bdt13 Posted July 15, 2012 Share Posted July 15, 2012 (edited) Research thread here. Box - the kit decals were for a K, but the D parts are there, too. I bought this second-hand from another IPMS club member. Decals - TwoBobs 2009 Nats sheet. Parts: Obligatory cockpit parts on a stick shot. The black is scaled, believe it or not. Drybrushing will be in order: Since the black is in the airbrush, paint the tires: These are the kit wheels. I re-scribed the tread damaged by the sanding. I am using Mr. Surfacer to putty the wings just like the factory did. I don't know if the maintenance depots did this, but we'll pretend they did: Thanks to Jennings for posting a very clear illustration of which lines were puttied and which ones are not. Finally, the uncuffed Hamilton-Standard prop blades. These were in the box but are NOT from this kit. If you know where they originally came from, please let me know. This is P-51D-30-NA 44-74589, 112th FBS, Ohio ANG, Akron-Canton Airport, 1953. Any references you have will be appreciated. Thanks! B) Edited September 7, 2012 by bdt13 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
xmh53wrench Posted July 15, 2012 Share Posted July 15, 2012 Too cool, glad you decided to post it up. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Bigasshammm Posted July 15, 2012 Share Posted July 15, 2012 I'll be watching and will have to build one of these in the future. Akron canton is only about 14 miles from me. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
bdt13 Posted July 16, 2012 Author Share Posted July 16, 2012 Funny that I picked this one of the three decals on the sheet. My favorite was the F6F-5 with the orange stripe on the rear fuselage. I was coping the shows I attended for kits but never got one. I pulled the sheet out earlier this year and noticed that the two layers of white on the decals are out of register, making the USNR option unusable! A club member has sponsored a natural metal finish contest, so I picked the Mustang out of the pile as a good candidate. I'll be using SNJ acrylic aluminum, which I have been dying to try out. Not sure yet what I'll be using for the silver painted areas of the plane. Bigasshammm - I went to school at Case, so I spent four years in Cleveland. There's a spot in my heart for the Buckeye State! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
bdt13 Posted July 21, 2012 Author Share Posted July 21, 2012 The cockpit walls. I found dry-brushing with enamels was MUCH easier than acrylics. Only thing I had appropriate in acrylic for the black was WEM Haze Gray. Semi-assembled cockpit: The floor is Testors wood enamel under the scale black. I chipped it with a toothpick and it came off much too easily. I wanted scuffs in the floor, not gouges! Oh well. I wasn't too happy with Hasegawa's choices on where to put the sprue gates for the gear doors. Fortynately they cleaned up a lot better than I had feared. I have also drilled out the lightening holes in the canopy bows, but none of the five pictures I took were in focus. I'll keep trying. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
bdt13 Posted August 13, 2012 Author Share Posted August 13, 2012 The whole thing is (mostly) together now. Been busy sanding, rescribing, sanding some more. Want this good and clean for the NMF. I'm waiting for the Future on the transparencies to cure before masking. I dipped them at the beginning of the build but wasn't happy with the results. Stripped them in pure ammonia (stinky ), re-sanded with finer Micromesh and re-dipped. Now the waiting, spending more time on the F-102 (my other current build in this forum). Quote Link to post Share on other sites
bdt13 Posted August 19, 2012 Author Share Posted August 19, 2012 The prop spinner, done in Testors enamel Willow Green to match the decals. I don't shoot enamels often, but this seemed to turn out OK. The canopy is masked and on. The windshield distorted somewhere along the line and is a hair wider than the fuselage. Wasn't planning on winning any medals in quarter-scale single engine prop anyway, so we'll let it go. Tamiya NATO black on the framing of the clear parts, then a custom mix Tamiya light gray as the primer. Next step is to look for all the boo-boos that stand out with a NMF. Time to go cross-eyed. :wacko: Quote Link to post Share on other sites
bdt13 Posted September 3, 2012 Author Share Posted September 3, 2012 Well, as I feared, things looked good in gray, but put on the silver, and all the bugs come out of the woodwork. Looks OK until you get really close. Maybe this will be a two-footer? This is the Talon acrylic NMF over gray for most of the plane, and over white for the painted areas of the wings. Thanks to Jennings for posting an invaluable picture of which areas of Mustang wings were puttied and painted. The white was very hard to cover; next time I would just use a different shade of gray. The shine is an overall coat of Future. One coat seemed to do it for this build, probably because of the natural gloss of the paint. The Talon mists on in nice thin coats. Over gray it is easy to vary the thickness for different effects. I'll definitely be using this stuff again, maybe with the polishing powder next time. Decals are on. Micro Sol has wrinkled them, these photos were taken just after the application, so don't panic! On track to display at Friday's club meeting! :D Quote Link to post Share on other sites
mustanger Posted September 4, 2012 Share Posted September 4, 2012 It's coming along. I'm sure it'll great when your done. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
huntermountain Posted September 4, 2012 Share Posted September 4, 2012 It really looks great. But like you say, the NMF really shows even the tiniest unevenness. ... I'll definitely be using this stuff again, maybe with the polishing powder next time. I hope you've got a stash of the stuff, because to my surprise, I've found out Hawkeye has stopped selling his paints and powders. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
bdt13 Posted September 6, 2012 Author Share Posted September 6, 2012 AAGHHHHHH!!!!!!!! Spend my time getting to like this stuff and he stops making it? Time to take up metalizers or Alclad II. Guess I'll need that spray booth after all... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
B-17 guy Posted September 6, 2012 Share Posted September 6, 2012 AAGHHHHHH!!!!!!!! Spend my time getting to like this stuff and he stops making it? That sucks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm out of any of the paint but I'm sure as hell gonna make the polishing powders last! I was gonna comment on the mustang and recomend the powders till I your last post, the must ang does look good! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
bdt13 Posted September 6, 2012 Author Share Posted September 6, 2012 B-17 Guy - I did consider polishing it, but decided not to. The MustANGs (cute, thanks for the new idea) don't look all that shiny in the photos I've seen. Also, I was pressed for time (showing it tomorrow!). Thanks for the support. Some areas look nice, but there are enough boo-boos on this that she'll never be "top of the line" (thinking of brave Bishop the android now... ). BTW - how does a Bills fan wind up in Ohio? I spent 7 wonderful years in WNY, as my wife is from there. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
bdt13 Posted September 7, 2012 Author Share Posted September 7, 2012 FINISHED! This image highlights how well the decal film just disappears. MicroScale and Future, a winning team! The amber lamp came out too orange. Oh well. Thanks for looking! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
tourist Posted September 7, 2012 Share Posted September 7, 2012 That's a great build and I really like the markings. Bravo! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Bigasshammm Posted September 7, 2012 Share Posted September 7, 2012 Very nice. I'll have to get these markings for sure. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
xavi84 Posted September 7, 2012 Share Posted September 7, 2012 This is awesome! The green on the nose really pops out at you. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
bdt13 Posted September 8, 2012 Author Share Posted September 8, 2012 Thanks for the kudos, everyone. I felt I could have done better if I hadn't been under the deadline for the club build. I would have put in more panel variation and given the panel lines some light wash. Exhaust stains, very light, would complete the process. Since I have glued open the canopy and applied the final flat coat, I'm a bit beyond this now. She'll probably stay the way she is. You may notice that the green on the spinner does not match the green of the decals. I followed TwoBobs' advice and used Model Master Willow Green enamel, but the bottle I got didn't match the decals. I tend to trust the decal color as closer to willow green, as it looks a little more yellow. Oh well... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jgrease Posted September 9, 2012 Share Posted September 9, 2012 Great work! Looks terrific. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.