Giorgio N Posted July 16, 2014 Share Posted July 16, 2014 (edited) This is my first entry for the P-51 STGB, the Hobbyboss easy-kit P-51B. One of the modelling themes I recently started is the air war over Italy during the years 1943-1945. These were very hard years for Italy, with the country divided in two parts, a division that has affected Italy for many years after the war and that is still felt somewhat today. Being this a modelling website, I will not talk about this at any length, but let me say that the Mustangs played a big part in those years, serving with both the USAAF 15th AF and RAF and RAAF units. As I already built an RAF P-51B in the past, this one will be built as an American one. I've yet to decide which unit though, all the Fighter Groups operating over Italy had quite colourful aircrafts, choosing one isn't easy ! The HB kit is quite well known and together with the other HB easy-kits it caused quite a stir when first issued: here was a range of cheap kits well suited to beginners but of some interest to more serious modellers who want to focus on painting only. My kit was bought at a local flea market (as many of the kits I've bought recently) and for reason it arrived home with no box: Being part of the easy-kit range, it features solid fuselage and wings and a minimum number of parts. The detail level is not great, but the main parts feature some pretty good recessed panel lines and rivets. Really, these kits from this point of view easily surpass certain manufacturers with many more years of experience ! Where these kits usually lack is in cockpit details. Now the P-51B is better than the first kits issued in the range as at least there is a cockpit... Of course there's no detail on the sidewalls and these have recesses for the snap-on canopy. Now my goal here is to build the kit as straight from the box as possibile, but I've decided to add some detail to make the area "busier" and more realistic. It is not 100% accurate really, but at least is a passable reproduction of what's on the sidewalls of a P-51B. As the kit will be built with a closed canopy (the only option possible from the box) I may even have added too much... Next step will be to modify the cockpit a bit and move the instrument panel as this would end up too far forward if assembled per the instructions Edited October 5, 2014 by Giorgio N 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wellzy Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 Welcome to the build enjoy Les Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DannyB Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 Just found this Giorgio and it's looks like a really interesting project. How's it coming along? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted July 20, 2014 Share Posted July 20, 2014 I haven't seen one of these models before, the detail isn't quite so bad at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted July 21, 2014 Author Share Posted July 21, 2014 Thanks to all ! The model is progressing, slowly as usual.. this time I can't really blame work, it's more that I'm getting easily distracted by the rare sunny days.... Some pictures of the progress in the cockpit. First of all some paint was used in the cockpit. As I don't have a properly matched US interior green, I used the closest paint I had, a vallejo light olive green. I think this is too green really, but will do. Now I'm aware that the P-51B might have the cockpit in a different colour depending on the factory, but as I haven't decided the subject yet I decided to stick to interior green. The various boxes on the sidewalls were painted in a very dark grey and some detail was added with very light grey paint (knobs and so on) As the instrument panel needed to be moved to the rear, this left quite a gap. To make things better I decided to add some kind of coaming on top: This will later be painted black While I was sorting the cockpit I also had to get rid of the tabs on the canopy. These fit in the recesses where the sidewalls now have been detailed so the canopy would not fit with these in place The picture above has had the contrast increased by a lot and this distorted the colours. It was the only way to make the canopy well visible though. What can be seen is that the canopy is not very clear, I think a coat of future will be needed and may not be enough. Interestingly the Malcolm style canopy included in the same box is much clearer than the standard type. As Rich mentioned the detail on the kit, let me say that these HB easy-kits have some really nice surface detail. Some areas are also quite nice, although not necessarily accurate, like the wheel wells (very shallow though). For the price they were originally sold, these kits are IMHO great value. Today however they tend to be not so cheap and if I have to compare this kit with the Airfix basic P-51D box at the same price, the Airfix kit is the clear winner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted July 23, 2014 Author Share Posted July 23, 2014 (edited) Last touches added to the cockpit ! The instrument panel coaming received some paint. The shape is not actually accurate, but it's better than the hole I had before... The part supplied by HB was also detailed somewhat. In particular I added seatbelts, a control stick, a headrest and a different box on the rear shelf. This is how the part looks at the moment, pretty much ready to be inserted within the fuselage Edited July 23, 2014 by Giorgio N 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wellzy Posted July 24, 2014 Share Posted July 24, 2014 The builds coming on well good job on the office Les Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted July 24, 2014 Author Share Posted July 24, 2014 Thanks Les ! I am quite pleased with the cockpit, not really too accurate but looks busy enough now. The seat/floor part was glued into the fuselage using square plastic rods to align the part within the fuselage. With the modifications I added the original peg could not keep the floor in place. No big problem really... Here are a couple of pictures of the assembled cockpit in place, I may add a gunsight though. The wing had been dry-fitted and this unfortunately showed one problem: the fit is quite bad ! This is going to be a problem considering that this Mustang has to be in natural metal finish... not ideal really ! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bengalensis Posted July 24, 2014 Share Posted July 24, 2014 It's taking shape nicely. Looks indeed as the wing and bottom nose cowling fit will need some work, but I'm sure it can be sorted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted July 28, 2014 Author Share Posted July 28, 2014 Thanks Jorgen ! Sure your Mustang racer is needing more filler than this.. Progress with these kits can be very fast if the modeller does not get distracted. Wings and tailplanes are on and some filler has been applied to the wing-fuselage junction. The canopy was also dipped in Klear to improve the clarity... with good results I have to say ! Now I find myself almost at the painting stage and I'd better start deciding on the subject ! I'm thinking of building Sweet Clara, an aircraft of the 325th FG. The black/yellow checkered tail and the nose art should make this quite a colourful subject... however I have some doubts about certain details of this aircraft for which I'll post a request in the WW2 section. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted August 4, 2014 Author Share Posted August 4, 2014 Some progress has been made over the weekend. In particular, I've filled every joint, primed the model, refilled any joint that required more attention and reprimed... and as the new title reflects, I've decided at least the unit of the aircraft I'll reproduce: it will be a checkertailed Mustang of the 325th FG Now my original idea was to build the well known Dorothy II, however I'm now thinking of choosing the same aircraft after it was renamed Sweet Clara II. The reason ? Dorothy has the name in yellow, something that it's hard to print with my laser printer, while Sweet Clara is in red and this colour can be printed well and looks decent on an aluminum background... Now however I have to check the various yellow bands on the wings as they changed over time for this aircraft Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted August 14, 2014 Author Share Posted August 14, 2014 Progress is slow again, but I'm now adding some colour to the model ! Yellow has been sprayed over the tailplanes and the wingtip area: I used Tamiya's yellow, with a drop of red to achieve a colour more similar to the US insignia yellow.(tamiya's is "very yellow") Now I'm ready to spray the red over the nose and part of the wingtip band, however the spinner must be red too. The fit of the spinner was not perfect and to sort this I decided to change the way the propeller parts are assembled: instead of a single part for the blades and the two parts for the spinner, I glued the spinner bits together to that they can be sanded to eliminate the ugly steps I found during the dry-fit phase. To this I will add the 4 blades individually. Here's a picture showing the spinner ready for sanding and one blade cut from the others. This will also make painting much easier. Really, I believe propellers should always be supplied with separate blades ! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted August 18, 2014 Author Share Posted August 18, 2014 As weather was not great over the weekend (and really it's been pretty bad the whole summer), I've had time to do some more painting. First the areas to be finished in red were sprayed using Tamiyas' flat red. Both red and yellow areas were then masked and it was time to spray my favourite acrylic metallic paint: Citadel's mithril silver ! Ok, it's no alclad, but the overall finish is IMHO pretty good. Not that I will leave the model as it is ! My plan is to achieve a more realistic natural metal finish using a combination of techniques. The citadel silver will be however left as it is on the wings, that were painted silver in these aircrafts. More on the natural metal finish later, when I should be able to post some more pictures... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolwe82 Posted August 18, 2014 Share Posted August 18, 2014 Thats looking great, smooth finish. And dear Revell, THIS is how the canopy should FIT IN for B mustangs!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wellzy Posted August 18, 2014 Share Posted August 18, 2014 Looking good nice work Les Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted August 20, 2014 Author Share Posted August 20, 2014 Thanks to all ! Work started yesterday on my attempt at a good NM finish. As I don't use Alclads, I tried to achieve something with whatever was in my paint stash. The plan was to highlight some panels using a combination of paints: - a couple of brighter acrylic paints, made by Marabu. These have pigments that are not as fine as the ones used by Citadel but their 2 silvers (matt and gloss) are not too bad. The matt silver is very light, the gloss one is darker - humbrol's metalizer polished aluminum. Not to be airbrushed but simply applied by brush in some selected panel and then buffed - the remains of an old Humbrol 11 tin. This was totally dry but I noticed that the dust remaining in the tin could be spread over the panels and got tied with the underlying acrylic paint - a small bottle of silver powder. This was spread with a small brush on some panels and resulted in a darkish silver finish. Now there's a big problem: I noticed that the variations I achieved don't show well at all in the pictures !!! Anyway, here they are: In the pictures above, the wings and the front area (except the panels around the exhausts) are in the original mythril silver. Flaps, ailerons and some panels behind the cockpit are coated with metalizer. The panels toward the tail have been buffed with the Humbrol 11 dust. The panels around the exhausts are painted with a mix of citadel's mithril silver and gunbolt metal Here again the wings are in citadel's silver, the radiator and the tail area have received the Humbrol 11 dust, flaps and ailerons in metalizer, the panels below the fuel tanks are painted with Marabu's matt silver and the darker panel has received some silver powder It's a pity that the pictures don't show the variations in reflectivity of the various panels, maybe I should add more variations using different undercoats too. Oh well, I'll try that on my other P-51... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted August 21, 2014 Author Share Posted August 21, 2014 (edited) As the various shades of aluminum dont' show well in picture, better start posting something that will show some colour ! I've painted the olive drab antiglare panel and removed the various masks and I now have quite a colourful Mustang on my bench: Unfortunately there's been some bleed through the masks, particularly on the red/yellow bands where I have red paint on the yellow areas. The little bits of silver paint on the tailplanes dont't worry me as I know how to remove them easily. Removing the masks also removed some flakes of red paint from the spinner, but fortunately these could be touched up easily and are now sorted. Now I will have to sort the overspray here and there, remove the masking from the canopy and then it will be time for the decals ! As I'll be printing my own, I'd better start drawing them.... Edited August 21, 2014 by Giorgio N 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mumbles Posted August 21, 2014 Share Posted August 21, 2014 It's a pity that the pictures don't show the variations in reflectivity of the various panels, maybe I should add more variations using different undercoats too. Oh well, I'll try that on my other P-51... That's true, I've noticed that on my Mustangs and other stuff I've done in NMF as well. It just doesn't photograph well for some reason. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted August 25, 2014 Author Share Posted August 25, 2014 That's true, I've noticed that on my Mustangs and other stuff I've done in NMF as well. It just doesn't photograph well for some reason. In my case I should also add that I'm just using a compact camera and my photograph skills are quite limited, I wonder what results others may get by properly using better equipment... Small update: I was planning on adding the exhausts but I noticed that my aircraft uses faired exhausts and these are not included in the box. They are included in the Airfix P-51D box though so I decided to make a few resin copies of these for my P-51B. More on this later... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted August 30, 2014 Share Posted August 30, 2014 nicely done and the NMF looks good. Have never though of using the Citadel colour before. I'm still pretty much stuck with my Model Master Metalizied paints......thou I have still yet to take on a full NMF plane!!! She's going to look really nice when finished. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonymousDFB1 Posted August 30, 2014 Share Posted August 30, 2014 She looks rather smart Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bengalensis Posted August 30, 2014 Share Posted August 30, 2014 That's a very nice paint finish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted September 1, 2014 Author Share Posted September 1, 2014 Glad you folk like it ! For a while I had steered clear of NMF finishes, but now after this one I'm quite happy to do a few more Small progress for today: I managed to cast a few copies of the Airfix P-51D exhausts as my aircraft seems to have the same style For some reason it took me a few attempts to get a decent looking pair of exhausts, and even these will need a little touch-up. Strange as exhausts have been among the parts that used to give me the least problems with resins 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted September 4, 2014 Author Share Posted September 4, 2014 A bad quality picture that however means a lot: Here they are, fresh from the printer my decals are ready ! I've printed the chequets in sections and these will have to be adapted to the tail surfaces. The nose art will have to go over a white decal film disk, that I've already cut. Fingers crossed here, getting the sizes right is not easy. How did I design the decals ? I started from a scan of the Trumpeter 1/32 kit decal sheet, that includes this aircraft. Checking some pictures however showed a number of mistakes in the trumpeter sheet and I started modifying the artwork. Now it's much better, maybe not 100% accurate but will do the job. Being laser printed, these decals will not require a coat of decal film. However they are still quite fragile and I may spray a thin coat of Klear above them before applying. Or I may not... Of course everything is duplicated to keep into account the risk of damaging something. And of course, those postwar RAF style codes at the bottom have nothing to do with this Mustang but have been printed for a fellow modeller 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted September 5, 2014 Author Share Posted September 5, 2014 Let's the decalling begin ! First decals are being applied. I started with the large numerals on the fuselage side, or better from the "9". the way I printed the numeral was not perfect as there was an excessive gap between the 9 and the 0. No problem really, just a matter of cutting the decal in two part. I also started adding the white background disk for the nose art Then it was time to apply the nose art... and the result was Ok but not perfect as a very thin slice of the white background is still visible. I should have printed the nose art some 0.1 mm larger in diameter. Oh well, next time will be better ! For now I'll live with it or try something later. The first of the Hobbyboss supplied national markings was also applied. This settled quite well on the aileron actuators with the help of Microscale's liquids. This is starting to look like a very colourful model ! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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