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Novo P-51 Mustang 1A.


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She's now complete and decorated! quite pleased with this one!

 

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The cannons and snout guns worked out well; the decals were rather iffy though! Some of these cheaper kits can have poor quality decals and this was no exception, the yellow bands were decals but i decided to paint them on instead of faffing about with decals there; the 'Betty Jean' decal on the other side was rather problematic, in fact once i had it in place i noticed a small tear but managed to get the problem sorted smartish!  The aircraft serial numbers in yellow were an issue because one of them came off the paper and wrinkled up too much to be of any use so i cut the remaining one in half because on the plan page the number is obscured halfway through by the star and bars, cutting this decal in half and using each half accordingly, solved the problem. All in, i persevered with it and got it finished and ready to go into the cabinet! Note the Stars & Bars on the tail! made to look like its wrapped around the leading edge of the rudder!

 

I'm nearly finished building an Academy P-51B/C in 1:72; its been a lovely kit to build, every part clearly marked and set in the sprue nicely; normally the little tang on the top of the P-51 landing gear as part of the u/c door is part of the sprue and ends up being lost because the sprue aren't too clever, but on this kit there was plenty of thought into how things were moulded in the sprues! Really getting the hang of this modelling lark now! When i do a wheel i just paint the whole thing black and then use a tiny amount of silver on a brush, the brush is almost dry, this tends to highlight the wheel rather than make a clogged mass of silver in the centre! Just one of my tricks, i assembled the bombs and rockets for this kit and then put them into my box of spares! As always i will put a picture on this group when she's done!

Edited by Markh-75
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Thank you; I like the little Novo kits, easy to build and you can put as much detail on them as you want, they're like a blank canvas! The snout guns and cannons are actually pins, i took the heads off them with the Dremel and used a VERY small drill bit to drill where the machine guns were in the wings, and to build the cannons out i just painted them three or four coats of gloopy paint i have, smoothed them down and painted them up!

Edited by Markh-75
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Thanks folks! I am rather pleased with this kit,  bought it to replace a Condor P-51 kit, when i started it the glue melted the plastic, i painted the landing gear and the paint deformed it; just bad plastic. That kit had the snout guns and cannons and i saw this Novo going for a song so i bought it to replace the Condor kit. I usually 'make' the canopy fit, i dry fit it to see how it looks and adjust by careful trimming on the fuselage and the clear part until it fits nicely, that means when its ready to go on there will be no fuss; and i dont use Liquid Poly for canopies now, i put a small spot of cement at four points and then place it on. Liquid poly can waste the clear parts because it can draw the surrounding paint into it when it cures, making a right mess. IF there is a gap i can do nothing with i will paint it with a paint that is a bit thicker at the gap and then when dry i paint the correct colour. I love doing the clear parts now, and they can really 'make' the look of a kit! I have posted somewhere in the forum about how i do the painting of clear parts. I think its in the 'workbench' area on this group.

I am building an Academy P-51B/C just now, and as you say they are cracking kits to build! I wont be long now as its most of the way there so look out for it when i post it!

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1 hour ago, Britman said:

Markh, were the rear canopy panels short moulded? I think that was the only real problem with this kit.

 

Keith

Yes a tiny bit; i dont trim ANYthing around the cockpit area when i cut from the sprue until i have checked the clear parts first. I cut with side cutters and then carefully use a knife to cut anything that will take too long to sand away; i then rub away any flashings with 800 or 1000 grade, wet and dry paper. i use the matt cote to close up any small gaps between the model and the clear parts, its nice and gunky and can fill gaps nicely, i just paint over it if needed and then a second coat to make it look the same.

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That was a few years ago so still a good effort my friend! (I never laugh at someone else's efforts, just not done). When you consider that the internet is a fantastic resource now and back then, the decals were pretty basic too. i ALWAYS do research on my next kit online, download pictures etc and i can see them on my phone when i'm downstairs working on the model, so no running about up and downstairs required! There are all kinds of things available now for modellers; i would have known nothing about particular markings unless they were on the box and back in the 70's much of this info was not freely available! You can even buy alternative decals for a kit, you still use the stars and bars etc that came with the kit but you paint the model to the colours and markings and then use the alternative serial numbers and nose arts etc. My P-51B was a Revell kit and i painted it in 4th FG markings and put on decals for 'Nick "Cowboy" Megura. The C model i'm doing just now will be in the colours and markings of Ralph K. Hofer, also of the 4th FG. (look for my post named 'March-75s first 3 finished models).

I add all sorts of things like the little navigation lights on the wings, if applicable i add the markings on the propeller blades; for me and MY big ol' clumsy fingers, trying to fit a decal onto a propeller blade no matter how well trimmed down, is just not a viable option so i carefully paint them on in matt so it dries dull, i use a very small brush, and cocktail sticks with very little paint on. If an aircraft has stripes, even as decals, i use masking tape and paint the stripes on instead of faff about with fidgety decals. Thanks for your interest, Trevor!

Edited by Markh-75
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