Mustangs over Italy Part 3 - USAAF 15th AF P-51D (Tamiya 1/72)

[Giorgio N]

Sorry for the late entry, I meant to start a thread earlier but it took me some time.. anyway, here it is, my entry for this STGB !

As I mentioned in the chat thread, I took part, more or less successfully, in all the previous P-51 STGBs so it would have been rude not to join this time. And my entry is another installment of my "Mustangs over Italy" series, now at part 3.

Part 1 was a USAAF P-51B of 325th FG built from the Hobbyboss easy-build kit

Part 2 was a postwar Italian Air Force P-51D from the Tamiya kit (actually started with Airfix and then built the final model from Tamiya's... long story..)

Now for part 3 I'm doing a mix of the previous ones: a USAAF bird from the Tamiya kit

 

Here's the box I'm starting from, the Korean War F-51D

 

 

Why start from this one ? Simply this is what I have in the stash, I have two F-51s but no box of the wartime D. Not a big deal as all the parts from the basic P-51D box are included, the F-51D issue adding rockets and the uncuffed propeller.

 

Content of the box is pretty familiar to most as this is a very well known kit:

 

 

What can I say about the plastic ? It's Tamiya ! Perfectly moulded plastic with a high level of detail achieved through the use of as few parts as possible. It's Tamiya way of doing things and allows even the less experienced modellers to quickly build a very nice model with little effort. We may like it or not, the world as a whole seems to love it and who am I to disagree ? Really, if I want a good stress-free build I know I can count on them !

With one exception, as we'll see later... the clear parts are IMHO not well designed, a fault this kit shares with the later Airfix offering.

 

Edited May 6 by Giorgio N

[Giorgio N]

Now I mentioned I'd be building a USAAF aircraft operating over Italy during WW2. There were 4 fighter groups equipped with Mustangs (first B/C and later D) over Italy and my plan is to build at least a B and a D from each. This time my subject is a D from 2nd FS of 52nd FG. Now this is a group that will be represented a bit more often in my builds, for a simple reason: they changed their markings at some point, going from a yellow band across the rear fuselage to fully yellow painted rearmost fuselage and tailplanes.

My aircraft is a D in the earlier style of markings, courtesy of Aeromaster sheet 72-213

 

 

This scheme is not as impressive as the later style but should still look colourful enough. Keep in mind that Eduard is issuing a brand new 1/72 P-51D kit later this year and they might issue an MTO boxing at some point, as they did with their 1/48 kit. If they do, I'll get me at least a couple and build my next Italian based Mustangs from that kit. In any case I feel that my next P-51Ds will be from the Eduard kit. Not that the Tamiya kit is bad, far from it ! Simply I'm expecting the Eduard kit to be better

[Andrés S.]

Hi.

 

I didn't know that a GB of the P-51 existed, in any case it is always interesting and even more so if the Tamiya kit is involved. I also didn't know that Eduard would release one in 1/72, I thought it was Arma Hobby. Or I'm wrong ?

 

Andrés.

Edited March 27 by Andrés S.
Idioma equivocado.

[Wings unlevel]

Looking forward to seeing you weave your magic, Giorgio!

[Giorgio N]

3 hours ago, Andrés S. said:

Hola.
No sabía que existía un GB del P-51, en cualquier caso siempre es interesante y si está involucrado el kit de Tamiya más aún.
Tampoco sabía que Eduard sacaría uno en 1/72, pensé que era Arma Hobby. O estoy equivocado ?

Andrés.

 

Andres, ambos fabricantes han anunciado nuevos 1/72 P-51D (both manufacturers have announced new P-51Ds)

 

 

2 hours ago, Wings unlevel said:

Looking forward to seeing you weave your magic, Giorgio!

 

Thanks ! Mind, there will not be much magic here, it's an almost OOB build for a number of reasons. I considered dropping the flaps but I'll not even do this. I'll wait the Eduard kits for a more involved build (shouldn't be long)

[Andrés S.]

1 hour ago, Giorgio N said:

Andres, ambos fabricantes han anunciado nuevos 1/72 P-51D (both manufacturers have announced new P-51Ds)

 

At first I apologize for having written in a language that is not the language of the forum. I did it from my mobile phone and logically I must have done something that caused it.

 

Well, if the joy was the hope that someone would improve the magnificent Tamiya kit, now the joy is double because they are two manufacturers that in recent times have launched undisputed gems on the market. Eduard's kit I am absolutely sure that, after his Spitfire and Bf 109, he will give his P-51 a nice rivet. I'm not so sure that Arma Hobby will do the same, but if he doesn't do it he will be one step below Eduard.

 

Andrés.

[TEMPESTMK5]

Good evening Giorgio

Welcome aboard and have fun with the Tamiya Mustang

Be careful if I don't make a mistake you have chosen to represent Little Eva III, the aircraft flown by Captain James Varnell and this is an early P51 D-5 without the fillet

 

Best regards

Patrice

[Giorgio N]

21 hours ago, TEMPESTMK5 said:

Good evening Giorgio

Welcome aboard and have fun with the Tamiya Mustang

Be careful if I don't make a mistake you have chosen to represent Little Eva III, the aircraft flown by Captain James Varnell and this is an early P51 D-5 without the fillet

 

Best regards

Patrice

 

Thanks Patrice !

And you're right, I had forgotten this aircraft had no fillet... that goes to show how I am not focused enough lately, considering that I knew that this could not be done from the Tamiya kit without modifications... and yet I forgot !

Well, since I had in the meantime done too much work on the model to modify the tail, I guess that I have to change plan.

I now have 3 options:

 

Option 1: build a different 52nd FG aircraft. The problem is that all P-51Ds with a fillet seem to have worn the later scheme with the all yellow tail. That is not really a problem, but I already have one planned for a future build, and quite a famous one:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/P-51D-5-NA_Mustang_(44-13298)_of_the_2nd_Fighter_Squadron%2C_52nd_Fighter_Group%2C_15th_Air_Force.jpg

Ok, really I may make my own decals for this one, it's a great sibject with a lot of colours between the yellow tail and the red markings. And there's plenty of references around, so it would not be that difficult

Alternatively I may wait for the Eduard kit to build this one and build a different aircraft with a variation on the theme:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d9/P-51D_Mustang_of_the_52nd_Fighter_Group%2C_15th_Air_Force.jpg

Notice the outlined code letter on the tail and the serial number on an unpainted section, a bit different from the previous one. However, do I want to build 2 yellow tailed aircraft ???

 

Option 2: build an aircraft from a different USAAF fighter group. There were 4 operating over Italy, in addition to 52nd there were 31st, 325th and 332nd FG

Aircraft from 31st FG sported red stripes on the tail. These were painted over the serial number so that it's often difficult to understand this if the picture only shows one side of the aircraft. Fortunately there are a few with fillet that I have identified and they could be interesting subjects. Again I would have to make my own decals but these would be relatively simple for the subjects I have in mind. Here's a couple:

https://www.asisbiz.com/il2/P-51/31FG/pages/44-13217-P-51D-Mustang-12AF-31FG308FS-HLB-Tempus-Fugit-flown-by-Bill-Daniel-Italy-1944-01.html

https://www.asisbiz.com/il2/P-51/31FG/pages/44-13510-P-51D-Mustang-31FG307FS-MX-Angel-III-in-Italy-1944-01.html

 

325th FG Mustangs were the most colourful, having the whole tail in black/yellow chekers. Actually I initialy considered one suc aircraft because I have this sheet:

 

No need to make my own decals here... or maybe I would have to. These decals are sized for the Hasegawa kit, not the Tamiya one. This means that while the various markings would fit with no problem, the checkers on the tail may or may not. Here the safest subject would be Mary Nell, as this aircraft only has checkers in some areas and fit issues would be limited compared to a fully checkered rear fuselage. When I built my P-51B I actually printed all the checkers on my laser printed and had quite a good result so really I could just do the same in the worst case. First thing though will be to make a copy of the decal sheet and check against the Tamiya kit, maybe the checkers fit better than I fear?

 

332nd FG also had quite colourful markings with their red tails and the unit was one of the most famous of the war; the Tuskegee Airmen ! This alone would be a good reason to build one of their aircraft, for which I have decals from the Airfix kit. Now this is where things get interesting...

The aircraft reproduced by Airfix is Spurgeon Ellington's Lollipoop II and features a painting of his wife under the canopy. His wife, Maria Hawkins, was a singer with the Count Basie orchestra and later with Duke Ellington's. Unfortunately Spurgeon Ellington was killed in a flying accident after the war and a few years later Maria married none other than Nat "King" Cole ! This aircraft is in a sense closely related to the world of jazz and swing orchestras, and since I love this music (and also attend swing dance nights in my city... I know, a bit unusual for a modeller and aviation enthusiast...) it would actually fit pretty well with my interests...

Ah decisions, decisions.....  Maybe I should just buy another couple of kits and build them all !

 

 

[TEMPESTMK5]

Good evening Giorgio

 You can use this set https://www.scalemates.com/fr/kits/pavla-models-u72-27-p-51d-mustang-tail-early-series--153163 

to build your first choice ...

 

But I am sure that you will find something interesting

Best regards

Patrice

[Giorgio N]

1 hour ago, TEMPESTMK5 said:

Good evening Giorgio

 You can use this set https://www.scalemates.com/fr/kits/pavla-models-u72-27-p-51d-mustang-tail-early-series--153163 

to build your first choice ...

 

But I am sure that you will find something interesting

Best regards

Patrice

 

Unfortunately Pavla ceased operations a few months ago, so I'd have to search around. Worth it ? With Eduard having a new kit coming in a few months probably not. Eduard offered both variants in 1/48 scale so I'd expect them to do the same in the smaller kit, so I can just wait for Eduard to issue a filletless option.

Mind, AZ/KP have also announced a P-51D that is likely to be less sophisticated than the Eduard kit. They had both subvariant in their P-51B/C line so I'd expect them to do the same for the D.

For this model I'll just move forward by changing subject

[TEMPESTMK5]

Good morning Giorgio 

You are right there is a large choice of very colourful subjects ...

Best regards 

Patrice 

 

[RidgeRunner]

How’s this one doing, Giorgio? 

[Giorgio N]

I know, I'm very bad at group builds ! The truth is that I've been building the kit and taking pictures but for some reason never posted them... so let's catch up with this one !

For a starter I've modified the title as I don't know yet the subject I'll represent, I'm now waiting for the end of a couple Ebay auctions, hopefully I'll have decals to apply on the model in a few days, all Italy based USAAF Mustangs of course.

Then let's see some pictures, starting as usual with the cockpit that was painted according to the information I have gathered over the years from various sources. First a coat of interior green, ZYC yellow and some black:

 

 

Followed by some more work in various areas, including a wash and the addition of Eduard's generic USAAF WW2 belts to the seat:

 

 

The instrument panel was finished using the decal from the kit that gave a good effect over the raised detail Tamiya offers.

 

 

As usual with this kind of pictures, keep in mind that the actual parts are several times smaller than the picture here....

[Giorgio N]

With the cockpit completed it was almost time to close the fuselage halves. Almost as before doing this I had to insert the radiator rear element

 

 

At that point I could finally close the fuselage, Being Tamiya I had no fit issue at all here

 

 

And a view of the cockpit in the closed fuselage

 

 

In the meantime I also glued together the wing parts. Again nothing to report here, usual Tamiya fit. The configuration of the Mustang radiator however means that it's useful to prime the wing lower surfaces before joining the wing to the fuselage as otherwise it would be impossible to reach certain areas after the model is built. Or better, it would be possible with an airbrush but I've decided to prime the model using spray cans, something I often do because of how easy and quick to use they are for this kind of job. My favourite primer is Mr. Finishing Surfacer and I generally use the 1500 grade grey one. For this model however I decided to experiment with a black primer as the finish will be in natural metal. As the local hobby shop had the 1500 in black, I immediately bought this. Should it work it will become my go-to primer for any finish that may benefit from a black undercoat.

Here's the wing being primed on its lower surfaces:

 

 

The finish is very matt but also very smooth. I feel I can make it even smoother with the use of fine grade abrasive pads, looks promising !

 

 

[Giorgio N]

With the fuselage closed, it was then time to glue the wings in place, followed by taiplanes and the windscreen. Fit of the wings was perfect, the windscreen however for some reason gave me some trouble and I had to resort to clear UV curing resin to fill some gaps.

 

 

With the windscreen sorted, I applied Eduard masks on this and then masked the whole moving part of the canopy. Stuck this in place with tape and it was time to prime with black Mr. Surfacer:

 

 

 

I'm pretty happy with the primer, dried quite smooth and covered well. I have now made it even smoother with abrasive pads, let's hope that the Vallejo Metal Color paints I'll use will stick properly to this primer...

[Wings unlevel]

This is looking beautifully clean inside and out. It does look like you’ve given the Vallejo metallics as good a base to be painted on as possible.

[Andwil]

On 5/6/2024 at 6:21 PM, Giorgio N said:

With the cockpit completed it was almost time to close the fuselage halves. Almost as before doing this I had to insert the radiator rear element

 

 

At that point I could finally close the fuselage, Being Tamiya I had no fit issue at all here

 

 

And a view of the cockpit in the closed fuselage

There was something about this that struck me as odd, then it hit me. The top photo is a B/C and all the others a D.   So you have two Mustangs in progress.  Both looking great.

 

AW

[Giorgio N]

10 hours ago, Andwil said:

There was something about this that struck me as odd, then it hit me. The top photo is a B/C and all the others a D.   So you have two Mustangs in progress.  Both looking great.

 

AW

 

OUCH ! I posted the wrong picture !!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

I

I have indeed started a P-51B in parallel but decided for the moment to stop work on this and focus on the D and the AMX for the NATO GB.

This is KP's B/C in the Slovak Uprising box. I bought it simply because it is very cheap in some parts of Europe, I paid less than €7 for it (£6 at today's exhange rate) and includes decals for two aircraft from 51st FG, one of them in the Olive Drab/Neutral Grey scheme, a rare sight in Italian based Mustang units. The USAAF tried to support the uprising by carrying supplies and OSS teams with a number of B-17s that landed in Slovakia together with their escorting Mustangs. It is a little known episode in WW2 but a very interesting one and I would have liked to build one of these aircraft. Unfortunately the decals in the box are the by now all too usual KP "quality" and the yellow numbers for the OD/NG aircraft are very pixelated and almost useless. Those for the NM aircraft are better , I may use them on a nicer P-51B kit. Of course should fit on the KP kit be better than expected I may as well use them on it.

Edited May 8 by Giorgio N

[giemme]

Amazing job on the interiors, hard to believe that IP and seat are in 1/72nd!  And the priner coat looks very smooth!  

 

Ciao

[Giorgio N]

Let's see some paint...

First step was to spray the parts that on the real aircraft were left in natural metal. For this I used my trusted Vallejo Metal Colors. These went on pretty well on the black Mr. Surfacer. I will likely use this on all my next natural metal subjects from now on !

 

 

I didn't use too many shades, however I had to use a few in the engine cowling area

 

 

With this done I then masked all the areas to be left in natural metal and sprayed a mix of Vallejo Air metallics on the wings to replicate the areas puttied and painted on the real aircraft

 

 

I have yet to remove the masking, hopefully I should have a nice contrast between the wings and the rest.

In the meantime I received these:

 

 

Paulus Victor's brand new sheet dedicated to the P-51Ds of the 15th Air Force in Italy. The sheet covers 5 subjects, 4 of which have the tail fillet. The instructions are great and show a lot of various details for every aircraft. I will likely decide between the aircraft carrying the markings of all 4 wings and Tempus Fugit of 31st FG. I may also buy another decal sheet to complete my aircraft: since most sport yellow identification stripes on the wings, I'm thinking of cutting them from a sheet of solid yellow decals. No problem in masking and painting the red areas that all aircraft have but yellow is not the colour that covers best... using decals may be easier

 

 

[Matt B]

21 minutes ago, Giorgio N said:

Let's see some paint...

First step was to spray the parts that on the real aircraft were left in natural metal. For this I used my trusted Vallejo Metal Colors. These went on pretty well on the black Mr. Surfacer. I will likely use this on all my next natural metal subjects from now on !

 

 

I didn't use too many shades, however I had to use a few in the engine cowling area

 

 

With this done I then masked all the areas to be left in natural metal and sprayed a mix of Vallejo Air metallics on the wings to replicate the areas puttied and painted on the real aircraft

 

 

I have yet to remove the masking, hopefully I should have a nice contrast between the wings and the rest.

In the meantime I received these:

 

 

Paulus Victor's brand new sheet dedicated to the P-51Ds of the 15th Air Force in Italy. The sheet covers 5 subjects, 4 of which have the tail fillet. The instructions are great and show a lot of various details for every aircraft. I will likely decide between the aircraft carrying the markings of all 4 wings and Tempus Fugit of 31st FG. I may also buy another decal sheet to complete my aircraft: since most sport yellow identification stripes on the wings, I'm thinking of cutting them from a sheet of solid yellow decals. No problem in masking and painting the red areas that all aircraft have but yellow is not the colour that covers best... using decals may be easier

 

 

 

Looks great!  What shade of Vallejo metal colors do you find you like as the main airframe color?  I think your various panel shades looks spot on. I invested in most of the aluminum or non dark metal colors earlier this year in preparation for several NMF projects but have not sprayed with most of them yet.  I like the result I got with Silver in the wheel wells of my builds but havn't decided quite yet what to do on the airframe when I get to it.

[giemme]

Top job, Giorgio! I can only vouch for Vallejo Metal Colors

 

Ciao

[Giorgio N]

48 minutes ago, Matt B said:

 

Looks great!  What shade of Vallejo metal colors do you find you like as the main airframe color?  I think your various panel shades looks spot on. I invested in most of the aluminum or non dark metal colors earlier this year in preparation for several NMF projects but have not sprayed with most of them yet.  I like the result I got with Silver in the wheel wells of my builds but havn't decided quite yet what to do on the airframe when I get to it.

 

I tend to like lighter metallic shades for most of my natural metal builds so I chose Aluminum for the basic shade. The darker shade have mostly been painted with Aluminum and Dark Aluminum mixed in diffarent ratios. The exception is the panel around the exhausts that is in Dark Aluminum.

I know, there are other shades in the Vallejo Metal Color range and I have several of these, however in the end I always prefer to mix by eye depending on the effect I want to achieve. Have to say that I may add another couple of shades now that I'm looking at the model, particularly on the rear fuselage.