AirFix 1:72 North American P-51D Mustang - Completed

[Johnny_Sokko]

Nice work. The stand is a nice touch.

[HoolioPaulio]

OK, stupid question.  Because I believe stupid questions are better than stupid mistakes.  On the decal sheet, 33 and 34 circled below.  The instructions say to put one on each side of the nose.  Are you supposed to put both on, or pick 1 name?  I would have thought the plane was either the 'Rose Marie', or 'The Kelly Kid 2'.  Or am I misunderstanding the reason for the names, and its not the name of the plane just names of people important to the pilot?

 

[dogsbody]

Though it's hard to find a good view of the painting diagram online, I'd say that there is one on each side of the nose. It was not all that unusual for USAAF aircraft to have two different slogans/names on either side.

 

 

Chris

[HoolioPaulio]

Brilliant, thanks Chris.

[Torbjorn]

Built this some year ago and checked it up. One was the pilot’s (Rose Marie if I recall correctly), the other the crew chief’s. 

[HoolioPaulio]

8 hours ago, Johnny_Sokko said:

Nice work. The stand is a nice touch.

Thanks my friend.

 

4 hours ago, Torbjorn said:

Built this some year ago and checked it up. One was the pilot’s (Rose Marie if I recall correctly), the other the crew chief’s. 

 

 

I detailed the front canopy glass...

 

 

Then did a dry test fit of wings, canopy, and rudder, just because I wanted to see how its coming on...

 

 

I was supposed to be slowing down on this build while I wait for some items shipping from China as I won't be able to finish it until they arrive, but I'm enjoying it too much

 

[HoolioPaulio]

Not much progress recently.  Rudder, canopy, and exhausts glued in.  Then I made a start on decaling.  Only done this side of the fuselage so far, but its amazing what a difference the decals make now I look back to when it was just painted in the previous post.  Very time consuming though, there's a lot of tiny decals to apply.  Had a minor issue with the E-414 decal on the tail, firstly I forgot to pre-wet the area before sliding that one off the backing, which cause issues with the E, as I wasn't expecting the arms of the E to free to go wonky.  I though they would be attached with some clear between them to keep it E shaped.  Wouldn't have been an issue if I had wet the area first, but as it was dry it stuck pretty quick so I didn't have chance to get it fully straight.

 

[Andwil]

Looking really good!

 

AW

[Jackson Duvalier]

I think it looks quite nice, HP.  I used those Airfix/Cartograf decals to finish off a Tamiya P-51D, they settled in very nicely over the NMF.  Give it a month or two getting on with life and I bet you'll hardly notice the wonkiness.

[Courageous]

She does look rather beautiful, will look stunning when completed no doubt.

 

Stuart

[HoolioPaulio]

Not quite ready for inspection, maybe, but finished enough until my bits arrive to see if I can make some final tweeks (if it works out like I imagine.  If not, this is finished).  There are plenty of minor issues, paint took a few knocks along the way, a bit of fogging where the canopy was cemented, and I left some of the tiny decals off altogether.  Some applied decals are slightly misplaced, and the more observant of you will notice the glaring error that the star on top of the wing is on the wrong wing.  Not paying attention while rushing and making assumptions caused that.  Also, I don't currently use top coats of any kind, as I have not had much success getting a nice finish yet.  More practice required before I make any more decent models worse by applying top coat badly.

 

Anyway, I declare it a 100% success, as I've had so much fun building it I can't wait to pick up another one.  I'm rather proud of my first plane build

 

 

 

 

Paul

[AliGauld]

43 minutes ago, HoolioPaulio said:

I'm rather proud of my first plane build

As you should be. That looks really good to me.

 

Cheers,

 

Alistair

[gwelldysg]

Julio,

 

Beautiful job.  Your first airplane model, maybe.   But while you didn't mention what your usual subjects are, it's clear you're an experienced modeler, and I think experience in one area of our hobby gives you a leg up when you venture into another area.  And you couldn't have chosen a better subject - I feel the Airfix P-51D is the best out there,

rivalled only by the latest Hasegawa kit (they both appeared at about the same time).  I've begun work on both, along with about 10 older P-51D/K kits, which will now be used simply to model interesting paint/markings schemes.

 

Again, congratulations on your great 'Stang.  No one would ever believe it's your first aircraft model.  Cheers, John G.  

[HoolioPaulio]

On 23/06/2019 at 14:29, AliGauld said:

As you should be. That looks really good to me.

 

Cheers,

 

Alistair

Thanks Alistair

 

 

20 hours ago, gwelldysg said:

Julio,

 

Beautiful job.  Your first airplane model, maybe.   But while you didn't mention what your usual subjects are, it's clear you're an experienced modeler, and I think experience in one area of our hobby gives you a leg up when you venture into another area.  And you couldn't have chosen a better subject - I feel the Airfix P-51D is the best out there,

rivalled only by the latest Hasegawa kit (they both appeared at about the same time).  I've begun work on both, along with about 10 older P-51D/K kits, which will now be used simply to model interesting paint/markings schemes.

 

Again, congratulations on your great 'Stang.  No one would ever believe it's your first aircraft model.  Cheers, John G.  

Thanks for the compliments John.  My usual subjects were almost exclusively Bandai Gundam models.  The main different being that they come in a lot of pieces, and its more of a technical build.  Pieces are almost always one single colour, and a foot for example may have 7 or 8 different parts, some parts red, some black, some grey etc.  So you paint them all individually which is easy, then assemble to make something that looks ace.  The Mustang is my first build ever where I've used a combination of airbrushing and masking.  I've only been airbrushing about 3 months, and as explained the Gundams require no masking.  I'm also getting into cars ( built a 1/24 Tamiya Morris Mini, and Efini RX-7), and I've just started a Tamiya 1/12 Ducati 916 bike build.  I just love building models, but my finish/detailing skills were none existent in my youth.

 

For reference, this is the number of parts in one leg, not including the foot which is already built and just out of shot at the bottom...

 

 

The finished leg

 

 

Which is fully poseable

 

 

 

Paul

[HoolioPaulio]

OK, my final tweek to this model, as it didn't look right being in flight with a static prop.  It didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped, so going forward I'll probably do all my prop planes wheels down, and only do jets in flight on a stand, but I'm happy enough.  Its all part of my new learning curve.

 

[Courageous]

We have to try these things and make our own minds up on what looks right.

 

For me, I ditch the props and only use the spinners, like this. This is my recently completed Seafox...

...and a Hurricane. Works for me. Food for thought.

 

Stuart

[HoolioPaulio]

Yeah that works surprisingly well actually.  Would never have though of leaving the prop completely off and just using the spinner.

[Freecloud]

On 20/06/2019 at 23:50, HoolioPaulio said:

Not much progress recently.  Rudder, canopy, and exhausts glued in.  Then I made a start on decaling.  Only done this side of the fuselage so far, but its amazing what a difference the decals make now I look back to when it was just painted in the previous post.  Very time consuming though, there's a lot of tiny decals to apply.  Had a minor issue with the E-414 decal on the tail, firstly I forgot to pre-wet the area before sliding that one off the backing, which cause issues with the E, as I wasn't expecting the arms of the E to free to go wonky.  I though they would be attached with some clear between them to keep it E shaped.  Wouldn't have been an issue if I had wet the area first, but as it was dry it stuck pretty quick so I didn't have chance to get it fully straight.

 

If mine turns out anywhere near as good as this I'll be very happy, nice work fella. Good luck. 

[Freecloud]

Just taken another deserved look at your model here mate &,thanks to you, my mind has been made up as I was in a bit of a quandary. I wasn't sure wether to have my p51 'shiny' or 'dull' in appearance. Now looking at this photo, I'm glad that I used Alclads Klear Kote flat. The canopy rim is, however, quite shiny by comparison, but I can live with it. 

Never weathered a model in my life either, let alone never used an airbrush but my p51 isn't 'too' bad, considering I've not built one in nearly fifty years. Some of the weathering is, perhaps, a little too heavy in places but it's a learning curve on my part. 

Only got to sort out the antenna cable & fit the canopy parts & it's finished. When I'm done, I'll put a photo up for your valued & welcomed constructive criticism. 

Idid, admittedly, struggle somewhat with the Alclad airframe aluminium, I suppose I couldn't have chosen a more difficult colour for my first model (duh me), oh well, will post soon. 

Best regards. 

[HoolioPaulio]

So I came back to this, to have another go at an in flight prop.  The first attempt from back in August, home printed "clear" decal on a disc made from a CD case

 

 

New process, blurred prop printed on clear acetate sheet.  A lot better than I expected based on the previous attempt, but still needs work.  Maybe print it darker.  Will continue to experiment...

 

[HoolioPaulio]

Ignore the paint scuffs on the spinner btw, if I get something I'm happy with I'll fix that, but for now this is my test bed.  Great excuse to build another Mustang at some point

 

[rob Lyttle]

I missed this the first time around, Hoolio. 

Very tidy! 

I think that new prop disc looks a lot better. The CD case just looks too heavy and bulky in comparison. 

You could try a heavier print and compare. You might even be able to mist in a little bit of yellow around the edge. 

Not familiar with the process so I don't know if you can do this. 

I made 4 acetate discs for a Lockheed Constellation Airliner in a landing pose and I like them. They have no print at all. 

 

I came across some references when I was doing a USAF F86 Sabre which throws light on the names and nose art topic. 

The port side of the fuselage is for the pilot's stuff.... , wife, girl, name and also his score tally of kills or missions. 

The starboard side is for the crew chief as pointed out above, his girl or name or bit of art, and the score tally on this side belongs to the aircraft itself. 

As pilots were cycled in and out of the squadron or relocated, the scores can become quite different. 

The practice was followed into the Korean era and later I guess, but it was developed and used in WW2 by the USAAF.

Funny what you learn while you build one of these little things! 

 

Did I say.... GOOD RESULT! 👍

 

[Freecloud]

Looks brilliant, never though about using clear cd for prop' motion, great idea. Nice job matr. Regards, Garry. 

[HoolioPaulio]

OK, digging an old thread up but I made another alteration to the inflight props, thought people might be interested to compare.  I got these from PropBlur website (I'm not sure on the rules of linking sales pages so just Google "propblur" if you are interested and it will be the first search result).  I think its just one guy working from his house, but shipping from US to UK was quick, well priced, and well packaged.  He even included a 5th spare propblur for test painting which was nice.  Not sure if its better, but I still like it.