F-51D FAD

[Graeme H]

OK, i'm doing the newish Airfix F-51D kit which has the later Hamilton Standard uncuffed square tipped prop in the box

Also plan on the kit option of Dominican Republic, last world operator of Mustangs in an air force that I know of, and a long time operator of Mustangs in total

I have the Aerofax Datagraph 1 on North American F-51 Mustangs in Latin American Air Force service for eference

 

 

I have been reading up on the FAD Mustangs, and these later ones had been through some upgrades with Cavalier over time, some to the full standard some not.

 

On opening the box I see that I have painted part of the cockpit and props, sure this is well under the 25% rule, so will keep calm and carry on.

 

One thing that Sirfix got wron with this kit is the Dominican Insignia, which they handed, but as it is an interpretation of the national flag that is not the case, the red should be on the top right and loser left each side.

I was lucky to get some additional ones from @Rabbit Leader to cover off that problem.

[TEMPESTMK5]

Good morning Graeme

Welcome aboard with this exotic subject.

Have fun with your build ..

Patrice

 

[Graeme H]

OK, waited until after 10am 0000 UTC to start

 

Started by spraying the insides

Airfix call for Humbrol 226, which seemed too green, so went with Model Master, but it wasn't a lot better so added some yellow, a little happier

 

 

 

Airfix call for the underside to be white, and the Aerofax reference says basically the same, so painted most of that to save a lot of masking later on

 

 

I started to put the cockpit together, but the control column broke when I tried to get it off the sprue, is this one of the kits that does that all the time? 😲

bit of a pain, not sure what to do, probably have to scratch a replacement, bugger  going to slow me down.

I was hoping that this was going to be a bit of a blitz build, bit hard when part of the interior goes off, I did find both parts, but the lower part went pinging off out of the tweezers, never to be seen again when I was trying to fit it.🙄

see what tomorrow will bring

[Valkyrie]

Great start quick off the mark. Yes this kit keeps the spare parts department at Airfix open...the radio mast too is virtually impossible to get off without breaking. They do issue spare parts quite quickly, have the kit and part number(s) to hand.

Like the green, and the painting on the sprue to reduce pesky masking.

[Alan P]

Aaand we're off!😃

 

Good start there Grae, hope you can craft or liberate a replacement stick from another kit...😩

 

Alan

 

 

[Andwil]

I’ve built four Airfix Mustangs and broke the control columns and aerial masts on three of them.  You might be able to cut them off carefully with a heated blade.

 

AW

[Graeme H]

OK, after all the jollies of the festive season and my birthday, as well as a day trip to the emergency Department for feeling very wobbly, (can't describe it any better, and they didn't find anything wrong, so got a full check up, CT scans, multiple blood test, and X-rays), I'm back into this.

first up, this is the aircraft from the decal sheet

 

 

Now a careful examination of that photo seems to suggest it's more a 2 green and tan scheme, don't think I can make out where the green demarcations are, so will just go with a single green from the Airfix instructions.

 

so got it all together, made a control column from a bit of wire 

 

 

Another coat of white on the underside

 

 

Now Airfix have made the canopy a bit of challenge, by making the clear parts separate from the rest, unlike most other kit manufacturers, oh well, paint the bottom of the canopy, I the like to paint the bottom of the clear part with black paint, very carefully, if stops it showing up refracted light, well that's the theory.

 

 

Then put on some GSI Creos 30219 tan

 

 

all this was done over the last week or, just getting around to posting, that's all for tonight viewers

[RidgeRunner]

Hi Graeme,

 

Do you have a photo of the machine you are building? The FAD Mustangs varies a lot in terms of the pattern employed. In fact I don’t think there was actually a template as every photo I’ve seen seems to show differences. There are plenty of images on the web so you should find a reference.

 

Martin

[Graeme H]

17 hours ago, RidgeRunner said:

Hi Graeme,

 

Do you have a photo of the machine you are building? The FAD Mustangs varies a lot in terms of the pattern employed. In fact I don’t think there was actually a template as every photo I’ve seen seems to show differences. There are plenty of images on the web so you should find a reference.

 

Martin

Yes, it's FAD1916 and that is it in the background in the photo, not the forward one,  there are several black and white photos in the Aerofax book that cover both sides, and a fairly good one covering mostly the top of the wings, one thing is certain in photos of them is that the cowls got changed from one aircraft to another, and have mismatched paint jobs.

You are so correct, there are no two the same colour scheme.

The Aerofax Volume, which you can download here, https://boxartden.com/reference/gallery/index.php/Modeling-References/Aerofax/Datagraph/01-NAA-F-51-Mustang

I do have my own copy though, and interestingly according to Aerofax this aircraft has a long history, being a WWII veteran P-51D-20-NA  44-72364 coded SX *L with the 353th FG 352 FS and with 10 confirmed kills, and named Upupa Epops, was then on sold to the RSwAF as 26061 who sold it to the FAD in 1952 where it served until 1984, all the photos suggest it always had the original cuffed propeller, even though it went through Trans Florida Aviation/Cavalier, possibly several times.

Being a standard P-51D, all the F-51D parts in the Airfix kit are left over, basically only needed the decal sheet, and the camo pattern, for which they seem to have done a commendable job for that aircraft.

 

Surprisingly I couldn't find many photos at all on the web, but then I may have been looking in the wrong place, if you know of any of FAD 1916 please let me know.

 

Cheers Graeme

[RidgeRunner]

Ah, thats good Graeme @Graeme H. I have the Hagerdorn book which, despite its age, is a good reference. I'm glad that you have good references for your build :).

 

I'm looking forward to seeing your build, Graeme. I have decals (Aztec and ArmyCast) for a Ramfis machine at some point but I need to get the courage up to tackle it. I did a Ramfis F-47 a while back that was a challenge

 

Martin

Edited January 19, 2020 by RidgeRunner

[Graeme H]

Moving on slowly, I found I had to do the green in instalments, as this is a very hard scheme when I got down to it, so wings first.

 

 

Then the fuselage

 

 

then masking coming off

 

 

looking OK, until a disaster

I needed to do some very small touch ups, and the Tamiya White was drying too quick, so thought I would use some Tamiya Retarder, made the white go everywhere, including my fingers

So ,need to repaint that side, and although I will try to get it done, this may be a bit of a challenge to get done before the end of the GB, as I'm going away next weekend for a model show

These challenges are sent to try my patience, but lesson learned on the Retarder, won't be using that stuff again

 

 

[RidgeRunner]

Thats a real pity, Graham, as she was looking great. That'll be a fiddly repair but you'll get it done :). Your techniue for masking is close to mine. I find that I get closer to the real camouflage patterns. I do get paint ingress sometimes but generally its a quick fix with a brush. A spittle brush can work well. You've still got until March so dont panic :). 

 

Martin

Edited January 19, 2020 by RidgeRunner

[Graeme H]

March, and I thought it was the beginning of Feb, that must be the KUTA then

OK, pressure off

[srkirad]

Camouflage turned out really great, but regarding to white "prints", don't panic, just leave it to settle down (dry) and then repaint those small areas, it doesn't seem to hard for repair.

There is plenty of time for the finish - GB ends only on March 15th.

 

Keeping fingers crossed for you!

 

Cheers,

S.

[Cookenbacher]

Wonderful paint work Graeme, very inspiring - I'm sure you'll have rogue white paint cleaned up in no time.

[Andwil]

The like is for the camo painting generally not for the unfortunate incident with the white.

 

AW

[Graeme H]

OK, touch up repairs done, will wait a bit to clear coat and then decals, in the meantime I painted the Exhausts and U/C, no photos of those

 

[RidgeRunner]

Nice repairs, Graeme. You are nearly there!

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Very nice save. 

[gingerbob]

That camo looks very enticing.  Looking forward to seeing it "dressed up" with some decals!

[Silenoz]

That camo looks good.... very good even...

[Cookenbacher]

Yes, that's some fine camo work Graeme.

[Graeme H]

OK struggling with real life problems, like mowing the lawn before it gets out of control, raining a lot, but then it's that time of year, better than last year when we got 2 metres in 10 days, only 77mm last night and 110 the night before, mostly smallish  amount before those, going for a week so far.

I'm off to a model show tomorrow, so nothing for a while.

 

 

Not got a lot done, but stickers on, and it's up on it's gear, so getting closer.

The real one showed a lot of missing anti slip near the cockpit, my decal bulged up in that area so took off the offending part and painted with matte aluminium

 

 

[RidgeRunner]

Great stuff, Graeme. Your build is tempting me to reach for my FAD decals sets (Aztec, ArmyCast and Airfix) ...... ;). I loved the FAD scheme when I first saw it in the 1973 (second run) edition of Ian Allan's Military Aircraft of the World  that showed "1920" I think. 

 

Enjoy your show and take a brolly!

 

Martin

 

[TEMPESTMK5]

Good morning Graeme

She looks great with the decals on but I think there is something wrong with the landing gear legs ..

 

Patrice