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1/72 Miss Ashley II


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Since a major interest of mine is speed and speed machines I'll do what is (sadly was) probably the most extreme P-51 based racer ever built, Miss Ashley II. I'm considering a 1/48 conversion, but first I will do this 1/72 kit by High Planes to get a bit more feeling for the project.

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I know some find this racer highly controversial and pushing the limit for a P-51, but it has been given the OK by our host, for which I'm most grateful, when we were in the future GB forum.

Here are some interesting links about the bird:

http://aafo.com/racing/people/brogers.htm

http://www.warbirdaeropress.com/NewGallery/MA2/

http://www.mustangsmustangs.us/p-51/?image_viewer/survivors/87-1002/287436557/5151/1

The kit is low pressure moulded limited run styrene with some resin and white metal parts and vac form canopy. It will certainly not fall together by itself by the look of the content. The plastic sprues look a bit crude at first sight, but the surface and detail of the main parts doesn't look too bad actually. They (or rather I) didn't photograph that well though.

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The resin and metal look quite good, as do the decals and canopies.

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I will probably build it as in flight to show off the beautiful lines of this speed bird to its best, so I got a set of prop blurs that I will try. They need a little reduction in diameter. I will also need a pilot, and this was all my scrap box would provide. Probably some old Airfix pilots. I wouldn't mind getting something better though, so any tips on what to get are most welcome.

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I'm quite eager to get started, but still a few days waiting...

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Hi Jörgen

I see you've gotten the very special racers "Welcomw to the build" from Les. :D

Been looking forward to seeing this one since you mentioned it. Being a high planes model it does require that little be of extra work to sort it out, but it is an awesome looking beast, can't wait to see it finished.

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Thanks for the welcoming and interest guys. I'm sure the "Adjustments of parts & filling required" will be interesting. But the text should read "Adjustments of parts, scratch building & filling required", at least that is what called for in the instructions. But I'll be happy with that.

I tried to get some better sprue pictures. Not by much though.

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The wign sprue contains two sets of tail planes and I guess that's because it's shared with the "Vendetta" kit that was the first racer to use these wings. The shorter ones are for Miss Ashley.

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So I made a start yesterday, but other adventures delayed the update. I decided to sort out the main issues with fuselage halves first. After snipping them off the sprue and realising that the matching between them need quite some work I cleaned out the exhaust openings. They will be bottomed with styrene strips later.

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Here some issues can clearly be seen. Adjustment of parts necessary indeed.

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I cut out one of the canopies to see how it will fit. The design is interesting in that the vac form contains a considerable section of the painted metal fuselage, so when its cut down to "fall" in place you have to blend it in with filler and sanding. Clearly there is much work to be done before I'm there, and it doesn't look like something I have to adjust the fuselage width for, not yet at least.

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It's taking shape, it's like working with a bit rough resin kit, which I usually enjoy, so I quite like this. I glued some Evergreen strips where more material was needed and started to shape up the openings. Need to scratch a floor for the nose Naca intake and new tail wheel doors.

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I'm actually thinking of getting some of High Planes other P-51 racers already...

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I tried to get some better sprue pictures. Not by much though.

I think it looked better with the not-as-good sprue pics! You seem to be getting it to behave, though. I think the 1/48 conversion might have been easier...

Captain Ginger-nutt

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I realised a few things could not be right, and that I needed a set of good drawings to get these parts into a reasonably accurate submission. I printed out the drawings made by Taichiro Yamashita to 1/72 scale, or actually a scale suited to the length of the kit fuselage.

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The fuselage matches well in profile except the radiator outlet flap and a very minor adjustment of the fin.

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The wings and tailplanes is another matter, they will need quite a lot of attention.

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I had to make the fuselage slightly narrower over the nose and move the Naca intake forward.

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Then I filled the tail wheel opening and started to lengthen the radiator outlet. I will rescripe the tail wheel doors when the fuselage halves are joined.

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Basic work of the radiator flap done. I suppose I will have to open up more of the fuselage above it, but I have to check references.

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Nice lines do like the racers ,she has contra-rotating prop .what`s the power plant ? is it a R.R. Griffon like Precious Metal

Les

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I cut out one of the canopies to see how it will fit. The design is interesting in that the vac form contains a considerable section of the painted metal fuselage, so when its cut down to "fall" in place you have to blend it in with filler and sanding. Clearly there is much work to be done before I'm there, and it doesn't look like something I have to adjust the fuselage width for, not yet at least.

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You've got your work cut out with this one old chum! The canopy method with this is the same as on the Skybirds 86 Prentice.Go easy with the superglue (fogging) and make sure that you've got it sitting straight and true,not a little lopsided (guess how I know) and where you want it before you commit to glue.

Looking forward to seeing this one in the gallery.

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Thanks Alex, I'll keep it in mind. Not sure what to think of the canopy method yet, but I'm sure I will have a more firm opinion once done... :)

The nose Naca intake is finished with a tight fitting floor.

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While I think about the radiator outlet I started cleaning up and adapting the not too sophisticated cockpit parts and the larger of my pilots. He's not finished here, just resting while glue is drying. I'm not overly concerned about this area, I don't think very much will be seen with the pilot in place, so I'll make up something reasonable from the parts and see where it ends up.

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Nice lines do like the racers ,she has contra-rotating prop .what`s the power plant ? is it a R.R. Griffon like Precious Metal

Les

Indeed a Griffon in this one too. The lines do get real nice with the small canopys fitted to the P-51's and everything as smooth as possible. Not everyones taste I guess, but I love them.

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Thanks a lot guys! I have given things a thought and decided to probably change my approach to the troublesome radiator outlet. With the market flooded of stock P-51 kits I think I shouldn't have to scratch build these parts to replace the short comings of this kit. I will have a look around the reasonably local shops the coming days and see if they have something like the new tool Airfix P-51D or similar as a donor, and take the significant parts for the outlet and possibly some cockpit parts as well. We'll see where that ends up.

In the mean time I turned my attention to the tail planes. I cut off a section from the root to roughly match the drawings. This will make them too narrow, but will save a lot of boring scribing.

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So I then glued a 1 mm strip to each leading edge and around the tip.

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After sanding them to shape and doing the little scribing of the tips needed I'm quite happy with my compromise.

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A little mock up to see where it's going.

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The wings will be a lot more work. First I will have to move them forward at least 1 mm from the intended position. That should bring the root of the trailing edge to the correct position. With a bit of luck I can then ignore the slightly wrong sweep angle of the trailing edges and concentrate on the major work of cutting down the leading edges and the tips.

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But I thought it was best to give it all a think over before going further, so time for a glass of white Zonnebloem on the balcony while posting this :).

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Thanks for the encouragement guys! I made a further bit of progress today. This bird sure isn't falling together by herself, but with a good amount of work the parts are beaten into some sort of submission bit by bit. It was apparently good to give things another thought though, because today there was no need to move the wing forward that one mm... Don't know how I held the model up against the drawing the last time.

The upper and lower wing halves will not fit together at all. The very rough gear bays are much too thick.

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Since I'm building this bird gear up in flight it was easiest just to grind the gear bays off completely. The doors look a bit iffy.

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But to my surprise they weren't that difficult to adjust to a very good fit. They were glued in place taking care to get them flush with the wing surface.

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After a bit of sanding to make the mating surfaces completely flat and even the wing parts were clamped together ensuring the best possible alignment of the trailing edges, as they are the only edges that will be kept. I then run liquid MEK with a thin brush along the lines and put the thing aside.

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I then picked up the two spinner parts for that mighty contra rotating propeller. They required a good amount of cleaning up, and since I'm going to use the photo etched prop blurs I needed to fill the cut outs for the blades. This was done with CA glue and resin dust since I want a rigid filling so I can drill for the blurs where ever I want to.

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After initial sanding the two parts where glued together. The back section was 0,5 mm short so I glued it to a piece of sheet styrene.

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After further sanding of the whole assembly and scribing I reached this stage.

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Here it is mated to the fuselage to check the look.

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By then the wing had dried and I worked for more than an hour on its fit to the fuselage. It worked out quite well in the end. The corners of the root need more shaping but there more work to be done before that. Speed Bird B) .

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I drew the lines suggested by the kit parts for the radiator Naca duct, and this looks too wide and clumsy. I will work from a template from the drawings instead when the wings are finally installed.

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I then drew up a rough line for the clipping and reshaping of the wing tips.

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Here is the wing with the reshaped tips and a more correct wing span. A little bit of rescribing was needed. Next I need to cut down the leading edges at the root about 2-2,5 mm to feather out and meet the edges of the new tips. It´s probably best that I measure that one more time another day before actually doing it...

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Today I bought a donor kit to get the radiator, it's outlet section from the fuselage and probably some cockpit parts. I think this will be the easier way, and these kits are cheap. So another kit to be sacrificed to the demon of speed... :devil:

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I cut off the hopeless radiator flap and opened up the underside. The Airfix interior part was cut up in sections to separate the outlet piece I need. While the Airfix fuselage is a P-51D and I'm working on a P-51H based fuselage I think I will get away with this when I compare to the drawings and P-51H photos.

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I cleaned up the inside of the fuselage halves and installed thin styrene side walls. The idea is to build it up like this, and keep the outlet flap separate until after painting.

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