2 x 20th Fighter Group North American P-51D Mustangs

[Ratch]

Compared to the Tamiya kit, they were all over the place 😠

[Biggles87]

I like the variation on the tanks, period ‘photos show the ‘ paper ‘ tanks as much brighter than the metal ones.

 

John

[Toryu]

I like your tanks, too, particularly the variation in the metall colour. Just note that the red bands on the 110 gal tanks were painted on to indicate to the ground crew were the support belt should be located. The support belt itself was a dark silver (grey?) colour going around the tank from shackle to shackle. The red marks sometimes peeped out at the edges from underneath but were usually covered by the belt. When the red colour was fully visible after attaching the tank I guess that then the belts were not installed (yet).

[Ratch]

I now painted the propeller blades, judging the tips by eye. The black band on the spinner was painted freehand.
.

[Ratch]

A quick visit back to Sneebo. The closed undercarriage doors were drilled to accept a stand and offered to the wheel wells. The port door required some sanding to make sit flush. The propeller was fixed to the spinner. The gunsight and coaming were fixed to the windscreen with PVA, as were the fittings to the Dallas canopy.

and both together

[Ratch]

I attached the windscreen to the fuselage with PVA. The Dallas canopy was fixed in the same way. I then sprayed interior green on the canopy so that this would show as the interior colour.

[Ratch]

I masked up; openings were stuffed with sponge and I used a punch to cut out circles to mask the navigation lights.

 

Vallejo Acrylic 74660 Gloss Black Polyurethane Surface Primer was airbrushed over the whole airframe. I then masked up and sprayed the wings wth Vallejo Model Air 71063 Silver (Metallic). I must be getting near the bottom of the bottle as this was thicker than usual and I had to add a little thinner.

[Ratch]

I initially airbrushed the main airframe with Alclad2 ACL-119 Airframe Aluminium but ran out halfway through and had to overspray with AK Interactive AK479 Xtreme Metal Aluminium to complete the job.

[Toryu]

Looks good!

[Ratch]

I used Alclad2 ACL-121 Burnt Iron on the exhaust stubs.

[Ratch]

I then masked selected panels and sprayed AK Interactive dull aluminium. Removing the masking tape exposed some bare plastic.

I went over these panels with AK456 True Metal Dark Aluminium.

 

Sneebo behaved a lot better. I masked selected panels and sprayed AK Interactive AK480 Xtreme Metal Dark Aluminium.

I brushed over selected panels with AK456 True Metal Dark Aluminium. I masked up again and sprayed white for the invasion stripes under the fuselage.

[Courageous]

Bad luck with the masking removal but a good come-back.

 

Stuart

[Ratch]

Thanks Stuart 

My next task was to mask and spray the 7.5mm black stripes on the wings of Sad Sack.

There was a patch removed off the port tail that I must touch in with AK456 True Metal Dark Aluminium .

 

Sneebo required Invasion Stripes, which were meant to be 18”. I reckon that scales to 9.525mm in 1/48 and these were masked and sprayed.

[Ratch]

I wasn’t happy with the alignment of the back stripe on Sad Sack's starboard wing and, as decals are provided on the Cartograf sheet, decided to overspray with silver. Again, I airbrushed with Klear as a foundation for the decals. I used Sky Models decals 414822 Sad Sack LC-A applied with Microset and Microsol. The 20th FG nose markings appear to have a gap to allow the exhaust to project through, but this is not the case. I had to run a sharp scalpel over the transparent section to cut the required gap, which was quite tricky with a wet decal. I allowed time for these decals to fully dry and set before I painted the anti-glare panel on the nose, black around the nose. Sneebo was simpler. The airframe was airbrushed with Klear as a foundation for the decals. I had 20th FG nose markings from a previous build, which were applied with Microset and Microsol.

These were allowed to fully dry and set before I painted the anti-glare panel on the nose.

 

[Andwil]

Brave move painting the glare panels after applying the decals.

 

AW

[Ratch]

I've painted them first (on 1/72 kits) and wasn't happy with the result, plus one of the decals had strange, right angle corners.

Edited March 6, 2020 by Ratch
spelling

[Ratch]

I airbrushed silver on the lower portion of the port nose markings. These areas were brushed with Klear. I then applied the kit stencil decals. The stripes on the wings and tail were from the Cartograf sheet.

 

Klear was brushed over Sneebo's nose area. I then applied the kit stencil decals. I used black decal strip, cut in lengths, to replicate the five stipes on each wing which were probably to assist when aiming in bombing attacks.

[Ratch]

I applied decals to the propeller and then painted the machine guns and wing navigation lights. I lost two attachments to the pylons so crudely scratched replacements from scrap plastic sheet. I also fitted the tail wheel doors and painted them. I then fixed the paper drop tanks to their pylons. I airbrushed a semi-gloss varnish of Klear mixed with Vallejo 26518 Matt Acrylic Varnish. The masking was removed, and an aerial wire was fitted using Aeroclub Rigging Thread. 

Thanks for looking in.

[Toryu]

Looks very dynamic in its flight configuration, not often presented in this GB. This is an unusually colourful 20th FG Mustang, and nicely modelled!

[Ratch]

Thanks very much 

[Ratch]

And here she Sneebo. I used decals from Sky Decal sheet 48-023. I'm not keen on the way Sky cram their decals together, making them difficult to cut out. I applied decals to the propeller. I then painted the machine guns and wing navigation lights. The pylons were assembled and painted. The tail wheel doors and pylons were fixed. I also fixed the 75-gallon drop tanks to their pylons. I airbrushed a semi-gloss varnish of Klear mixed with a little Vallejo 26518 Matt Acrylic Varnish and removed all masking. 

The propeller was fitted, the rear-view mirror, under wing aerial antenna and aerial wire were also fixed. To complete I painted the rear-view mirror.

[Ratch]