Fujimi and Airfix Bottisham pair. Then and now.

[TonyW]

Thanks for posting that picture, I hadn't seen it before. It certainly helps with finishing the underside. The black rectangular patch on the lower nose that puzzled me in the B+W picture I posted makes an appearance as well. The other planes don't have that rectangle.

 

One thing I've noticed about the dark areas that have us all studying every picture available, it seems to me that the blue of the US insignia matches in shade in just about every picture I've looked at. The series of pictures Danna Bell posted on another forum are just about the clearest I've seen so far and they seem to match. A possible source of blue paint at unit level? Mind you, the black of the invasion stripes matches the insignia and the dark areas as well! 

I'm going to tread very carefully here. 😓

 

I'm in no way any kind of an authority on Mustangs and yet again I find myself on a very steep learning curve. Britmodeller has opened up my modelling quite a bit since I washed up here.

Edited January 1, 2020 by TonyW

[Toryu]

The dark area on the nose is a panel bolted over the carburettor air suction holes, which in this case was either a dark metal or painted. You can find this kind of closure on many Mustangs, sometimes the panel is painted in the squadron colour. The side suction was used to filter the air from dust in adverse climate (then the front inlet was temporarily closed by a lever in the cockpit) but this was obviously not required in the ETO. It also had a carburettor air pre-heating function. Sealing it prevented grime from settling in the holes.

[Hewy]

7 hours ago, Toryu said:

Sealing it prevented grime from settling in the holes.

Most pictures aren't  clear for lou iv about the panel having the vent holes or not ,just dark and solid looking  ,  I've  read , somwhere although atm i can't  find  where  it was a smooth  panel,  not with holes, colour ? Who knows 😋( I'm  going solid )whats your take on it ,?

[Toryu]

23 minutes ago, Hewy said:

whats your take on it

Solid, dark (nearly black) metal colour

[Hewy]

Just now, Toryu said:

Solid, dark (nearly black) metal colour

Yes Michael thats my thinking too, thanks , 👍

[TonyW]

A little more work got done on the Fujimi kit this week. The fuselage interior got a lick of interior green paint with the engraved side panels getting a dark green wash followed by a bit of lighter drybrushing. A couple of hoses and instrument boxes were picked out in various colours, shamelessly taking the details from other builds in the GB!

 

 

The fuselage has been buttoned up and the wings and tailplanes added. The two part engine cover has been added and the fit throughout has been first class. Superb engineering on this 1973 kit.

 

 

Next up will be masking out the white areas of the invasion markings, applying them, then remasking them to allow polishing the bare metal areas with S 'n J polishing powder. Probably a bit bright for an authentic finish but given the blue being used, complete accuracy is a moot point here! It should make for a striking finish.

 

I'm enjoying the build so far, warts and all. I'm even reading through my period Scale Modeller mags to keep the mood flowing. I also picked up a copy of the Airfix related Classic Aircraft No 3, P51 Mustang, to provide yet more period references for the Fujimi part of this pair of P51's. It's a very nice book with a ton of info in there. A fair chunk is given over to building the then new Airfix 1.24 scale Superkit. Reading through that has got me a bit itchy to build one after all these years, although it might be an idea to finish these two first!

 

 

The Airfix 1.48 kit has had the parts removed from the sprues and cleaned up. It's light years away from the Fujimi kit detail wise and is going to challenge me quite a bit. I usually build straight out the box old models and hardly ever go to town on the detailing. I'm a bit stuck in my ways here, and quite happy with it. The Airfix kit will see me in uncharted waters as far as finish and accuracy goes and I'm quite looking forward to the trip. 

 

More as it happens...

 

Tony.

[bentwaters81tfw]

If I had the foresight to know what a bone of contention this would be, I would have asked Ben Drew when I met him over forty years ago. Likewise Witold (Lanny) Lanowski about the 56 FG P-47s

 

Sadly they are both long gone.

[Toryu]

11 minutes ago, TonyW said:

I also picked up a copy of the Airfix related Classic Aircraft No 3, P51 Mustang, to provide yet more period references for the Fujimi part of this pair of P51's. It's a very nice book with a ton of info in there.

Yes, this book is excellent. I have had it in my library since the seventies. For decades it has been the best, i.e. only reliable, reference for my P-51s. Even today it contains more relevant details than recent publications.

[Biggles87]

Couldn’t agree more on the reference value of the ‘ Classic Aircraft ‘ series, I have most of them. The problem with a lot of more recent reference books is that the aircraft shown are often re-built ‘ Warbirds ‘ which in many cases differ in detail from the originals.

Keep up the good work.

 

John

[TonyW]

I've hit a bit of a wall with the build. 

 

I polished the fuselage with S 'n J powder and it came up nice and bright, as expected. the wing roots and tail got a bit of blue added and although the colour looks a bit of a fright to be honest, the plane started to get a life of its own. Trying to add the stars and codes to the fuselage proved to be a bit of a disaster though. The stars and bars shattered a bit, but were teased into place. The codes just exploded!!

 

 

I'll have to track down replacements before I can go any further here. The Airfix new kit is looking like it won't make the finish line as well. Time is running out! Curses.

 

Tony.
 

[Andwil]

Bad luck with the decals, hopefully you can find suitable replacements.

 

AW