels... This is what tamiya provides...Not too bad at all.. Roy's on the other hand crispier!! You can see here the rear frames that provide more stability to the cockpit floor - main fuselage tank assemply I ''stole'' the idea from Chuck's awesome build, cut the rear frames and put them together with the resign ones to overcome any stability problems!! I also assembled the engine which is really a model by itself as well as the oil tank! I am not going to expose the engine or the oil tank, i will glue the engine cowlings, so I am not going to pay any attention on this section!! ( I have already built a merlin engine during my 1/32 tamiya spitfire build here https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/56242-tamiya-spitfire-132-ioannis-agorastos-plagis/) And here a dryfit to see how everything goes together That is all the progress so far!! Hope you like it, thanks for dropping by!! John

Good morning guys, before continuing to my previous past i want to stress out that any advice, notice or help is more than welcome!! I would like also to point out that all the info i managed to gather was provided to me either by Christian or was found while searching on the net and especially here... https://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/showthread.php/58164-History-and-Details-of-the-P-51D-5-NA-(A-Flight-Sim-Project) from a guy nicknamed ''Bomber_12th'' (John Terrell may? not sure!!) Now back to the build, having started with a bit unorthodox way i turned my attention to the cockpit area. While building or modifying small subjects inside the cockpit I will try to give you some info regarding the D-5 (early) differences, more on that on the above link!! - The instrument panel, was pure P-51B/C in design and layout. On P-51D-10-NA and later production, the instrument panel layout was re-designed, and the instruments were front mounted instead of rear mounted Tamiya provides both early and late panels, but i dont like the it's approach! I dont like those thick clear panels!!! That is why i turned to the beautiful Roy's 1/32 P-51D resin instrument panel, which i think is a masterpiece!! Unfortunately later on i discovered that it is not suitable for my build. I tried to find elsewhere, Yahu models provides a 1/32 early one for the revell kit but i didi not want to take my chances with it as i did not know how it would fit. So i turned to quinda studio....reeally nice detail and very accurate!!! So... (as you can see i have placed in position the Roy's PE for the rudder pedals) And i glued the quinda panels with AMMO's Ultra glue (very effective one), not too shabby dont you think. I have to put some minors details on it, some weathering maybe , later, i will see!!! I have also finished the rudeer pedals with some minor weathering... Next i prepared all the cockpit resin enhacements from Roy, shaved some details in order to place the quinda stuff and paid attention on the cockpit side panels! - Early D-models, including the D-5-NA, only featured a carburetor air control lever at the back of the trim pedestal. Later aircraft would have a carburetor hot air control lever added next to the carb air control lever. Roy provides both slots on his resin so i closed the bigger one... I have also assembled the resin Warren McArthur tubular-frame seat... The early seats Warren McArthu had no tubular frame on the top of the back to hold the seat belts but only two small ''ears''...so i cut this detail from the resin seat... I also added the small lock-unlock right handle from the kit... Thats all for now, see you on the next episode hehehe Thanks for watching John

Thanks Keith!! I love shopping 😜 John

Good morning gents, New project on the bench, this time a large one, tamiya's P-51D!!! It is not going to be an OOB build... i bought some aftermarkets before i make my mind on the profile i wanted to depict, so some stuff are not going to be used, for examlpe the excellent barracuda IP, it is not suitable for a D-5 model (that is why I bought the early quinda set), more discuss on that as well as on the details or differences for a D-5 later. At this point i want to thank Christian Alamy aka ''tourist'' for his valuable help on gathering all the required info regarding my build!!! The profile I want to depict is "Little Eva III", Capt. James "Sully" Varnell, 52nd Fighter Group, 2nd Fighter Squadron, Italy, 1944. James "Sully" Varnell was the MTO's third-ranking ace with 17 victories and ranked as number 10 among Mustang aces. This little-known ace scored all of his 17 victories within 67 days, making him one of the fastest-scoring aces ever. Tour expired, he's rotated home to train other pilots while Dalebroux & Jones became Lt. Hans Zachmann's men. Killed in a Flying Accident 9 April, 1945, near Pinellas Field, Florida. Varnell is the 10th ranked Mustang Ace of WW2. Opening the box and reviewing the sprues one thing that really got my attention (i have read a lot on this) was the large number of pin or sink marks especially in the wheel wells and on the inner side of the engine cowlings!! I dont know how tamiya managed to do it!! Anyway I will find a way with the wheel wells and i am not going to leave the engine exposed so i dont mind the cowlings!!!! Another one were the big screw fasteners on the cowlings which were raised (out of scale in my opinion) and not flush.... So i started the build with this correction. I used... ....first to mark down the fasteners and later I sanded them flush. Working my way with the fasteners i also corrected some other details not suitable for a D-5!! - There was no oil radiator drain added until P-51D-10-NA production, so along the bottom of the lower cowling panel, there is no oil drain access door. There was also yet to be a fuel strainer access door added to the lower cowling panel, until late D-model production. So only a single door (on the left) for the ground heater duct, Midway through the bottom cowling... this.... instead of this.. I filled them all with ca glue, sanded them and scribed the the ground heater duct acces door!! Next correction was on the upper cowling... - On early P-51D's, the oil filler access door on the rear top left cowling should have the same size as the aftercoolant door just in front of it. The oil access door would not be enlarged until P-51D-20-NA production, when a dip stick was provided, requiring additional room to be accessed. So before working on the fasteners, I resozed oil filler access door... And as i was dealling with the cowling i decided to replace the tamiya's carburettor intakes with the barracuda ones!! Thank you very much for watching, any extra info is very much welcome!!! More on her tommorow as i have already made some progress... John

Thanks a lot for the kind words!! Really appreciate!! John