British Style...1/48 North American P-51B Mustang 334th FS USAAF

[Reini78]

My dad´s US bird builds continue. A Malcolm hooded version is still missing in our collection.

Gonna use the Tamiya kit and do a shiny version, not yet decided which scheme.

 

DSC_0009 by Reinhard Spreitzhofer, auf Flickr

[Artie]

Be careful with the wrong cockpit floor supplied by Tamiya.....

Cheers

[Reini78]

3 hours ago, Artie said:

Be careful with the wrong cockpit floor supplied by Tamiya.....

Cheers

 

don´t care, you don´t see it anyway in the end 😊

[Artie]

40 minutes ago, Reini78 said:

don´t care, you don´t see it anyway in the end 😊

Probably you won't see it, but you know it...and a little demon sits on your shoulder every evening and tells you "wrong floor, Reini...wrong floor..."....

At least, that's exactly what happens to me....😀

[Reini78]

22 minutes ago, Artie said:

Probably you won't see it, but you know it...and a little demon sits on your shoulder every evening and tells you "wrong floor, Reini...wrong floor..."....

At least, that's exactly what happens to me....😀

😄

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

I ignored the floor too. The wheel wells are worth attention. The Malcolm Hood glazing is rather thick - you can hardly see anything through it

[fatalbert]

What's wrong with the floor?

[Artie]

50 minutes ago, fatalbert said:

What's wrong with the floor?

It represents an earlier type of Mustang. No plain wood wood floor, but a curved, upper wing surface, just like the earlier P51A, A36, etc...

 

[fatalbert]

Thanks Artie ☺

[dnl42]

Yeah, the kit has boxed-in wheel wells, the aircraft didn't. I used the CMK resin wheel wells. It was quite an effort, requiring significant of thinning of resin and plastic. Won't do it again. I did get the A.M.U.R.Reaver wheel well PE for the Tamiya D I have in the stash. Also got their cockpit & radio set.

 

Some people will note they don't look much at the wheel wells once it's built...fair comment.

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

9 hours ago, dnl42 said:

Yeah, the kit has boxed-in wheel wells, the aircraft didn't. I used the CMK resin wheel wells. It was quite an effort, requiring significant of thinning of resin and plastic. Won't do it again. I did get the A.M.U.R.Reaver wheel well PE for the Tamiya D I have in the stash. Also got their cockpit & radio set.

 

Some people will note they don't look much at the wheel wells once it's built...fair comment.

I used the Vector resin wheel wells for mine. Same story - a lot of work to fit. Still, I can see it if I turn the model over whereas with the canopy closed I still can't see the curve of the cockpit floor even if I wished to point it out to someone.

 

http://village.photos/images/user/483a5850-3d62-4900-8176-6062170ac842/resized_4851377d-8896-477d-960b-f394a16b9767.jpg

 

If OP intends to use a vacform canopy and pose it open, then maybe the floor is worth the effort. If not, don't worry about it IMHO. I did know about it beforehand, and decided the effort : visual impact ratio did not meet my criteria for expanding the workscope to change it. The wheel wells were a real pain to fit, but ultimately I am happy I did it. The cockpit floor still doesn't bother me.

 

http://village.photos/images/user/483a5850-3d62-4900-8176-6062170ac842/14bda108-5a47-4a7c-82bd-f711e31897e7.jpg

 

The curvature is barely noticeable with the canopy completely absent.

 

http://village.photos/images/user/483a5850-3d62-4900-8176-6062170ac842/fd07db87-0fc5-4a0f-a59e-ae162c20e389.jpg

 

 

If I do build another Tamiya P-51B, I fully intend to ignore the cockpit floor again!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Reini78]

Gonna do the canopy closed. It is a second hand kit and the single Malcolm sliding canopy is missing. So my dad will use the one-piece canopy (windshield and sliding part). WIth that you don´t really see much of the cockpit. Don´t care about the wheel wells either. Once the finished model sits on a shelf, like with the cockpit floor, you hardly see it. Will build the model as it is, only using PE seatbelts and aftermarket decals.

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

Good plan!

[Courageous]

On 4/25/2018 at 3:52 PM, Reini78 said:

don´t care, you don´t see it anyway in the end 😊

 

8 hours ago, Reini78 said:

Don´t care about the wheel wells either. Once the finished model sits on a shelf, like with the cockpit floor, you hardly see it.

Their is a lot in what you say. So many modelers build their subjects with so much detail and then cover it all up, what a waste. Of all the shows I've been to, very few have their models on mirrors to see the underneath. But alas, we build mainly for ourselves and each to their own.

 

Stuart

Edited April 26, 2018 by Courageous
Correction

[dnl42]

Do consider AM decals though. I find Tamiya decals very difficult to use. I built Horbaczewski's FB-387 using AM decals and Tamiya's roundels. Those roundels would just not lay down at all. Now I only use AM decals on Tamiya models.

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

23 minutes ago, dnl42 said:

Do consider AM decals though. I find Tamiya decals very difficult to use. I built Horbaczewski's FB-387 using AM decals and Tamiya's roundels. Those roundels would just not lay down at all. Now I only use AM decals on Tamiya models.

 

Mine were printed with the usual Tamiya purple-red colour, but also the roundels had register issues giving dark purple rings around the red on the upper wing Type B roundels. I didn't even try to use them. The Type Bs were unusable due to the printing problem, and the red was so far from correct that the remaining decals where seemed to be printed ok would clash badly with aftermarket Type Bs the correct rusty-brown red.

 

I was already compiling unique markings for a specific aircraft anyway, so I used Xtradecal for the roundels and fin flashes too.

[Reini78]

Decided to do Ralph Kidd Hofer´s machine using Kits-World decals

DSC_0009 by Reinhard Spreitzhofer, auf Flickr

 

DSC_0008 by Reinhard Spreitzhofer, auf Flickr

 

a start is done, parts unpacked

DSC_0006 by Reinhard Spreitzhofer, auf Flickr

[Reini78]

cockpit already done and fuselage halves closed

DSC_0004 by Reinhard Spreitzhofer, auf Flickr

 

DSC_0005 by Reinhard Spreitzhofer, auf Flickr

 

you don´t really see the shape of the cockpit floor now..

DSC_0006 by Reinhard Spreitzhofer, auf Flickr

 

used the kit decals for the seatbelts, good enough this time with a closed canopy

DSC_0007 by Reinhard Spreitzhofer, auf Flickr

 

DSC_0008 by Reinhard Spreitzhofer, auf Flickr

 

DSC_0009 by Reinhard Spreitzhofer, auf Flickr

 

 

 

[antonio argudo]

Hi Reini78,

great job so far, be careful because the tamiya kit represents the gun bay doors in the D style, they should be smaller, also the lower cowling wing firing has the wrong size like the D model

cheers

[Reini78]

On 5/1/2018 at 5:45 PM, antonio argudo said:

Hi Reini78,

great job so far, be careful because the tamiya kit represents the gun bay doors in the D style, they should be smaller, also the lower cowling wing firing has the wrong size like the D model

cheers

found a comparison drawing where the gun bay doors were smaller, yes, but looking at real B-wing pics, they look the same size like on the D

gonna keep it on the model as they are

[antonio argudo]

HI Reini,

sorry but it is a fact that B and  C models had smaller gun bay doors , the longer one which contains the ammunition , on D were longer, the reference photos  and NNA blueprints proves it,  in the first oone, you can see a comparation between B and D

cheers

 

 

 

Edited May 2, 2018 by antonio argudo

[antonio argudo]

also compare the lower cowling panel firing with the taimya model, you see it is done in the D style

cheers

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

Whilst information is always welcome in a wider context, I'm not sure we should be pressuring a fellow modeller who has expressed a strong preference for just building the model kit as it comes?

[Reini78]

It´s ok, my dad isn´t really a rivet counter (except with his 109s and 190ies 😁) so he doesn´t care that much about some inaccuracies.

Neither he nor me are P-51 experts and new info is always welcome.

He´s gonna putty the wing panel lines so maybe he engraves a shorter ammo door then. Let´s see 😉

[MarkSH]

Did ICM re-box this kit? it looks very similar to the one I have in the stash.