Bedders Posted December 11, 2019 Share Posted December 11, 2019 Finally it's time! I've been mulling over this idea for ages but have paused whilst doing the research and waiting for the get-go. The aim of this little adventure will be to rework an Airfix 1/72 F-51D kit into a 1960s Cavalier F-51D. Two seats, tall tail but no tip tanks. Looking forward to it! Justin 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul J Posted December 11, 2019 Share Posted December 11, 2019 Must keep an eye on this...Have you thought of or come up with a colour scheme yet? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cookenbacher Posted December 11, 2019 Share Posted December 11, 2019 Nice, some Bedders patented aircraft surgery, looking forward to this project Justin. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TEMPESTMK5 Posted December 12, 2019 Share Posted December 12, 2019 Good morning Justin Welcome aboard it will be a very interesting build .. Cheers Patrice 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RidgeRunner Posted December 14, 2019 Share Posted December 14, 2019 (edited) On 12/11/2019 at 10:06 PM, Bedders said: Finally it's time! I've been mulling over this idea for ages but have paused whilst doing the research and waiting for the get-go. The aim of this little adventure will be to rework an Airfix 1/72 F-51D kit into a 1960s Cavalier F-51D. Two seats, tall tail but no tip tanks. Looking forward to it! Justin Ah ha, that’s exactly what I need for one of my non-STGB project, Justin. I’ll be watching avidly :). I need the tall tail and twin seat for a civil build. Martin Edited December 14, 2019 by RidgeRunner 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedders Posted December 14, 2019 Author Share Posted December 14, 2019 And we're off! First thing to do is to get the saw out. Creative destruction - at least that's what I hope. I've taken off the fuel tank and placed a piece of thin plastic card over the resulting hole, to create a new floor for the second seat. I'm recycling an old Airfix Mustang seat from a kit that didn't make it to the finish. But I've shortened the rear of the seat to enable it to fit decently into the back of the cockpit. The second job has been to make the basis of the fin extension from plastic card. I used drawings from the internet as a guide, and it seems to look OK so far in terms of shape. I've also filled the flare chute as I don't see evidence of that in pictures of the real thing. And I suppose I should remove the fuel tank filler too, as I don't think there's any need for that either. Must say I'm quite enjoying this! Justin 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Learstang Posted December 14, 2019 Share Posted December 14, 2019 That's a lovely little kit - it will be nice to see what you can do with it. Best of luck! Regards, Jason 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Courageous Posted December 14, 2019 Share Posted December 14, 2019 Off to a good start, will be interesting to see how this develops. Stuart 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andre B Posted December 14, 2019 Share Posted December 14, 2019 This gonna be interesting to following. Always likes the appearance of the Cavalier Mustang! Cheers / André 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedders Posted December 15, 2019 Author Share Posted December 15, 2019 A bit more progress. Trial and error on the seats, but getting there I think. I've removed the armour plate from the back of the kit's (front) seat, trimmed a bit of height from the backplate section, and added it to the backplate of the rear seat, as I think I made that one too short. I've also added a headrest to the rear seat, basing the shape on photos I've been looking at on the web. I've also added the braces to both seats from thin strips of plastic card. Looking OK I think. Justin 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedders Posted December 15, 2019 Author Share Posted December 15, 2019 (edited) On 12/11/2019 at 10:15 PM, Paul J said: Must keep an eye on this...Have you thought of or come up with a colour scheme yet? Hi Paul, I'm thinking something like this: These ones were built by Cavalier in about 1968 and after a short time in USAF markings were sold to Bolivia. Most of them were resold to private buyers in Canada in the 70s and many still exist as warbirds. So quite an interesting story. Justin Edited December 15, 2019 by Bedders 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cookenbacher Posted December 15, 2019 Share Posted December 15, 2019 Excellent scratch work Justin! Do you know if the taller tail is the same as a P-51H or is it something unique? I saw a warbird P-51D a few years ago and it had the tall tail like this, and I had assumed that it had been scrounged from an H. Perhaps it had some Cavalier lineage though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedders Posted December 15, 2019 Author Share Posted December 15, 2019 (edited) Hi Cookie, it's an interesting question and one I've been doing a bit of research on recently. Basically the tails were different. Here's an H: And hers's a tall D And this is an H tail on a D airframe. The H tail is broader in chord all the way to the top whereas the tall D tapers more dramatically. The H rudder is also slightly taller which helps to make the H tail sligntly taller overall. I've got another H waiting in the stash so I might give that a go soon, now that I've identified some of the errors I made with my first one...! Justin Edited December 15, 2019 by Bedders 4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gingerbob Posted December 15, 2019 Share Posted December 15, 2019 The H initially had a tail similar to the D (not "the same", but similar outline). I think that "tall tail" experiments on both versions were done at about the same time, but the H got the taller fin in production. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedders Posted December 17, 2019 Author Share Posted December 17, 2019 Cockpit assembled and painted. The interior appears to be a light grey colour so I used something generic and gave it a light wash to highlight the detail. Not my best work - my first attempt at painting was with a colour that was too dark, and in my efforts to cover it up I used too many coats so I lost some of the crispness in the detail. But when it's closed up it looks OK. Behind the front seat there is a transverse bar across the fuselage which also serves as a mount for the front seat, replacing the armour plate on the normal P-51D. Here's the fuselage closed up and my plasticard template for the fin extension mounted. A bit flimsy but looks the part. Now to build up the aerofoil section with more card and filler, and sand to the final shape. Justin 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
srkirad Posted December 17, 2019 Share Posted December 17, 2019 These modifications look really cool, I like how you extended tail fin, while cockpit..huh.. no words! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RidgeRunner Posted December 17, 2019 Share Posted December 17, 2019 @Bedders Justin, Have you simply butted the fin tip on or have you made up any form of tab or pins for strength? I know its a bit thin there but I thought I'd ask! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedders Posted December 18, 2019 Author Share Posted December 18, 2019 21 hours ago, RidgeRunner said: @Bedders Justin, Have you simply butted the fin tip on or have you made up any form of tab or pins for strength? I know its a bit thin there but I thought I'd ask! Hiya, the options seemed to be either a) use a thin and flimsy bit of card that I could slot into the top of the fin, or b) use a slightly thicker card that would have to be butted on but will hopefully withstand the pressures of me applying filler and sanding. So I went for the latter, and hope that the superglue and melted sprue will hold it on OK. Fingers crossed! Justin 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RidgeRunner Posted December 18, 2019 Share Posted December 18, 2019 17 minutes ago, Bedders said: Hiya, the options seemed to be either a) use a thin and flimsy bit of card that I could slot into the top of the fin, or b) use a slightly thicker card that would have to be butted on but will hopefully withstand the pressures of me applying filler and sanding. So I went for the latter, and hope that the superglue and melted sprue will hold it on OK. Fingers crossed! Justin Thanks Justin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cookenbacher Posted December 18, 2019 Share Posted December 18, 2019 Justin, I know it was controversial, but the surgery to have your fingertips replaced with laser cutters has paid off again, everything looks perfect. As an aside, I found a link to the history of the previously mentioned warbird and it did have a Cavalier tail (and was a turboprop at one point in its existence). 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedders Posted December 18, 2019 Author Share Posted December 18, 2019 3 hours ago, Cookenbacher said: but the surgery to have your fingertips replaced with laser cutters has paid off again Thanks Cookie, unfortunately it's turned the business of eating hamburgers into a slow and messy affair though... Justin 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul J Posted December 18, 2019 Share Posted December 18, 2019 I am liking the second seat work. May have o do the same for my proposed build but I doubt I will start it within the time for the GB 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedders Posted December 19, 2019 Author Share Posted December 19, 2019 (edited) So here's where we've got to: wings on and panel lines filled, and started work on the fin extension to create the aerofoil section and get the shape right. No disasters yet but it'll be a bit of work to get that fin top right. Justin Edited December 19, 2019 by Bedders 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gingerbob Posted December 20, 2019 Share Posted December 20, 2019 Shaping up nicely! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cookenbacher Posted December 20, 2019 Share Posted December 20, 2019 Yeah, that looks great Justin! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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