1/72 Academy Mustang III almost OOB

[AdrianMF]

Hello All,

I got a bit stalled with my Wessex build so I cracked open the Academy Mustang III. I bought this ages ago. It seems like a very nice kit. There is web discussion about the shape of the canopy windscreen and the kink on the inner wing leading edge. It looks like a Mustang to me/It's only a hobby.






Interior detail was very nice and construction proceeded apace. It fits like a dream. The main fuselage has a tiny blip which I left on, thinking it might be an air vent, but when I realised it was the start of the fin fillet, I sanded it off!

The only addition was some foil and fuse wire seat belts, which I was almost sad to do because the detail in the chair is so nice!



I used Revell Aqua 79 "blue grey" for Ocean Grey, and it looks a lot lighter and bluer (and better) than Humbrol 106, which is my usual go-to. Green was Humbrol Acrylic 116 and the underside was Humbrol Satin 165 Mediun Sea Grey (a bit translucent for my taste), which looks slightly browner (and better?) than my usual Humbrol 64.

Decals were usual Academy fare, prone to silvering and hard to get bedded. I replaced a lot of the smaller stencil decals with rows of squiggly dots from my 0.1mm permanent marker.

It was at this point that I looked at some photos on the web to get a feel for the weathering and exhaust stains. So there are quite a few pictures of Eugeniusz Horbaczewski and his Mustang, all of which show a white nose and wing ID stripes. Oh well, out with the masking tape to paint white over camouflage...

I decided that the Malcolm canopy in the kit looks a bit too bulbous closed up and I wanted to show off the interior. The kit one doesn't fit in the open position. So I crash moulded a new one over the kit canopy.

Pack the canopy with blu-tak for strength and mount it on a cocktail stick. Cut up some clear packing material, hold it between two bulldog clips, heat over the gas stove and pull it over the canopy when it gets floppy (not too floppy!). Pull it down hard enough to capture the top curve and bring the bulldog clips together under the canopy to catch all the edges. You can see the lower edge of the canopy is captured very sharply, which makes it easy to trim to shape.

I will put some photos in RFI when the English Summer lets the sun come out to play!

Thanks for looking,

Adrian

[Cookenbacher]

Well, that turned out great Adrian. Your paint choices for the scheme turned out perfect.

[303sqn]

Horbaczewski flew three Mustangs in succession all coded PK*G. Typically the decals in the kit are not quite correct. E.g., There should be chessboards and squadron badges on both sides of the fuselage.

[AdrianMF]

Horbaczewski flew three Mustangs in succession all coded PK*G. Typically the decals in the kit are not quite correct. E.g., There should be chessboards and squadron badges on both sides of the fuselage.

It's a can of worms, I know. I've seen it said that the bombs should be yellow, not white (they do look a little different in photos of the prototype) and I modified the four buzz bomb markings because the kit has a "no swastikas" decal sheet. The more you dig...

I modified the colour scheme because it seemed pretty reasonable to me but I let the other stuff go whilst it was still just ten minutes with google images and a fun build.

The flaps are up and the undercarriage doors are down because I like the inner side detailing too, so it won't win any prizes for accuracy!

Regards,

Adrian