P-51D Daddy's Girl (Or how to ruin a perfectly good Tamiya Mustang kit)

[Squibby]

So.. I tried to paint up the seat and while it looked pretty decent I thought I could do better and went a step too far. While trying to strip it back the Simple Green I was soaking it in apparently dissolved the super glue I was soaking it in and the seat bead came off.

Instead of trying to refix it, and seeing what Olivier has been doing in this build I thought I'd try to scratch up a new seat out of Milliput.

 

I sanded back the cushion as far as I could and ended up with some holes through the seat back (won't be visible so no worries there). There was still a small step but nothing I couldn't hide I thought...

 

 

My Milliput experiment was a disaster, it's so incredibly messy and difficult to use I just couldn't get anything I was happy with. Instead of potentially leaving a rock hard lump of misshapen Milliput on my seat I pulled it all off to try again later with some alternative. I think I found it in a putty called Green Stuff (kneadtite) that wargaming miniature modellers use. It appears to be a lot easier to use and mold as it doesn't dissolve in water and holds organic details better. I've got some on order including some simple molding tools (dentists picks with flattened ends and some soft silicon tipped colour shapers). When it all arrives I'm confident I can makes something more cushion like to cover up my plastic destruction.

 

While that particular trainwreck was being cleared up I decided after all to add some scratches to the plywood flooring below the anti slip paint. I just painted these in with a couple of shades of brown then lightly dry brushed some grey oil paint over to blend them in. I tried to keep it subtle and I think the effect adds a lot to the finished look.

 

 

You might also notice I repainted some of the cables and pipes with a darker black to make them stand out better and add some contrast with the grey black components.

 

I then turned my attention to the cockpit sidewalls. Before I started to paint these up I added the distinctive hole / slot pattern onto the canopy guide rails using embossed some aluminum tape. strip was about 0.5mm thick and holes were formed with a needle, slots were formed with a 1mm micro chisel. They are all evenly 1mm spaced apart. My handy new riveting guide ruler made sure I got this right.

 

 

I then dumped a whole load of interior green (Gunze H58) on the sidewalls. I'm pleased to say the do look pretty good under paint.

 

 

 

Now the momentous (and most enjoyable) task of detail painting starts, I can hardly wait...

 

Oh and this is what the rails ended up looking like under paint. They'll be painted in dull aluminum to finish.

 

 

Next time hopefully a painted up sidewall or two.

 

Cheers for following!

 

 

 

Edited December 12, 2017 by Squibby

[giemme]

Nice progress, Squibby

 

As for Milliput, you know you should leave it alone for 20-30 minutes after kneading it, so that it looses most of its tackiness and gets easier to work with, don't you? HTH, and sorry if this is something you were already aware of  

 

Ciao

[Squibby]

@giemme Not really, thanks for the tip, 

 

My problem was also that using wetted tools to work on it would soften it up too much and when it was drier it would crack and break when shaped. I was probably working on the seat for about 30 min or so without any success. I'll see how I get on with green stuff, given the video evidence it seems far easier to use.

 

[Totally Mad Olivier]

Definitely, Squibby, this f... seat raises a number of challenges to both of us. But I am sure they will be finally good. Your experience with this green stuff will be interesting. I am sorry and a bit confused that you had so much pbs with Milliput, as I had myself suggested to use it, while I used myself a light cured dental resin, the Revotek LC, that requires a light curing lamp (you can find cheap ones very good in the net). 

 

Cheers

 

Olivier

[Squibby]

Cheers @Olivier de St Raph I picked up a box of the super fine stuff for this kind of work but I'm getting disillusioned with it. 

 

It acts like clay so water makes it go super soft and messy, but as I said before you need water to keep it workable. I think I'd have better luck fashioning a rough slab and then carving / cutting it up when it's drier to form the wrinkles and folds.

 

The green stuff is more like plasticine and while you need to keep tools (and fingers) wetted to stop it sticking it's not going to change it's consistency. It also seems very easy to convincingly add wrinkles and folds, as wargaming figure builders make capes and cloth features quite easily from the stuff.

 

I suspect the dental putty would have similar properties?

[Totally Mad Olivier]

The Revotek has a drawback: it is a composite resin, and so it is really hard once lightcured and so, not very easy to work. Your green stuff is probably a bit softer and so easier to work. Can you give me the reference of this product that figures modelers use for capes and clothes, please?

For my wrinkles and folds, I used another dental composite resin, a flowable one, and it did not give me satisfaction, as you know...

I am a dental surgeon and when some products must be removed from my cabinet because of expiry date, they get a new life on my workbench. But sometimes, they are not well fitted, as this flowable resin to create wrinkles and folds...

[Squibby]

It's literally marketed as Green Stuff , funnily Green Stuff World that you got those cool micro balls from sells some. Though it's relatively expensive. 

I got some cheaper stuff marketed under brand called Army Painter for around 10 NZD. It's trade name is Kneadtite, comes in blue + yellow bars.

 

I'd have a quick search on YouTube for Green Stuff capes etc to see how they do it.

 

 

[Squibby]

Painting progress...

 

Finished off one side wall.

 

 

If anyone was wondering my detail painting is done using a tiny pointed brush, a Wargamer psycho detail  brush , it's not a super expensive brush but it holds it's shape nicely and has a nice triangular profile grip which I find more comfortable and precise.

I avoid brushing Tamiya or Gunze paints which dry too fast and attack previous layers (aside from touchups of course). I know some people can do it but it always seemed far too much effort. I keep a ever expanding set of Vallejo Model Colours on hand now for detail painting. When thinned a bit with water they go down smooth, cover well, self level nicely and don't attack previous layers, just hassle free brushing.

 

I found the easiest way to paint the tiny white dot 'stencil impressions' is by using a finely sharpened toothpick and white oil paint. Acrylic paint tended to dry too quickly on the brush or just blob on uncontrollably. Oil paints can also be easily removed if you make a mistake. Though you have to be very careful with dry brushing. I hope they'll survive a enamel pin wash once relatively dry and protected under a gloss coat.

 

Anyway, on to the other side next.

 

Edited December 13, 2017 by Squibby

[Biggles87]

Excellent detail painting and I like how you've done the canopy rail. I bought a set of nail painting brushes some time ago which includes a couple of short triangular shaped ones which are ideal for fine details.

I havn't used oils for detail painting but I might give it a try.

 

John

[Totally Mad Olivier]

Excellent as always, Squibby! Your work will be a reference for me (with JMV one, of course)!

[javlin]

Looking good Sir

[Squibby]

@Biggles87 You sure that's the only reason you bought nail painting brushes

 

 

[Johnny1000]

@Squibby That sidewall looks seriously great.

 

And that oil paint/toothpick tip for placard details sounds extremely promising--acrylics flat out just don't work for me for that. I thought it was me, but maybe not. With respect to thinning Vallejo colors, I find it hard to get thinner without getting watery. Is there a method?

 

-J

 

 

[Squibby]

@Johnny1000 I place a drop of the paint straight from the bottle on a piece of used aluminium tape backing (I really should invest in a proper palette at some point ) then paint by dipping the brush in water first then loading it with a little paint. It's not an exact process but it seems to work well for me, just be sure to brush a few test strokes to check the consistency and re-dip the tip in water or load more paint as required. It sometimes takes a few tries to get the consistency in the range I like.

 

I think in general these paints don't need a lot of water to thin to a good workable consistency. If anything I prefer to paint with slightly thicker paint to prevent globs of paint from running off the brush into crevices and difficult spots.

 

The small brush may also help but I have used a similar method with a size 0 brush as well.

 

Hope that helps,

 

 

[Johnny1000]

Thanks @Squibby, I appreciate the tip. That's sort of what I've been doing--perhaps I just need to be a bit more deliberate about it. 

-J

[Squibby]

High time updated my progress I think...

 

So, on and off for the last few days I've been taking the cockpit sidewalls and floor parts through the painting process.

After all the paint was done they were given a very light drybrush with various light beiges and greys before being glossed and carefully pin washed to add a bit more contrast. I used dark browny coloured enamel washes mostly.

Just a tip when trying to clean up washes out of intricate little details use a tiny brush dampened in white spirit to brush and dilute away any staining or tide marks. Just be sure to wipe the brush onto some paper towel to get rid of the removed wash and redampen it every so often.

 

I also went through and added a whole pile of little placards. These were cut from aluminum tape, stuck on and carefully burnished using a toothpick end and then painted over in red or black. I wasn't too worried about getting to the very edge of each placard to leave that aluminum border effect. I then used white oil paint with a sharpened toothpick to pick out the writing. I did have an Airscale placard set as well but struggled trying to find the right sizes and / or general look I wanted, in the end it was easier for me to scratch these.

 

Just to elaborate on the oil paint stencils, make sure you get the very tiniest bit of paint on the end of the toothpick and dab it down once on a piece of paper before you start. This will remove most of the paint and let you get a very fine dot. Also before 'reloading' the toothpick make sure you wipe any remaining paint off to keep the end sharp. Most importantly remember that oil paints take forever to dry and before doing anything else make sure you seal it with a gloss coat.

 

I also rebuilt the flare cartridge case from a bit of plastic (and aluminum tape) discarding my rubbish milliput molding. I also added the little cloth cover thing which covers an wiring junction in the bay next to the oxygen hose connector. It was made from a bit of tamiya tape carefully folded in to form a sagging cover and painted.

 

And finally I used some Airscale instruments for the floor fuel gauges and a little gauge on one of the cockpit sidewall boxes. Once flatted down I went back and re-glossed over the dial faces with some Tamiya X22 thinned slightly with water. I also freshened up the shiney metallic parts which predictably lost a bit of lustre after the flat coat.

 

And so without further waffle here are the finished sidewalls and floor sections.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think the IP will be next, I found the Airscale instruments worked pretty well, which is good since I'll be putting down a whole lot more of them.

 

 

[giemme]

Outstanding!  

 

Ciao

[Crimea River]

Stunning work!

[Totally Mad Olivier]

Excellent job, Squibby !

[ruudster]

Wow, great work!

[Johnny1000]

Looking great!

[Squibby]

New year, new update...

 

Now that the hectic days of Christmas and New Years have passed and I've still got some time off from work I thought I'd continue with the build.

 

I tackled the seat cushion today using Green Stuff (Kneadtite). This stuff works really well. Unlike Milliput it doesn't dissolve in water so is much easier and cleaner to work with, it basically acts like plasticine.

I first tacked a rectangle of green stuff onto the massacred seat back and cleaned up the edges. Then started forming it with some soft colour shapers (silicon tipped paint brushes basically) to mold in the wrinkles and ridges. The bead around the edge was added by pressing in a flat sided tool around the edge followed by prodigious amounts of shaping.

 

I found the stuff really easy to shape (provided you keep the tools wet), and it stayed nice and pliable for the whole couple of hours I was messing with it. I'm quite pleased with the outcome, even if the photo reveals it to be a bit rough

 

 

I also finished off the rudder pedals and control column. The pedals were given a brush of dust pigment to dirty them up a bit.

 

 

The impressions on the pedal came out pretty good after all.

 

 

Edited January 3, 2018 by Squibby

[Squibby]

Making some more steady progress, hopefully I'll soon be thinking about closing everything up.

 

I painted up the seat and added some seatbelts. I used Eduard generic 'Steel series' belts which are much thinner and therefore easier to bend and form to the seat however I feel they don't have quite the 3d...ness of the old PE belts. To somewhat re-mediate this I added some fly straps and bits with aluminum tape. Overall they look good enough once weathered in with a filter of various oil / enamel washes.

 

Everything was fitted up and we're essentially done with the cockpit floor (aside from the IP of course).

 

 

 

The last major bit to finish up in the cockpit was the IP. I started with a base coat of Tire black and interior green on the bottom part. Then went to town detail painting and adding the numerous placards and stencils.

Here is the partially finished product. I am going to gloss this up and go through the painstaking process of adding all the individual dial decals (from the Airscale 1/48 USAAF set). Still surprises me that Tamiya don't provide anything for this.

I've also got to add in a yellow border around the main instrument group. I've found an old yellow stripe decal and have sliced some thin strips in various lengths to assemble into the completed border. I feel this is probably going to be quite a tricky task in practice but should look significantly cleaner than attempting to paint it on.

 

[antonio argudo]

that's a great cockpit mate, the cushion and seatbelts came out very well, are you going to give rivets to the fusselage? wings no need to because they were filled with putty,   keep the good!

cheers

Edited January 5, 2018 by antonio argudo

[Biggles87]

Excellent detail on the lower part of the IP, it's difficult to believe that it's in 1/48, I'll be more than happy if I can achieve the same result in 1/32.

 

John