Ralph-D

Paul, yeah, I tend to go for Yahu panels.. (See my recent P-47 build!), but I used the kit decals for the IP on my previous Kotare mid build and thought they were great.
 
So, I fully intend to go the same route with this early version!
 
Here's my previous go at it, which I was pleased with, but I want to make this one even better!
 
 

Decalling
I used Kits Worlds decals. National insignias are from an old CAM decals set.
 

Some progress
Next step is decalling
 





 

I have updates.  My plan the last few weeks has been to finish up the "blue noser" painting, out of fear that the paint would degrade over time, and it will take a long amount of time to finish the fuselage to a point where the paint would ordinarily be applied.  To do that, I wanted to finish up the windshield surround and instrument panel assembly prior to painting, in order to minimize handling the (fragile) painted surface. 
 
Last we visited the IP and windshield surround was Feb 1, where I posted this picture:
 
   
 
Now, I have this:
 

 
Added is a bunch of stuff below the IP:
 
Armament switch panel
Pilot's center switch box
Fuel shutoff bracket and handle
Fuel selector panel and handle
Hydraulic pressure gauge and bracket
Landing gear door emergency release handle
 
A close-up:
 

 
 
My stuff is never perfect, like some modelers on this site somehow accomplish, but this is the best I have done so far.  I'm good with it.  All these items should be familiar to the P-51 enthusiast.  All parts (with just a couple of minor exceptions) were 3D printed from the drawings, like usual.  The switch covers, turn knobs, handles and such were done separately and then bonded onto the panels, brackets, and boxes.  And, I will say again because it deserves repeating - Peter Castle is reponsible for the outstanding decals.  It must have taken him months to work it all out and have them printed.
 
Also, there were a couple of items added to the RH windshield frame:
 

 
They are:
 
Type C-5 fluorescent lamp
Recognition light switch box
 
Also 3D printed.  Very difficult and delicate installations with small parts.  I might add - this is the first of my 1/18 scale models where I have decent thumb switches.  Up til this point I have cut off bits of wire to do them, which is OK until you look closely.  Then not so much.  These however are 3D printed.  And as long as I am careful not to break them, they are fine.  MUCH better.  I will also add that upon studying for the upcoming Malcolm hood drive mechanism, I found that part of the field mod was to relocate the recognition light switch box further forward - the very same part that I worked so hard installing!  Grrr.  Wish I had noticed that earlier.  The reason - the box interferes with the opening/closing hand crank for the hood.  This:
 

 
I will have to follow suit and break off and relocate the switch box. 
 
And then, it was time for the blue paint.  Assemble the forward fuselage with engine cowl onto the jig, and mask the critical paint boundary:
 
  
 
Here she is:
 

 

 
The masks for the white crosses are from Thunnus - provided to me quite a while back.  Thanks John!
 
Here is what it is all going to look like:
 
   
 

 

 
I might add a semigloss coat to the new paint.  I think that's what I did with the engine cowl, and it should better the match.  BTW - the paint showed zero signs of degradation.  I guess I didn't have to go out of sequence, but I also would have fretted about it.  Now I don't have to. 
 
Lastly for this update - the Shapeways rear windows came in the mail:
 

 
  "Diamonds in the rough".  And a bit pricey.  They will polish up very nicely I guarantee.  Recall the ones I printed off myself didn't fit very well; these fit perfectly:
 

 
It is going to be a while before you see that crown part of the fuselage in action.  First will be the lower radio floor and fuselage tank, and then the upper radio rack and the SCR-522 radio equipment and the battery.  All in future installments.  
 
I believe the next step should be the Malcolm hood drive mechanism.  It will be all guesswork - whatever I can glean from the photographs I have.  I'm excited about it. And hope to have a great update in a couple weeks.  Take care all, and thanks for tuning in.   
 
 
 
 
  
 

Yes, $50,000 ea.

Today's update
 

Today's update
 



 

I'm glad to hear that. What color/brand did you use for the exhaust?

i have also finished painting the tail camouflage and markings
 

 

 

 
 


 

 
 
bottom side..

 

thank you!

upper fuselage and wing camouflage almost completed 
 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 
thanks!

Let's get up to date!  There have been some issues, at least in my head, that needed to be resolved.  One, the side windows.  I don't like the ones I did myself.  So I await the 3D printed transparencies from Shapeways - due in a week or so.  It is my hope they turn out as nice as the Malcolm hood has.  Two, blue paint that has been sitting for months - I feel I need to finish up the blue painting while the paint is still healthy.  Because if it dries up, I will have great difficulty matching up a new batch.
 
In the mean time, I have been working on the RH side of the cockpit wall where we find the radio gadgetry and some electrical equipment.  Recall in previous posts that radio equipment for US ETO fighters was pretty simple especially for Mustangs with fuselage tanks, where the tank has used up alot of space where radio equipment went.  Hence all they really had was the VHF SCR-522 equipment.  Missing was IFF (identification friend or foe) equipment and low frequency radio equipment (the Detrola).  The VHF SCR-522 consists of the following components:
 
Transmitter-receiver - the big box behind the pilot's armor plate on the upper radio rack (to be done later)
Dynamotor - a slightly smaller box also behind the pilot's armor plate on the upper radio rack (to be done later)
Jack box - a version of this is included in the cockpit RH side stuff
Radio control box - this item is included in the cockpit RH side
Antenna mast  - the familiar nasty looking spike antenna we see on all ETO fighters.  Although this will be replaced by a whip antenna as part of the Malcolm hood modification.  
 
Here is the finished radio and electrical equipment on the cockpit RH sidewall:
 

 
 
 

 
You see there in the forward-most bay the dominant black main switch box, below it the interior green radio junction box, and just aft of the radio junction box the fabric covered connector panel.  The next bay aft has the SCR-522 radio control box with the red buttons, below it the jack box bracket, and below the jack box bracket the detonator box, and aft of the detonator box the silver mic adaptor box.  I attempted to wire this equipment but the drawings are not very good - hope I got it close....  I may or may not include microphone cords.  All this stuff except the fabric covered connector panel, and the red buttons, are 3D printed from my Rhino models, as usual for this build.  You also see radio support brackets (3D printed), at least the one with a blank area where other radio equipment would go (IFF stuff), but is missing on this aircraft.  Lastly another shout-out to Peter for the decals.  They are marvelous. 
 
At this point, the sides of the cockpit area are pretty much complete.  Here they are:
 
   
 
Late additions are the flare gun stowage bag on the LH side (with the two brass buttons), and the map case on the RH side.  The map case is just simple plastic sheet parts.
 
I must mention - for those of you who followed the Corsair build, you may agree when I say the P-51 cockpit is much more simple than the Corsair cockpit.  Mind you, I still have the floor to do, and some other stuff hanging off the IP panel, as well as the pilot's seat and armor plate.  But there just is not nearly the amount of complexity.  The Corsair cockpit was a nightmare!
 
All right - I have been nervous about the blue paint.  So what I have decided to do is to go ahead and paint the remainder of it on the windshield surround part - this:
 
  
 
In order to do that, the rest of the skinning has to be done.  And in order to do that, I have to fit this part to the already completed engine cowl, and tidy up the panel line between them.  In order to do that, I feel I have to tool these parts up to one another.   So I designed and built another jig:
 

 
This new jig is part of a simpler plan than the one I laid out a couple posts ago.  This way, I can still utilize the main jig (minus the firewall bulkhead).   Construction and concept are similar to the main fuselage jig.  That new bulkhead has a post on it that fits into the prop shaft hole in the nose of the engine cowl.  Which will assure a proper orientation of the engine cowl to the forward fuselage both up/down, and sideways.  The bulkhead can slide fore and aft in the center slot (the mounting holes are slotted), similar to the two end bulkheads on the main jig.  This jig, or better an auxiliary jig, will bolt onto the existing fuselage jig that is working so well for me.  Like so:
 
 
 
 
Note that the firewall bulkhead has been removed.  In its place is to be the actual firewall (actually a simplified version of it just for this exercise):
 

 
Two parts - a top and a bottom - 3D printed.  They fit onto or into the aft face of the engine cowl, which has just awakened from a months long winter hibernation.  Note the firewall has the same four longeron posts that the jig bulkhead has.  The beauty of digital design - the locations are identical to the zillionth of an inch.  Much fiddling was required to get the firewall parts to fit perfectly into the big engine cowl part.  Dimensional accuracy on 3D print parts is not quite perfect - parts grow just a bit, such that male and female parts when designed without any gaps often clash a bit with one another.  That was the case here.  
 
Before using this new aux jig, I reloaded the fuselage side panels and windshield surround into the main jig, minus the firewall bulkhead, like so:
 

 
The holes in the longerons are loud and proud in that picture - waiting to mate up with that new firewall.  And here is the new aux jig in action with the engine cowl plus firewall loaded:
 
  
 
 
f
 
The jig is now about 13.5 inches long, and it is unwieldy to jockey around.  Big model.  The concept works great, but I got a bit of a surprise - tapering gaps at the firewall interface:
 
 
 

 
Both sides.  Not bad, but it makes me wonder if something is in error.  
 
I do notice that once the aux jig is clamped up and bolted to the main jig, despite my efforts to get it just right, its forward end has risen up a few hundredths of an inch above the flat desktop.  That would cause that tapered gap, and maybe that's all there is to it.  So I am going to shim between the jig surfaces to eliminate the condition, and hope that tapered gap disappears.  Actually it matters little - when I skin the fuselage side panels, that gap will be hidden, and turn into a normal panel line.  Still, I want that Mustang nose to be spot on relative to the rest of the model.
 
Next steps - I believe I am going to adorn the windshield surround assembly with the electrical equipment that hangs off it - several boxes and a lamp.  I don't want to do that work after I paint on the blue, because there will be alot of handling and that paint is a bit fragile.  After that - then I will put the parts back into the jigs and skin the windshield surround, and then paint!  You will see the results next up.
 
Hope you like that aux jig - I sure do.  Later folks.        
   
 
 
  
   

Remember this?
 

 
That was posted on Nov 21 of last year - four months ago.  The finished engine cowl section - painted and all. 
 
There is still some more blue that has to be applied to this model - around the windshield, and the uppermost panels between the windshield and the firewall, which is the aft end of this sub-assembly.  You will recall that I, in my impatience, just had to apply a final topcoat to the forward end of this P-51.  I couldn't wait to show off the blue-noser blue.  Well now it occurs to me that the paint cocktail I ended up with is not going to wait forever for me to complete the forward fuselage of this uber-complex model.  It has already been four months since I shot that paint, and it will probably be something like another four months to complete the forward fuselage such that I can skin it in aluminum to match the finished engine cowl section, and paint the rest.   I am screwed if the paint decides to dry up; I have no confidence I can match up a new batch to the old batch.
 
To review, this is the combination:
 
Tamiya medium blue XF-18 (49% plus)
Vallejo medium blue 70.965 (49% plus)
Vallejo white 71.001 (quite a few drops, but quantity unknown)
 
No way would a new batch be perfect.  Were it all Tamiya, I would not be stressing as much about the shelf life.  But it isn't.  I just don't know how long its shelf life is.  So far it seems fine after four months.  Am accepting comments from the master painters here who are tuning in.  
 
So I think I am going to hit the pause on the assembly plan, and try to get the rest of the blue on sooner rather than later.  To do that, I have to mate up (dry fit) the engine cowl section to the forward fuselage section in its current state, and skin the forward portion of the forward fuselage section to match the already skinned engine cowl section.  I do not trust using the jig to trim the fuselage section aluminum skins.  In theory it would work, but in practice, I don't think I will get a great match to the engine cowl.  And it needs to be good.  In order to do that, I must be able to assemble the two nearly complete sides of the forward fuselage section, and the fully complete windshield surround section, without the benefit of the fuselage jig.
 
I think I know how to do that:
 
1.  3D print the firewall, with its four posts that match the holes in the forward ends of the four longerons.  Just like the forward end of the jig does now.  My firewall is already mostly designed in Rhino.  It won't take much to finish it and print it.  Fit the firewall to the engine cowl and then the forward fuselage can be fit to the firewall, and taped in place.   
2.  Rhino design and print a mock station 200 frame, just a plate with four posts to match the holes in the aft ends of the four longerons.  Again, just like the aft end of the jig does now.  This part can be taped to the side panels and will stabilize the aft end of the side panels and keep them in place. 
3.  Rhino design and print a simple square plate with four posts that match the four wing mounting points at stations 104 L&R, and 146 L&R, on the lower longerons.  Again, just like the jig does now.  Tape this to the side panels also.
4.  Tape the windshield onto the side panels.
 
This should give me an accurate forward fuselage assembly that holds shape acceptably and can be fit onto the engine cowl, complete enough to skin the forward end of it, to perfectly match.  Maybe skin just the windshield surround, since the blue doesn't extend down to the side panels.  Once the trim is final, mask up for the remainder of the blue, paint it, and problem solved.  
 
That is if there is a problem at all.  If the shelf life of my paint is alot longer than a half year, then I don't need to do this out-of-sequence work.   What do you think?        

Back from Straya as of a few days ago.  What a place!  And man am I jet lagged.  I want to sleep during the day, and I wake up about 3 AM ready to go!  Getting better though.
 
So I got the itch to make some more skin panels and see how they look and fit.  This would also make the existing panel assemblies a bit more robust and lessen the chance for breakage.  Here they are fresh out of the machine, and post cured:
 
   
 
Not sure why that side skin on the left looks so ratty, but it sanded out just fine.  The side planks printed up well, not so much for the crown skin panel.  It suffered a similar deformation I got on my first try with the prop spinner last year:
 

 
Hard to tell in that picture, but those slanted water lines are where the deformation is.  Wiggly contour.  That will not do so the part is scrap.  I re-oriented the part to print vertically instead of at an angle, and it turned out beautiful:
 

 
I wish I understood more what goes wrong with some of my prints.  Those parts took all day to print up.
 
It was then time to install the aft side planks, and the Sta 168 and 184 full frames.  I did this on the jig; here are the side panels after CA bonding, freed from the jig:
 
 
 
Yahoo!!  The crown skin panel is going to gather dust for quite a while as I further populate the insides of the cockpit, and fabricate the lower radio floor (with the fuselage tank), the upper radio rack, and the cockpit floor.  These items along with the side panels will make a good robust forward fuselage assembly one day not to too long from now.  Can't wait!
 
But I just had to check out the crown panel in the jig, along with the side panels:
 
 
 
Fit is OK not great - gonna require some massage.  Starting to look alot like a P-51B.  And with the hood:
 

 
I also dry fit the aft glass into the crown panel and got this:
 
 
 
That is a poor fit.  Both sides.  I checked a couple of dimensions on the clear parts and sure enough they are about .04 inch too short.    Reminds me of my Malcolm hood adventures.
 
Well, I was not that impressed by those parts anyway, so I think I am going to pull out my wallet again and have Shapeways make them.  That way I will get a better fit, and a better transparency. 
 
Next post you will see alot of radio equipment and bracketry for the RH side of cockpit.  The Rhino modeling is coming right along. 
 
And BTW - here are two questions for those who purport to be P-51 experts:
 
1.  Did the 8th AF in Europe use the IFF (identification friend or foe) radio equipment in fighters?  I have a source that says no, and if that is true there are a couple of items I will not have to make.  Already I am leaving out the Detrola radio (and the long aerial cable antenna), which I know the 8th AF didn't use in their fighters.  But IFF?
 
2.  P-51B/C aircraft had a busy little area right behind the canopy on the crown - a VHF antenna mast, an insulator, and a navigation light:
 
 
 

 
And the crown skin had penetration holes for all three:
 

 
All three of these items had to be removed for the Malcolm hood modification, to allow the hood to slide aft.  My question is does anyone have any pictures of how these holes were covered up?  I would like to include that once I skin the crown (if I live long enough!).  
 
Later alligators.  Thank you for looking in.

Some more progress on the wing
 





 
 
 
The location of the wingtip lights should be corrected. They should be located on the upper and lower surfaces of the wing.
 
 
 


 

Aerocraft's exhausts were placed. The upper cowling piece was also glued. It looks like there is no problem for now.
Is it starting to look even a little bit like a Mustang? Or is all this effort in vain?
 







 

Some progress
Aerocraft's rear canopy section has been placed after masking and painting.
It needs some puttying and sanding now.
 

It's finished!
 
The build thread is here
 
 

Hello,
 
Here is my last build, a very long one with a lot of sanding, test fitting and sometimes the help of boiling water to straighten  parts.
 

 

 

 

 

Just a quick post before I visit the land down unda'.
 
I Rhino-designed two important cockpit items over the last few days - the engine quadrant and the oxygen regulator.  They occupy similar regions right behind the instrument panel mounted to the upper longerons - the engine quadrant on the LH side; the O2 regulator on the RH side.  Pictures:
 

 

 

 

 
VERY TINY PARTS!  100% 3D printed.  It shows what a good modern 3D printer can do.  Also, for the umpteenth time, I am so thankful to Peter Castle for the decals.  Just amazing. 
 
I will bond these components on later, to keep them out of harm's way as I continue to populate the cockpit sidewalls with stuff over the coming weeks (months?).  Stick with me.
 
 

Some progress in the cockpit
 

Got some markings on , feeling better about my progress.
Still some markings I'll need to make myself , stencils and/or decals.
 

 

 
Thanx for lookin'

Today's update:
This is one of the most problematic parts of Trumpy's kit.
As seen in the pictures, the area between the windows behind the cockpit is very wide. It is obvious that this is not the job of Trumpy's A team.
Aerocraft released a clear resin kit a few years ago for this problem. It looks like it will work.
The necessary parts of the fuselage were cut. Test fitting looks good.
I keep moving forward, hoping I don't run into Murphy.
 


 








 
 
 
 

Some progress on the wings
The incorrectly positioned landing light that Antonio mentioned bothers me. I will have to fix it