Accurate Miniatures P-51A - *DONE*

[reini]

Looking forwards building some kits for this years group builds. First up, Mustang!

 

I picked this kit up from my dad's stash. I have built one earlier (A-36 Apache) but it's so many years ago that I don't remember how the kit was. Sure looks nice though.

 

Let's see what's in the box:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next up, we'll get started with the cockpit.

 

 

[gingerbob]

Hei, reini!  Welcome to the Group.  Glad to see another Allison Mustang.

 

bob

[TEMPESTMK5]

Good morning Reini

Welcome aboard

Have fun with your build

Patrice

[reini]

Question about colors.

 

 

After reading this: https://www.ipmsstockholm.se/home/interior-colours-of-us-aircraft-1941-45-part-i/ three part article - I came to following conclusion:

 

Seat - Bronze Green (Vallejo 71.013 Yellow Olive -- wrong paint in the picture, ignore that)

Interior - Dark Dull Green (Vallejo 71.124 USAF Green)

Cockpit floor & instrument panel - Black

Landing gear bays & doors (interior) - Neutral Gray (71.051)

 

(Vallejo color choices are made based on this PDF: https://acrylicosvallejo.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/historical-color-references-guide-for-aircraft-and-afv-series-vallejo-colors.pdf )

 

Plane in question is a P-51A Mustang in Burma 1944 - olive drab upper surfaces and neutral gray undersides. Does my colour choices sound plausible or am I way off? Should I just 'Interior Green' everything above? Would love to hear your comments!

[TEMPESTMK5]

Good evening Reini

Maybe thishttps://search.aol.com/aol/image?q=p-51+mustang+cockpit+colours&v_t=webmail-searchbox  could help you ..

Patrice

[reini]

58 minutes ago, TEMPESTMK5 said:

Good evening Reini

Maybe thishttps://search.aol.com/aol/image?q=p-51+mustang+cockpit+colours&v_t=webmail-searchbox  could help you ..

Patrice

 

There are the restored museum planes, but I can't be sure what's their background and on what their color choices are based on.

 

I'm just wondering whether the source I linked is reliable or not. 

 

[reini]

 Let the painting commence. I used the colours I picked up from that article - true or not. Doing research can be fun - but so can the actual model building  I used 'Dark Dull Green' as the main interior colour (Vallejo 71.124 USAF Green). But am still interested if anyone can shed any light on the Mustang (and US in general) interior colors and your take on the article. (https://www.ipmsstockholm.se/home/interior-colours-of-us-aircraft-1941-45-part-i/)

 

I painted the black stuff very dark grey (Vallejo 70.866 Grey Green). 

 

 

For the black parts, once painted grey - I used Tamiya black panel liner to make it look bit more darker. At the same time it creates subtle shadows. Pure black can be bit too stark in the plastic models I think. This is my method for black interior parts and such - for external stuff I usually use slightly off-black such bottom Vallejo Nato Black. I will add slight chipping/edge highlights to the black parts once I start tidying up the paintjob.

 

Here is where I am at now. Base work done. I went bit too overboard with chipping, need to tone it down a bit. And start tidying up the paintwork in general and add slight highlights and make the details 'pop' little bit more.

 

Might be few days before I continue this build - so merry christmas to all!

 

 

[reini]

How was your christmas? My was nice - no plastic related gifts, but very nice otherwise. And I did receive an aviation book which is always great.

 

We came home today - so did have time to do some modelling. Decided to continue the Mustang.

 

Many Accurate Miniatures kits seem to have clear instrument panels - which you can paint and leave the actual gauges clear. So you can put the decal on the back so it shows thru the clear part.

 

Which usually results in pretty nice instrument panel with very little effort.

 

Cockpit parts about ready to be closed up. First I painted the cockpit floor black - but as @ColFord pointed out on another thread, it should be cockpit color on Allison Mustangs. So I repainted it 'Dark Dull Green' as per the rest of the cockpit.

 

No belts on this kit - so I made something resembling belts from Tamiya tape.

 

Close it! As you can see, it did require some minor force. Not completely problem free, some minor adjusting will be required later on.

 

Wing <-> fuselage fit was pretty bad, needs some putty. Other than the actual airframe, I prepared all the other parts for primer & paint. We're advancing on a reasonably good pace here. And as it is not the most demanding of paintjobs and there is very little decals, I think I have a reasonable chance of finishing one more build this year. We will see.

 

[reini]

Finishing touches to the main fuselage. Like mentioned, the wing/fuselage join was pretty bad - but still easily fixed with some putty:

I like Vallejo Plastic Putty for gaps like this - you want the big seam to go away - but you don't want to lose the seam totally. Here I added some tape to make cleaning up easier - but truth to be told, this putty is real easy to clean with just water and cotton buds, no sanding required.

 

Here is the seam cleaned up.

 

Rescribed some of the panel lines lost in the sanding of the fuselage. Used some Tamiya Extra Thin to smoothen out the rough edges after the rescribe.

 

Went with black primer this time.

 

 I thought I would try adding squiggly spots on top of the black with light grey, to simulate worn paintjob as I've seen in some videos - but I was bit too heavy handed with the light gray, almost smoothing out the color and not creating the desired effect. So the 'spottiness' didn't really show up after applying the main color.

 

Instead, I made some minor adjustments to the main color, painting some spots or panels with slightly lighter paint. Hopefully it will all come together after some panel line washes & chipping - we will see

 

 

And here is the undersurface. Next up, a clear coat and decals!

 

 

 

 

 

[Courageous]

Good progress and looking great Reini.

 

Stuart

[reini]

Thanks!

 

Not many decals in this kit, which is a nice welcomed change from all the cold war jets I've been doing. Not the stickiest of decals but they settled eventually.

 

[dnl42]

Nice work! Quick, too! 

 

I'm especially interested in this as I have one in the stash. 

[reini]

@dnl42 Nice kit for sure - good amount of sharp details and not too bad fit all around.

 

Panel line wash applied.

 

I guess I could finish this if I spent enough time on it tomorrow - but I guess I wont want to rush it either. I'll apply the flat coat and see how it goes

 

Have a nice new year!

[Courageous]

Very nice.

 

Stuart

[Ratch]

Looks good  I've never got on with Flory washes 

[reini]

On 31/12/2019 at 21:16, Ratch said:

Looks good  I've never got on with Flory washes 

I like them. I mean there is a place for oil washes and such - but atleast I find Flory washes quite easy to work with. You really can't mess up your model with it if you are not happy with the end result - real easy to apply again or to get rid of. Personal preference, of course  What I find fun in modelling that there is no one correct way of doing things.

 

- - - - - - - - -

Here we go, one of the most fun part of modelling is the actual finishing. I like weathering and it's always fun to see model come to alive.

 

I tested Vallejo Liquid Mask for canopy masking...

 

... and I don't recommend it. I mean don't get me wrong, it's good stuff for many things. But not easy to get sharp edges for the canopy frame and I'm not happy with the result. Tape is the way to go, just don't like doing it and I'm too cheap to get ready masks 😆 Oh well, like I've said before - you learn something from every model you do, this was my learning lesson in this build.

 

Chipping done! Good old tiny brush & aluminium paint creates the sharp edged chipping which I like. Gotta admit, did not go with the historical accuracy here, rather more artistic freedom. Wanted an old war horse that has seen many battles.

 

Then some oilpaints! Oilpaints are great because they blend so well. I dabbled some colours to the exhaust to create some staining.

 

Then blending them a bit with large-ish brush. Still bit too defined, more blending required. Well maybe not if I would be modelling a heavy oil leak...  

 

And blended some more. You can add additional colours and blend more or little bit less - depending on what kind of effect you are after. I think maybe a mix of airbrushing & oilpaints could be the best way to go with the exhaust staining - but I used only oilpaints here.

 

Then some oil stains and such. Here I first put down enamel based MIG streaking effects, they are great because you can blend them well when they are wet - or use enamel thinner.

 

Here they are blended in.

 

And on top I added some Vallejo Weathering Effects Oil Stains to create different kinds of weathering and so creating bit more depth. maybe bit too big or sharp - but again, artistic license  

 

Here is the stuff I used for weathering + oil paints.

 

Oh, one more step. I love pigments, they create such a nice weathering effect - which again has it's own texture and adds even one more layer to the weathering.

 

I dusted the landing gear wells and around the gears and bottom of the airplane. Not too much, but so that it adds a little bit to the overall effect. I did not fix it in anyway. If the pigment stays in place, fine. If some of it comes off - it doesn't matter.

 

And here we are! Done! It was pretty fast but super fun build. I'm not happy with the canopy but other than that, I think it came out alright. Will be posting more photos on the appropriate thread later on.

 

Hope you like it - and feel free to ask, comment and/or give constructive feedback!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Courageous]

Weathering is a very individual thing but from the one pic, I think you've done it just right.

Well done... time for another maybe.

 

Stuart

[reini]

50 minutes ago, Courageous said:

Weathering is a very individual thing but from the one pic, I think you've done it just right.

Well done... time for another maybe.

 

Stuart

Thanks!

 

True that I could have time for another. But then again I have couple builds I want to be done before Stuka & Scandinavian starts. This was my first even group build, and plan to do several more this year. Just not sure I can squeeze another Mustang in it... no matter how cool these Allison Mustangs are 😎

 

Posted more pics in the gallery: 

 

[Courageous]

7 minutes ago, reini said:

before Stuka & Scandinavian starts. This was my first even group build,

I fully understand. This is only my second GB, it's quite addictive and I'm gearing up for 'In the Navy', 'Spitfire /  Seafire' and other GB's.

 

Stuart

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Your Allie Mustang looks great ... Its the one type of Mustang I've not built yet. Ive done all Merlins to date. 

[Cookenbacher]

Wonderful build, I especially like the weathering on this one.

[Blitz23]

Looks great 👍🏻

[ragnarec]

Very nice and fast build!

 

Ragnar