A pair of manky Mustangs

[stevehnz]

I originally had in mind to do these for the recent P-51 Mustang Gb, there was no way I was going to get a start for these before Christmas but from memory, it was about mid January I pulled them out, even got around to taking sprue photos for both of them. Plenty of time, right. Nah.

 

This is, I think, the original Hasegawa P-51D, I'm not sure if I'd assembled the wings years ago or bought it thus. I tend to choose older or lesser kits for GBs so I don't feel the pressure to make them too good. Yeah right. I still couldn't resist opening up the radiator & oil cooler ducts & doing seat belts in the cockpit.

This in the Intech kit reboxed by Smer, I chased it down for the decal options & I should have just kept the decals & binned the kit, it really was a stinker, fairly obviously a copy of the Hasegawa P-51B/C kit but not a good one. The only time I mentioned my intention was when @stevej60 showed keen to have a crack at a Mistercraft boxing of the same kit. I can only assume he looked closer at it & saw the light.   This didn't have any representation of the radiator & oil cooler ducts, barely even lines to follow & of course stupid here just couldn't resist fixing that.  The plastic in the belly of this kit was close to 2mm thick & really took some hacking out. The Propagteam decals were beautifully printed but oh so thin & after fluking the first underwing D-day stripes decal into place first go I felt confident we were onto a winner, the next one fixed that notion hence the ones under the starboard wing area are painted on. The rest got some Microscale Liquid Decal Film & went on just fine.

 

Anyway, thats where it stayed, for pretty much the next two months, I didn't even register a thread for them, for a couple of reasons, it just wasn't happening, we had a new cat in the house, a totally manic wee Burmese tom, as daft as a loon, mad as a box of frogs type manic, so any chance I had of using my temporary modelling roost, a tray on the dining table was sunk. Eventually I managed to cobble together a corner in the basement, in front of some shelves that will eventually become a display case, with a folding wooden table, the sort of thing you might eat your dinner off in front of the TV, & a fold down chair, so as I could contract when finished.  & so I began. Progress was slow to begin with & I became aware I wasn't taking WIP shots, that had been my next plan once the GB thing passed by, I managed precisely one, at quite an advanced stage of construction.

 

 

So about a week ago, I finally decided they were done as much as I could be bothered, there is some more to get on with & hopefully, now I'm set up, sort of, I can make progress on these. Thus without more ado, a pair of Mustangs from the group known as the Blue Nosed Motherless Children of Bodney. The eagled eyed among you will see they're both coded HO-M. The P-51D is Petie 2nd flown by Colonel John Meyer of the 487FS 357th FG, the P-51B Little Anne from the same outfit but flown by Lt Glenn Moran. For those who might think the latter shouldn't have its inner gear doors down, see here.

 

 

 

 

 

The Hasegawa kit, old that it was, went together, as one would expect, quite well but required a fair bit of filler, the Smer kit like wise but only after a lot of dry fitting, scraping sanding & pfaffing around. After gluing the fuselage I then found the canopy was too narrow so I broke out my 2/3 scale sihrsc file to thin the rear razor back till it fitted & then rescribed some of the major panel lines. The blue nose on the P-51C was Humbrol 14 straight from the tin, the P-51D got Humbrol 25 with about 20% 14 added to it. I've no way of knowing how correct they are but they look about right to me.  

Steve.

[Wulfman]

Great job on the old Mustangs ! I built the Hasegawa, not bad apart from the sackcloth covering on the fin. I had the

original Intech which was so awful it went straight into the bin ! You have made an amazing job on that one !

 

Wulfman

[Stew Dapple]

Silk purses, both of them Steve  

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Well done work on both Steve. 

[Hairtrigger]

Great pair of ponies...  

[Bedders]

Very nice both of them Steve, with the B ahead by a short nose because of the interesting decal option.

 

Justin

[stevehnz]

14 minutes ago, Bedders said:

B ahead by a short nose because of the interesting decal option.

Thats what I thought too Justin, I'd love to get my hands on another set & use it on a decent kit. It's always nice to go with a less common but attractive set of markings.

Thanks to all for the likes & nice comments, they really are encouraging.

Steve.

[jean]

Hi Steve,

 

you've done a great job on both Mustangs! Congrats! I have a weakness for blue noses (please don't ask...) so I am really enjoying looking at your post.

Plenty of excellent Mustang to be found around, and more decals than anybody could use in a lifetime.

So you're all good!

 

Congrats!!!

JR

[Gorby]

Excellent job on both of them Steve!

[F-32]

Lovely horses

[tonyot]

Nothing manky about these two Steve,..... lovely job mate,

Cheers

            Tony

[Team Aer Lingus]

A stunning looking pair Steve lovely finish on both 

 

thanks for sharing

 

regards

 

Eamonn

[Meatbox8]

I missed these the first time round Steve.  A terrific pair of Mustangs.  I especilly like the B.  Did you brush paint the silver? It looks great.

[IanC]

I'm glad these have surfaced again, as you have two very nice little Mustangs there, Steve. In perhaps the most attractive FG colour of all!

 

 

[Homer]

A pair of excellent models,well done 👏. 

[112 Squadron]

Excellent build! It is always good to see how older 1/72 kits are turned into such perfect models with a lot of care. 👍 Those blue nosed Mustangs of the 352nd FG from Bodney are indeed attractive and since a great number of outstanding pilots such as Preddy, Meyer, Bryan and many others served in that unit it is really hard to choose which of their P-51s to built. Both Aeromaster and Eagle Strike did some really nice decal sheets for the 352nd back in the 90s. 

Edited December 15, 2020 by 112 Squadron

[Col Walter E Kurtz]

Dedication Steve. I like the end result. Well done indeed!

The blue noses look just fine.

[supersonic]

Such a fine pair of Ponies...

[stevehnz]

8 hours ago, tonyot said:

Nothing manky about these two Steve,..... lovely job mate,

Cheers

            Tony

Thanks Tony, the manky bit was for the kits, The Hasegawa one less so, just old but still a decent shape, the Smer/Mistercraft one very much so, comparing sprues, a poor knock off of the Hasegawa B/C kit. I wasn't too unhappy with them in the end but the -C till shows it's origins in heavy detail especially the U/C.

 

7 hours ago, Meatbox8 said:

I especilly like the B.  Did you brush paint the silver? It looks great.

Humbrol 27001 & 27002 brushed, it was the first time I'd used them & I'm not sure I had it right but they came out ok at a metre or so or in small photos.  I picked them up just prior to our lockdown in March as my new tin of Hu11 was such a disappointment.

Thanks to everyone else for the kind words, they were a lockdown project that was good to have to focus on.  

Steve.

 

[tonyot]

Steve,.... send me your address mate,.... I`ve found those decals! 

[opus999]

I dunno... I think these look terrific!  I've got the exact same Hasagawa... been eyeballing that one lately....

[Rabbit Leader]

Nothing manky about those two Steve, they have both turned out very well and apologies for missing these first time around. 
Cheers.. Dave 

[Jackson Duvalier]

I missed this post first time around.  The 352nd Mustangs are very attractive and it's great to see you show off a couple of builds, Steve.  😎

 

Does anybody know if the old Hasegawa P-51D wings will fit easily onto a newer-tool Hasegawa P-51D fuselage?  My thought is it might be easier to to get a "laminar flow" wing by sanding of raised details than by filling in recessed lines.