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Airfix 1/48 P51- D5 'Louis IV'


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Hi guys,

 

After not posting much for a little while I thought i'd share my christmas project with you all. I had been building some pretty poor kits in my stash that either had major fit issues or I was not taking my time, making a mistake and losing interest. So I decided to re work my modelling room for a fresh start; switch out the kits I had lost interest in for Airfix new tooling or Tamiya kits and try and start from scratch with better fitting and more straight forward kits. 

I started with a Tamiya Bf109 e-3 in 1/48th and loved the build process so decided to set a small challenge for myself and build a kit for my dad for christmas.

 

As you can see by the title, I chose the Airfix 1/48 P51- D5 'Louis IV' after spotting it in a Hornby store a week prior. I have always enjoyed building the natural metal style warbird as they can be a bit of a challenge to shade and weather but I always love the look of them at the end (currently have a B24J 'Dragon and his tail' half built so that will really test my metallic skills), but also wanted a kit that would stand out from your usual P51's as it will be on his desk at work. The kit is post D- Day and was stationed in the UK which led to its interesting design of RAF Dark green, olive drab invasion stripe cover up, a bright yellow cowling and nose with the usual metal and lower invasion stripes.

The kit went together amazingly, I only used a small amount of acrylic putty to hide seam lines, other than that the kit fell together. The real time went into the painting, more specifically the Invasion stipes as I always seem to struggle with lining them up on the sides but am quite pleased with them overall. 

 

The base was made with a lot of colour mixing and a stand I picked up off Amazon which I beleive was actually a tea caddy and was chosen due to the industrial look of it. I added a few spent bullets to the base for a bit more variation, sadly these are not .50 cal as they're not that easy to get hold of and im not quite sure how much of the roundel would have been left by the end. 😅 The support to hold it up is temporary, I have not found a piece of clear acrylic the right size yet; but for now am happy with the support.

 

Although not getting it done bang on christmas, it was finished on 27th and overall its a kit im quite pleased with, despite maybe overdoing it on the exhaust stains which I decided not to mess with anymore as it was making the result worse. I dont usually post photos of my finished builds as I still cant get my photos to come out anywhere near what the kit looks like and im a bit meticulous when it comes to things like that. I tried to find the best spot for lighting and change a few settings on my phone but they still never look right. 

 

Anyway, this kit has really got me back into the swing of things so I may try and tackle the B24J im stuck with. Hope you all enjoy! 👍

Ryan

 

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6 hours ago, Steve27752 said:

Very nice, but how can it fly without a pilot?

Aha, well I painted up a pilot for the kit but put it in a safe place and it must have been really safe because I dont actually know where its gone. I have left the canopy spot glued so I can come back once I either find the figure or paint another. :D

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