Academy 1/72 P-51B - Fred Glover's 'Rebel Queen' - Finished!!!

[vppelt68]

11 hours ago, Andwil said:

Masking that open canopy is going to be interesting.

 

AW

Eduard CX052 has separate masks for open and closed canopy - I have two sets of them on order at the moment - and I plan to try to use them for a two sided mask and paint job

[Johnson]

1 hour ago, vppelt68 said:

Eduard CX052 has separate masks for open and closed canopy

Thanks VP, good call. I have just ordered a set.

[Johnson]

Wheel well woes...

 

I painted Old Crow's wheel wells with Alclad2 Aluminium, but it's volatile solvents reacted badly with the oil based neutral grey enamel from painting the underside earlier;

 

 

What wonderful crinkle finish paint! I should have foreseen that this would happen .  I didn't even spot the other damage (now repaired) until I posted this photo. I don't think I can do much to improve the wheel well, a total strip would work but I'm not going to risk the probable damage to the underside. Some interior green on the spars and a bit of weathering might make it look better.

 

Having learned from the above, I just used very light coats of Alclad on Rebel Queen's wheel wells (which are much better anyway being the Academy kit), then painted the spars with interior green;

 

 

You might not see it in the photo above, but I did use a dark Tamiya wash in the wheel wells in an attempt to give them a bit of depth, it appears to have had much more affect on the matt interior green than the Alclad aluminium. Again, I suppose this was quite predictable . A little bit of a touch up with fresh green I think.

 

Ho hum.

 

[Johnson]

Fun with decals...

 

 

The Hasegawa decals (Old Crow) were dreadful. The Stars and Bars disintegrated in the water. The nose art/name 'Old Crow' and codes B6-S were far too thin, but luckily they were also included in the Academy decals which were much better.

 

The Academy nose art, the young lady in the red swimsuit was very basic so I made my own. But of course homemade decals have no white component so she was mostly see through (all - not just the swimsuit! ). I had to print her on Mr Paper decal paper, seal her with a few coats of acylic varnish, float her off the decal paper and paint the reverse with white gloss when dry. Then apply her to the nose and touch up the white showing with more OD paint. I think she looks OK, but the name 'Rebel Queen' is a bit iffy, but I think it will have to do.

 

The kill markings on Rebel Queen also look a bit odd, being all white. But this is how they were in the photos, not as Academy suggest with black crosses.

 

On the final straight now, a coat of matt varnish and add all the bits and bobs. But, whether to weather? Not very good at it really, but Rebel Queen was certainly a bit weathered, so may have to add a bit .

 

Cheers!

[Toryu]

4 hours ago, Johnson said:

I had to print her on Mr Paper decal paper, seal her with a few coats of acylic varnish, float her off the decal paper and paint the reverse with white gloss when dry.

Very good! That's exactly what I did in the past. I think it works very nicely, as your nose art shows. Great progress on both, btw!

[Courageous]

18 hours ago, Johnson said:

I had to print her on Mr Paper decal paper, seal her with a few coats of acylic varnish, float her off the decal paper and paint the reverse with white gloss when dry.

Then what...how  do you then fix this decal you've just painted on the back? 

 

Stuart

[Johnson]

2 hours ago, Courageous said:

Then what...how  do you then fix this decal you've just painted on the back? 

It's a bit of a faff Stuart, but this is what I did, I'll start at the beginning...

• First I had to 'create' the nose art* as a JPEG image and I did this using Paint Shop Pro (Photo Shop etc will obviously work). The image was quite large which doesn't matter at this stage. If you want to know more about how I created the actual image, send me a PM.
• I then copied the nose art image into MS Word. Make the page on the screen the same size as an A4 document (104% on my laptop) so you can manipulate and reduce the size of the image to the size of the decal you want to use.
• Try a test print on plain paper. The print has to be 'Best Photo' in the print dialogue. The test page will tell you whether it looks OK and is the right size.
• Once you're happy, create (copy and paste in word) as many copies of the nose art image as you think you might need. I did about 10, and varied the size a bit. Place these images right at the top of the page, then when you print on decal paper you can just cut off the top inch or so and re-use the remainder of the paper.
• Now print for real on decal paper! I used 'Mr Decal' clear paper, works very well. Buy from Amazon. Leave to dry for 20 mins. Apply 3 light coats of airbrushed acrylic varnish to seal the ink jet image. the first coat very light to stop the ink running or breaking up, other coats can be heavier. Leave to dry. Hopefully you'll have a decal image you can then use.
• Run a very sharp blade carefully round the 'nose art' (not cutting through the backing paper) to get the size of decal you want to use, soak in warm water as normal but don't get it too wet, you need to retain as much of the decal adhesive solution as possible. Lift off the un-used decal paper surrounding the ' nose art' and discard. You're left with the 'art' as a decal on the still wet decal adhesive solution/film. Turn it over carefully with a paintbrush, of course it may fold up (this is why you need multiple copies!). Leave it overnight to dry. I did three in case the next stages went up the creek.
• Paint the reverse of the nose art with gloss white paint, you need white under the art only. Leave to dry.
• Next day... 
• You've got your decal but it's reversed and white. Soak as normal and when ready turn it back over to get the back wet with decal solution. Apply the decal. Stand back and admire (well, hopefully!)

* this could be any image, a squadron badge etc.

 

There, I told you it was a bit long winded!

 

I'd never tried this before and had no idea if it would work. But I still had the rather naff Academy Rebel Queen and if that failed the P-51B would have become Don Gentile's Shangri-La using very old Microscale decals! I think if you're doing something like this, a backup plan is useful.

 

I started making homemade decals last year in the FROG GB, just black numbers for my Sea Fury and I found it great fun! I have to thank @PeterB for getting me started.

 

Cheers,

[Cheshiretaurus]

Brilliant plan 👍 I need to try this. Got a few nose arts to do on planned future builds. 

[Cookenbacher]

Brilliant work all around, the chequered nose is perfect and your paint/decal nose art is to be admired for both technique and result.

[Johnson]

OK folks, I need your help here!

 

I was starting on Old Crow's undercarriage, and specifically the wheels that Capt Anderson had done with very nice (but hard to model) white walled tires.

 

Then I noticed that the hubs were much darker than the usual aluminum;

 

 

See what I mean? I think they have been painted, and why not - he'd had the tires spruced up! But what color are they?

 

Cheers,

[dogsbody]

Something in the back of my mind says red, but I'd check that before I applied any paint.

 

 

Chris

[Toryu]

Black (to contrast with the whitewall tyres) or red. Several others in the 363rd FS were similarly adorned. I try and find a colour photo of any of those.

[Johnson]

Thanks chaps, red would look great! But black's good too.

[Andwil]

4 hours ago, dogsbody said:

Something in the back of my mind says red, but I'd check that before I applied any paint.

 

 

Chris

Gentile’s Shangri-la had red painted wheels, this is probably what you’re thinking of.  I found this out after I had built a model of it and had to carefully repaint the wheels in situ. 

 

AW

[dogsbody]

10 minutes ago, Andwil said:

Gentile’s Shangri-la had red painted wheels, this is probably what you’re thinking of.  I found this out after I had built a model of it and had to carefully repaint the wheels in situ. 

 

AW

 

Ah! that could be it. The ol' brain sustained a lot of damage in my 20's when I was single.

 

 

Chris

[SteveStarPics]

As always Charles - fantastic attention to detail and extraordinary clean work. Looking forward to seeing your brace of Mustangs in the flesh.

 

Steve

[Johnson]

17 hours ago, Cookenbacher said:

Brilliant work all around, the chequered nose is perfect and your paint/decal nose art is to be admired for both technique and result.

Thanks Cookie, I'm enjoying the build but very time consuming. I'd really like to get an Airfix 1/72 P-51D done before the STGB finishes but I think it's unlikely... decorating is getting in the way

 

16 hours ago, Toryu said:

Black (to contrast with the whitewall tyres)

I think, looking at the pics, that black would be my choice. But then the red in the nose checkers is very dark... decisions, decisions. 

 

12 hours ago, Andwil said:

Gentile’s Shangri-la had red painted wheels

and as AW says, there was already one with red wheels,

 

11 hours ago, dogsbody said:

The ol' brain sustained a lot of damage in my 20's when I was single

A lot of us did that Chris! 

 

13 minutes ago, SteveStarPics said:

fantastic attention to detail and extraordinary clean work

Cheers Steve. I'm going to do a bit of weathering, certainly on Rebel Queen, so that may mess up the clean appearance!

[Toryu]

Back to the wheel colour -

I didn't find a colour photo but at least a drawing which adds another opinion.

In Grinsell 'P-51', Jane's Publishing, 1980 https://www.amazon.com.au/P-51-Mustang-Robert-Grinsell/dp/0517542579

there is a large centerfold colour drawing of an olive drab P-51B, B6-S of the 363rd FS. This has whitewall tyres with black (!) wheels. The tailwheel is depicted with whitewall tyres, too. The drawing is very good and very accurate in all aspects, so I would give this rendition some credibility.

To compare with 4th FG wheel colours (which were indeed red on some Mustangs) is not a good idea in my view. Colour decorations varied largely from FG to FG.

 

Cheers, Michael

[Johnson]

Thanks Michael,

 

Phew - I painted them black last night!

 

Cheers,

[Toryu]

Just as a final comment about the wheel colour mystery and for your interest:

I just started reading Merle Olmsted's Yoxford Boys, the story of the 357th FG. The squadron colour of the 363rd FS was red as displayed by their Mustang's rudder later in the war. This squadron colour had a first life during stateside training as their P-39s sported a red nose band and a red front wheel disc! So, despite my firm belief in black wheel discs for B6-S it seems we cannot completely rule out red as a possibility 🙃.

 

Cheers, Michael

[gingerbob]

Funny you should say that- I'd been reluctant to add my speculation (which is all it is), but going by the bottom right photo especially, it strikes me as clearly lighter than the black of the invasion stripes, and similar in "greyness" to the red of the checkers, etc.

[Toryu]

@gingerbob

Hmm, depends at which of the 4 pictures you look - sun/shade variations...

 

How about suggesting for Charlie to take red on one side and black on the other?

[Johnson]

7 hours ago, Toryu said:

So, despite my firm belief in black wheel discs for B6-S it seems we cannot completely rule out red as a possibility 🙃.

Without the colour photo to prove otherwise... I think I'll leave them black (for now).

 

7 hours ago, gingerbob said:

I'd been reluctant to add my speculation (which is all it is), but going by the bottom right photo especially, it strikes me as clearly lighter than the black of the invasion stripes, and similar in "greyness" to the red of the checkers, etc.

I see what you mean, but then there's the angle of the light striking the dished wheel centres. And look at the names detail just ahead of the cockpit (pilot and crew chief etc), almost certainly black, but has that same grey shade as the wheels...

 

I think the speculation is really useful, I'm grateful for your thoughts!

 

5 hours ago, Toryu said:

red on one side and black on the other?

Not a bad idea! 

[gingerbob]

Maybe that central "cap" is yellow, continuing the Group colors idea?  Seems like a reasonable match.

[Johnson]

1 minute ago, gingerbob said:

Maybe that central "cap" is yellow

Arrrggghhh!!! I just painted it silver. 

 

I think I'll leave it...