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Reconnaissance Mustangs


Angus Tura

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Hello.

 

I'd like to add these F-6As:

 

190317a boxes

 

190317b Bits

 

This looks a nice kit with resin but no etch. Apart from opening the canopies I'm not planning to modify them at all. I'm planning to do one US and one US seemingly lent to the Desert RAF.

 

Alan

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welcome along Alan and with a couple of Mustangs!

 

Photo-recon Mustangs now that is a bit different and nice to see. It'll be nice to see the two of them together.

 

Good luck with the build, I hope it's an enjoyable one and look forward to seeing these in the gallery.

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All good, Col.....?

 

The MPM F-6A doesn't go together quite as easily as the Airfix P-51D:

 

190328a fuselage fit

 

Having cleaned up the fuselage it's clear that the canopy doesn't fit very well. Having got the port side flush, the starboard side is well out:

 

190328b Canopy fit190328c canopy ill-fit

 

I had thought about building one of these with a closed canopy, and one with the canopy open. I think it will probably be easier to do them both open, fit-wise.

 

The resin cockpit is nice, but like a lot of kits of this vintage, I think, the thickness of the cockpit side walls hasn't been considered:

 

190328d Cockpit ill-fit

 

Like this the sill is 3mm thick. That's a scale 8" and a bit for any imperial(measure)ists reading. I do have a Dremel-type drill but I'm a bit frightened of melting the fuselage with it. Any advice about that gratefully received. I can feel a lot of size 15 blade scraping coming on.

 

Alan

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mmm I feel your pain here, have been here many a time.

 

you can use the Dremel (my fav tool), but run it at its lowest speed and just lightly work the panel until you're close to what you want. Then used sanding sticks to finish. With some care and practise the Dremel can be used for some really fine detailing work, I'd be lost without it for work on resin models. It's just with plastic that you have to run it at very low speeds and take your time. With practise you can get paper thin results with it and not damage the outer plastic/details!

 

The canopies with some of these limited run models can be a real issue. I'd go with the open option and show that lovely resin cockpit.

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Hmm...Torbjorn! It is important to note that I never get anything finished. Anyway:

 

I've used a bias file to thin out the resin sidewall till it begins to crack:

 

190330a Cockpit sidewall file

 

190330b Cockpit sidewall filed 1

 

190330c Cockpit sidewall filed 2

 

And then I chickened out from using a power tool, and used a 15 blade to carve out the fuselage side:

 

190330d Fuselage carved

 

Tah-da:

 

190330e Cockpit sidewall fitted

 

The sill is now 1.5mm thick, so a scale ~100mm or ~4" in old money. Piece of cake...only three more to do.

 

Alan

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  • 1 month later...

Hello. A long time since the last input to this: Not finishing other group builds is very time consuming. I got all of the cockpit sidewalls in:

 

190518a Sidewalls

 

Even with the possibility of opening both the cockpits, the windscreen would be too narrow so I've made a little spacer for the front of the fuselage:

 

190518b Fuselage Spacer

 

Then the fit of the glazing is better, or at least less bad:

 

190518c Glazing Fit

 

The bottom of the fuselage and the fuselage spine still come together OK and I'm hoping the wing fit will not be changed by this. The floor is too narrow but then hopefully the rest of the cockpit will build up on that to fit:

 

190518d Floor Not-fit

 

More later,

 

Alan

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ooo there are some fit issues here, wow that is a sizeable gap! Some plastic card will sort that out. Hopefully the wing joins will now join up.

 

Nice to see some progress on them even if it's not the best of news for now.

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  • 1 month later...

Prophetic, Greg!

 

The Airfix F-51D OOTB build (Ha!) in NATO/Warsaw Pact 1950s GB is still not finished and has stopped any progress with these. I'm keen to finish more Mustangs on time in the Sharkmouth GB and the D-Day GB. So, I'm putting these on hold till KUTA time. I'll probably keep doing bits of these between now and then.

 

Alan

Edited by Angus Tura
grammatical tautology
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