Phil Smith

Fun to watch this - great work on a great subject!

Nicely done!

Very nicely done. The crew really brings this to life!

Moving on from adding the empennage, the next area of focus is the landing gear wells. The kit parts are outstanding as they are, building up to an acceptable level of detail. But I wanted to add the wire harnesses, pipes, and other detail that make gear wells super busy. I used wire at various gauges, including a bit of wire insulation for the thicker pipes. I used photo references, but a good deal of artistic license is employed. The main objective is to create a three-dimensional space filled with interesting detail. Once I was satisfied with the arrangement, I primed with Tamiya Fine Surface Primer. After this dried, I airbrushed a coat of Testors acrylic zinc chromate yellow. The results are as I hoped. Next step is detailed painting and weathering, a non-trivial process that looks to take a long while…

Brilliant craftsmanship!

Thank you!

The engine and its compartment are largely complete, with installation of the upper frame now in place. All the parts came together very well, as expected given the well-known quality of the Tamiya kit. However, it should be noted that if you add details, like spark plug leads, various pipes, and other bits, fit will be compromised - I had to futz with the exhaust shroud to fit properly, for example. I tend to forge ahead and pay the price later; I suppose that’s part of the fun. I used various photographs of the engine as reference, but admit that a fair amount of artistic license was used to give the compartment a "busy" look. A superb reference is Richard A. Franks' "P-51K/D Mustang: A Complete Guide to the Cadillac of the Skies." The engine block was painted in Alclad black lacquer primer. I did use a variety of photo etch parts from Eduard and Zoukei-Mura (Super Wing Options) as well as a bunch from my scrounge drawer. I drilled out all the fastener holes for added interest, though the backplates would not necessarily be see-through. A fair amount of wire was used for pipes and harnesses, from 26 gauge to very fine wire used to power pico-scale LEDs, twisted to give the appearance of wire bundles. The pipes were painted various shades of Alclad metals, mostly polished aluminum. As I went along, I added grease, grime, and oil. AK Interactive's Engine Oil (glossy and thick, so a little enamel thinner helps cut the viscosity a bit) and Engine Grime (watery and dries flat) were used liberally, with special attention given to application of oil (bottom of engine, streaking here and there to give impression of drips, especially on the oil tank - though, to be fair, a lot of spilled oil is unlikely given that it could easily cause an engine fire). I love chalks, so used a fair amount to tone down zinc chromate and provide a dusty aspect to certain areas. Finally, I used SNJ Polishing Metal (silver) to pick out highlights with a Q-tip and stubble brush, and chrome silver to create the classic chipped paint effect.

Thanks, gentlemen. I'm happy to provide more details. I was worried my techniques for building would be considered banal I will add more detail in future posts!

Excellent work!

With the engine and cockpit sections largely complete, various parts related to the radiator and oil cooler assemblies came next. These consisted of about 15 parts which needed to be integrated and installed before the fuselage halves were glued together. Fit is excellent, though I made life a little complicated for myself by adding various details to the engine because clearances were compromised a bit. Once the fuselage was put together, various engine cooling system parts were installed, as well as the exhaust bits. Again, fit was superb - the kit is such a pleasure to build. With these pieces in place, all that remain before moving on to the wings and empennage are the upper structural frame above the engine and some pipe and wire harness details here and there. And, naturally, lots of grime, oil, and grease slathered over the newly installed engine elements. So far, so good!

Thanks, Craig - I used Floquil enamel paint, Old Silver.

Made a bit more progress on the P-51D today. I finished up the sidewalls of the cockpit. The starboard side of the cockpit contains more instrumentation than the port side. Ultimately, this meant an opportunity to add a few wire bundles to a few black boxes, and I scratch built a new oxygen hose by winding fine copper wire around a brass wire core. The port side features throttle controls, flight controls, bomb release, map holder, signal gun, etc. In addition to the standard details in the kit, I replaced the bomb release lever, a wire bundle, and two rods coming out of the throttle control., Finally, both sides were distressed by simulating chipped paint, grime, and dirt. I then fused the cockpit-engine assembly into the port side fuselage half. The Tamiya kit is so well engineered that this process was uneventful. I was worried about engine fit, because I added a lot of additional details, like hoses and pipes, and these could have affected fit. Fortunately, it appears this was not an issue. The next step is to build the radiator and oil cooler assembly.

Superb craftsmanship!

Very nicely done!

This lovely aircraft is for sale for $4.5M. The article contains useful images for reference as it appears to reflect very few modifications beyond a few in the cockpit to make it airworthy in the late 1970s. https://silodrome.com/unrestored-p-51d-mustang/

Excellent work!

Very nice work!

Very nice work!

Excellent. I very much appreciate this level of Zen modeling.

I made some progress during the work week, mostly to the radio and battery area. This was fun as hell to work on. Next up is the K-14A gun site.

Thank you for the comments!

Thank you for that. I have not thought about that, though as a NASM docent perhaps I would have a chance to submit. The Smithsonian gets so much crap delivered to it every year that I'm afraid the model would get lost in the shuffle

Thanks, Thomas. That is indeed the parachute compartment, plus a variety of equipment including a UHF antenna, a light beacon, and so forth. Somehow, the astronaut also had the capability to bend the instrument panel from the right and squeeze through a circular forward hatch and through the parachute compartment(!). Mostly, this was populated using information from the manual cited in the original post as few photos exist of this compartment.

A 1/32 NF-104A, or a solid conversion kit!

Very nice work. Interesting subject.