David Hansen

I'm lovin' it....The quality of your build meets the quality of the original Airfix boxtop artwork. -d-

How about adding red to flat black? Just a thought. -d-

Fantastic work Bill. I'm not a huge fan of the P-51D but i really like how clean the build is shaping up to be. i especially like the painted silver treatment on the wings. I look forward to more! david

Hard to tell from photos how good a scribing job turned out when seen on bare plastic but looks good from here! Did you give any thought to sawing the cowling clear of the fuselage so you could assemble it to the nose ring and install it after main painting? Thought it might make working on the engine a little bit easier. david

It really looks good so far, Wolf. Everyone seems to rave about the WingNuts kits. Perhaps i should build one myself, because then i won't be without my Pfaltz. Boom-Tish. Moving on...... -d-

Dana did you find a volunteer yet? david

Looks good, Jen. I figured you'd bounce back from that quickly anyways. david

Hey this information is seriously late in coming, but did you check out Mike McLeod's build of the Williams Brothers P-35 over on ARC? Not sure if its still there, but its sort of the standard by which builds of the kit are judged. May have some useful info. david

Dana was a lot of help to me as well for getting a better understanding of the "Graded Tone" Corsair paint scheme. Haven't seen the book yet, but a copy is on its way to me. david

Great Job, Peter! Made me actually go back to work on mine today..... david

Looks awesome, Peter! Great job! What are your thoughts on rigging the antennae? How are you gonna go about it and what do you think of the injection molded antenna posts? david

Peter, i agree with your assessment as well. The original demarcation was way too sharp; in fact, even in 72nd scale it wouldn't look quite right. Separation between grays was much more "Fuzzy" on Vought F4Us. An exception to this was Brewster, which used a very tight colour demarcation between top and bottom. The mid-waterline-level demarcation is rather exotic and i think i've only seen it elsewhere on the Vought TBY SeaWolf prototype, and early Lockheed PV-1 Venturas. david

3 house moves in 2 years? You're not a pilot by any chance are you? LOL -d-

Looks nice Andy. Great choice of paint scheme; something original. Wish the joint between the windscreen and fuselage was a bit cleaner, but i know vacform windscreens are hard to clean up and tweak. Aside from that i love it!! Cheers, david

Wow, that brings back memories. I used to work in the trailers just on the other side of the fence from the refuelling pits. 1996-2000. David

The weathering and overall paint job looks awesome. What did you use to glue in the landing gear struts? I've test fitted mine twice and they are a REALLY tight fit. Am thinking about using krystal kleer but i'm open to other opinions. david

Steve just informed me that there is a P-51H restoration underway in Blaine, Minnesota as well. Records indicate the Hayward based P-51 H is still alive and well at American Aircraft Sales. N49WB is listed with Yesterday Museum Inc. in Ft Lauderdale, FL. So, more than just one to look at (hopefully)! david

I cannot top having the actual NAA microfilm on hand, but Steve Bakke mentioned a 2 part article in the AAHS Journal, Volume 26 #3, September/ Fall 1980 was part 2 of a 2 part article (guess he doesn't have Part 1). It contains 72nd scale drawings by Thomas L Gray. Includes station and wing section illustrations. Until i make it to Hayward, best i can do. david

Wow! That is the shizzle! The 1" walkway markings and non skid areas IMHO add a lot. BTW, those oval like latches on the gun doors are actually little crank things, that move bayonet locks holding the doors fully closed. Its common to see circular scratches as the locking pin gets dragged around the radius of the bayonet drive gear. If you look at some overhead pics of the gun access doors i think you will see what i mean. Just more Corsair trivia..... david

FWIW, many, many F4U photos i've seen show the machine gun muzzles covered by tape, and the gun barrels themselves are set pretty far back into the wing, so i think that might explain why Tamiya decided to defer them. david

There may very well be a P-51H in Hayward California, where i will be based. I will see if i can find out anything about it. david

Glen, this may sound a little odd, but you might also want to ask Tommy Thomason, mainly because he's a stickler for shapes and dimensions. Also, Warbird Information Exchange may be a useful source as well. Ironically, there are 2 F-82 Twin Mustangs undergoing restoration, if it were an -82 instead of a -51H underway you'd probably have all kinds of access to drawings, details, etc. I'm not exactly a huge Mustang fan (The Navy flew only 2 of them), but i do have a fondness for the P-51H. Its sort of the Air Force equivalent to the F8F Bearcat. I hope it goes forward. I wish you the best of luck on finding reliable drawings. I'll ask Steve Bakke if he has any other ideas; i know he's a mustang enthusiast. David

Oh Yeah. That DOES look really nice!! david

Thats cool. Just as long as you were aware of it and thought things thru. david

Hi Allan, 2 points of clarification: 1) i forgot to say that the holes punched in the Tamiya tape were to create masks to paint the fuel filler caps and the sabre drain masts. They were then sprayed with Model Master Insignia Red, which seems to go on to a future-painted surface just great. 2) I had this roll of white coloured, very sticky masking tape in my stash which i never used (it tended to pull paint off). i cut a piece out, laid it on my trusty cutting mat, sliced it to size and applied it to the model. Looks OK to me. Wish i had better pictures to depict this, but my flash drive is at home and dredging these pics up from my iPhoto trash folder, re exporting to my desktop, uploading to Photobucket, and then linking them to here is just too much of a pain. david