P-51 B/C Mustang Air Racer

[Courageous]

Hi All.

With my growing interest in Air Racers, I was very much surprised with the prompt delivery from Australia of Hasegawa's box of goodies, this:

...yum, yum.

Decals look very nice but they're Hasegawa, so...

Both owned by Jacqueline Cochran to set various records; NX28388 article here and N5528N article here.

Not to sure whether I will do both of them in the GB but I will need to get the Mustang II and III at an advanced stage before I'm happy to start another.

 

Stuart

[Toryu]

This is a great variation of the P-51B theme. You must do the blue one, it would satisfy all 361st FG modellers who would like to have blue Mustangs. 😀 Joke aside, the blue one is more colourful since the green one will not look much different from the OD war horses.

[Courageous]

28 minutes ago, Toryu said:

the blue one is more colourful since the green one will not look much different from the OD war horses.

I tend to agree, you never know I might just do both of them, saves any fussin'.

 

Stuart

[Hewy]

3 hours ago, Toryu said:

You must do the blue one,

Obviously i agree  with our esteemed friend 😋

[Cheshiretaurus]

Ooh very nice, Just got a book on Excalibur III, That would be a nice build one day.

 

[Johnson]

Interesting set Stuart, I hope you have the time to build one!

[TEMPESTMK5]

Good afternoon Stuart

 Welcome aboard with this civilan Mustang ...

Have fun with your build

Patrice

 

[RidgeRunner]

A very nice choice, Stuart. I intend to get off the military treadmill for a brief foray in to civil Mustangs. I have two in mind, with the decals for one. Good luck with this. It should look great!

 

Martin

 

[Courageous]

I might just be a little bit mad but I've decided to start both the racers.

 

Cockpits built , painted enclosed within their fuselages. Belts were added, using kitchen foil and painted Vallejo khaki. Having now built the cockpits of both the Hasegawa and KP, the KP has the better cockpits. Still be done is the addition of the fin fillet and the filling of the grill intakes that are located on either side of the lower carburetor intake.

 

The wheel wells are very shallow but I won't be worrying about that. The flaps unfortunately do not come separately, so I might have to detached them, on at least one a/c anyway. Being racers, unnecessary stuff like gun and ejection ports need to be filled, also the seems need filling to the 40% line.

 

Stuart

[Toryu]

Yes, just a little bit mad... 😀  I wonder if - in the case of a racer - all panel seam lines were filled, even on the fuselage. Is there any photo you could consult?

[Courageous]

4 hours ago, Toryu said:

Is there any photo you could consult?

I have checked images on the links in post #1 and I see no evidence of seams being filled, so I'll be sticking with the 'norm'. What I did notice is that I'll have to hunt down a new prop as Thunderbird was fitted with un-cuffed and polished Hamilton Standard “paddle” blades.

 

Stuart

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

This article may have info that can help ? 
 

https://www.thisdayinaviation.com/tag/nx28388/

 

Its about Jackie Cochrans Mustangs and that Jimmy Stewart bought one of them. 
 

OOOPS ! Didn't realize you already had a link to it in the 1st post. 

Edited January 26, 2020 by Corsairfoxfouruncle

[Courageous]

Time to get my butt in gear with these two.

 

Gun ports filled. Cartridge ejection ports filled. Formation lights filled. 40% chord lines filled.

 

Stuart

[RidgeRunner]

They are coming along, Stuart. I'm really looking forward to your "take" on these colourful machines

 

Martin 

[Courageous]

1 hour ago, RidgeRunner said:

They are coming along,

Thanks mate, me too.

 

Last update for the evening...

 

Wings sanded, primed , filled, sanded and primed again. Now fitted to their fuselages. Wing roots are not to bad but I'll give them some PPP to tidy them up, then I'll move to the tail end.

 

Stuart

[Courageous]

Should try and move these along...

 

Tail planes on and a little PPP applied where needed. I found masking the canopies was a bit of a faff the last few times, so I have elected to use masks this time but I only have one set at the moment.

 

Stuart

[Cheshiretaurus]

4 hours ago, Courageous said:

Should try and move these along...

Yes, were watching.  Now where did I put that popcorn.

[Courageous]

Sorry for the delay, life getting in the way.

 

All masked and primed. Wheels and undercarriage all painted. This racer will become NX28388 and will be painted overall green with an orange spinner. The kit comes with the wrong props and should be fitted with HS standard non-cuffed version that were fitted to later P-51D/K and F-51's, so a Quickboost resin option has been selected.

 

Stuart

[Courageous]

Looks good to me but this won't make the finish line, just realised that I have no orange for the spinner. To make the situation worse, the orange needs to match the orange 'NX28388' decal. I will plod on as far as I can.

 

Stuart

[Alan P]

1 hour ago, Courageous said:

Looks good to me but this won't make the finish line, just realised that I have no orange for the spinner. To make the situation worse, the orange needs to match the orange 'NX28388' decal. I will plod on as far as I can.

 

Stuart

What a shame about the deadline, but please do finish them 😇

[Andwil]

Ha ha, I forgot this was a racer and when I saw the green I thought “WTF has he done”!    Need to pay more attention.

 

Looking really good and a shame it won’t get finished in time for the GB.

 

AW

[TEMPESTMK5]

19 hours ago, Alan P said:

What a shame about the deadline, but please do finish them 😇

Hi Alan

 I confess that I would prefer that such an interesting GB could last longer ( a year long GB would be great ..) but I am just folowing the rules I dont' write them ..

 

All the best

Patrice

[Alan P]

20 minutes ago, TEMPESTMK5 said:

Hi Alan

 I confess that I would prefer that such an interesting GB could last longer ( a year long GB would be great ..) but I am just folowing the rules I dont' write them ..

 

All the best

Patrice

Of course, this is why GBs are both fun and challenging 👍

[Terry1954]

Just found this Stuart. Another great Mustang build.

 

I have a couple of questions:

 

1. You filled the 40% chord lines. I have heard from different sources, that Mustangs often had wing joins filled in real life, so engraved lines on a model need likewise. Is this why you filled the 40% line?

2. That Vallejo green looks to be from their "normal" range, i.e. not airbrushable, but clearly with the right thinning, airbrushing works fine?

 

I'm with @Alan P in that you should finish regardless of the deadline, they will look great. I'm sure you will match the orange up just right for the second one.

 

Great subjects and a great build so far.

 

Cheers

 

Terry

 

 

[Courageous]

43 minutes ago, Terry1954 said:

Is this why you filled the 40% line?

Correct, although the jury is still out on how effective it was. Like a lot of things, this is another thing that manufacturers failed to pick up during their research but it's an easy fix.

45 minutes ago, Terry1954 said:

the right thinning, airbrushing works fine?

Yes, I did thin it but in hindsight, it needed to be thinner, lesson learnt.

47 minutes ago, Terry1954 said:

should finish regardless of the deadline,

Not knowing about the builds after the deadline, I have had it confirmed that build can continue but cannot be added to gallery. So, that's what's going to happen, I've ordered the orange paint according to kit mixture. Until then, the build will continue and when finished will find its way onto the aircraft RF!.