Citadelgrad

I think the book I read about the 4th is called "1000 Destroyed". https://www.amazon.com/1000-Destroyed-Times-Fighter-Group/dp/0816850046 Blakeslee had a hard and fast rule, you "prang" a plane, you are finished flying. He then landed gear up and by his own rule was finished. If memory serves, he just forgot to put the gear down. He had grounded other aces, one for bellying in while trying to fly into the camera lens of a photographer. Excellent build! I highly recommend the book.

I thought so, too, but apparently, it's because it's rare, in fact the only -82 that has flown anywhere for more than 30 years, and because it took 200,000 man hours to essentially new build this plane. The article mentioned that for the same price, you could buy 5 "regular" P-51s in restored condition. Not my cup of tea. 12m would go a thousand different places for me before I bought that.

I don't get to this part of the board enough. This is a cool project, and I noticed you are from Petoskey. My mom's family was from Grayling, I still remember looking for "Petosky rocks" locally. Man, that was a long time ago. Cool Phantom!

Wow, what an amazing, and timely, thread. i am reading “race of aces”, a good read about the USAAF fighters in the PTO. They mostly flew P38s and P47s. in, IIRC, November 1944, they first encountered this fighter. They described it as P47 like, as you did. Luckily the Japanese were about out of experienced pilots at the time. very nice work here.

Wow is all i can muster.

Always loved the shape of this one. Very nice execution.

Amazing.

Is anyone else relishing this amazinf build just for the sheer unusual subject and incredible creativity? this makes me want to toss my stash of mass produced stuff into a river....

For a "plain black" bird, you captured the subtle tonal and other variations, it's very pleasing to the eye. Very nice finishing skills. I would be proud to be able to replicate it, but I am a chimp.

That's very impressive, your painting skills are exceptional. Not to derail the thread, but I noticed you seem to have painted the model in sections, notably the wings and vertical stabilizers. The wing joint on the -24 is unique, so I can see how that should work with a perfect fit, but is there concern when doing this about needing to fill and mess up that gorgeous paint? Thanks for sharing this, what an amazing build.

Thats a really good looking 190. I love that airframe.

Do you smell that? love me some SE Asia huey action. looking great.

thanks, Tomaz. i have not yet shot the interior, but cant find the paints i need locally. I may have to order some. Bill

Thanks, all! I remember as a kid building away in the basement, sharing my finished builds with friends and parents, sharing with like minded, talented builders all over the world is much better. i added a bit of styrene detail to simulate the corrugated floor, front panel, and added a bit of lead wire to the sidewalls to replace some molded detail. I have The Eduard interior set which i will be using some of to liven up the cockpit. I hope to shoot the interior tomorrow, but wanted to show the work that went into it before its covered by paint. also, a qu

Ok, back from the brink. I read new posts here and follow other’s build’s every day. i have finally started using my stay at home time to work toward finishing this first for me LSP. I realize that there is extreme talent on here, and i think it makes me a better builder. This engine, for example, is not the best engine, but its certainly the best one i have ever made. Its still got some detail painting to do, and the blow ups make every issue i need to fix so easy to see, but here is what i have come up with. i am really excited to continu