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"Shangri-La" P51B


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So here is my second finished kit after 25 years out, Tamiya's 1/48th P-51B dressed as Don Gentile's "Shangri-La"; there are PE seatbelts in there plus replacement exhausts again, and another Eagle Cal set for the markings as the Tammy ones disintegrated into a zillion pieces - probably just as well as their red was too dark and the chequerboard was inverted - red squares where there should be white, and vice versa.

There are a couple of other issues if you are building this kit: the propeller should be the paddle-bladed type, not the cuffed as supplied (and used, I wasn't too bothered!), and the drop-tanks are also wrong, all pictures of Shangri-La show her with the tear-drop type. Pictures also show the main undercarriage doors firmly closed on the ground, so I followed suit here. Curiously she appears to have worn both exhaust styles at various times.

A few more techniques learnt along the way, including using a pencil for panel lines, and Tamiya weathering powders.

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I'm in the same modelling mode as you! I stopped in 1987' I finally started a year and a half ago with the same model. A lot had changed since my last model.

One problem I had was the decals looked great. They were from Invisaclear.for some reason Tamiya farmed them out to a specialty manufacture. Once in water they stuck to the paper backing. When they finally released they totally disintegrated! Fortunately I had a second kit and I spayed those decals with Testor's Decal varnish. It worked but I still had problems separating the decals from the backing.

Any problems with yours?

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Did not you also drill out the hole in the middle of the prop hub as it was not there in the kit yet shows it on the photos you were looking at?

Nice kit looks even nicer on here.

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I'm in the same modelling mode as you! I stopped in 1987' I finally started a year and a half ago with the same model. A lot had changed since my last model.

One problem I had was the decals looked great. They were from Invisaclear.for some reason Tamiya farmed them out to a specialty manufacture. Once in water they stuck to the paper backing. When they finally released they totally disintegrated! Fortunately I had a second kit and I spayed those decals with Testor's Decal varnish. It worked but I still had problems separating the decals from the backing.

Any problems with yours?

Yes I had to give up on the decals from the kit, I have never seen anything fall apart so spectacularly into so many pieces, completely unuseable. It was then straight on to the Hannants site to pick up some replacements, and fortunately someone else was doing Shangri-La as well to save the day. Very brave of you to persevere with the kit decals!

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Did not you also drill out the hole in the middle of the prop hub as it was not there in the kit yet shows it on the photos you were looking at?

Nice kit looks even nicer on here.

Well spotted Knikki, yes the colour photos of Shangri-La show the hole in the spinner very clearly, but there is nothing there on the kit part, so it was out with the pin vice and for a change I put a hole in the right place.

I should emphasis that overall I have to say this is a great kit, I know it looks as if I am saying there are inaccuracies but really there aren't: the propellor, spinner & drop tanks provided are probably all perfectly accurate for some P-51B's, just not Shangri-La. There was a lot of variation out there, so as always check your references, and if then if you are like me, whatever seems too much bother - ignore!

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A lovely job - you've not lost your touch at all in the time you've been out of the game by the looks of it. Look forward to seeing more of your work.

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