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Red Mustang


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Just finished this one off.  Airfix 1/72 P-51D as N6356T owned by Charles Masefield ca 1968 and based at Shoreham. This was the very first Mustang I ever saw and flying. I have always wanted to do this subject and thanks to Draw Decals I have been able to finally add it to my collection. Humbrol 220 red used and appliance white for the undersides.  Uncertain as to the cockpit configuration so I remove the 'boxes from the area behind the seat and blanked it off with some plastic card. Also removed the head rest. The black antenna at rear of upper fuselage is from a spare resin item from one of the LEM RCAF P-51 decals sets. Appropriate as '6T' was an ex RCAF aircraft.   Brief history after its time in the UK is it went to Spain for filming Patton... movie, to the US for a time and raced, then to South Africa and now back in Europe being now based in Germany.

PICS:

 

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Note the louvres mid fuselage low down bby the 'dog kennel intake area.  These are on both sides and found on several Canadian Mustangs. Depicted here in decal form as on the decal sheet.
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@Paul J

Very nice model, and the color scheme really pops! For future reference, the canopy on the P-51D sagged as it was slid back on the rails, causing the rear edge of the canopy to rest against the fuselage; it did not follow the line of the sill, as shown on your model. Due to the constraints of the molding process and the thickness of the kit transparency, to get the correct 'sit' you need to relieve or chamfer the inside edges of the canopy framework to get the canopy to sit correctly. Very few kits allow the proper sit, and many modelers are unaware of the correct position,  fixing the canopy like that of an F-86, where the rear edge is proud of the upper fuselage. Hard to describe, so I have  posted a link to a photo that shows what I am trying to describe. Once you've seen it, you can pick it out in photos of the actual airplane. Hate to admit how many models I did the wrong way, until I read a discussion and numerous photos on the subject on the P-51 SIG website a while back. In no way meant to disparage your excellent build! 👍

Mike

 

This was the best photo I had that  shows the correct sit of the canopy when slid all the way back.

https://www.jetphotos.com/photo/9144023

 

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When I saw the title I thought I was going to see NX1202 “Excalibur III” as flown by Charles F Blair in an unofficial trans-Atlantic record attempt in the late ‘40s.  That notwithstanding that’s a very striking Mustang @Paul J, it looks fast just sitting still.

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13 hours ago, stever219 said:

When I saw the title I thought I was going to see NX1202 “Excalibur III” as flown by Charles F Blair in an unofficial trans-Atlantic record attempt in the late ‘40s.  That notwithstanding that’s a very striking Mustang @Paul J, it looks fast just sitting still.

I have done this one too! I"'ll post pics soon with all my other coach warlords.  Meanwhile I take on board the canopy anomaly and I am aware of this trait so will try and fix it.... Also many thanks for all your comments.

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One of my favourite reads from our village library was Charles F Blair’s “Red Ball in the Sky”.  One chapter deals with Operation Shark Bait, a West to east crossing of the North Atlantic by a formation of USAF F-84s which came perilously close to living up to its name: I wouldn’t mind another chance to read that book again.

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