1/24 Airfix P-51D Mustang Progress Pics

[Adrian A.]

Hi Guy's,

I have found that LSP has proven to be detrimental to my former method of OOB modeling.

I don't know about any of you out there, but I seem to have a problem concentrating on a single project. For instance, in the past month I have finished my P-38 (a miracle!!), and worked on my P-40E & F4F. I've done more modeling in Jan. than I have in the past 6 or 7 months (I'm on a roll!) (Except for the minor modeling disaster with the paint shelf & my Wildcat!)

Anyway, I decided to work on my 1/24 Airfix P-51D this weekend. Soooo..... I pulled it down from the shelf & spread it out to see where I had stopped. I had done a little bit of work on it before putting it away, mainly some pre-painting.

I pulled out the firewall & cringed....that was not going to cut it any more. So I spent about 5 hours this weekend scrapping of the moulded on detail & doing some detail work.

I know it ain't exactly accurate but it's a start.

Here's the before shot....

[Adrian A.]

And here's the after shot.

I know 5 hours seems a long time for the amount of work but it's tough going without any vision aids doing work this small. Gotta get me some magnification!!

 

Adrian A.

[Adrian A.]

Sorry for the fuzzy photo's guy's, it took me a number of shot's to get them this clear!!!. I'm now in the initial stages of trying to think up a way to convince the wife that we NEED a new digital camera.

Here's a shot of the Mustang's Merlin.

Hope you like them!

 

Adrian A.

[Adrian A.]

Thanks razor. I appreciate the figures, don't rush shipping them tho cuz I am notoriusly slow in putting models together, much less finishing them.

I took another shot of the firewall from a different angle. It came out a little clearer (I think!) but still not too great.

Hope you like it!

 

Adrian A.

[Adrian A.]

Hi Guy's,

My last pic for tonight is a shot of my progress on the cockpit.

It's kind of a before shot also, I'm going to touch it up a bit before it's completed. My first feeble attempts at weathering bombed - I was a little heavy handed with the silver showing wear. I'm going to tone it down a bit.

I've also included in the pic the wooden floor I made but I couldn't get it just right & decided not to use it.

I'm going to work on it tomorrow, finally try to do the gauges on the instrument panel. I'll try to post a 'after' pic tomorrow.

 

Adrian A.

[Coolie]

I know what its like skipping around on projects, Hey as long as your happy matey!

 

The firewall is looking good And I dont think 5 hours is too bad heehee

[Adrian A.]

I see so many great build's on this site, it really gets me motivated.

Don't get me wrong, it's not that I was embarassed by what I used to do as a OOB builder - I was happy doing it that way - it's just I want to try some of the neat things I see on some of the other posts.

Granted, I'm not as good as a lot of the guy's here , but that's OK. I enjoy doing it & I'm learning & adding to my skills with every build I do.

And skipping around on projects seems to work for me, I get a fresh outlook on the model when I get back to it. That firewall is a perfect example - it would be in the plane OOB by now if I hadn't put it aside a while back!!

 

Adrian A.

[bcauchi]

Great work Adrian. Love what you did to the firewall. Cockpit seems to be coming along nicely too. In the extra large scale there is so much scope for detail, lots of it. And you are doing one hell of a good job. Keep itup and keep those pics coming.

[Adrian A.]

Hi Guy's,

I spent about 2 1/2 hours on the Mustang tonight (tho you can't tell from the pics!).

I installed the cockpit sides. BTW are there any secrets on keeping the placards in place? I used super glue when I originally installed the bulk of them & they pop of when I handle them. I think I'll give them a light coat of Future tomorrow to see if that helps.

I also installed some extremely fine mesh brass screen inside the cowl vents. Unfortunately, they ain't visible from the outside through the holes I drilled in the vent plates>

Pic #1 right side

[Adrian A.]

Pic #2 Left side

Did the same with the mesh on this side. As small as the mesh is, I thought it would be a nice touch the scale seemed about right.

Part of my time tonight was spent scrapping excess paint from where I had painted the interior when I had last worked on the plane. A little over-zealous with the paint brush at the time!

 

Adrian A.

[P-40]

Your Mustang really looks like it’s coming along great! For the wooden floor, how about using the part as a pattern and cutting it out of a real piece of wood?

 

I know exactly what you mean when you talk about bouncing around from project to project, I have so many I want to do and when I see something on TV or read a book I get interested in it and start working on one for a while, quite often something else catches my eye or I run into problems and get a little frustrated and put it aside for a little while and before you know it I have a whole bunch started! My P-40 has kept my interest for quite awhile and hopefully Beguine will keep me going for a while, there are so many racers I want to do though! For those I may take a page out of the car builders book and do them like a curbside where the car modelers only detail the outside, I would have the gear up in the inside of the canopy painted and have them displayed in flight as a racer looks best that way and just concern myself with the outside details and the paint job in display them on a pyon.

[Adrian A.]

Pic #3

I also did a little work on the Merlin tonight.

Unfortunately here, I've noticed another mistake when I put it together. My exhaust bases are on the wrong sides!!

I'll work on fixing that tomorrow.

 

Adrian A.

[Adrian A.]

I had tried the wooden floor approach before but my first attempt didn't go to well. See my pic of the cockpit & you'll see some pretty bad mistakes. Of course I'm not perfect but I might give it another try & see how it turns out. I've got a nice 4' x 4' sheet of 1/8" cedar plywood that is just about perfect, it's just a little hard to work with (wants to spinter up when you cut it - even with a 32 tooth hacksaw blade. Maybe I need a little finer saw??)

 

Brad, thanks for the comments. I like what your doing with the Beguine Racer. A really great looking bird. The song you mention was my Dad's favorite during WW II. I know how it's pronounced but can't seem to get it out in print!

 

Last pic for the night is the pooched instrument panel. I'll have to redo it tomorrow also. I tried to use the kits panel but it hasn't worked out to good. the gauge faces are visible, just not enough to photograph.

I've been debating to use my Waldron Instruments. Unfortunately, the kits panel is different from nearly every panel I've looked at. I just don't know where the correct gauges go!

 

Adrian A.

[AngoMango]

Looking good Adrian....I'm liking what you've done with that cockpit. I'm doing a 1/24 trumpeter mustang at the moment and I've used a really thin piece of cigar box timber for the 'pit floor of my P51, and it looks really nice. Just a suggestion which LSP Brad kindly passed on to me. I just went to a tobacconist and they sold me a big sheet of wafer thin cedar for a coupla' bucks. I'll get photos some day!

 

And it cuts really easily and smoothly with a brand new scalpel blade (along a metal ruler) and this cedar glues super flat onto the kit supplied floor.

 

Keep up the great work mate!

Cheers,

Ango

[Adrian A.]

Ango,

Thanks for the hint on the cigar box timber.

My son regularly goes to a tobaconist, I'll have to ask him to stop by & pick me up a piece.

I'd like to see some pics of your Trump bird. I hear in a lot of ways it's better than the Airfix I'm working on. Most noticable the landing gear bays. I'm kinda dreading getting to that part!

 

Adrian A.