Dragon P51D Mustang

[Gene]

With so many IJN and IJA aircraft, there needs to be some balance with Allied aircraft! So, I'll give it a go with an Dragon P-51D Mustang. Not sure yet what markings to use, but haven't seen anything on the market for PTO a/c, so will probably have to adapt and make some up - should be fun!

[CharlesMetz]

Gene,

 

Not sure what Academy had to do with that kit, but in any case I listed a couple of PTO decal sheets that could be used on it here.

 

Charles Metz

[Gene]

Thanks Charles, you are absolutely right, it is the Dragon kit! And thanks for the PTO decal info, and sorry, Erwin, I hadn't seen your initial remarks on the PTO P-51D!

[Erwin]

Just recieved my Dragon kit.

 

This will surely be a totally different kind of build compared to the old Revell and Matchbox kits that I mostly build.

 

Looking forward to see yours in progress.

[Gene]

My start is a bit slow due to collecting some info on the P-51; picked up two books from Osprey, Very Long Range P-51 Mustang Units of the Pacific War by Carl Molesworth and Mustang and Thunderbolt Aces of the Pacific and CBI by John Stanaway; both very informative editions, and Squadron’s P-51D Walk Around by Larry Davis.

 

I’ve decided to do Captain William Shomo’s celebrated P-51D – his ‘press-release’ bird that is quite colorful. On 11 Jan 1945, Capt. Shomo downed 6 ‘Tonys’ and a ‘Betty’ bomber making him an ‘ace in a day’. Less than 24-hrs. earlier he downed a ‘Val’. All the kills were in his recon version of the Mustang, the F-6D. Shomo’s F-6D went in for repairs and maintenance following the air battle and he was given a freshly painted P-51D in anticipation of some eager press coverage. It makes for a nice looking bird and will be fun to attempt.

[Gene]

On this kit work starts in the engine bay. Since the kit provides many of the basics, I’ll leave the starboard cowling off to display the Packard/Rolls-Royce Merlin. First up is the support structure for the cowl panels. The top string was widened and flange edges added where appropriate. Holes were drilled where Dzus fasteners occur (no, I didn’t add the diagonal fastener wires!). It has been sprayed with some Model Masters Aluminum Plate Buffing Metalizer and lightly buffed. Once assembled it will be weathered down a bit.

[Gene]

Work proceeds at a slow pace. I find myself doing a lot of test fitting and for a good reason – this kit does not go together with the kind of precision that one has enjoyed with most of the other brands of more recent issue.

 

In the area I’m currently fiddling with, the parts tolerances are so generous, that I cannot know for sure how to locate the engine in its frame to insure that the prop spinner will line up with the cowling and the exhaust manifold in its cowl opening. So, I’m plodding along trying to anticipate proper positioning of the pieces in the engine bay. This is only a concern because I want to leave one of the cowl covers off.

 

The engine went together okay. As Erwin had pointed out earlier the exhaust tips should point down and not up as the kit instructions identify the parts. Also, as Al Jones in his FineScale Modeler review pointed out, engine part D22 attaches to the bottom of part E11 (the instructions make no mention or drawing of this).

[Gene]

The engine was given an underpainting of Testors 1144 Gold enamel and then sealed with Future. When dried, Model Masters Flat Black enamel was misted on. The Future provided a barrier, which allowed the high spots to be rubbed to reveal a somewhat oiled looking ‘gold’ anodized fittings on the engine.

[Gene]

The support frame was painted with Testors 1184 Zinc Chromate (i.e. Yellow Chromate) enamel in their little half-ounce bottles – odd they didn’t seem to have it in their MM line.

 

The oil reservoir tank attached to the firewall looked quite odd to me, so I sanded most of its features off and detailed as close as I could to some reference. I say ‘as close as’ because in the end, the basic tank is just too small to accept all the plumbing that should be going to it! To the engine were added spark plugs and wiring, rocker cover vent plumbing and a large piece of plumbing running from the nose reservoir. Then all was weathered with a soapy solution of chalk pastels. Now on to the cockpit.

[Gene]

As the interior hiccups along, I’ve worked a bit now and then on the prop and spinner. Been using the spinner as a NMF test piece and a good thing – it has been painted and stripped 3 times. Finally, it can rest, although I’m not satisfied with its metal finish (Model Master Metalizer). I’ll move on to some other piece now to test an SnJ or Alclad II system.

 

The kit’s prop demarcation from cuff to blade is a bit mushy, so I taped off the upper blade at the cuff and gave the cuff a good coat of gloss black. That gave a quick build up of paint and left a clean but subtle step at the cuff. Then the rest of the blade was painted gloss black (then I can decal without an extra step). After decals, the whole prop was sealed with some Model Masters Dullcote. Some photos show the cuff with a slightly different sheen than the rest of the blade, so I rubbed the flat finish with a tissue until the blade/cuff sheen difference was noticeable. This effect is not consistently noticeable in my photo ref, but was fun to try and gives the two areas a subtle difference.

 

I like the contrast in this shot of the big Merlin engine being dwarfed by the 11’-2” dia. prop that it swings! Even the spinner looks like it could swallow the engine.

[Chris Hannover - Germany]

Hi Gene,

 

what an excellent engine and prop section! Looks really great!

 

Cheers,

Chris

[Gene]

Thanks Chris - glad you enjoyed it!

 

Cockpit component test fits reveal several issues. One that I’ll work out later is the instrument panel falls way short of the hood. A very nice aiming device fits in there, but the gap is enormous in scale terms.

 

The first issue tackled however was the seat. The kit’s seat scales 13.76 inches in 1:32 and 20.6 inches in 1:48. When test fit, it looks preposterously small in the cockpit. After studying some other builds and pics of various aftermarket kits made for the Hasegawa kit (which by the way has an even more ridiculous seat although more in scale in width), I decided to make my ‘best guess’ scratchbuild of a seat. It scales out to be 17.5 inches wide for the parachute bucket. The kit’s PE seat belts scale out to 2 inches in width and appear okay.

 

The seat bucket and back were made from flat aluminum rubbed into a form cut from thick styrene. The frame, bent from small diameter aluminum rod, was cyanoed to the bucket and back. The seatback cushion was made from a piece of plasticard with tissue soaked in white glue. This allowed some texture to be built up and was accented with some Olive Drab dry brushed over a lighter color base. The headrest is shown mid-way through the process with just the base paint.

[Gene]

I’m using multiple color reverences scattered throughout Squadron’s P-51D Walk Around by Larry Davis. For the cockpit area Model Master 1715 Interior Green FS34151 was used and in all the other interior areas Testors 1184 Zinc Chromate (a Yellow Chromate). The exact place in the rear of the cockpit where one color stops and the other begins is a guess on my part.

 

So now it is getting close to sealing the cockpit in the coffin of darkness. Seat has been painted up, the fuel tank has its plumbing and has been painted. The painted plywood floor worked out okay; it started with an overall woodgrain plywood effect with two tones of brown and then sealed with Future. My plan was to mist on some Interior Green and then rub through that layer to reveal the wood. Alas, I think I didn’t thin the Green enough and became a nicely bonded paint finish that would not rub off! So, desperate measures 101, using the coarse side of a sanding stick, I scratched through the top layer of Green paint to reveal the woodgrain. The result is therefore accidental, but I’ll keep it. Definitely serendipity.

 

While I’m waiting for some Eduard P-51 placards (for the Hasegawa kit), I’ll need to add some radio equipment over the fuel cell, some rudder pedals and a control stick.

[rafju]

Thanks for sharing Gene!

 

Nice scratch 'work

 

but (similar to the Rolling Stones said with the red door ) I see a green wooden floor and I want it paint in black...

 

not you?

 

raphael

[Gene]

Hi Raphael and thanks for your comments.

 

I understand what you mean with wanting the floor black. In Squadron’s P-51D Walk Around, on page 43, lower right photo caption, Larry Davis indicates that on P-51D/Ks of the time the walls and floor were painted Interior Green 611 (FS34151). Okay, so that is what I tried to follow. The photo for that caption, although black & white, does seem to show a floor more similar in tone to the cockpit sidewalls than to the instrument panel.