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Tamiya 1/32 Early P-51D "Lou IV" finished 07-09-15


MustangManiac

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Hi Geoff,

 

The part I'm talking about is visible in both of my pictures of the cockpit, it's right there behind that circular indentation on the left side of the floor and kinda tucks under the seat after it's installed. In the one picture looking a little more in the downwards direction, it appears a little triangular. It's actually molded as part of the floor by Tamiya. I just hadn't had time to paint it black yet.

 

 

I thought that the cockpit sidewalls and floors were not painted black in the P-51 until they were redesignated F-51s and sent to Korea for the Korean War. So they were even black on the floor in WWII? If so, that means even Master modeler Brett Green got it wrong on his build for the book he published for this very kit.

 

Cheers,

Brady

Brady

 

I see the embossed feature you're talking about. That's the pilots relief tube and should be there. The circular indentations on the floor are where the wing tank fuel guages go.

 

The floor in all Mustangs were finished with a black non-skid surfacer. WW II Mustangs did not have black cockpit sidewalls. They varied between Dull Dark Green, Interior Green, Bronze Green. No way of really knowing which airframes got what.

 

HTH

 

Geoff

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OK, thanks for the valuable info Geoff.

 

Painting the floor black will be a lot easier than using those transparent decals anyway. It just means that I wasted some time giving the floor a base coat color of wood for under the decal. It does make me wonder why they even bother to produce these decals and not just the seatbelts and the dinghy as a set. I do like the texture of the dinghy included in this set better than Tamiya's part that comes with the kit, not that their's is terrible by any means.

 

Happy Modeling,

 Brady

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've made a little progress and some of it is just corrections where I goofed and got overspray where I didn't mean to. These are just a dry fit without a few parts, before I glue things together.

 

IMG_20140424_104303_645_zpsbfe62afb.jpg

 

 

IMG_20140424_104357_279_zps14fc3b5f.jpg

 

IMG_20140424_104428_967_zpse7d263ec.jpg

 

IMG_20140424_110635_318_zps7567f0f2.jpg

 

IMG_20140424_110827_012_zps397c9bc4.jpg

 

So which bird do you guys think I should go for first when it comes time to paint, Passion Wagon or Moon Mullins' bird? I've done Passion Wagon in 1/48 scale before as you can see below.

 

IMG_20140421_094312_283_zps23311bb0.jpg

 

IMG_20140421_094551_239_zps398bb3ce.jpg

 

Enjoy!

Brady

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  • 1 month later...

Hello everyone,

 

I'm sorry it has been so long since I posted any update of any sort. Recently my job has been very demanding of my time along with having a two year old to entertain.

 

Anyway, I can't say that I have a lot to show even now, but I wanted to give you an update. The seatbelt set I posted pictures of earlier on has turned out to be more challenging than it looked at first and a real pain in the butt. I finally put it down and moved on so I could see some real progress achieved with what time I have to work on to this right now. Here's what I've completed of the seatbelt set:

 

IMG_20140601_010723_786_zpsbde7cc21.jpg

 

 

To see some real progress achieved I moved on to the landing gear bay and the wings. I'm not done painting the piping and fittings in the gear bay yet but here's what is done so far:

 

IMG_20140601_010558_143_zps1a348295.jpg

 

 

And from the other side:

 

IMG_20140601_010648_756_zps20898845.jpg

 

 

That's all I have for now.

 

Cheers,

Brady

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  • 5 weeks later...

Here's a little update, I had a little time this weekend here and there to do a bit to her. She's starting to look like a Mustang slowly but surely.

 

IMG_20140630_112709_988_zps722f3551.jpg

 

IMG_20140630_112827_525_zpsdf3b7567.jpg

 

IMG_20140630_113658_883_zpsaa408350.jpg

 

 

I've just dry fitted the fuselage sides and part of the wings together here. The tailcone sections are glued to the fuselage halves and the tail control surfaces are done just waiting for paint before assembly.

 

Enjoy,

Brady

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Hello everyone,

 

I got some time today by myself so I did some more work on my cockpit before I had to go to work. I finished up the instrument panel and thought I was going to be very disappointed when I first glanced at the decals for the gauges. I proved myself wrong when I saw the decal come off the paper. I don't think that Tamiya's instrument panel is bad at all right out of the box. Here's my finished panel and the second one painted for a future build:

 

IMG_20140702_122441_453_zps410d68e0.jpg

 

IMG_20140702_122500_490_zps2f485a30.jpg

 

IMG_20140702_122527_104_zpsbba12a3d.jpg

 

Here's the cockpit with a more complete look to it:

 

IMG_20140702_125006_820_zpseaac1b40.jpg

 

IMG_20140702_125037_489_zpsfa763ec3.jpg

 

And one without the panel shrouding to see more details:

 

IMG_20140702_125114_249_zps36e78fde.jpg

 

I'm thinking about more details yet and wiring the battery up before adding the last two parts to the fuel tank. What's the best gauge wire or solder to use here?

 

Brady

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I'm starting to lean towards doing Moon Mullins' P-51D, so that if I don't like my outcome of the natural metal paint scheme I can just seal it with Future and paint over it with green and gray for Passion Wagon's scheme. I then can give it some character by doing some chipping of paint and have the metal effect under the green and gray paint.

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