Capt. "Chuck" Weaver's P-51D 44-72199 'Passion Wagon' - COMPLETED

[MarkSH]

Greetings all,

 

This is my entry for this GB, slightly superfluous sprue shot as its pretty much the same as everyone else's:

 

 

I am choosing to go with the P-51D 44-72199 scheme in NMF. I was considering doing the Camouflage version as well but with three other GB related kits on the go discretion is the better part of valour, so sorry Enzo I'll save it until later.

 

Looking at the kit it appears very nicely detailed, however my kit does have some heavy flash around some of the very small parts that may cause some cleaning up issues, we shall see.

 

I haven't done a Mustang for what seems like ages so looking forward to this, although with a quite racy deadline and as mentioned three other GBs to get done, I'm going to have to extract the digit!

 

Cheers,

 

Mark

[MarkSH]

Afternoon chaps,

 

Spent the morning with the requisite pre-painting, preparation and a little scratch building of some extra detail on the seat otherwise the cockpit is going to be OOB except for some painted details.

 

The colour is a mix of Tamiya XF-4, XF-1 and a touch of XF-5 dry  brushed with increasingly whitened versions of the same.

 

 

 

I have added a Milliput seat 'cushion' I couldn't tell you if one was present in the real aircraft but It adds some colour to the cockpit, The seat belts are made from lead wire 'rolled' flat and draped, plus some seat stays again not sure if they are 'correct' for the aircraft but like the cushion add further texture to the whole.

 

I decided to paint the wear and tear on the black ant-slip coating of the cockpit floor plus the wood grain.

 

There weren't any decals for the prop so I painted them in.....

 

…...and I have started to paint in the details on the cockpit sidewalls.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark. 

[hammett98]

Wow that is looking really nice. Did you brush paint?

[TEMPESTMK5]

Good evening Mark

Very nice start but be extyra careful when you will cut off the sprues the small parts like the control column ...

 

Cheers

Patrice

[MarkSH]

1 hour ago, TEMPESTMK5 said:

Good evening Mark

Very nice start but be extyra careful when you will cut off the sprues the small parts like the control column ...

 

Cheers

Patrice

Thankyou for the warning Patrice, but too late I'm afraid, the stem was lost to the carpet monster as it pinged off the sprue and separated from the lower portion! I have made a replacement from some plastic rod however:

 

 

 

 

I'm quite pleased with the way the cockpit looks but once the fuselage halves are closed up little will be evident.

The smaller parts of the kit are quite fragile, it seems the plastic is a little different to the other 1/72 Airfix kit I completed recently the Swordfish.  I did have a couple of casualties with that build also but this plastic seems much more brittle, never mind just have to be more careful.

3 hours ago, hammett98 said:

Wow that is looking really nice. Did you brush paint?

All the painting thus far has been with a brush, I'm going to have to break out the airbrush for the priming and NMF however, airbrushing is not really my strong point so fingers crossed.

 

Cheers,

Mark.

[MarkSH]

Hi all,

 

This is a really enjoyable little kit, it goes together a treat and with the main assembly almost complete I haven't as yet needed to use any filler, the primer coat may show up some minor blemishes but so far a nicely engineered construction:

 

 

 

Whilst various glued assemblies have been drying, I have also been working on the prop spinner painting which like a lot of P-51s is striped, I considered masking and spraying but thought I'd have a go with the brush first, fiddly but I think I got away with it:

 

 

The decal sheet is to scale so I tried to match the proportions and colour to them the yellow is Tamiya XF-3 with a tiny amount of XF-7 red

 

Prop assembly ready, the spinner and blades have just been polished with some coarse paper towel.

 

Cheers,

Mark.

[Hockeyboy76]

Hi Mark,

great work so far dude, love the work in the pit and the spinner looks amazbobs. 

[TEMPESTMK5]

Good morning Marck

 Good job your cockpit looks very nice and so does the prop spinner ..

 

Patrice

[hammett98]

Hi Mark,

 

Would you share your technique for producing the cockpit floor? Ive seen it done at 1/48 scale with oil paint and then hairspray between layers. Also seen it with vallejo chipping compound but yours looks spot on. Also at 1/72 to get wood grain looks really impressive.

 

Many Thanks

Simon

[MarkSH]

 

2 hours ago, hammett98 said:

Hi Mark,

 

Would you share your technique for producing the cockpit floor? Ive seen it done at 1/48 scale with oil paint and then hairspray between layers. Also seen it with vallejo chipping compound but yours looks spot on. Also at 1/72 to get wood grain looks really impressive.

 

Many Thanks

Simon

The cockpit was painted the overall green, I needn't have done the floor but it was easier to just do the whole lot. I then painted the floor in a base wood colour , I used Tamiya XF-78 wooden deck tan. I then darkened that and painted in a suggestion of the wood grain and finally painted in the anti-slip surface with plain flat black leaving a rough area unpainted to suggest where wear and tear might occur. Its all done very roughly with my smallest brush. At 1/72nd its not going to be very visible anyway so its not worth getting to precious about.

Hope that helps,

 

I have got much of the main assembly complete and have used masking fluid to tack the undercarriage doors in place prior to spraying, fortunately the tight tolerances of the kit make the doors fit nice and snug.

 

Additionally, I have added some texture to the flaps by lightly scraping along the rivet lines before using the riveting tool (the flaps are only temporarily fitted, I'll remove them for spraying)

 

Better check the airbrush is ready for action, GULP!, but for a while I'm going to have to concentrate on the other three builds I've got on the go.

 

Cheers,

Mark.

 

[Valkyrie]

Top quality work 

[Hewy]

I'm interested  in your flaps idea,  i shall look forward to this 

[Torbjorn]

Nice - I think I will try to steal the seat belt  method!

[MarkSH]

Afternoon chaps,

 

I have made a concerted effort with this build today as time is running out for all my current builds, basically three weeks to go for all of them, so some serious headway had to be made!

 

The main assembly has been ready for spraying for quite a while so after a quick clean with some IPA I sprayed the primer in the form of Stynylrez black. The cockpit masking wasn't very secure, so I replaced it prior to spraying the NMF:

 

 

After letting the primer cure for a couple of hours I sprayed the NMF all over the model building up several thin coats of Vallejo metal colour aluminium, I then mixed matt white with metal colour duralinium and sprayed the wings. and then hand painted a few panels around the model with dark aluminium.  Finally I masked the anti-glare panel and dry brushed several coats of olive drab.  The flaps were hand painted with metal colour aluminium, but before doing so the spaces between the rivets were blocked in with flat black to add some further contrast:

 

 

Whilst the main model was drying, I got on with the various other bits and pieces.  I added some strip plastic around the drop tanks, a little overscale but the tanks seem to have a raised seam in the photos I've seen.  The undercarriage is nicely detailed and moulded so that was just used OOB:

 

 

I'll give it a gloss coat later and let it cure overnight hopefully get some decals on tomorrow.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[Hockeyboy76]

Great work Mark. Looking good. 

[DaveyGair]

Wow! Looks superb. The cockpit, spinner, prop markings, stunning work in this scale.

 

 

Davey.

[MarkSH]

Evening Chaps,

 

On the finishing straight now, decaling done, a little bit of restrained weathering and most of the fiddly bits attached. I'm just waiting for the Main Landing Gear to cure before doing anything else, the MLG doesn't have the most positive or secure attachment points so they'll have to be left over night. I had to fashion an aerial from plastic card as the kit part was, well just 'orrible.  I have added some pipe work from the drop tanks to the wings. The inner gear doors will be added when the MLG has set.

 

The decals are very nicely printed and behaved well with micro set/sol, however, and its not a complaint as it quite clearly states on the decal placement sheet, which kits are recommended for use with them, but I had to fettle quite a bit and compromise on the placement of the nose chequers and the reclining female figure as they don't quite fit properly. 

 

 

 

Hopefully finish tomorrow and get it in the gallery.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[TEMPESTMK5]

Good morning Mark

 Very good job she looks great 👍

Patrice

 

[Hockeyboy76]

Agreed!

Great work. 

Edited September 5, 2018 by Hockeyboy76

[FortyEighter]

A beautiful model!

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Well done on your Mustang 👍 I’m curious when did they require codes underwing ? I always thought it was post war or possibly the last few months ? 

[MarkSH]

49 minutes ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Well done on your Mustang 👍 I’m curious when did they require codes underwing ? I always thought it was post war or possibly the last few months ? 

The Decal sheet says that the code G4 A was repeated on the port lower as a post war addition but still associated with Capt. Chuck Weaver. Apparently P-51D 44-72199 was transferred to the Swiss Air Force in February 1948 under the A/C No. J-2019.

 

Actually the post war Mossie I'm doing has something similar, but has the codes on both wings.

[Hockeyboy76]

Hate to be the bearer of possible bad news Mark, I think you have your undercarriage legs on the wrong sides. The scissor link should be to the rear. Just looked at your pictures and ones of the real a/c. 

[MarkSH]

Give it a couple of days and they’ll fall off anyway!

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

I did the same thing following the kit instructions ? 🤬I thought they looked wrong.