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A very old Pony...


Courageous

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A recent gift from my LMS while getting some paint yesterday, a P-51A Mustang II by Frog in 1/72 and according to Scalemates, a vintage of 1970.

 

20191211-170524-1.jpg

Kit in a bag, haven't had one of these since...

 

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Two sprues.

 

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Another two sprues.

 

20191211-170925-1.jpg

Decals and glazing.

 

20191211-170658-1.jpg

Says it all.

So, let's see what happens with this.

 

Stuart

 

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Didn't know quite what to do with this donated kit but I've made a decision...

 

20191218-200618.jpg

I've collected the parts that I'll be using in this build and the observant among you will notice the lack of undercarriage and propeller, meaning I'll be building this as 'in-flight' but I might even do a twist with that.

I've never handled a Frog kit, let alone build one but knowing it's age, it wasn't a surprise to find no internal detail and raised panel lines. How much detail I'll be putting into the cockpit will depend how much is going to be seen with  pilot fitted. Not worried about the raised panel lines as I normal remove all them anyway. This is a double-edged sword as it saves me having to fill in panel lines because of the laminar wing but I'll have scribe a few for the ammo doors etc.

 

Stuart

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6 hours ago, Courageous said:

 

20191218-210236-1.jpg

Port fuselage raised detail....gone! Might hack those exhausts off if I've got replacements which I doubt I have but then again I have two types in the KP kit :hmmm:.

 

Stuart

The radiator looks very small.

 

AW

Edit: I’ve just realised it is an Allison engined MkII so is probably a ok.

 

AW

Edited by Andwil
Posting before thinking!
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7 hours ago, Ratch said:

Watch those decals :whistle:

I think you may be right. Don't think I'll give them a chance, I'll go rummaging.

3 hours ago, Andwil said:

The radiator looks very small.

You may very well be right. I don't know how accurate they are but I have some plans from the SAM P-51 (Allison) Publication that may be useful, we'll see.

10 minutes ago, Bedders said:

Well done Stuart with taking the plunge on the panel lines. I like the shape of this kit but havent had the courage to try to tackle one.

Cheers Justin. I don't think courage comes into it when you can get these kits for little or no money, just get stuck in, what have you got to lose.

 

Stuart 

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Looking on with interest. I still have mine that I built 40 odd years ago!

 

Some photos to help....

 

https://pin.it/hlerqva67wpin3

 

https://pin.it/ngkwp5aotcbomk
 

https://pin.it/dey2gqoxxupqpi
 

https://pin.it/3cgjieze4ruei2

 

and finally, not relevant to your build but still a good one, especially with the ‘do not inflate’ warning 😆

 

https://pin.it/ncqx5uzli3ltlj

 

Trevor

 

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As @Andwil commented on the radiator size, I thought I'd take a look.

 

20191219-184936.jpg

Besides the cockpit being about 1mm too far back, we do indeed have a size issue (fnaar) and it's all underneath, from the chin to just aft of the radiator exhaust. Not sure what I'm going to do about it but my thoughts are focusing on the radiator as if I do anything with the chin, it will throw out the geometry with the wing. :hmmm: In the meantime, I'll carry on with the panel line removal process.

 

Stuart

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46 minutes ago, Courageous said:

we do indeed have a size issue (fnaar) and it's all underneath, from the chin to just aft of the radiator exhaust.

as @gingerbob mentions, what are the drawings provenance. 

 

Bear in mind that the Allison engine Mustangs are not as deep in the fuselage as the Merlin versions, the wing is slightly higher up as well.

 

p51a-5.jpg

p51b-6.jpg

 

note the best pair, but note distance from lower edge of cockpit too wing

p51a-10.jpg

p51b-8.jpg

 

HTH

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Cheers @gingerbob and @Troy Smith for getting back. 

With the seed being sown in my head about the provenance of the drawing, I delved into the Academy boxing of the P-51 of North Africa as this has been highlighted as the best in this scale and put the fuselage halves together to get a comparison. The length matched exactly, as did the cockpit position and other noticeable features. Their were differences....

 

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The Frog carburetor intake had a noticeable rise to it.

 

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The radiator wasn't as bad as I thought but its depth is still under size by about 0.75mm.

 

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The biggest difference was the chin...or lack it. This chin is very noticeable from the pic from up there.

p51a-5.jpg&key=f55f2e47a56263f8f0f45b1a9

 

Needs some thought.

 

Stuart

Edited by Courageous
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Regardless of the drawings, I do agree that the chin is too svelte on the kit.  As for the radiator, it certainly strikes me as shallow, but I think that the P-51A had a slightly more slender radiator fairing than the earlier Mustangs- perhaps somewhere in between.

 

Now, that's something I've spent some time on- albeit not recently- and I have not yet been able to find conclusive dimensional proof.  I also ran across some earlier comments in which I vacillated!  Certainly the radiator core itself is markedly different, and I think that the housing structure is also different, though I'm far less confident in that, without further investigation.

 

Now that we've started down the slippery slope, I'll mention that the wing has [EDIT: appears to have] the D-style leading edge extension, too.  What, if anything, you do about it is up to you.  Apparently this has been something of a chronic problem for early Mustangs in 72nd, but I don't adequately follow the intricacies of kits in that scale, so can't say much more.  Perhaps @Graham Boak would know the details better.

 

Even when the Accurate Miniatures kits came out, there was shockingly little "known" or understood about the Allison Mustangs.  There are more detail differences from one type to the next than superficially meets the eye, and traditionally they've been treated as a bit of a prelude before getting to the "important" part of the story, the Merlin ones.  Thankfully, that has begun to change, but there's plenty more to THAT story.

 

Edit: It is perhaps worth remembering that this is a VERY old kit, and they almost certainly had precious little documentation to work with.  At that time, the only Allison Mustang "known" in the public eye to exist was the A-36 at the Air Force Museum. 

Edited by gingerbob
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Thanks for the info Mr G. I've no intentions of tackling that LE extension but I may add a shim or something to the radiator and that 'chin' I feel is a must to get sorted and the carburettor intake may get a filing/ sanding.

 

Stuart

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For some bizarre reason, this build seems to be grabbing my attention.

 

20191221-204442-1.jpg 

Panel lines removed. Moulded on rear wheel doors removed. Moulded on radiator exhaust door removed. Moulded on radio removed from internals, together with internal seat mountings.

I may remove the exhausts but I'll need to source some fishtail exhausts before I do that. Studying RAF Mustang II's, I haven't seen much evidence of those underwing mountings being fitted, so these may also be removed :hmmm:.

As @gingerbob has already stated, this kit has LE extensions fitted and they stand out like a sore thumb and are bugging me. :hmmm:

 

Stuart

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40 minutes ago, Courageous said:

As @gingerbob has already stated, this kit has LE extensions fitted and they stand out like a sore thumb and are bugging me. :hmmm:

 

Sorry!

 

A different thought: it is hard for me to tell from the photo of fuselage on drawing, but does the wing appear to be at the right location vertically?  In other words, is the fuselage the correct depth?  Reason I ask is that I wondered if that might be a cause for the "squished" radiator fairing.

 

Please note- I am interested in kit accuracy and potential fixes.  That doesn't mean that I expect you to fix everything!

Edited by gingerbob
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12 hours ago, gingerbob said:

Please note- I am interested in kit accuracy and potential fixes.  That doesn't mean that I expect you to fix everything!

You don't need to worry yourself about that. My philosophy is to capture the main features of a particular subject, without going OTT. I have too many subjects I want to build without getting bogged down with detail, paralysis due to analysis as a fellow BM'er once said.

 

Stuart

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Taking advantage of a gap in the festive build-up and decided to tackle the innards.

 

20191223-192347-1.jpg

The kits innards; a seat and its mounting side spigots, a blob for a radio box and a blob for a gun-sight were hacked out. A rear platform was made, as was a fuel and and radio box. Using another Mustangs cockpit as a template, I added some ribbing.

As this build is going to be in a flying attitude, with a pilot, I'll busy the cockpit up with some side boxes, an I/P and stuff...hopefully tomorrows quiet period.

 

Stuart

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