Blast from the past! Monogram 1/72 P-51B

[opus999]

My next build is a factory sealed Monogram P-51B:

 

 

 

This was a "sorry I goofed up your order" gift from an ebay vendor.  I initially wasn't too interested because of the raised detail and all, but now I think I can tackle it and maybe do it a little justice.  I'm not a rescriber -- it just looks terrible when I do it, so I have other plans, but more on that later.

 

Can you imagine spending 99 cents on a model?

 

 

I felt weird taking the shrink wrap off what I figured to be about a 45 year old kit.  But, I did it and here's what I was greeted with when opening the box:

 

 

I remember I had that same catalog when I was a kid!  My dad gave it to me after one of his Monogram builds.  Now I don't know when the kit came out, but it was probably pretty close to this:

 

 

So that means the plastic in this box hasn't seen the light of day for around 45 years!

 

I was amazed that decals were just about perfect, even though I won't be using them.

 

 

So, I have done this kit before.  When I was 12 or 13 I swiped it from my Dad's stash, along with the aftermarket decals he bought for it, and created this... erm.... "masterpiece"...

 

 

That wasn't the first time I'd done "Shangri-la" either -- I'd swiped my Dad's Revell 1/32 P-51B which had "Shangri-la" as the scheme.  So, my plan is to make a replacement using these decals:

 

 

After that I will probably take the old kit, strip it down and re-make it with some other decals I have.

 

Anyway... after that long preamble...  The first step I plan to do on this build is to do something about the wheel wells, as seen here on the old model:

 

 

I will attempt to scratch build some better looking wheel wells.  BTW, does anyone know what those tabs sticking out around the opening are?  It seems like they would interfere with the gear door.

[stevehnz]

Sorry, can't help with the tabs but keen to see how you go with this, I've one I bought recently after reading it has maybe the best shape of any 1/72 P-51Bs.

Steve.

[opus999]

10 minutes ago, stevehnz said:

Sorry, can't help with the tabs but keen to see how you go with this, I've one I bought recently after reading it has maybe the best shape of any 1/72 P-51Bs.

Steve.

Steve:  This is good to know! I wasn't aware of that.  I've got a 70's era Hasegawa P-51D that I plan to do something with someday... I wonder how that stacks up?

 

Hmm.  I guess this means I have to start doing something on this.   

[billn53]

I’m guessing the tabs are there in case you want to close the gear doors for a wheels-up display.

[Jackson Duvalier]

Happy to see you tackling this classic.   That colour promo looks suitable for framing!  I have happy memories of the one I had as a kid, despite its having wound up as an experimental crash diorama complete with bullet holes, bent prop, and shattered perspex... your Shangri-La is a nicer model than mine was.  

 

Monogram got the wing shape right in 1967, and nobody has replicated the feat since, nor has anybody gotten the wheel bays right.  The good folks in Morton Grove left a nice open area to make it easy for the modeler to fill in with an appropriate handmade wheel bay!  Replicating the puttied laminar-flow wings should be easier to do by sanding off raised panel lines than by filling two wings' worth of engraved lines, never a particularly fun chore.

 

Have you considered drawing the panel lines back on with a pencil rather than scribing?

 

Kits World transfers are excellent and easy to work with, as they should be at their premium price.  I'm curious as to how they've chosen to depict Gentile's personal markings, other sets for Shangri-La seem to vary wildly.  🤔

[TheRealMrEd]

I believe their was a small problem with the chin intake, but a search on line should reveal some discussion about it.  I forget the details, since I last built one around 1973...

 

Ed

[Marcin Wojciechowski]

Very nice vintage kit. I like vintage models.

[opus999]

21 hours ago, billn53 said:

I’m guessing the tabs are there in case you want to close the gear doors for a wheels-up display.

Yeah... I don't these tabs on other builds, so I think they will get sanded off...   As an aside... I see you're from Madison!  My In laws are in New London so I get to go to WI from time to time.

[opus999]

20 hours ago, Jackson Duvalier said:

The good folks in Morton Grove left a nice open area to make it easy for the modeler to fill in with an appropriate handmade wheel bay!

Well I'm going to give it a shot!

 

20 hours ago, Jackson Duvalier said:

Have you considered drawing the panel lines back on with a pencil rather than scribing?

Funny you should ask!  That's been my M.O. since my F/A-18 build where all the raised panel lines had been sanded off.  I bought a Pentel Orenz 0.2 mm pencil (the smallest I could find) and have used that since.  I like it much better than washes, which I could never get to work right.  It also means I don't have to rescribe when I fill in a panel line, I just draw over it!.  My original thought for this build was to sand the paint off the raised lines, which I even tried on the old Mustang.  It worked pretty well, because of the dark plastic under the paint, but on the underside it was way too dark, so I would need to tone it down with a light coat of paint afterwards.  I'd much rather use the pencil approach, but I'm not sure how to go about it.  With the F/A-18, I found that even though the panel lines were gone, I could see where they were if I held the model in the right light.  It was a huge help.  I don't know if I can count on that again.  So, do I make a rubbing of the panel lines before I sand them off and use them as a template?  Do I use the other model and take measurements?  Maybe I'm over thinking this.

 

20 hours ago, Jackson Duvalier said:

Kits World transfers are excellent and easy to work with, as they should be at their premium price.

I'm glad to hear that. I can't remember if I've used their decals before or not.

[opus999]

20 hours ago, TheRealMrEd said:

I believe their was a small problem with the chin intake, but a search on line should reveal some discussion about it.  I forget the details, since I last built one around 1973...

 

Ed

Thanks for the head's up.  I'll have to do some looking.

15 hours ago, Marcin Wojciechowski said:

Very nice vintage kit. I like vintage models.

Yeah, I think it's going to be fun!

[opus999]

So I sat and messed around last night without any real progress, but was checking out the different materials I have for making the wheel wells.  I remembered I have an Airfix P-51D in the stash and so I got that out to take a look.  After educating myself on-line about differences between B/C and D/K wheel wells I decided that trying to match the Airfix wheel wells would be a good start, and then I can run some wire I pulled out of braided electrical wire for the hydraulics.  That's the plan, anyway.  Here's a couple shots of the Airfix wheel well detail:

 

 

 

More updates when I make some progress...

 

[Britman]

What a gem! I remember this from the early seventies and this was the Mustang of the day. I would bet it stands up very well even now. I I remember correctly the canopy was top of the range for the day, beautifully thin and clear. Regards the Hasegawa D model, I remember their first attempts at linen covered rudder and elevator, very agricultural. Enjoy the build (again) and I can maybe rekindle my memory as well.

 

Keith

[opus999]

8 hours ago, Britman said:

I would bet it stands up very well even now.

So far with dry fitting it does.

 

8 hours ago, Britman said:

I remember their first attempts at linen covered rudder and elevator, very agricultural.

Oh, yes, now I remember.  I haven't actually looked at it in a couple of years.  Well, I bet I can find a way to tone it down.  

 

8 hours ago, Britman said:

Enjoy the build (again) and I can maybe rekindle my memory as well.

Thanks!  I hope you enjoy it!

[thorfinn]

This was the first kit ever that I bought multiples of; and at a precious 80 cents each back in that long-ago day, it felt like a wicked extravagance!

Following your build with keen interest!

[opus999]

15 minutes ago, thorfinn said:

This was the first kit ever that I bought multiples of; and at a precious 80 cents each back in that long-ago day, it felt like a wicked extravagance!

Following your build with keen interest!

Oh, dear.  This one was 99 cents!  Welcome aboard!

[opus999]

Well, I got the landing gear bays all straightened out.  It was a bit of a chore actually; probably about a 5 or 6 hour job!

 

Last night I started out by boxing in the wheel wells:

 

 

That was the easiest part of the whole process.  Trimming the plastic to match the dihedral took some patience.  Then I set out to make the "roof" using the medium thickness sheet styrene in my package.  About an hour of fiddling finally got these:

 

 

They were ugly, but they worked.  I could dry fit the wings together without any interference and could dry fit the wing assembly into the fuselage, so I was good to go and headed to bed.  Well, it turns out I wasn't good to go, because this afternoon, for the life of me I couldn't get the wings to fit right with them installed!  So I took them back out and used them as templates to cut new ones out of my thinnest sheet styrene. Here they are glued in.  Ugly, yes, but from the bottom they look fine. 

 

 

Once those were glued and I confirmed that everything dry fit correctly, I set out to cut and glue the details in using my medium thickness sheet styrene and some small half-round styrene I had. Here's what I ended up with:

 

 

 

 

I'm satisfied. I'm not thrilled.  I'd hoped to put in some hydraulic lines, but I had a hard enough time manipulating the plastic, I don't think I could run little strands of wire (plus I don't have the patience at this point).  Some of the glue was a little more sloppy than I would've liked -- it will look fine painted, but may make a wash problematic.  It looks a ton better than if I hadn't done it, but I wish I'd been able to do better.

 

Ah, well, it won't be seen that often anyway since it's on the bottom.

 

I'm happy now because I feel like I can really get some traction on this build now that's out of the way!

 

 

[2996 Victor]

I'd say that's an excellent start on a vintage kit! The wheelbays look really good to me.

 

Looking forward to seeing your progress

 

Cheers,

 

Mark

[stevehnz]

3 hours ago, opus999 said:

Then I set out to make the "roof" using the medium thickness sheet styrene in my package.

I confess that when I looked at mine I figured to box the wells as you have done but then just add the same sort of detail you have directly on to the upper wing underside, a sort of good enough for a govt job approach.

Steve.

[opus999]

5 hours ago, stevehnz said:

I confess that when I looked at mine I figured to box the wells as you have done but then just add the same sort of detail you have directly on to the upper wing underside, a sort of good enough for a govt job approach.

Steve.

Steve, that's brilliant!  I sometimes get so bogged down in details that I forget the simple, obvious solution.  It probably would've been easier!  

 

8 hours ago, 2996 Victor said:

I'd say that's an excellent start on a vintage kit! The wheelbays look really good to me.

 

Looking forward to seeing your progress

Thanks, Mark!  I think I will be happier with them when they get painted (don't get me wrong, I'm pretty happy with them now).  Now I hope to really get some stuff done! 

 

 

[opus999]

Before bed last night I dry fit the fuselage and started to think about what to do about the cockpit, if anything.  Anyone who's followed me in the past knows that I have gotten away from any major cockpit detailing.  I don't build open canopies and have been very disappointed many times in the past after super detailing the cockpit and then discovering I couldn't see any of it when the build was done.  For this reason, I make sure to always install after market seat belts, because many times you can only see the seat and adding some nice Eduard steel seat belts gives the appearance of a super-detailed cockpit... even when you can't see it!  

 

But... I always check because if I can see the cockpit well enough, I'll put some work into it. Looking at the dry fit fuselage and the kit I built a long time ago, I can't see into the cockpit at all, which is good, because all they give you is a seat and a stick! 😲 So I will work on the seat and make it presentable, as it's the only thing anyone will probably see.

 

I'm also still thinking about what method to use on the panel lines.

[Jackson Duvalier]

Those wheel bays look better than what you get OOTB from a Hasegawa, Academy, or Revell P-51B.

 

The Monogram seat unit should scrub up fairly well, it's not too bad to start with.  I think the best ROI would come from separating the radio bits and in stalling a shelf they can sit on so they can float between the fuselage halves, rather than being obviously moulded to the window frames, if that makes sense?

[opus999]

3 hours ago, Jackson Duvalier said:

Those wheel bays look better than what you get OOTB from a Hasegawa, Academy, or Revell P-51B.

 

The Monogram seat unit should scrub up fairly well, it's not too bad to start with.  I think the best ROI would come from separating the radio bits and in stalling a shelf they can sit on so they can float between the fuselage halves, rather than being obviously moulded to the window frames, if that makes sense?

🤔 Hmm... Hadn't thought that far yet.  It's a good idea, I just need to think about how to implement it....

[silverkite211]

1 hour ago, opus999 said:

🤔 Hmm... Hadn't thought that far yet.  It's a good idea, I just need to think about how to implement it....

The radio could be set on a shelf that sat atop the fuselage fuel tank, depending on if the aircraft was equipped with one. I haven't seen the 1/72 kit for many years, does it have the fuel cap on the left upper side of the fuselage the way that Monogram's 1/48 scale P-51 does? When I recently built a 1/48 scale example I removed the molded in partial radio and scratched up a center fuselage tank and made a radio and mounting shelf from sheet stock. 

[VT Red Sox Fan]

This is looking really good—your wheel wells are awesome!  Best, Erwin 

[opus999]

8 hours ago, Jackson Duvalier said:

The Monogram seat unit should scrub up fairly well, it's not too bad to start with.  I think the best ROI would come from separating the radio bits and in stalling a shelf they can sit on so they can float between the fuselage halves, rather than being obviously moulded to the window frames, if that makes sense?

 

3 hours ago, silverkite211 said:

The radio could be set on a shelf that sat atop the fuselage fuel tank, depending on if the aircraft was equipped with one. I haven't seen the 1/72 kit for many years, does it have the fuel cap on the left upper side of the fuselage the way that Monogram's 1/48 scale P-51 does? When I recently built a 1/48 scale example I removed the molded in partial radio and scratched up a center fuselage tank and made a radio and mounting shelf from sheet stock. 

 

So, I thought I knew what you guys were talking about, but then did some research and found that I didn't.  But I do now!  I didn't realize that the back of the cockpit was open all the way back through the fuselage (but I guess I should've, after all, that's how the Spitfire is built).  I found a couple excellent cutaway pictures showing the fuel tank, shelf and radio.  So I get it now. 

 

Here's what I've got to work with:

 

 

 

So I would need to cut all of that out, glue a shelf in and fabricate a radio to go on top of it.  I like that plan.  Well, now I do... I may not later.