Chuck Yeager's P-51D "Glamorous Glen III"

[Sturmovik]

A model I´ve been wanting to build for quite some time, Yeager´s last Mustang. This was my second Mustang, but my first one painted in an overall natural metal finish. It´s the Italeri rebox of the Hasegawa 1:48 P-51D. The model was first coated with white, and then the metallic colour was brushpainted over it, so it could have a nice grip on the surface.

Many thanks to @stevehnz, @Giorgio N and Scott van Aken from Modeling Madness for their help regarding the Repliscale decals. They were an absolute joy to work with, being thin but not fragile, and sticking permanently once I pressed firmly over them with a kitchen roll. The only exception were the checkerboards, which were too big and had to be painted.

I also had to add a spreader sprue just in front of the cockpit, otherwise there would be a gap between the wings and the fuselage.

 

Edited December 11, 2018 by Sturmovik

[Giorgio N]

Very nice model, and glad to see that the decals worked well !

[Sturmovik]

2 hours ago, Giorgio N said:

Very nice model, and glad to see that the decals worked well !

I was ecstatic when the first star didn´t shatter and sunk perfectly onto the panel lines.

Edited December 10, 2018 by Sturmovik

[stevehnz]

Nice job on that indeed. Your increasing confidence is showing through.

Steve.

[Sturmovik]

2 hours ago, stevehnz said:

Nice job on that indeed. Your increasing confidence is showing through.

Steve.

Thanks! I wouldn't have dared to try an NMF five years ago. And painting the checkerboards would have been out of the question too.

[fubar57]

Very nice. What did you use for paint. I am at this moment, test driving Vallejo Model Air Chrome for NMF(all I have at the moment). Lays down very nice but is quite fragile as I just found out. This might be because its quite old, not the new stuff

[k5054nz]

Lovely job! It sounds like the decals really "made" the project - I love it when a plan comes together. I imagine it was very satisfying to finish it.

 

I hope I haven't missed it: which kit is this?

[Sturmovik]

@fubar57 I used Revell acrylics with a brush, more especifically, Revell 05 White for the "primer" and Revell 91 Steel for the metallic finish. I also used Revell´s gloss/flat varnish to coat the entire model so the paint would be more resistant to the general handling. I did have some peeling on the white of the fuselage D-Day bands, but nothing major.

 

@k5054nz you´re absolutely right, decals always "make" the aircraft. I was very satisfied when I laid down the last decal. The kit was the P-51D from Hasegawa, but reboxed by Italeri as the P-51D/K "Pacific Aces" boxing, with a Cartograf decal sheet with six markings. I would go for the Tamiya kit though, what Hasegawa did in three pieces, the latter achieved it in a single one. Plus the Tamiya kit gives you a single piece cowling, whereas on the Hase kit you have to fill and sand the nose.

Edited December 11, 2018 by Sturmovik

[ArmouredSprue]

Nice work. I'm assuming it's 1/48th scale right? Which kit did you use?

[Sturmovik]

7 minutes ago, ArmouredSprue said:

Nice work. I'm assuming it's 1/48th scale right? Which kit did you use?

Its the 1:48 Italeri rebox of the Hasegawa P-51D. The Italeri boxing is called P-51D/K "Pacific Aces."

[Vinnie]

Lovely finish to the paintwork.

[RMCS]

Lovley job 

[Sturmovik]

@Vinnie @RMCS thank you both!

[F-32]

Very tasty work