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1/72 Academy P-51D Mustang


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This is my entrant to P-51 GB. But I thought I'd post it here too for those that do not frequent GB forum...

Alrighty... This is my first foray into prop-driven plane. Since I started modelling about 3 years ago, I promised myself to only build "modern" fighter jets. But, I've always had a soft spot for "D" Mustangs and Corsairs. After resisting for almost all of the 3 years, I finally gave in one day when browsing through my LHS, and picked up this little beauty from Academy.

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I'm not sure what the quality is like with this kit, but I thought I'd take my chance. It was fairly cheap (by Aust standard anyway), so I figured if it was a "lemon", wouldn't be a big loss to simply toss it... Also, I'm not sure if I can finish this before the end of the GB, since things are pretty hectic with my job (lots of travel, domestic and International), and also I'm starting my own GB (I hope) in December.

When I opened up the box tonight, the parts looked pretty decent, with lots of rivets molded on. What surprised me was that it also came with RAAF markings, which was not stated at all on the box. Nice surprise! This opened up some more possibilities.

I think I might do an RAAF bird. I will take some liberties in the colour scheme though. For starters, the tri-colour of red-white-blue on prop spinner called for "Oxford Blue", but instead I'll use whatever blue I have in my stash that I feel like using (Phthalocyanine Blue, blue-black concoction that I mixed up for my what-if US Navy F-15 in the past, Tamiya Sky Blue, or even Blue Angels Blue, not sure yet). Also, I'm thinking of painting the rudder and the anti-glare surface with the same blue as the prop spinner, to make the bird looks more colourful and interesting. Or I might even paint the rudder with red, yellow, or orange? :whistle::woot.gif:

As far as the overall fuselage, I will be spraying it with Tamiya AS-12 spray can (Bare Metal Silver), which I have had in my stash since I first started almost 3 years ago!

When I first bought this kit, I was thinking of building it in-flight. But... I changed my mind because: 1) I'm too lazy to emulate/simulate spinning prop, 2) don't want to buy AM part (the prop blur thing), and 3) I don't have WW II pilot figure (and can't be bothered finding one!). :whistle::rofl:

Anyway... I'd better make a start on building this rather than rambling.... :lol:

Edited by Mike C
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This kit is now one of Academy's older productions (early 1990's) but my recollection of building it in the late 1990's was that it turned out fairly reasonable. OK, not as accurate or as much of a joy to build as the more expensive Tamiya kit that followed several years later but it will give you the basis for a fairly decent P-51D 'Stang'.

Good luck with your build!

Rob

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Thanks Aggressor Freak! What you just said exactly matched my objective. My problem with Tamiya is that a lot of their 1/72 planes are reboxing of Italeri kits. I don't want to pay big bucks for a crappy Italeri kit in Tamiya box!

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OK... I finally managed to get some bench time for this little bird.

Put together the cockpit and such. First, I sprayed the cockpit area (including side walls) with LifeColor matt black, then when that dried, I sprayed my own concoction of green. I was too lazy to get the "right" shade of green, so I mixed LifeColor Air Superiority Blue with LifeColor Yellow FS13591 until I get the shade that I'm happy with. Is it accurate? Hell no! :whistle::woot.gif:

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By the way, I should say that I'm quite surprised that Academy included the side wall details. Especially at this scale!

Thanks for looking! :thumbsup:

Edited by Mike C
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Managed to get some more bench time... Put the two fuselage halves together, as well as putting together the wing sub-assembly.

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Although most of the seam lines can probably be erased completely by sanding, I decided to putty it up anyway, just to be safe. :whistle:

Edited by Mike C
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Just a word of caution on this one! It looks like the "early" Academy P-51- which came with 7 exhaust pipes per side as per the boxtop photo!

Alvin5182

I picked one of these up today to use with the Heritage Cavalier Dart Mustang conversion for this group build. Academy must have changed their tooling cause mine had the right number of exhaust stubs per side & in every other repect looks pretty nice I thought. I don't think mine had other than the markings for the box top subject though. :(

Steve.

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Did a bit more work on the 'Stang... It's coming together quite quickly, as I expected really. :whistle:

I decided to apply some heavy pre-shading on some of the panels, hoping that it'll show through after spraying the bird with Tamiya AS-12 rattle can, to give me darker shade of silver on those panels. If not... well, I'll just have to mix up my own darker silver to spray on those panels.

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BTW, I'm getting VERY FRUSTRATED by LifeColor's Matt Black. It clogs up my airbrush so freakin' quickly!

Thanks for looking! :thumbsup:

Edited by Mike C
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  • 2 months later...

Apologies for the lack of update. Life got in the way quite a bit lately. I did manage to put in quite a lot of work into this since the last update:

- Installed and masked off the canopy and windscreen

- Sprayed the whole aircraft with Tamiya AS-12 (Bare Metal Silver)

- Randomly airbrushed some panels with Citadel Chainmail and Boltgun Metal

- Airbrushed very dark blue (Gunze H322 and Tamiya X18 @ 2:1 ratio) over the top front fuselage

- Airbrushed Gunze Insignia Red over the exhaust panel (not the exhaust itself) and the rudder

Here's where it's at right now.

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Next, I'd airbrush gloss clear over the whole aircraft to prep it for decaling and weathering (oil wash).

'Later! :cheers:

Edited by Mike C
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  • 2 weeks later...

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