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1/72 F-51D 'Rotation Blues'


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Heres an update of my Academy 1/72 F-51D.

Painted in good old Humbrol 11 (silver) I am going for a 'sort of' chromed museum kept finish.

Main parts glued together and flaps dropped, just the tail parts to go on.

The Academy rudder was a awful shape so this was sliced off and replaced with the rudder from a Revell P-51B (at a slight deflection)

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Primed with a cheap grey acyrilic primer from a spray can found in the garage (warmed under the hot tap and shaken a hell of a lot!!)

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The area around the canopy was causing me a headache, the clear framed part was slightly narrower than the fuselage section creating a gap that I filled with Revell Plasto.

And then another layer of cheapo primer- actually really good coverage and finer than I expected-

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Still a horrible mess under the canopy so out with more filler (and some super glue - thanks to those who offered support and input into managing CA glue)

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Another coat of primer and then a coat of Humbrol silver.

Still a mess under the canopy :hmmm: out with the sanding stick -also the wings needed a little smoothing down-

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Two more coats of silver and BLING BLING.

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Edited by phat trev
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Beautiful metallic finish! How did you not ruin the canopy during the fitting process?? That's impressice in itself ;)

Arnaud

Thanks Arnaud, I used masking tape to cover the clear canopy areas and carefully sanded the 'filling' with a squadron tri-grit stick (my fave tool of the moment)

Still unsure of what the final scheme should be. It is an F-51D so it will either have USAF Korean era markings or a ANG machine -of what state I cannot choose-

I would like to try markings that are seldom done and am furiously looking though websites and books for nice markings.

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nice work.. having used humbrol-11 on 2 silve aircraft I have done I do like the way it sprays.... I am sure there are "better" NMF products available (Alclad etc) but the results from good 'ol #11 are up there too....

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Just a tip before you finish this. The Academy suffered from having 7(Seven!)exhaust stubs when I built one years ago. Not sure if this has been rectified by Academy, but if not, you will need to rectify this. Seeing as you have robbed a Revell kit for the rudder, you may want to rob it of its exhausts too.

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Just a tip before you finish this. The Academy suffered from having 7(Seven!)exhaust stubs when I built one years ago. Not sure if this has been rectified by Academy, but if not, you will need to rectify this. Seeing as you have robbed a Revell kit for the rudder, you may want to rob it of its exhausts too.

Thanks for the tip! Had a look and I must have the updated version- I am going to use the revell exhausts as the kit parts looks a little too chunky.

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A bit more work on getting a NMF sorted. A 6B Pencil was scraped with a blade and areas masked with tape. The dust then worked into the model with a cotton bud, sealed with light brush of future.

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oohhhh thats a neat trick with the pencil.... does the lead-type of the pencil matter (you specifically mentioned 6B, would HB do the same).... ooohhh perhaps some experimentation is order as I have the NMF MiG 17 to finish......

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I used a 6B pencil as it was the softest I have. I am sure any B pencil will be fine, different hardnesses giving total variations prehaps?

It is important to grind the leads down first and not apply the pencil directly (ie. draw on) to the model. I only say this because I tried the direct approach first as I thought it might be quicker and ended up scratching the wing surface to pieces! A quick sand down and re-paint sorted this.

I took a quick pic before I applied the ground lead, any 'over spill' of the colour was wiped off with a clean cotton bud before sealing.

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Edited by phat trev
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I used a 6B pencil as it was the softest I have. I am sure any B pencil will be fine, different hardnesses giving total variations prehaps?

It is important to grind the leads down first and not apply the pencil directly (ie. draw on) to the model. I only say this because I tried the direct approach first as I thought it might be quicker and ended up scratching the wing surface to pieces! A quick sand down and re-paint sorted this.

I took a quick pic before I applied the ground lead, any 'over spill' of the colour was wiped off with a clean cotton bud before sealing.

P1030896.jpg

thanks for that = may have a go.....

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A splash of red and it's starting to come along.

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I have put the main decals on all apart from the FF- codes and the top wing star and bar which fell foul of me moving the decal afer applying micro sol and destroying it.

Actually it does not look to bad withoout markings on the wing.) The canop is resting in place for now as the forward frames need painting.

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