Airfix 1/72 F-51D 12th FBS/18th FBG

[DannyB]

Well seeing as I didn't read the rules for this STGB my main build (a ramjet with whif markings) has been put on hold, I picked up this little gem from my local model shop at the weekend.

 

We all now this great little kit from airfix but as per usual I'll open up with some pictures of the box and the plastic.

 

 

And, there is the plastic still wrapped in it's bag. 

 

 

The level of detail on this little kit really is fantastic, for it's scale and price!

 

 

 

 

Just such a shame about the sprue gates!! 

 

They even nailed the gear bays, which a good few others missed in both this scale and larger!

 

 

Here's the extra little sprue for the F-51, which covers bombs, rockets and prop.

 

 

That takes care of the plastic, so it's on to the markings. I'm gonna keep this pretty much straight out the box so I'll be doing the USAF 12th FBS/18th FBG from Korea, because who can deny a shark mouth! I doubt I'll add any extras apart from getting some masks for the canopy, but you'll never know what might get picked up from the big 'H'.

 

 

 

 

So, there we go, this one is all prepped and ready for the revised start date, which thankfully gives me time to possible still get another bird for my main build so watch this space.

[trickyrich]

That is a nice looking model, welcome aboard.

 

Mmmm as much as I liked you plan for the "Jet-Powered" Mustang, it was just a little bit outside the rules. But hey why not leave that for the "WhatIf IV GB"? It'd be perfect for that, if it gets voted through for next year. From memory I seem to think we had the RamJet Mustang in the last Mustang STGB.

[DannyB]

10 hours ago, trickyrich said:

Mmmm as much as I liked you plan for the "Jet-Powered" Mustang, it was just a little bit outside the rules. But hey why not leave that for the "WhatIf IV GB"? It'd be perfect for that, if it gets voted through for next year. From memory I seem to think we had the RamJet Mustang in the last Mustang STGB.

 

Cheers Rich, yeah I'd completely missed the 'markings must of flown' bit in the rules but I'm still planning on doing it a Big Beautiful Doll ramjet, it'll just now become more of a personal build instead of a group build. If things go well this time around I might even post a WIP. It's just such a shame the standard markings are pretty dull for the ramjet! 

 

I am hoping to get a colourful bird in this group build just not quite got the kit and found the right markings yet.

[Rob G]

The ramjet Mustang actually flew, albeit in experimental form. Hasegawa did a kit of it with resin ramjet pods.

[wellzy]

Hi  All yes there was and yes Hasegawa did ,and yes I have , wellzy 

 

 

 

Cheer`s Les

Edited October 18, 2016 by wellzy

[Learstang]

Good luck on your build! That is a lovely little kit, isn't it? One that just cries out to be built. I'm torn a bit about which scheme to do on mine; I love Korean War aircraft, especially the piston-engined aircraft, but I just can't resist a camouflaged Mustang, in this case the Domenican bird. I suppose I'll probably solve this dilemma by picking up another kit.

 

Regards,

 

Jason

[DannyB]

Cheers guys

 

Rob & Les, funnily enough I've got the hasegawa ramjet sat next to the bench, and it will be getting built just not in this group build. I do have to admit being quite taken by the hasegawa plastic, the detail is really nice and, once I get to it, it'll be interesting to see how it goes together compared to the tamiya P-51.

 

13 hours ago, Learstang said:

Good luck on your build! That is a lovely little kit, isn't it? One that just cries out to be built. I'm torn a bit about which scheme to do on mine; I love Korean War aircraft, especially the piston-engined aircraft, but I just can't resist a camouflaged Mustang, in this case the Domenican bird. I suppose I'll probably solve this dilemma by picking up another kit.

 

Regards,

 

Jason

 

Know what you mean, I nearly settled on the Dominican bird too but I have to be honest the camo pattern in 1/72 scares me more than the NMF.

[John_W]

The Dominican can be done with patience, but the masking will send you cross eyed.

[DannyB]

That looks incredible John, are you sure it's not 1/48! 

 

And, that's exactly why I've opted for the nmf, and of course who can deny a shark mouth.

Edited October 21, 2016 by DannyB

[John_W]

I went for camo because I can't do NMF.

I still fancy the sharkmouth too.

[DannyB]

Got a start on this one today, with the first job. Removing and cleaning up all of the parts. Over the last few builds I've always found my own weakness to be running out of steam towards the end of a build when I need to go back to the sprues to remove and clean-up some awkward little antenna or piece of glazing to finish off. I hate it, my least favourite part of modelling so I get it out of the way early!

 

No real images of progress so far but the first victim to airfix's mega sprue gates

 

 

The tiny control stick, snapped clean in 2 while trying to remove it, i was being extra careful too, I promise! I've just got a set of CMK razor saws for this very job to try minimising the risk of damage on the tiny parts and help speed up clean up on the larger parts, but no such luck!  At least it's a reasonably easy part to replicate it with stretched sprue and evergreen. 

Edited October 23, 2016 by DannyB

[Magua87]

2 hours ago, DannyB said:

No real images of progress so far but the first victim to airfix's mega sprue gates

 

 

I had the same thing happen. I used the opportunity to clean up the column then glued it back together. 

[Greg in OK]

Unfortunately this is a common problem with the new Airfix molds.  I had the exact same thing happen on the P-40 and the Tiger Moth. 

 

The best solution that we have found is using a hot razor to melt thru the supporting sprue without putting stress on the part.

 

Suggest you give that a try.

 

Greg in OK 

[DannyB]

10 hours ago, Magua87 said:

 

I had the same thing happen. I used the opportunity to clean up the column then glued it back together. 

 

It's such a pain the in backside, I still can't figure out why the manufacturers attach these tiny parts like this, along the edge of a very fine cylinder, surely it would be much easier to put the sprue attachment on the underside of the base! Much thicker part and see as it's the mating face clean up isn't anywhere near as important. 

 

7 hours ago, Greg in OK said:

Unfortunately this is a common problem with the new Airfix molds.  I had the exact same thing happen on the P-40 and the Tiger Moth. 

 

The best solution that we have found is using a hot razor to melt thru the supporting sprue without putting stress on the part.

 

Thanks for the tip Greg, there are still a few tiny parts to be removed and the airfix sprue attachments aren't getting any smaller! 

[DannyB]

Well, pretty much the same story here as with my 1/48 build. Nothing to see here! 

 

I have got everything off of the sprues and cleaned up though this week, with only a couple of war wounds from the airwaves razor saw, which again should mean I can get a clear run at this one over the weekend.

 

My only question though is what colour cockpit do F-51's have? Airfix calls for interior green but I've found reference that shows black.  

[PhantomBigStu]

IIRC it depends when it was built, and whilst possible the domican one was in black the USAF was manufacturered before the switch 

[DannyB]

Cheers Stu, I hadn't picked up on that so I'll start checking out the build numbers.

 

Just seen your own dilemma, the orange peel, the orange peal could of come from too much paint come out too quickly. One of the biggest issues with aerosols is controlling the amount of paint and getting nice even coats. You might find the non-halfords silver is larger particles and thinner carrying fluid which has come out faster and flooded the surface. You could try and wet sand the surface and then polish with toothpaste.

[DannyB]

This one actually got off the ground today.

 

Though it possibly didn't start all that well, do you remember the broken control stick from a few days ago? Well, I couldn't remember where I bloomin' left it!! I'm sure I put it in a 'safe' place after taking the picture of it, but for the life of me I couldn't find it!  Luckily, languishing in my stash was a revell 1/72 P-47, I know it's not exactly the same and not even from the same aircraft but for the sake of this build it'll do, and after a quick trim down it fitted perfectly in the cockpit.  

 

 

 

Much like my 1/48 build, this build is more to do with the final finish, so the cockpit is out of the box and finished in the same way. And, for the scale, I'm pretty happy with the result.

 

Also, started to get this one buttoned up this afternoon. It doesn't go together as smoothly as the tamiya kit but with a bit of massaging it has started to play ball. Bringing the 2 halves together I'm sure there was actually a little bit of warping going on around the front, so I'm really hoping that once that clamps come off in the morning it'll still line-up!

 

You never know I might actually get the bulk of the construction work done on this one tomorrow was well!

 

Hope you've enjoyed this update, it does feel good to actually get some modelling done for once. haha

 

Cheers

Dan

[DannyB]

Fortunately this build is going a little smoother than my 1/48 build! No nasty finger prints in this one!

 

Wheel wells all painted up and fuselage nicely bought together.

 

 

Since taking this picture, I've managed to get the wings together and attached the to the main fuselage. 

[TEMPESTMK5]

Good morning Danny

Very good job so far

Patrice

[DannyB]

Well, much like my 1/48 build this one had taken a bit of a back seat since my last post, but I've promised myself to get these both sorted by the end of group build so I've tried to hit this one with earnest.

 

Here she is at the start of the day yesterday.

 

 

 

Much the same as my other build it was time to get the gun sorted (once I picked it up from the floor for the second time) and mask and install the canopies. So, with the wind in my sails and a mask set from montex in my hands. She reached this point!

 

 

The montex set fits ok apart from round the front of the canopy where it needed a little help from some masking tape. The vinyl is great it just feels like it doesn't quite have the same amount of 'grab' as tape masks, but when the eduard masks cost more than the kit, the vinyl will do!

 

Again, while the microclear was drying I turned my attention to landing gear and sub-assemblies.

 

 

As before, it was a base coat of rubber black, followed by xf16 and interior green.

 

Fortunately, with this one I got the masking sorted out and managed to get a coat of humbrol gloss black down ready for the alclad II.

 

 

 

 

The finish is 'ok' there's a little orange peel in places but I'm pretty happy with it. Whenever I've used alclad I've noticed how much of difference the amount of shine has on the finished colour. I'm going to try a bit of an experiment with this one. The Korean war F-51's were always quite grubby and more of a semi-matt silver finish than straight NMF. My plan is to give the humbrol a good 48/72 hours to dry and then use some matt blacks to, hopefully, give the finish a mottled gloss/matt finish which 'should' give an interesting overall finish to the airframe. Well that's the plan!  

[DannyB]

Having some fun with the finish on this one.

 

After applying the humbrol gloss coat I thought i'd have some fun with nato black.

 

 

Maybe a little OTT but you've gotta try these things (please excuse the backdrop, went to put down my first coat of alclad and released I hadn't taken any pictures since it's gloss coat ).

 

And here we are out the other side. I sprayed the wings with semi-matt aluminium and the main fuselage with aircraft aluminium, all free hand and 2/3 thin coats of each. Trying not to make this one too clean.

 

 

 

 

 

I'm pretty happy with the finish and I'm hoping with some weathering it's going to tie it all together.

 

Cheers

Dan

[DannyB]

Not a bad amount of work on this one over the weekend.

 

After letting the alclad dry during the week it was time to get everything masked up and get paint the anti-glare panel and the wing tips.

 

 

 

Then it was time to get a gloss coat on, for the first time I used X22 tamiya gloss mixed 50/50 with mr color self-leveling thinner after reading several glowing comments. The gloss ok after a couple of quick coats, and it dried really quick! Think this might just sit above aqua gloss and klear for me. Then, it was time to crack on with the decals.

 

 

 

 

For out the box 1/72 decals I think these are some of the finest/thinnest I've come across, and the level of stencil detail is impressive! They all settled down really nicely with daco strong, even around the nose!

 

Though I have hit a bit of snag with the shark mouth. 

 

 

To get it up to right point with the exhausts it did meet underneath, I'm going to try touching up by brush first but could see me ending up masking it off and trying the airbrush before I get a finish I'm happy with.

 

Cheers

Dan