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Tamiya 1/32 P51 D s/n44-14237 "Moonbeam McSwine"


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Work on the Wheel Wells goes on.....I've added a little wash on the stringers and the front wall and will soon do the same with the rear spar,the front sloping walls and the central one.

A few gussets on the rear spar have been painted IG to add more contrast...I've dry-fitted the ribs and front wall to the ceiling and things start to look interesting,and will be even more interesting once the pipes and wires will be added,along with more weathering!The rubber junctions and clamps are very convincing and getting such a neat result is very easy;I've masked the clamps with 0,4mm Aizu masking tape and the pipes with 2,5mm tape,then I've sprayed a little Alclad black primer (the matt one!) and after 15 minutes or so masked the whole pipes with Maskol.Airbrushed a little Humbrol 154 thinned with Gunze Mr. Leveling Thinner and pronto....neat pipes!

Cheers

Lou

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I've secured together the lower and the upper port wing and the central piece to show you all what can be seen with the UC doors in the up position or,rather,what will remain visible.The mod for the "up" doors is easy...cut off the lowered doors (for the life of me I can't understand why Tamiya hasn't given the modeler an option here!),sand a millimeter off the dividing wall at the doors hinges,shave off the three pips inside the closed door,not forgetting to add the inner parts to the latter and you're done!

Needless to say....the fit is exceptional but beware...it's so tight,especially when assemblying the various parts such as ribs,spar,front wall etc that the paint could render the task quite difficult.I airbrushed several layers on the ribs to get rid of a minimum gap and found difficult to insert the ribs' mounting pegs into their holes!Gonna scrape off the paint from the pegs and everything will be allright!

The recesses on the front sloping walls should be lightening holes but I'll drill them in my next build....ditto for the two round recesses on both sides,shoulders height,of the upper cockpit walls....next build will have a few more corrections made!

Cheers

Lou

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The IP in nearly finished.The ones wishing to use Roy's decals beware; they're stunning but for the sake of your own mental sanity CUT THE BIGGER ONES TO PIECES AND APPLY THEM ONE BY ONE...THAT'S MANDATORY AND THERE'S NO DESTERITY OR LACK THEREOF THAT CAN BROUGHT INTO PLAY HERE ; they will fold onto themselves like a sheet of nylon thrown into a bonfire and you'll go berserk trying to unfold that mess!

They look great oncev they're on!

Cheers

Lou

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The IP is finished for good...only a decal missing from the red release lever but I'll apply it when I'll install the cockpit.

Seldom,if ever, does happen that I'd be willing do a lenghty,boring job more than once and this is no exception...for the next three days at least...I've had so much fun I can't wait to start a second P-51...and make it better learning from my mistakes!

Thanks for all the comments and support so far guys...hope that my humble work will be helpful to the ones who are going to tackle this gorgeous kit and Roy's and Jerry's beautiful detailing sets!

Cheers

Lou

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That doesn't look like a model at all. Nice. Are those coolant pipes included in the kit in the wheel well or did you make them?

Thanks for your comment Hamm...much appreciated!

The pipes are cast into the Tamiya part and have been just painted!

Thank you for asking!

Lou

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  • 3 weeks later...

Here I've taped together the fuselage and the wings...I think she's coming along quite nicely!The fit is unbelievable and Roy's cockpit parts,which are a tight fit with the cockpit floor act as a mini-wedge that will mantain the gap between wings and fuselage virtually non-existent in spit of all the handling!The Gunze Supermetallics are still there...scratch-free and as bright as a thousand suns...I HIGHLY recommend them to the Alclad-shy types...and to the ones who have only used Alclads and Metalizers!

And now,for something completely different,this lot will go straight into her hangar and I'll start working on one of the gun bays;no Eduard PE here (IMHO this set's a total waste of money in that a few very important details that would have benefitted from being made out of PE brass have been omitted while others are there...not to be used,since the kit's part will perfectly look the part!),only scratchbuilding Dodgem-style and the beautiful 0.50s and solenoids from Aires.These guns are really interesting in that they can be assembled with the breech covers open...and that will sure add further interest!

Ciao by now

Manu

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Edited by Canuck63
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The work on the wheel wells goes on.I've started adding a few details and piping and a little washes here and there.They're neither 100% detailed nor 100% accurate but they're at least better than the kit's parts.

Cheers

Lou

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Next step will be one of the gun bays...and your build has been very inspirational here,even if I'll make use of a set of beautiful 050s made by Aires and scratchbuild the rest of the missing details.These Aires 0.50s come with solenoids,early and late heaters and can even be assembled with the receiver covers flipped up as during manteinance,even if that will be possible only on the inner gun,since the ammo chutes ride over the other 2.

Cheers

Lou

Here's a few pictures of this set in detail:

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And now a few tiny details added while I was studying the gun bays donning my favourite thinking cap.I've added a little plumbing to the retraction piston,added a few touches of color on the plumbing itself (unpainted solder) and while I was at it I've added the riveted gussets that hold the internal ribs in place!I made them by rolling Samantha-the-Hot-Riveter on a piece of very thin aluminum,carefully scored the aluminum with a new Swann & Morton 11P surgical blade in order to obtain a line of rivets,cut the "riveted" line into shorter section and I've had my gussets/reinforcing strips...with proud rivets and saving on the Eduard PE fret,which can be easily left in the shop!

I'll add a few more plumbing and wires,a little wash,chips and oil leaks and move to the other well,before diving into the gun bay!

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To whomever may think that building the P 51 with the wheel wells doors in the "up" position is a "shirker's thing"...think again!

For starters you have to plan everything before you even start working,in order to have the doors fitting tightly to the contours of the openings and since many details can be "guessed" thru the openings working on them and adding what you think that may be visible in the end could and would prove itself useful,albeit quite boring at times!The port wheel bay is 90% finished and I've extimated that had I built the wells with the doors down I'd have saved a lot timewise,even adding the whole mass of pipes,hoses,linkages and cables ..but IMHO the P 51 looks much better with the doors up!Tomorrow I'll add the two very prominent pulleys on the ceiling,a connecting rod going from the latter to the dividing wall,a couple of minor details,a touch of copper here and there at the pipes junctions and cakll it a day for good.The other well will be (sort of ) a breeze,since I've got all that I need painted and handy and it'll be a matter of a mirror monkey-see-monkey-do..apart from a few minor details differing between the two wells.

cheers

Lou

Anyway...I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking.

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Edited by Canuck63
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Great work

how are the aires .50 ? ive got a Hasegawa P51 in the cue that need a gun improvement might get a set unless i can scavenge some Tamiya ones!

That wheel well is sick btw

Cheers

Neo

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John,Mareku,Mann,Nimrod,Ben and Neo,

thank you very much for your nice comments guys....much appreciated!

John...the Gunze Supermetallics are gresat value for money and IMHO they're a tad better than Alclads...and I've been using the latter for the past 9 years and LOVE them!The only neg with Gunzes is their limited shades range!

Neo...if you need the Tammy 050s just PM with your address and I'll be glad to send them to you for I won't use them and with a little good old TLC will look the part convincingly enough, but if your goal is a superdetailed gun bay (or the two of them,in which case you'll need two sets) these Aires are the way to go!

Cheers

Lou

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Neo...if you need the Tammy 050s just PM with your address and I'll be glad to send them to you for I won't use them and with a little good old TLC will look the part convincingly enough, but if your goal is a superdetailed gun bay (or the two of them,in which case you'll need two sets) these Aires are the way to go!

Cheers

Lou

Cool thanks man PM inboud.

btw what does TLC stand for?

Cheers

Neo

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