Craig361

I knew I had at least one pic of the area, although a bit of a flat angle from the cockpit. The tank can be seen below the rack.

Here is a schematic from my E&M showing the radio set up. Disregard the tail to canopy wire for ANY 8th Air Force P-51. This shows the rack pretty well as it was, also parts #8,9, 10 & 12)under the rack would be removed from the aircraft with the installation of the fuselage tank. I have the scans of the tail wheel done, will post them here or I can emal them to you, let me know your email addy if so.

The metal elevators began with with the D model. It began with the first California biult P-51D-25NA and at the Dallas fsacility with the P-51K-10NT and P-51D-20NT. So you should be safe with them on your B model.

IIRC the changeover from fabric elevators to metal came either at the begin of D production or very shortly thereafter. The rudder remained fabric through out production, ailerons were always metal. I'll do a little digging and see if I can pinpoint the exact time. There were many ac with fabric elevators that were retorfitted with metal ones.

Roll Models has them.. engine & things... $18.05 ENG32029 Packard Built Merlin for P-51B,C,D, P-40 F/L, Kittyhawk II

Will do Mark, I'll work up my notes on the 3 that I have and maybe by the time I have those worked out, the Paragon set will soon be here. The Paragon set is coming from England and I just sent the money off for it last Wednesday so it may be a bit before it gets to me. Anyway, I'll change course and include it as you have suggested, thanks for the input. Craig

Thanks for turning my post on aftermarket cockpits into another "badger Tamiya for_______" thread. I want to see a new tool P-51B/C/D more than anyone but my post had nothing with that.

Well, I am finally able to compare the three currently available 1/32 sets for the Hasegawa kit. I've gathered up the Verlinden,Grand Phoenix and Wingz sets. My plan is to do a comparison/review of the three sets together to show how they stack up against each other and where they fall short of representing the P-51D. I will mention right now that there are a couple of common negatives. One is that all of these sets fall very short in the area behind the seat, not to mention the seat itself. Only one (Grand Phoenix) managed to have a correct seat mount. All three wrongly have the radio and battery rack setting either on a flat shelf (Verlinden), or on the rectangular chunk of resin they call a fuel cell. The radio rack was actually attached to the fuselage sides and sat above the fuel cell (which was collapsable fo removal out the bottom of the ac). Oh well, better cut it off now before I end up ding the review right here! I also have a deal in progress for one of the OOP Paragon sets which I plan on maybe doing an "oldie but goodie" review on seperately. Maybe with enough noise Neil might decide to go ahead and reissue it (one can HOPE)!

I doubt it has anything to do with the pigment size. More to do with it's chemical makeup, it may have retarder added to slow the drying process to aid the bonding of the Alclad finish. Retarder reduces the chances of orange peel but extends the cure time/rate. All in all I love using the gray lacquer primer right out of the spray can. With the .99 cent a can from Walmart I can prime and have the Alclad shot on within the hour with no trouble. All I do is hit the primer with 800 wet/dry and then on goes the Alclad.

Jay is right on about only needing black under chrome or polished aluminum finish, otherwise it would be a bit duller. All I use under Alclad is gray lacquer primer from Walmart or the parts store. Has always worked like a charm.

Not sure Chris as I've never used the Alclad base primer. But, if you are using Alclad aluminum, I can say I've never sanded between coats as it has always went down extrely smooth.

Klaus, Perhaps this has been asked before, but I saw in discussion on another board that larger aircraft such as medium and heavy bombers would be more prone to skin stress than say fighters would be. What do you think? Thanks Brad-getting into this 1/32 scale stuff. Very right Brad about that. And the correct term for the effect is actually "oil canning" and was/is a condition prone to larger aircraft. Just get a good look at a B-52 sometime, very evident on those. "Stressed skin" is actually an aircraft construction method and is very often missused to describe oil canning.

Charles, Yes I considered saving up the money for one but I got this bubbletop kit in a swap (less the engine that was in it) so no sweat in doing a conversion or kitbash with it. That is unless someone wants to swap me out of it that is. By the time the Redux kit comes out I'll be back in the working world full time (*only* 4 weeks of classes left YEEHOO!) and will prolly try to snag one of those.

You might try blueing salts. Heated up the salts melt and can be manipulated for varying shades. I haven't used them on something like PE though, only on knife hilts,guards etc. The solution reverts back to granular state when it cools and can be used several times.

Yeah I can't wait to jump into this one, I may scratchbuild a carb for it though. Just don't seem right without it. I looked over Chris's review on the Redux again and I'm beginning to wonder about it. Maybe since I don't need an engine, I'll convert the Rutman bubbletop into a razorback. Or maybe use the tail and wings on a Revell razorback fuslage.

A good rule of thumb for the amount of strut tube (oleo) extending out of the upper case is about 3-1/2" for a properly inflated strut. For the Mustang it is 3-9/16" so that shouldn't be too far off for the Hellcat.

I'm sure he meens FlightPath, they have had a multimedia set "in the works" as he said for several years. Evidenly meant for hte Airfix kit since it's been announced/listed long before Trumps release.

Interesting that they also included a set of uncuffed square tipped Hamilton props too. That opens up the potention for differant schemes to be done, including some Korean War ac that had those intalled.

Where can the Aires R-2800 be seen? Just looked over the line at the Eagle-Strike site and it was not listed there.

Good comparison Ray, thanks. The Teknics is the better looking engine from what I can see. I doubt I open any panels up, but I still want the best I can get ahold of in there. I'm not starting this thing anytime soon, and there is lots to do before it would be ready for an engine anyway. By the the Vector engine will be available and I'll see what it is going to cost. Maybe I can save a little along the way and acquire on of those.

Thats some fine work you have going there, going to be one sweet engine Sergey, thanks for posting the pics. That one may be more than a part time aircraft mechanic can afford until I finish up some classes next spring and get back to full time. One of the other sets along with the R-2800 overhaul manual for details may have to do. Not sure when I'll get started on this one Chris, but I'll be shoutin at ya for particulars most likely when I do. Am trying to get going again on the B model Mustang as time permits. Craig .....

Thanks Rato, Gene for the links, pics & thoughts. Looks like the Technic set is better, I may put out some more feelers before trying to deal with Meteor again. Much appreciated.

Chris maybe? Has anyone here compaired the Technics and Engine & Things R-2800s in 1/32 scale? I just picked up a Rutman Bubbletop in a trade and it is missing the engine. The only deal I did with Meteor pretty much put me off of them. That and seeing what others have went through with them doesn't help either. Was thinking of maybe the E&T offering through Roll Models but would like a opinion of it. If anyone has either for sale or trade would appreciate a word. I contacted Rutman but his reply was that he got them from Meteor. Thanks.

Thanks for the kind words about my P-51 guys, much appreciated. I will try to see about a tweaks list on the big Mustangs and will probably begin with the Airfix to lead off.

D pretty much laid it out there. The Bandaii kit while good, is somewhat overscale in some of its dimensions. The fuselage is too wide giving it a 'thick' feel which also makes the canopy & frame too wide. The cockpit detail is 'blocky' and not well defined, the one I used parts from also had lots of sink marks. Best bet is to go with the Airfix, pick up a Waldron cockpit set of placards. The Airfix also has far and away the best engine of the three. Maybe in a couple of weeks when things slow down to a dead run I should start a Tweaks list on the Airfix and others.