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EDUARD P-51D 1/48


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Hello modelers,

 

While waiting for the P-39 stencil set to arrive from Russia, I will start a new project of the famous P-51 Mustang. This Eduard tooling has received rave reviews and I am sure this will be the definitive kit of this famous aircraft. Likely it will be in British colorful markings. Dai 

 

eduard-82104-148-mustang-mkiv.jpg

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Greetings...

 

Started construction today. Fit ranges from fair to good. The parts do not fit "air tight" like Tamiya. The tail wheels halves should be glued to each side rather than in 1 piece like the instruction advised. This will allow better fitting of the halves to the each fuselage side.  Dai

 

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Edited by dai phan
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Hi all,

 

I painted the wheel well with Mission Model Paints and I have found out the adhesion to the plastic is extremely poor. This morning I was attaching a piece to the painted wheel well and the movement of the piece over the painted area cause the paint to be completely peeled off the surface ! Completely no bonding at all. I am now trying to find a way to mask the wheel well without risking peeling of the paint! Dai 

 

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Greetings...

 

Checking for smoothness of the seams. I use the excellent Badger Stynylrez grey primer. The final primer coat likely will be black if I plan to do the NMF version. The fit is good but no where near Tamiya's. Dai

 

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Edited by dai phan
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  • 4 weeks later...

A few things to note so far:

 

1. The propeller shaft is too short. You must glue whole assembly in or it will fall off making free spinning impossible.

2. The air filter panel has very poor fit. It is not even with the surface. By the time I sand to make it smooth, I lost some details. I am thinking of doing the shark mouth version as the decal will go over the lost details. 

3. The illustration shows three different shades of silver. But yet only 2 are called out.  

4. The tail wheel strut is very difficult to install as you have to place the strut into a small opening that is way down below and hard to see. 

 

PS: when you built models from elite companies like Eduard with good to great fit , you will appreciate the engineering and fit from Tamiya which is second to none. The fit is so "air tight" that often the seams (natural panel lines) will disappear once glued together. Dai 

Edited by dai phan
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Howdy friends...

 

Pushing toward completion. I find it odd that I have to drill the tail wheel in order for the axle to go through. The main struts assembly is a bit tricky as there are no guiding pins for the V struts. I also had to trim the main landing gear's tab so the gear can be placed at the correct angle. I am going with the shark mouth version. Dai

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Greetings everyone ...

 

Started the decaling process. I was concerned about the shark mouth conforming to the nose but it turned out well with multiple applications of Solvaset. The complaint I have is the red color of the decals looks perfect on the sheet but when applied, the red took a burgundy color! I will need to do some careful painting to get the red back. Dai

 

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Greetings...

 

Continue to decal tonight. All three decals companies (Eduard, Xtradecal and Lifelike) have the burgundy color for the "red" part of the roundels. Perhaps the actual color is burgundy rather than red that I thought. The Eduard decals have the clear coat marred by the protecting sheet but this imperfection should disappear when the final clear coat is applied. Can anyone chime in on the color of the roundels? Burgundy just does not make sense to me. You can see the big difference on the spinner red versus the roundel's red. Dai 

 

 

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Edited by dai phan
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Hello all...

 

Massive disaster here! All this time I wondered why Eduard decals just had horrible carrier film and no matter what I did with Solvaset, it kept looking worse. Later I found out this is the new decal system where you peel the clear top after the decals have fully set. The problem is some areas adhered well to the surface and some decals just broke off into fragments. To make matter worse, the clear film pulled off the clear coating! For some odd reason the Intermediate Gauzy Agent has extremely poor adhesion to the Mr Color C8. Now the surface has all the blistering mess like sun burn that I now have to strip of all the paint, re-prime and then repaint. I really like the shark mouth British plane so I am going to try again without the clear coat. To be honest I like the traditional system better because trying to peel the clear film can damage the dedicate NMF or the decals themselves. Also the decals are really fragile and any kind of contact will damage the decals once the film is peeled off. Please help me with your expert comments! Dai 

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In my opinion, this new decal system is hit or miss. If you are able to peel the top leaving the decals perfect then it is OK. Sometimes the decals peel off too and you cannot remove the damaged decals completely off the model. Then you got some sanding and painting job to do. The old fashion way is much better and with the clear coat application, the carrier film disappears. Much more a fail safe approach. Dai   

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