Reno Mustang

[McG]

I'm converting the 1/32 scale Hasegawa P-51D into a Reno Races Mustang, not sure if I'll do an actual aircraft or a what if project.

 

I started on the pit today and this is what I have so far.

The floor is a sheet of 1/32" Balsa Wood laminated onto the kit floor that has had the wood grain effect sanded off.

I then used the following technique to varnish the floor -

 

Revell SM381 paint, not shaken or stirred. The paint sediment all sits at the bottom of the tin, so I was able to get some of the varnish with a slight bit of brown through it out of the tin.

This gave a nice beech wood type effect - it blends in with my desk.

 

The panel has been painted a light grey colour with the instruments inlay in flat aluminium.

I still have some work to do on the instruments etc.

 

The old WWII radios have been removed.

 

I now need to think about what to do with the seat armour and head rest.

[Coolie]

There is a couple of shots from inside precious metal on Warbirdaeropress.com which I will use when I get around to one...

 

Precious Metal

[McG]

Thanks.

 

I'll probably get some of the Reheat or Waldron stuff to update the panel.

 

The other thing I'll probably do having seen that is paint most of the interior flat aluminium.

[Coolie]

The other thing I have seen inside I think it was Miss America was a White interior paint job...cant remember the rest, and I think that was before the latest restoration.

[McG]

I noticed a pic of Voodoo on airliners.net and it's now gone back to the traditional style Mustang canopy instead of the cut down race hood. Also noticed that Voodoo is painted light grey inside with the inner part of the panel painted a darker grey.

[Coolie]

After the last couple of setbacks with Voodoo Bob Button decided to dial it back a little and make it competitive with the super Stockers. Apparently also wanted to make the plane a bit more pilot friendly...hence the canopy etc

[P-40]

Great to see another racer being done! If you need any help with photos for paint jobs just ask, I have a bunch. Are you going to keep it fairly stock or modify it?

From the cockpit photos I have seen they quite often use a lighter shade of gray, I'm sure it makes it a little bit easier to see quickly in a darker cockpit.

[McG]

Brad,

 

I plan to keep it fairly stock. My scratchbuilding skills are not that good yet so the only major modifications will be to the wings - Shorter and new wingtips.

[McG]

I've started on clipping the wings of the Mustang.

 

the pic shows the Left Wing and the work done to date on it. All of the raised detail has been sanded off and the panel lines filled in. The Gun Bay cover is still not 100% smooth with the rest of the wing. I had some problems with the fit of the gun bay cover because I had left the gun bay out of the kit. Fitting the gun bay solved this problem.

The gun barrels have been removed and partially filled at this time. The ejector holes and the mounting holes for the pylons on the underside have been filled.

 

The hardest bit has been building the new wing tip. I used a scaled up jpg to get the basic outline. I then used about 6 layers of plastic card slowly that was layed in such a way to follow the contour of the wing.

 

During the sanding process 2 annoying things have happened - the corner of the aileron has become rounded and the rear part of the new wing tip - shown in the pic broke off.

 

I am also working on the engine - this will be OOB and the firewall will have some pipes etc added.