1/72 Mustang - Airfix V Tamiya - Side by Side build

Builder · January 2, 2017

Hi All,

I will be building both the Airfix and Tamiya 1/72 Mustangs side by side, and hopefully get them done before the deadline. I might even do up my own personal conclusions of each kit afterwards.

Build Plan

Build the kits OOB, except for PE seatbelts for the Airfix kit. I have not yet decided on the paint schemes yet as I have 4 options and two kits.

Box Contents

1. Airfix Kit

2. Tamiya Kit

The Build Begins!

Here a look at the side walls the grey plastic being the Tamiya one.

So after an entire Day of modelling I have done up both cockpits and here they are - The lever for the Airfix kit broke off and I scrachbuilt the bottom half of it. The lever for the Tamiya kit got lost and I scratch built it all.

Tamiyas Cockpit first

It has nice details on the panel, but no decal provided for the panels so I painted it all in my own custom style

Here is Airfixs cockpit it has a decal but the control panel is flat so you cant actually cut out the circles and put them into a panel

Tamiya again - with decals as seatbelts (I like this option)

Airfix now - with PE seatbelts

Tamiya side walls

Airfix side walls

Tamiyas cockpit all done up

Airfixs cockpit all done up

Bodies assembled and gaps being filled for now. The Airfix kit has the option to have flaps lowered and I am goinf with it!

Here they are for now

Hope you all liked the post. All comments welcome.

dreadeddrew · January 2, 2017

That's some quality work!........makes me want to start my Airfix 'stang!

Looking forward to more,

Andrew

Mitch K · January 2, 2017

1 hour ago, dreadeddrew said:

That's some quality work!........makes me want to start my Airfix 'stang!

Looking forward to more,

Andrew

When you do, I hope you have better luck closing up the fuselage than I did!

dreadeddrew · January 2, 2017

1 hour ago, Mitch K said:

When you do, I hope you have better luck closing up the fuselage than I did!

Oh dear!.......was that a design fault of the kit,or builder induced balls up??.......I'm very familiar with the latter!

Andrew

Troy Smith · January 2, 2017

1 hour ago, Mitch K said:

When you do, I hope you have better luck closing up the fuselage than I did!

30 minutes ago, dreadeddrew said:

Oh dear!.......was that a design fault of the kit,or builder induced balls up??.......I'm very familiar with the latter!

Andrew

Pity Mitch didn't link his build, he had major problems,

I dug out my kit and did some dry test fitting, and the internals fitted fine, but be aware that all the internals need to be lined up with the internal location lines.

the only thing that occurs is Mitch fitted the entire cockpit unit to one fuselage half first, and if this was a touch low on the other side, causing a misalignment with the locating lines could then cause the fit problems, as dry fitted there was no problem.

I hope this does not sound like I'm being rude to Mitch,having read his build I dug out the kit and test fitted it out of curiosity, with no problem, and only digging out his build i noticed what could have been the cause of his fit problem.

As you don't seem to have had a fit problem, but Airfix have had some quality control issues as well, so i may have been the kit, or just the effect of what used to be a minor glitch, but one that can cause a big problem with modern ultra fine tolerances kits these days(look up the 1/48th Eduard fw190A, get very small error in the initial construction and it all goes wrong)

HTH

Mitch K · January 2, 2017

2 hours ago, Troy Smith said:

Pity Mitch didn't link his build, he had major problems,

I dug out my kit and did some dry test fitting, and the internals fitted fine, but be aware that all the internals need to be lined up with the internal location lines.

the only thing that occurs is Mitch fitted the entire cockpit unit to one fuselage half first, and if this was a touch low on the other side, causing a misalignment with the locating lines could then cause the fit problems, as dry fitted there was no problem.

I hope this does not sound like I'm being rude to Mitch,having read his build I dug out the kit and test fitted it out of curiosity, with no problem, and only digging out his build i noticed what could have been the cause of his fit problem.

As you don't seem to have had a fit problem, but Airfix have had some quality control issues as well, so i may have been the kit, or just the effect of what used to be a minor glitch, but one that can cause a big problem with modern ultra fine tolerances kits these days(look up the 1/48th Eduard fw190A, get very small error in the initial construction and it all goes wrong)

HTH

Troy, I would conjecture that you might be on the right lines, although with the wing off you can look up from below and see where the floor is sitting relative to the fuselage sides. I didn't see any evidence of this having happened, but will keep your advice firmly in mind when I build more of these. Even though I'm still in two minds about the kit, it makes a lovely "clothes horse" for the colourful 8th AF units that operated close to my birthplace!

Builder · January 7, 2017

On 1/2/2017 at 10:35 PM, dreadeddrew said:

That's some quality work!........makes me want to start my Airfix 'stang!

Looking forward to more,

Andrew

On 1/3/2017 at 0:26 AM, Mitch K said:

When you do, I hope you have better luck closing up the fuselage than I did!

Thanks for the comments.

Well I forgot to take a few photos in between but it seems that the Airfix kit took the lead and so I finished it off first.

Here is the update

So both kits built up and then painted using Tamiya XF-16 Enamel. It is here I realised that the line on top of the cowling was not supposed to be filled in, but It was already too late. I was not going to re-scribe it either.

So here is the Airfix Kit all done up. I have even shaded a few of the panels on the wings very slightly.

Now I donot know if I should seal the decals in with a Gloss coat or not (I use Pledge Floor Care for gloss coating and it has worked fine every time). But I have never gloss coated a metal finish.

If I donot gloss coat it I will not be able to do a panel wash without damaging the paint. The toss up here is that the kit looks great as is.. soooo a bit perplexed at the moment as to what to do with this one .. leave it or coat it.

This is where the Tamiya kit is at currently

All pieces stored here

Now like I said I am undecisive yet as to whether to gloss coat the Airfix kit or not, apart from that I will continue on with the Tamiya kit and probably have to make the same decision with it when its done up as well.

I hope you all liked the post. All comments welcome.

Edited January 7, 2017 by Builder