Tamiya 1/32 P-51D-10-NA Detroit Miss

[Thunnus]

Thank you Michael!  The little switchbox is greatly enhanced by that ANYZ toggle switch. I also added a bit of white decal from the Barracuda Cockpit stencil set, which I think makes it look more "official".

 

Honestly, I feel like I'm "jogging in place" on this build.  I really want to finish the instrument panel but still waiting on the Barracuda Cockpit Stencil decals to finish that off so I'm just trying to keep busy on other things like adding detail to the gun sight.  In that same vein, I've decided to add lights to the instrument panel coaming using plastic rod and brass sheeting.

Yeah, I even mocked up the illuminating end even though they point inwards and won't be seen from the outside.

I can now glue the Type N-9 gun sight to the coaming, which gives me a little more security now that the fragile gun sight assembly is attached to a larger part.  The coaming has not been glued onto the instrument panel yet since I'm still planning on using the unfinished Barracuda version of the IP.

Everyone has things on a build that warrants extra attention.  For me, among soe other things are the exhaust tip ends.  Tamiya has used slide mold technology to render the exhaust tips hollow but they are chunky.

I enlarged the holes gradually using incrementally larger drill bit sizes.  This thins the wall thickness and gives the exhaust ends more of a scale-appropriate look.  Because you want to get the walls as thin as possible, extra care is needed when drilling and that is why I do it slowly and incrementally.  I found it easier to cut the section of sprue apart from the main sprue but leaving the exhausts attached.

The final step is lightly touch up the drilled holes with Tamiya Extra Thin cement.  This smooths out the drill lines and gobbles up any excess plastic shavings.

 

[Hubert Boillot]

On 7/6/2026 at 9:17 PM, scvrobeson said:

Wow, that gunsight looks amazing!  The chipping and wear added to it really take it to the next level.

 

Do you have a US source for the Anyz stuff? I know that he hasn't been shipping direct to us for awhile now.

 

 

Matt 

If you have a 3D printer, you can buy the files from AnyZ, rather than the printed products.

 

Hubert

[scvrobeson]

20 minutes ago, Hubert Boillot said:

If you have a 3D printer, you can buy the files from AnyZ, rather than the printed products.

 

Hubert

 

I don't have one, but nice to know that's an option for the future.

 

 

Matt 

[LSP_Kevin]

Superb stuff, John. Your painting and finishing has always been first-class, but now your detailing skills are matching them!

Kev

[JayW]

The office is really looking sweet John.  What are you going to do with the inside of the canopy?  There is detail there that the kit probably doesn't have, detail which may be straight forward to add.  I'll have to look at the drawings.

[rafju]

So meticulous! Love it.

[Thunnus]

Thanks guys!  I do feel like I am improving/learning in some aspects, which is nice.  I don't feel as daunted when I have to scratchbuild a small detail.

 

 

Still no work on my Barracuda Cockpit Stencil decal order.  I hope Roy is ok! And if he is, I wish that he'd process my order!!!


Here is the painted throttle quadrant.  You can see that the Barracuda stencils make a small but notable improvement. The knobs were replaced with little spheres from a water filter.

Since I am in a holding pattern on the cockpit until I get those Barracuda decals, I thought this would be a good opportunity to visit the engine assembly.  I've made an executive decision NOT to show the engine via removable panels.  I personally do not like models with open cowlings and panels so I'm not going to exert any unnecessary energy on this engine.  It's a very nice representation of the Merlin, which will be assembled but not painted.

There are some non-standard attachments on the supercharger assembly... a nut and some little polycaps.

I took perverse pleasure in blazing through Steps 1-7 of the Tamiya instructions without worrying about mold lines, glue seams and paint!

 

 

A preliminary check of how the engine, after attaching to the cockpit tub, fits into the fuselage. No issues detected.

 

[Thunnus]

I got a message from Roy at Barracuda Studios saying that my order was being mailed out.  Hopefully, I'll get those little decals soon because I'm getting impatient.


The P-51D-10-NA did not have the tail warning radar so the litle panel on the tail fin needs to be removed.  Interestingly, Tamiya just to represent this as finely raised detail so no filling, just scraping and sanding.

I'm going to do some fill work to represent the puttied wings of the P-51D.  I'm not planning on showing the ammo panels open so it's a good time as any to glue those doors shut.

The fit is very good but not perfect.

Because of the upcoming putty work, I want the ammo panels to be as secure as possible so I reinforced them from the inside using stretched sprue.

Twiddling my thumbs while looking at the cockpit sidewalls, I wasn't happy with the wiring harnesses on the starboard sidewall.  

So I removed the wiring from the Barracuda sidewalls.  Ideally, this work should have been done before painting.  Even before the sidewalls were glued into the fuselage.  We tend to make dangerous decision when we are bored.

Resin is a little bit easier to work with than plastic when it comes to removals so it wasn't too difficult.  The area was cleaned up a little and given a primer coat.

Some of the wiring has been replaced using lead wire.  Holes were drilled into the sidewall stringers to accommodate the new wiring bundles.  The interior green was restored and were ready to put the new wiring in.

Modification complete.  I'll give the sidewalls a gloss coat and I can start putting on the stencils since I still have most of them from the original decal sheet.

 

[scvrobeson]

The new wiring is definitely finer and more scale-appropriate. Good fix on that John!

 

 

Matt 

[JayW]

A word on the aero smoothing putty applied to P-51 wings -

 

The document which controls surface finish says this:

 

 

 

Note that aft of 40% chord the smoothing finish is not applied.  So unless you have already done the deed - no need to fill in rivet marks aft of this line.  

[Thunnus]

Thanks guys!  The cockpit decals should arrive on Monday and the cockpit assembly will wrap up quickly after that.  So yeah, I'm trying to get a handle on the external changes that need to be made to this kit to backdate it to a P-51D-10-NA. I've removed the hatches on the tail fin for the tail warning radar and the little scoop in front of the wing root on the port side.

 

 

Thank you about that note about the wing puttying, Jay.  I'm going to base my fill work on this graphic by John Terrell.  I don't accept this as gospel truth for all P-51D's but given Mr. Terrell's reputation as a solid source of Mustang info and the clarity of the graphic, I will use it as a reference.

 

 

 

Note the square hatches, both upper and lower, in front of the cockpit.  Is this correct for an "early" production P-51D including P-51D-10-NA? I've seen several builds saying that the single hatch in front of the wheel wells is correct per above and below.  I think the drawing below is by Alexey from AMUR Reaver.

P-51D-5-NA 44-13357 "Tika IV"

 

 

Regarding the two hatches on the upper side, I noticed that John (Zaxos345) re-sized the larger one further aft with the statement, "on early P-51D's, the oil filler access door on the rear top left cowling should have the same size as the aftercoolant door just in front of it. The oil access door would not be enlarged until P-51D-20-NA production, when a dip stick was provided, requiring additional room to be accessed."

 

You can see that my kit shows the aft hatch as larger.

 

P-51D-5-NA 44-13926... both hatches appear to be the same size.

 

 

[alaninaustria]

What an absolute masterclass in modeling! Lovely work John!!

Cheers

Alan

[Cicchino]

John, 

 

Coincidently, and you may have known this already, that's Ben Drew flying E2*S in your last pic.

 

 

 

Regards

 

John

 

[Martinnfb]

Museum quality work. 

[Thunnus]

Thanks guys!

 

 

5 hours ago, Cicchino said:

John, 

 

Coincidently, and you may have known this already, that's Ben Drew flying E2*S in your last pic.

 

 

 

Regards

 

John

 

Yes! What a coincidence since he was the pilot of Detroit Miss.

 

 

Some things I need to do to backdate the Tamiya kit, which is more of a late model P-51D to an earlier P-51D-10-NA.  These panels on the lower cowling need to be removed.

 

I'm using black CA glue but I don't think this is ideal.  Even though it is easier to sand than regular CA glue, it's still tough and this cowling piece is quite thin and delicate.  Maybe I should've used Mr Surfacer.

 

 

I don't know what these covers are called but Detroit Miss had the solid panels here, not the ones with the holes.  Surprisingly, one of the covers had a small but noticeable gap.

 

I used stretched sprue and filled in the gap from behind.

 

 

 

Next I scribed the new panel.