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P-51 D Wanderzirkus Rosarius (Luftwaffe 1945) - FINISHED


Blastvader

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Hello all.

This will be my build thread for my GB entry. I've never taken part in something like this before, and as it stands, I've not built a model aircraft in nearly 20 years. But, after the relative success of my first forray back in to modelling with a vintage Acguy (Here) I'm ready to dive in to this build feet first!

I'll be using the same Airfix Series 1 72nd scale P-51 D as so many others have. I always liked 1/72 scale kits when I was little and I still like them now. Also, it's £5.99 so if I mess it up, it's less than a packet of fags (not that I smoke anymore, got a baby on the way).

From my limited understanding, by later in the war the USAAF had ditched painting most of the aircraft and left them mostly bare metal. Now, I am not a missive fan of miniature metallics nor of the bare metal look. As such I have decided on a somewhat esoteric scheme displayed below.

german6.jpg

A P-51D from the 2. Staffel of the Versuchsverband der Oberkommando der Luftwaffe. This aircraft was recaptured by American troops in May 1945. At least two P-51D Mustangs had their upper surfaces repainted dark green. The first of these machines was captured near Cambrai on D-Day.

So, something a bit different. A nice bright yellow and green Mustang.

A bit of history on Rosarius and his Flying Circus can be found here.

In My next post I'll move on to the start of the build.

Edited by Blastvader
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Only me.

So, on with the build. Interestingly (well, it's interesting to me anyway) a P-51D actually flew over my house on the way to Sunderland Airshow just as I started opening the box last Saturday. It's a sign ah' tell thee! Anyway, box contents below. Nothing you haven't seen before I'm sure, but much crisper than I remember cheapo Airfix kits being a few years ago.

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Also, got a set of decals which I shan't be using. For two reasons; Reason the first: They're USAAF markings, Reason the second: They look fiddly and I'm lazy/impatient/incompetent. Also, I'm assuming that when they repainted it they would have painted over all the stencilling. There's no point leaving it if you don't read English.

Incidentally, the decals I will be using are from a Revell 72nd scale He-111e. But there's no Swastikas because...well...it's Revell. Would anyone know where I could pick some up for cheaps?

Right. Box Done. Now time to base coat stuff. Done with PoundLand's finest grey primer as I can't get to grips with Vallejo's stuff. More McDonald's spoons have been sacrificed to the primer gods in the last few days in my attempt to get it right than were used in the entire production of Tran Spotting.

IMG_20140726_151032514_zpsc3hh53by.jpg

Next up it's a couple of coats of Interior Green (the only Vallejo Model Air colour that want's to play ball with me). Followed by a couple of coats of Klear (I must say I was most astonished to find out you chaps and chapettes use floor polish for varnish. Ingenious) which gave the opportunity to should gas,gas,gas! and don the old S10 that's been sitting in the man-cave since the GSR was issued.

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Anyway. Now it was time for an oil wash. Liberally dolloped all over the place in the hope that it won't look utter pap when I get back round to removing it...

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Uh-oh....oh well, at least it's inside it's not like I'm going to have the canopy open or anything...

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Never mind.

I've just realised I have no pictures whatsoever of the cockpit. But I assure you I have done it...and snapped the control column. In fact that’s the first thing I thought when look at the bits; "I bet I bloody snap that" and so it came to pass.

Sorry for the photography. David Bailey I am not and all I'm equipped with is a very poor phone camera. I've got £50 sitting in my PayPal account. If you've got any suggestions for a suitable low budget picture taker thing, please shout out.

Cheers for looking. I'm hoping to get the cockpit finished and the (very bent, from my test fits) fus glued together tonight/tomorrow. More updates then.

Paul

Edited by Blastvader
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Interesting scheme indeed and not least the story behind. Looking forward to see this develop. The new tool Airfix kit looks very good indded, I was positively surprised at the quality of the moulds in the one I sacrificed as a parts donor.

I know I have seen several sources for swastika decals, but I haven't noted them down as military planes is not my usual modelling occupation. I'm quite sure you will get better info on that from others.

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Cheers Chaps.

As for your comment on the new casting being a good choice Wellzy, well, I'm starting to think I got a bad 'un. Fus and wings both warped. There's gonna be A LOT of putty on this thing.

Also, a couple of questions for those more knowledgeable:

Ein : Undercarriage doors, what colour (internally) the instructions say aluminium (Vallejo Silver shall have to do) whilst the wheel weels are interior green. Is this the normal format?

Zwie: Weapons. I can't really find as to whether these were removed or not. And they can't actually be seen on ANY of the pictures of captured Mustangs. So, opinions? Should they stay or should they go now? Because if they they s....I'll just stop there.

Cheers,

Paul

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Cheers Chaps.

a couple of questions for those more knowledgeable:

Ein : Undercarriage doors, what colour (internally) the instructions say aluminium (Vallejo Silver shall have to do) whilst the wheel weels are interior green. Is this the normal format?

Zwie: Weapons. I can't really find as to whether these were removed or not. And they can't actually be seen on ANY of the pictures of captured Mustangs. So, opinions? Should they stay or should they go now? Because if they they s....I'll just stop there.

Cheers,

Paul

Hi Paul

I'm don't claim to be knowledgeable, but I'll give you my 2c.

On the interior of the doors - I'd keep them alum. There wasn't too much paint around back then in '44, and if there was no need to do any changes down there (unlike on top) I'd say that silver is fine. Many of the Fw 190's from the late war had little paint at all in the under area, for example....

On the weapons, I'd assume that they kept the weapons, or else put in German ones. Not much use having a demo plane, going with your Circus along to all those bases, and not being able to fire at anything. At the very least, the experienced guys who flew them would have been expecting a chance to try out shooting, if only to see the effect that fully loaded guns, and firing them, had on the performance.

So I'd say, keep the ordnance!

Philip

(lovely article you found - many thanks....)

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Wheel wells on the D came in all variations (Zinc Chromate Yellow, Aluminum, underside colour). Most common was probably aluminum with a zinc chromate yellow spar (the rear wall of the gear wells). Interior green was unlikely, as that was actually a mix of Zinc Chromate Yellow with black, specifically for the human-occupied sections.

Edited by Adam Maas
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Hello all. Update tomorrow, I've done all the things I'd said I'd get done but havent had a chance to get a post written up due to the fact that I've spent the last couple of days running around Catterick Training Area.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well, here's my next update. Apologies for the delay; work, the TA and drink have gotten in the way.

I've managed to get the thing primed with PoundLand’s finest and the most egregious bits filled (though I’ve done a pretty poor job of re-scribing panel lines).

IMG_20140809_202058668_zpsbk58nukq.jpg

The underside was then given a coat of Vellajo primer (which I think is pretty poor and never sprays right for me) as it’s a much lighter grey and then about eight million coats of Yellow Ochre.

IMG_20140809_202044952_zpstuagdfxz.jpg

Then disaster struck…

When reassembling the brush after cleaning I appear to have over tightened the spray nozzle and snapped the thread off inside the body of the airbrush. So I’m a little up the creek at the moment and shall have to revert to the use of one of the pair of cheap knock of Chinese things until I can stump up the cash for a new one.

IMG_20140809_202120366_zps86th1mmy.jpg

Also, my compressor has developed a leak, my PC’s power supply has borked itself and my PS3 (or as my missus calls it, The Netflix Machine) is banjaxed too. I’m not really having much luck at the moment.

Anyway, should manage to get the pre-shading and green-coat on this week as SWMBO is out of the house for a couple of days. If I can get to grips with the cack airbrush that is. So we’ll see.

Cheers for looking.

Edited by Blastvader
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Maybe the gods don't think it's right painting a P-51D in German markings :badmood: (But as for me, I say do what you want, and defy the gods!)

I empathize with your tribulations, and I hope things settle down for you henceforth.

bob

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Compressor is sort of fixed. Ie I stripped it down, cleaned it and then ran a line of PVA round all the seals. Turned out it was moisture in the cylinder head affecting the non-return valve in the end. It's still not running quite right though. I think I ned a new one.

Talking of new, I managed to pick up a Canon Powershot A480 for cheaps on t'bay this week. So hopefully the pictures are a bit better. Though I've honestly not got a scooby as to what I'm doing. And Macro photography has not been kind to the old girl as you'll see below.

So, here's where we stand right now:

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I've started adding a couple of little details like seatbelts and a bit of weathering in the cockpit:

IMG_1837_zpsaf6f5cf3.jpg

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And, most obviously, I've painted the top surfaces Dark Green:

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The pre-shading is a little heavy but that's down to a combination of inexperience, poor tools and lack of talent.

I've also had a couple of little boo-boos along the way. Unfortunately I left the cap off of the paint cup and managed to splatter paint all over the model wen applying the dark green. I had thought that I had managed to save the thing but some of it snuck under the Tamiya masking tape and got to the yellow undersides. Hopefully this will be hidden when I apply the panel wash. Also, this picture shows my nice orange peel finish. That's actually the Klear. It wasn't like that before.

IMG_1843_zps7d9796fc.jpg

I also ended up doing a wrong'un to the undercarriage doors when applying the base coat for the inner faces. I used rattle can silver from poundland (pushing the boat out) and had attached them to strips of normal painter's masking tape. This wahs a mistake. The silver paint is laquer based and ate the glue away meaning that the bottom side of some of the peices was covered in silver sludge. They'd had a good coat of Klear so hopefully this will come off. Right now iI'm just waiting for the enamel washes to dry (I didn't notice this had happened until AFTER I'd applied them) before I go at them with lighter fluid and a cotton bud.

IMG_1840_zpsced34fb6.jpg

Also, some of my attempt at gap filling has been less than successful. There's a rather clear line all the way down the top of the cowling and here at the front of the wing the filler is fairly obvious. In my defence both of these appeared completely gone under the primer coat but seem to have reappeared after painting.

IMG_1844_zpsc09fbba0.jpg

So, what's next? Well, I've put it in a handy list for you. Aren't I good?

  • Paint the prop
  • Drybrush undercarriage
  • Little fiddly bits (weapon tips, canopy etc)
  • Seal the whole model with Klear
  • Decals and panel lines
  • About 100 different washes on the exhausts
  • Seal again
  • Weathering
  • Matte coat
  • ????
  • Profit?

Have a missed anything obvious oh great and wise fellow modellers of BM?

As for decals, has anyone got any tail markings? I would ask in the wanted area but I don't have the requisite post count and I'm loath to spend a tenner on a decal sheet for a £6 model. Because I'm cheap and the thing's already cost me £20 for a new Paint Nozzle.

Anyway, enough of my moaning. Thanks for looking.

Paul

Edited by Blastvader
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We'll, minor disaster; I've ruined the canopy. I was rushing and instead of giving the upper surfaces a good coating of Klear with an airbrush I decided to use some GW purity seal. Which, or course, reacted terribly with the clear plastic and fogged it in to oblivion.

Thankfully there are two different canopies but the windscreen is banjaxed. As such I've just ordered a new kit. Incidentally, how are you meant to clean the remains of the sprue gates from clear parts without scratching them in to oblivion? Even my squadron polishing stick leaves fine scratches that two or three coats of Klear can't fix.

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so sorry to hear about the problems while building :( but i m sure you can deal with it :) The remains of sprue gates from clear parts are pain for me too.. i m using the hand blade saw with very little "teeths" and carefuly cut it out of the sprues as close to the clear part as possible. If there is good acces to the remains, i take the scalpel/x-acto blade (not narrow one, best is if you have one with rounded/curved blade, so only little bit of the blade´s edge is actualy touching the clear part), put it perpendiculary to the clear part and carefuly scrub the remains off. Maybe not the best way, but somehow it works for me :)

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Sorry to hear about the canopy disaster but you should be able to order new parts from Airfix to avoid junking a whole kit. The scratches should also polish out with some Micromesh. It's much finer grades than anything else I've used and gets everything clear again with a little effort.

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Thanks muchly guys. I did order a new kit in the end but I also bought one of the Eduard cockpit sets, some masks and a set of resin exhausts. So I'm going to have another go as I've made lots of mistakes in this build and, Wolwe, the level of detail in your 'quick' builds has shamed me :P

As for polishing the scratches out the best thing I have at the moment is a squadron tri-grit sanding stick which is awful as it's about as sturdy as a not very sturdy thing on earthquake island but does have one very fine face, though still not fine enough. And it's already lost most of that because you can't jam it in to small spaces. Honestly sanding is the bane of my life. I've bought a Tamiya file that just eats everything with the side of the file if you're not paying attention and thus bally stick that's soft as clart. I've just got no patience for it because it's the most boring part of any build.

I'll check out micromesh though Col...even if it is just another expense (so far this £6 kit has cost me in the region of £35 as I've had to buy loads of extra gubbins).

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So, where are we up to the? Let's look back at our helpful list:

  • Paint the prop
  • Drybrush undercarriage
  • Little fiddly bits (weapon tips, canopy etc)
  • Seal the whole model with Klear
  • Decals and panel lines
  • About 100 different washes on the exhausts
  • Seal again
  • Weathering
  • Matte coat
  • ????
  • Profit?

So, we're most of the way then aren't we? Canopy's still 'in progress' (I've buggered the new one up too...I am truly poo). The prop's painted but I didn't do the yellow tips first...so that's going to be a pain.

Panel Lines were done with Revell enamels mixed with lighter fluid. Anthrecite for the top and anthrecite and dark brown mix for the bottom.

IMG_1853_zps31c1d6db.jpg

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The decals are a mixture of Airfix from a Bf-110 that I bought for the upcoming group build, a Revell He-111 H-6 (these were RUINED by getting damp in the attic) and a 1:48th Tamiya Bf-109 Trop E that I intend to kit-bash in to something more interesting.

I applied them poorly and they look like what they are. Also the ones on the top of the wings were from the Revell kit and were both really thick and silvered badly and the Swastika is out of scale.

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Weathering is done with Mig pigments to the best of my limited ability, though I'm quite proud of the exhuast. The chipping is (over)done with with Vallejo RLM-01 Silver. I tried not to go too heavy (I know, I messed up on the port wing) but I thought that there would be quite a lot around things like inspection panels as I'm sure the Luftwaffe techs and pilots would be scrambling all over it so the paintwork would probably suffer.

Anyway, That's where I'm up to. Thanks for looking.

Edited by Blastvader
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You are way too kind, honestly theres a lot of things i need to improve on my builds :) Everyone has to start at some point and we can all learn something from anyone around us :) Someone is good at one thing, someone else in other thing, learning the best bits from the people around is the way i want to go - there are tons and tons of "bits" i need to learn yet :)

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So it's finished. I'm not very happy with it but it will have to do as I'm sick to death of looking at the thing.

I'm hoping to get some better pictures taken by someone at my local club as I barely know which way to point a camera nevermind how to use it properly. Regardless here are some pictures of the finished article:

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Thanks for looking and I appreciate the help of those who commented.

Cheers,

Paul

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I think you are too hard to yourself Paul. To me it looks very nice, i like the dirty yellow and the top side with various shades looks nice too :) Only the decal on top wing is losing a grip a bit :( You can try to fix it with little drop of future/klear or similar product, just little drop under the uplifted areas(not too much so the decal wont push excess out) and push the decal back to the wing, it should help. But better less than more :) If it wont help, then you can try white acrylic glue thinned with watter, just a tiny drop as well :) The model looks realy nice to me, so it is shame to have such a minor defect on it :)

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Thanks for your kind words Wolwe. Unfortunately I'm somewhat of a perfectionist and, despite the fact that I've only just returned to the hobby and was bound to make mistakes, every little balls-up eats at me but I'm also incredibly impatient. :P So you can imagine why mistakes get made. It's really hard for me to wait for things like varnish to dry and paint to fully go off. I can see why so many others have multiple projects on the go at once now. Unfortunately I think if I did that I would never get anything done. :)

As for the decal, I've taken your advice and added som Klear in the hope that it decides it wants to stick. I had in fact not noticed that it had come loose again until I had taken the pictures as it's not really noticable in person. But I might strip them off completely and add some more ones from my Bf-110 I have for the upcoming STGB. As these Revell ones are pap.

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i can understand you, i m not exactly patience itself as well :D my problem begins, when i close the fuselage.. :) untill then i can spend days and days thinking about improving anything, but as soon as it is closed, all i can see is painting... and once i start with painting, i do not have patience with the little details usualy. So if i want to do things realy properly, i need to finish the little parts like u/c, popellers and such, before i go for painting :)

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You are much too hard on yourself. That is looking very nice; details, painting, weathering... it's all very good and even more so as you haven't built models for a long time. You should be proud of your result, it deserves that. I can see that the painting and fit of the canopy is less than perfect, but then again, it's sort of a first try for you and this will get better as experience builds up, probably very quickly considering how good the rest looks.

:goodjob:

Patience is of course a real benefit in modelling, and when you think of it - it rarely matters if a model is finished today or tomorrow or the next day. The main thing is to enjoy the time spent and enjoy the result. One good way to enjoy the result is to think of the things that are good with a finished model, lot of that in your build here, and concentrate less on what went less good. You will know that anyway and improve next time.

For me it works well to have a few different projects going on that I can alter between, preferably in very different genres. Besides I could never finish something like my current McLaren F1 in one go, I would get burned out and so need to have other stuff going on. Other builders may have other preferences. Never mind, I'm ranting on after a good day at my work bench, but you have done a great result and on top of that with an interesting and different subject for a P51. Well done!

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