Totally Mad Olivier Posted November 25, 2017 Share Posted November 25, 2017 Dear Squibby, I hope I did not annoy you with my last post on your thread. After this post, I have looked again at the JMV great DVD about the P 51D and, surprise, unlike what he did on the Yak 3, this time he first worked in the gear wells (like you did) before applying masks (reinforced with white glue) and painting the underbody. I have just asked him (email) the reason of this different choice and I am waiting for his reply. Anyway, this shows that any option is possible... I admit however it seems to me easier to mask flat surfaces than a hollow one... Olivier 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Squibby Posted November 26, 2017 Author Share Posted November 26, 2017 (edited) Not at all... I've been a bit lax and haven't made any further progress in the last few days. Another alternative is to spray the aluminium lacquer colour over the adjacent panels and just mask over the opening. The only hitch with this would be how badly the metallic paint reacts with long term masking. I've been able to avoid marring the surface by clear coating it in the past so I might just do it that way. I can probably do that before assembling the wing. I'll just have to be quite careful when assembling and cleaning up the wing leading edge. I think this method will be the most practical as anything else will likely cause something to be dislodged which may be impossible to fix when closed up. Edit: upon further investigation, I'd have to paint the continuation of the green nose on the underside as well as the ETO ident stripes partially which could make this approach a bit complicated. Especially with a lot of construction yet to come. I think I'll try using the kit covers as a first option. The reason for painting the wells first is likely because it would have been almost impossible to cleanly paint all the little bits and pipework when the bay was all closed into the wing. Edited November 26, 2017 by Squibby Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimea River Posted November 27, 2017 Share Posted November 27, 2017 (edited) Glad I came across your build and what a wonderful job you are doing "ruining" this kit! "Greatly enhancing" is better description methinks. One trick I've used for masking a wheel well is to stuff tissue paper into it and wet it, then stuff more in and wet it some more. Do this until you get as much of the surfaces hidden as possible. I comes out without trouble but holds well enough as a mask. I built a model of one of these green nosed jobbies from the 368th FS, 359th FG a few years ago but mine has the yellow rudder. There are precious few period pics of this FG out there but I did find the one below. Maybe it's the one you referred to earlier. I ended up using straight Tamiya XF-5 for the colour. Keep up the great work and I will look forward to your updates. Andy Edited November 27, 2017 by Crimea River Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Squibby Posted November 27, 2017 Author Share Posted November 27, 2017 (edited) @Crimea River Cheers , I feel wadding wet paper inside would still knock some of the fiddly wires and lever arms off. I find in my hands CA glue seems to be the most fickle adhesive known to man when sticking parts together.. accidentally get some on your fingers though... It seems to be a moot point however... I gave the kit bay doors a try one one side and surprisingly they actually fit like a glove, absolutely perfect with no gaps. I can secure them in with some strategic bits of tape on the inside, but they were almost a push fit. My apologies to Tamiya for my lack of faith in their precision engineering. That's a relief, now onwards with the rest of the build... soonish... Oh and this the photo I found with the noses, so I agree the green is really whatever we feel like https://www.pinterest.nz/pin/355080751850327224/ Edited November 27, 2017 by Squibby Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsairfoxfouruncle Posted November 27, 2017 Share Posted November 27, 2017 You can hold the doors in with poster tack. Thats what i do Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevehnz Posted November 27, 2017 Share Posted November 27, 2017 Coming on a treat, those gear bays are just a bit brilliant. Steve. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biggles87 Posted November 27, 2017 Share Posted November 27, 2017 2 hours ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said: You can hold the doors in with poster tack. Thats what i do My preferred method is a thin bead of PVA, which will usually peel off in a long ribbon when you gently detach the door. John 1 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Massimo Posted November 27, 2017 Share Posted November 27, 2017 What a wonderful work you did to that wheelbay!!! Outstanding modelling!!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Totally Mad Olivier Posted November 27, 2017 Share Posted November 27, 2017 Some photos of the seat and radio compartment are missing to me, despite deep research on the net. If some of you had any doc allowing me to precise in particular the seat attachment, armor and space behind the seat (between cockpit and radio compartment), I would be very grateful to you... Olivier Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Squibby Posted December 2, 2017 Author Share Posted December 2, 2017 Time to show off what I've been beavering away with for the last week or so. Thanks to the great reference photos being posted up @Olivier de St Raph's thread I've managed to cobble up the rear radio compartment to the best of my abilities. The Tamiya kit is generally good here but the tank and radios aren't quite in the right position (too far back / tank too large). It makes modelling the structure behind the seat a bit tricky. I had to compromise here to avoid extensive modification for little gain. The air hoses are 26 gauge wire wrapped with 0.015" lead wire. The wire attachment points were replaced with bits of inset brass tube for future wiring to be added and the little handle on the battery was formed by cementing some slivers of 0.5mm rod together. I must have knocked some of the little levers off on the centre console about 10 times while adding the various details, but it's finally done (ish). I also built out the sidewall structure with 0.5mm square rod. Tamiya represented nothing back here at all. I also had a bit of a mishap, gouging out the 'shelf' behind the radio bay where the canopy slide rail sits, I think I was trying to thin the walls down or something... It did give me an excuse to rebuild this to be more realistic and detailed. Tamiyas representation is just a large empty slot. Looking at some reference photos shows the slot houses a rail and also doesn't extend all the way through into the radio bay. It also incorporates a little raised lip and some manner of weather seal. I carefully traced and cut out a thin bit of styrene to act as the 'shelf' then gradually built up the raised lip, weather seal and gusset behind out of more thin styrene. The canopy rail was formed by locking some 0.5mm rod in a vice and carefully cutting in a groove with a Tamiya scriber. Took me a few attempts but it certainly looks the part I think and eliminates the large empty void. I also did some work on the back of the seat headrest after thinning it out significantly with a file. And everything test fitted together into the fuselage. There is a small gap visible between the crossbar behind the seat and the fuselage. I might need to add a small sliver of plastic to the end to make it fit a bit cleaner. I might actually be ready to paint up the cockpit soon 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Totally Mad Olivier Posted December 2, 2017 Share Posted December 2, 2017 Excellent job, Squibby! You go definitely much faster than me. I spent a lot of time on docs these last days. Your cockpit will inspire me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
giemme Posted December 2, 2017 Share Posted December 2, 2017 That's some enhancement! And such a neat job, too! Can't wait to see some paint on it Ciao Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biggles87 Posted December 2, 2017 Share Posted December 2, 2017 1 hour ago, giemme said: That's some enhancement! It certainly is, I take my hat off to both you and Olivier. John 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Squibby Posted December 5, 2017 Author Share Posted December 5, 2017 (edited) A little bit more progress... I fixed up the slotted backing plate behind the seat to be more like the real thing. The slots were formed by carefully pressing a 1mm micro chisel onto the tape. It took me several tries to get right. I also reshaped the seat a bit to incorporate a little step in the headrest and wrinkled up the cushion a bit using my scratch / scrape then drench in Tamiya Extra Thin method... Completely randomly I decided to tackle the main gear doors next. Tamiya have represented them fairly well though in reality the relief around the 3 slots is a little softer. I scraped and sanded it down until it was more undulating. I then added the shiny panel often seen on photos with some aluminum tape. I used a piece of masking tape burnished onto the part to trace the outline then transferred it onto the tape. The aluminum tape was then stuck on and burnished well using a toothpick. All that was left was to carefully run over it with a rivet wheel. Once the door is painted I'll mask and slosh on some chrome over this area. I'll have to tackle the radio wiring soon but I'm kinda over fiddling with bits of wire after the gear bay and it's hard to bring myself to get it done. Cheers for watching! Edited December 5, 2017 by Squibby 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biggles87 Posted December 5, 2017 Share Posted December 5, 2017 Excellent work, I’m looking forward to seeing the cockpit painted. John 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
giemme Posted December 5, 2017 Share Posted December 5, 2017 Just now, Biggles87 said: Excellent work, I’m looking forward to seeing the cockpit painted. John Same here, the level of detail you've put into this is going to make for something spectacular! Ciao Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Totally Mad Olivier Posted December 5, 2017 Share Posted December 5, 2017 Excellent, as always, Squibby. It is great to follow your thread while I am doing nearly the same job... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimea River Posted December 5, 2017 Share Posted December 5, 2017 Hard to imagine this is 1/48. Your "ruinous" work continues to impress! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Massimo Posted December 5, 2017 Share Posted December 5, 2017 You're doing really great!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Squibby Posted December 6, 2017 Author Share Posted December 6, 2017 Can someone knowledgeable about these things please tell me if any P-51Ds had their cockpits painted in 'tamiya plastic grey', 'bare styrene white' and 'shiny aluminium' 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Squibby Posted December 6, 2017 Author Share Posted December 6, 2017 My sidetracking continues, Just to remember how to spray metal colours again I decided to paint up the gear doors. Also to see how rough my finishing was...thankfully not too shabby in the end I used Vallejo Metal Colours over a gloss black base (Tamiya X-1). To prevent the gloss black (and consequentially the metalliser paint on top) from marring under masking tape I gave it a solid coat of Aqua gloss Clear prior to hitting it with the metal colours. The doors were sprayed using Dull Aluminum as I wanted a decent contrast between this and the shiny strip. The strip was then carefully masked and sprayed with chrome. The chrome didn't turn out super reflective which was expected as I was intentionally applying it over dull aluminum. The overall contrast was bang on to my eye. I gave it another overall coat of Aqua gloss clear and a picked out the rivets with some dark grey enamel wash (mix of Tamiya black and grey). The Aqua gloss is really great stuff, it barely affected the reflectiveness of the strip. A nice bit of NMF spraying practice to shake the proverbial cobwebs off... 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimea River Posted December 6, 2017 Share Posted December 6, 2017 That turned out well! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Squibby Posted December 7, 2017 Author Share Posted December 7, 2017 Finally wired up the radio bay, and yes it was fiddly and frustrating as hell.... I also thought about how I'm going to represent the non-slip paint on the cockpit floor. I decided in the end to paint it on, I was tossing up cutting out a little bit of sandpaper but the effect may have been a bit overscale. I'll have to spray the control stick depression yellow zinc chromate first then very carefully mask it, spray the black on (I'm thinking a tire black colour), mask that, then finally spray the interior green. I'm not going to represent it scuffed down to the plywood beneath, this would complicate what is shaping up to be a fairly fiddly painting / masking process with chipping solutions (which I never get on with) and wood grain painting. I'll weather it moderately with some dirt and scuff marks instead, You may notice I've roughed up the surface a bit with some sandpaper, what's the bet this won't actually show through (anyone who has tried to clean up some missed sanding scratches from a finished paint job will see the irony of this...). Hopefully some painting progress on this part next update. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
giemme Posted December 7, 2017 Share Posted December 7, 2017 49 minutes ago, Squibby said: Hopefully some painting progress on this part next update. Yes please, I can hardly wait Excellent job on detailing the radio bay and cockpit Ciao Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biggles87 Posted December 7, 2017 Share Posted December 7, 2017 As Giemme said, excellent job. If I can do as well as that in 1/32 I will be more than satisfied. John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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