Mike Mcellaney

Nice work on the engine Just a bit of advice, I don't know if its to late but the engine in the Mustang was a Packard Merlin not a Rolls Royce Merlin so it would not have had the RR name on it Hope you can, if possible take the PE name of, and maybe touch in the area

Well just further to what Mish has said we were looking at the following criteria Any Sherman Gun Tank Any Sherman conversion so long as it was based on a Sherman Hull

Go on then Mish I will co host with you then and God help me

Just to let you all know, I have put both the P-51A and P-51B builds on hold as I have just become a Grandpa, so at the moment other things mainly a cute little baby girl is taking priority I will try and get another P-51 finished before the end of the build but you must excuse me if I post everything in one go or just a few build photos, but Mish will be able to confirm everything is above board.

This will be a challenge build. Three of my good friends here on Britmodeller, Lloyd King, Mish and Ray Massie have challenged me to build a kit OOB with no aftermarket PE or resin, so I have put the P-51B on hold until this one is done. Well I had this was sitting in the stash so out it has come to be built. So is has been agreed I can add seat belts, thin down parts, use after market decals (if there was any for this kit ) and if any thing needs to be added to the cockpit etc. it must be scratched built not bought after market She will be finished in the markings as depicted on the box top, using the kit decals

This is going to be a good one Lloyd

Very nice build Mish

So the fun begins again, looking forward to this Mish. By the way does Lloyd know you are using a resin cockpit

OK Mish as its you count me in for this, been a long time since I built any Armour

Hi Martyn Went digging a bit more and found these from a 1944 manual, looks like from the factory the were fitted with Kapok cushions

Hi Martyn Don,t know if you have noticed but in the hand book you scanned it refers to the F-51D this is the post war designation for the P-51, is it possible this was added to the post war F-51D, as I have not seen any WW2 photos showing the yellow seat cushion in the P-51D

This is today's work Engine built, resin cockpit removed from blocks, cleaned up, masked and painted, fuselage half's removed from sprues and painted inside.

The wheels are the kits ones but the tyres are resin from GMF

It looks like a "B" as I can not see any intake on top of the cowlings I noticed, it looks like you have filled in the landing light on the left wing of the "B", if so you need to clean it out as this needs to be there, or are you building a racer?

Nice looking engine there Lloyd

Well thank you everyone, and thanks for the kind comments

Thanks Mish, after the one you just built thank you

Great work there Lloyd as per the normal

North American P-51D-20-NA Aircraft Name Big Beautiful Doll Aircraft Serial Number 44-72218 Fighter Group 361st "The Yellow Jackets" Aircraft Code Letters E2*I (as of June 1945) Pilot Col. John Landers Kit Tamiya 1/32 P-51D Decals a mixture of Eagle Cals and Aero Masters Paint Citadels, Gunze Aquieous

This build is now completed and the photos are up in the completed gallery But just as a teaser

This is the Tamiya 1/32 P-51D finished as Big Beautiful Doll, flown by Col. John Landers, 361st Fighter Group in July 1945. As you see I decided to finish her slightly differently to how you would normally see her Hope you like her

Used the kit wheels and just replaced the tyres with resin replacements

Finished this one about 3 weeks ago Hope you enjoy

Nice work mish

Hi Don Not to bad at first look, the rivet demon has been kept at bay and they are on the fine side for Trumpeter Cockpit detail is compared to the Tamiya one, bad and will need that resin replacement Clear parts look good, and they also give you a Malcolm Hood Normal complaint from me is rubber tyres got resin replacements from GMA (they are not in the photo as I have put them some where safe all I need to do is remember where I put them lol)