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1/48 P-51D "Daddy's Girl" (Tamiya Kit)


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Hi All,

 

I finally crossed the finish line with this build which took the better part of 2+ years on and off with a long hiatus in between due to the arrival of my daughter... I had long started the build before she shattered our idle existence so the scheme I selected turned out to be quite prophetic 😄

In any case the plane is built from the highly regarded old Tamiya 1/48 scale kit, and to be honest there are better kits out there now that are far more detailed out of the box. 

I made significant modifications to the kit cockpit and scratch built a lot of additional detail to compensate for the fairly basic detailing I started with. I also re-built the incorrect wheel bays from scratch which represented the most significant bit of scratch building I have yet undertaken.

Aftermarket bits are limited to a set of Eduard Steel series seatbelts and a Falcon Vacform canopy (also my first time working with these).

 

I used Vallejo Metal Colour acylics for the NMF applied using a multi layer shading technique to generate some subtle variation in the metal finish. I was after a realistically worn dull oxidized look that's seen in period photos.

Markings are from a Lifelike Decals set.

 

More details in the build thread linked below.

Build Thread

 

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Thanks for looking 🙂

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It is great to see a less well known P-51D and built and painted so expertly too,....... congratulations on a very lovely model sir,

Cheers

           Tony

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That‘s an excellently built Mustang. Great work on the cockpit and wheel bays. The 359th FG green is also well matched. Congratulations!

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Squibby, I found the WIP thread after your hiatus, and I think you did an amazing job. I would have cheated with AM parts, but you added all that glorious detail yourself. Thank you for sticking with it, and sharing your results. 
 

How old is your daughter now? I’ve got a 19 month old here at home. Modeling time is limited to weekend naps and after she goes to bed, that is when the Misses doesn’t want to “hang out together” (not sure why) or have a list of things to get done. And of course, after all the sleep interruptions, messes, and general exhaustion, she thinks she wants to add another. 
 

Anyway, back on topic. Everything looks Grade-A!

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Cheers all for the comments, I'm really proud of this one.

 

@Toryu Cheers, I just ended up using Tamiya XF-5 flat green straight out of the jar. In the end though from photos I've seen the green varied quite a bit, probably since they just repainted it with whatever was available at the time.

 

@RadMax8 Cheers mate, it was tough and really sapped my mojo at times hence the long build time. I finished off heavily detailed areas like the cockpit and just lost the will to continue for months. I'm glad I did finally dust it off (literally) and finish it. 

My daughter is a shade over 16 months, and what you describe is also essentially my life these days as well 😄. Modelling time is very limited so I'm not sure how long it'll take me to finish another one of these detailed builds, I may stick to the realm of quicker 1/72 scale projects for a bit.

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