Tamiya 1/48 P-51B Mustang

[Crossiant Oliver]

Alright, this model has a long story.

 

I was wanting to build a earlier P-51 model about a year ago, and at Planes of Fame Airshow last year, I found it at a model vendor, not that big of a story (though a P-51B was present at the air show). My plan for this was to parade it around at different model shows and ordered Humbrol Metalcote, as I didn’t have an airbrush at the time, and Eduard masks(I was that ambitious).

 

The end of my school year came and my volunteering work at the Palm Springs Air Museum began. On my free time I was building the P-51B outside. At first it went well, the cockpit went fine and assembly went good. Hell, even the metalcote went well (im terrible at painting). Then it went to um... can I say it on this forum? Let’s just say it crashed harder than Jek Porkins. I wanted to paint the wings silver as a lot of mustangs did. The one thing I forgot was the California desert heat in June. It went from the 80s-90s to the 110s and 120s in temperature. Lots of wind too, so when I painted outside, lots of dust got on the coat and brushstrokes were common. Also I put the landing gear too early and it led to me constantly putting them on again, making this melted plastic looking thing on the undercarriage. I gave up on the model and put it in the stash.

 

 

fast forward to now when I wanted to tackle this model again, but in an olive drab color and with an airbrush.

 

 

here it is in all it’s stripped paint glory. My plan is to prime it over and just airbrush Humbrol 55 and some neutral gray on the bottom.

 

 

Here’s the cockpit. I put some decent detail in it, but now I realize it isn’t really contest worthy.

 

 

 

question: if I prime the model with this amount of silver still on it, will it show? Or would I have to strip all of it?

 

 

 

view from the front. I plan to mask some of the aluminum and use it as chipping.

 

https://imgur.com/gallery/492vh

 

those melted plastic depressions where the landing gear should be. Any way to fix this?

 

 

as I continue this restoration I’ll post updates from time to time. Also, should I show it flying or on the ground? Leave a comment on your opinion. 

[Biggles87]

I would try to remove the remains of the paint first, especially on the wings, I believe that oven cleaner works well as a paint stripper. 

 

Good luck.

 

John

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

4 minutes ago, Crossiant Oliver said:

those melted plastic depressions where the landing gear should be. Any way to fix this?

Short answer ... Yes. How important is it ? and how much trouble are you willing to go through to save it ? Ive had a similar thing happen with an Bf-109

    If I was going to save it id take a really sharp micro chisel or something similar to the blobs. Remove them completely. Second step i would clip and sand flush the gear legs. Once done with all of that comes the fun part. 3rd step Micro drill a hollow into each gear leg and add a pin from brass rod or stiff wire. 4th step use slightly larger hollow brass tube to make a socket that will slip into. 5th step Super glue the hollow tube where the blobs used to be and glue the gear on after painting. That or after you chisel and replace the sockets with brass tube. You could buy SAC White metal gear to replace the originals. Its really dependant on how bad you wish to save this ? 

 

Dennis

[Crossiant Oliver]

9 hours ago, Biggles87 said:

I would try to remove the remains of the paint first, especially on the wings, I believe that oven cleaner works well as a paint stripper. 

 

Good luck.

 

John

Just wondering, is the oven cleaner safe to use?

[Biggles87]

If you mean safe as in your health just follow the instructions and use it in a well ventilated area or outdoors. If you mean will it damage the plastic, probably not but test it on something first.

 

Hope this helps.

 

John