Italeri 1-48 P-51D Mustang

[Ran]

If you followed my 'Re-Mojo' build of the T-28B you know it was, unsurprisingly, a bit challenging but enjoyable build - after all it was a Roden kit. You also know that life beyond the bench sucked as I lost my job. 

The P-400 double build is still in progress, but as it is in the painting stage, and the paint schemes are intricate and the kits were not cheap - I will have to attend to them when I have some more energy. 

So I cruised the part of my stash that is stored at home (a small part) for some fun build. 

I have a couple P-51's of different models in my stash - most of them good kits (Tamiya, Eduard, Modelsvit) and also this Italeri P-51D/K. I think this could be a good quick build. It is an NMF build, but I think can build it quickly and it will help out in restoring the fun and good spirit I get from my bench time. 

 

So here we go:

 

 

 

 

 Not too complicated (I hope), nice decals and an appealing subject - who can ask for more?

 

Ran

[Sturmovik]

This is actually one of Italeri's rebox of a Hasegawa kit (with Cartograf decals), so it won't give you any build issues.

 

Before closing the fuselage halves for good, test fit the tailwheel strut between both halves. I ended up with a small gap in that area. I think it was because I didn't trim the pegs of the tailwheel strut.

Edited September 21, 2021 by Sturmovik

[Ran]

Thanks for the heads up @Sturmovik

[Ran]

Breaking plastic at last!

After about 4.5 months I sat on the bench once again. It's been a lousy time outside the bench as I'm currently looking for a new job. Between all the distractions and the tension, I re-organized the bench and today brought myself to finally start the compressor and shoot some paint. 

Needless to say my airbrushing needs MAJOR improving as I'm all rusty. 

But it's a start.

 

BTW - the kit's plastic is VERY soft and I hope it won't be a problem going forward. 

 

 

 

I pushed myself to mask some parts of the wheel wells - I hope it worked.

 

 

 

 

Tamiya flat black coverage was poor - a good sing my airbrush was not dialed in correctly, as this is probably the most robust paint there is.

 

 

That's it for today.

Comments are welcome as always.

 

Ran

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ran]

A quick update.

 

This turns out to be another 're-mojo'/'de-rust' build. So I'm taking it easy.

 

I emulated the paint scheme of the wheel wells - but was lazy so the non-green parts are just the bare plastic.

 

Before:

 

After:

 

The rest of the time was devoted to the cockpit - limited effort.

 

Cockpit floor was done with some oil paint. I used a pencil for highlighting and some paint for highlighting too. 

The decal took a long time to separate but other than that it performed well.

 

 

 

That's it for today.

Comments are welcome as always.

 

Ran

 

[Ran]

Hi

Life as a job-seeker are much more busy then I though so I had little bench time in the last couple of month and the update task had been completely neglected. 

As the work on the kit draws to an end I'll try to catch up on the build log as well.

 

The kit engineering and design leaves a lot to be desired, to say the least. I was VERY surprised to learn the original molds are HASEGAWA kit.

Some examples:

- Very little by way of location pins or other firm positioning elements.

- Fuselage parts fit is .... well judge for yourself (and not all of it is because of my poor skills)

- Check out the f@#$@ engineering of the canopy rail.

 

 

The plastic was also a nuance.

I drilled and painted the exhaust stacks, installed them and then coated them with MicroMask, as preparation for painting.

  

 

The mechanism of the prop installation was improved with a bit of elastic material.

 

Then the carpet monster struck and swallowed one of the main landing legs.

Here I was thinking its a quick and easy and fast build

 

I'm trying to solve this two ways:

1. I contacted Italiery service at https://www.italeri.com/en/contacts.

    They were surprisingly fast and nice - and the part should be on its way to me by now,

2. I searched the web for a 3D model of a P-51D and my network for someone with a 3D resin printer. I found both !!!

   The parts should be on their way. I hope my friend managed to scale and print the model correctly. It will be my first time with 3D resin parts.

 

 

It's a P-51 so it has to be NMF.

I selected the P-51K painting scheme - as I have several other P-51 Kit that better portray the other models.

I though about testing the metallic paints of MRP, but as this is a quick re-mojo build, I stuck to Alclad.

I used their black primer and micro-filler, followed by air frame aluminum, dark aluminum and engine manifold.

 

   

 

  

 

   

 

Then I started to decal. The decals are the best part of this kit. There is a huge decal sheet. A nice part of it of stencils.

The decals are quite thick but works great and this has been the most enjoyable part of the build. MicroSol worked like a magic on these decals. This was specially cool on the spinner.

There was one caveat - the decal call out was messed up completely. I had to fix that!

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

   

 

  

 

 

All in all, this has developed to be a fun and enjoyable build ( I hope the rest of the build live up to this) even though the bare plastic did not look like it.

That's it for today.

Comments are welcome as always.

 

Ran

 

 

 

[modelerdave]

I'm building the Hasegawa version of this kit right now and I'm finding it really hard to be enthused about it. It's fairly terrible for all of the reasons listed. The underside center seam toward the rear is a nightmare and I was never able to get rid of it completely. I broke off part of the rear landing strut inadvertently and have yet to figure out how I'm going to attach the rear wheel. Probably just some excess sprue shaped to fit but the strength just isn't going to be there. 

 

I've got a coat of AK Aluminum on it but it's been sitting for a week while I try to muster the enthusiasm to work on it some more. 

[Ran]

@modelerdave, 

 

This is exactly how I felt, and you can see from the dates on my updates that the kit was sitting on the bench for a long while.

BUT - the decals are fun and with a nice NMF it will be a nice addition to the shelf.

So just another push and you are there

 

Ran

[modelerdave]

I am going to do some work on it tonight and this weekend and I'm hopeful I will finish up the bulk of the work. I have a custom 3D print of a Mercury Star Runner from the game Star Citizen on the way that I'm going to build for my son. I don't play games but he's a huge fan and I thought it would be a fun project. 

[Ran]

Quick update:

 

These are the update decal call out for the black strips of paint scheme F:

 

 

 

Ran

[Ran]

The last batch of decals went on.

Now I'll have to wait for the MLG parts before I go on for final details and touch ups

 

Some quick shots:

 

 

Ran

[Ran]

I'm a bit ashamed but almost 11 month passed since the last time I touched this kit.

A lot of life interfered in between. I also lost contact with the friend who promised to 3D print me the lost landing gear. Fortunately I did asked Italeri and they sent me replacement parts. 

 

The kit has been looking back at me from the shelf of doom until I decided to give it the last push.

So the landing gear legs where painted Tamiya XF-16 and I slowly started to paint and add the finishing touches. I did that over a course of 3 days, making sure I do not wiffle up the other parts.

I decided to skip the radio antenna cable - do not have the stomach do mess around with super glue over NMF.

 

So here she is, a quick photo shoot. I will try to put a more generous one in the RFI forum.

 

 

 

 

 

 

All in all - a fun kit.

A bit of a mess with the decal numbering. 

Improving, but still not there, with NMF

 

Comments are welcomed as always.

 

Ran