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Dragon P-51 "Cripes 'A Mighty"


mike_kloppenburg

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Some of you have seen some of my work in progress on the Dragon 1/32 P-51. When Tamiya released their new version of the Mustang some have been haling it as the closest to a near perfect model kit. Well I would love to get one for myself, but I just could not justify getting one when I have the Dragon offering staring me in the face. So I had to break it out and start working on it. I'm not quite finished with it but it is very close to being there. I still need to add the rearview mirrors and fabricate a pilot tube.

The Dragon kit is not fantastic but it is not unworkable. One of the big complaints is the detail of the wings with over stated rivet and panel lines. So the first thing I did was Bondo the wings with putty, leaving only the gun bay covers untouched. This helped create the look of the Laminar Flow wing the Mustang was known for.

 

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I ran into problems from the get go, I noticed that the pilot seat was situated to far forward and had to moved back. I used an awesome set of decals from Barracuda Decals for all of the data placards in the cockpit that really makes it stand out.

 

BC3201002.jpg

 

http://barracudacals.com/proddetail.php?prod=BC32010

 

I would recommend these to anyone, but they are small and will test your patience. When I installed the interior cockpit and engine assembly as per the instructions all seemed fine, but I had fit issues with the fuselage. I opted to deviate from the instruction on the assembly of the wings to fuselage I installed the gun bays to the upper portion of the wings and then glued only the upper wings the fuselage and had to hold them in place with clamps. This helped eliminate large gaps that I would have had to fill in the wing roots. I finished off the rest of assembly following along with the instructions. I found the landing gear to be complex and weak, I had issues with the spinner and engine not properly aligning and I had to break the engine free of its mount to correct this issue. After I did that the exhausts manifolds had nothing to fit to so they are just glued to the cowling. The windscreen and canopy gave me grief as well, the windscreen fit poorly and had to be sanded into the fuselage and polished back out. The canopy was molded with a seam running down the back of its spine and had to be polished out as well. The markings I used go back a few years. When I first moved to North Carolina I had no clue that’s where Major George E. Preddy was from this area. I always have been in love with the "Cripes 'A Mighty" paint scheme. I was even motivated further while traveling through the Charlotte airport and they had a large scale representation of this plane and it was not much time later that Eagle Strike made these marking and I had to get them.

 

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http://www.squadron.com/ItemDetails.asp?item=EP32045

 

I only added a few things not in the box first was some aftermarket resin wheels made by True Details since the kit tires to hub fit fell short of acceptable and was an easy drop in part. John Jernigan gave me a new resin propeller from Quickboost it was meant for the Trumpeter kit but with minor adjustments they fit fine. If you haven't heard the Dragon kits prop is a mirror image of what they should be and that’s why I chose to replace them.

 

TD32001.jpg

 

http://www.squadron.com/ItemDetails.asp?item=TD32001

 

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http://www.quickboost.net/132.htm

 

Painting the beast, first I under painted the tail white and then over painted it with red so it would be nice and bright. Next I painted the black for the ID bands and the blue for the nose. I then masked the tail, ID bands and the nose off so I would not have to worry about any overspray. I then painted the wings with Floquil old silver then masked them off.

 

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I then moved on to paint the rest of the Mustang off with Floquil bright silver. When I was finished with all of the airbrushing I sealed the whole thing in with a few coats of Future floor polish. I let that cure out for 24 hours before applying the decals. I had no issues at this point, I like the decals dry and then I sealed them in with one more coat of Future and set it aside to cure out. Next I applied the oil paint washes I mixed lamp black and raw umber thinned with mineral spirits 5 to 1 ratio and apply the wash heavily to the entire model and all the remaining parts. I let the paint dry for several hours, but do not let the oil paints cure out as you would not be able to remove the excess. I then use an old soft clean rag that has been dampened with mineral sprits and clean all of the unwanted excess paint from the model. All of the paint in the recesses should stay without being dragged out by the rag. I find it necessary to use Q-tips to clean in some of the smaller places. I used a white wash on the blue nose and the black ID band so that they standout. I let the oil paints cure out before I added the finial flat clear finish. I then unmasked the model and finished assembly.

Conclusions and I know some will not agree, but I actually built it so if you haven’t be nice: The kit is a hard build. It has more of a Mustang feel than the old Hasegawa kit, but it needs to be beat into submission. There are some oddities about the kit the reversed prop, the omission of some key parts like the hydraulic cylinders for the gear doors and the pilot tube. I had to drill a hole in the canopy for the aerial to properly pass threw. The canopy does not want to sit down on the fuselage correctly. I did not go way out on aftermarket items just a few easy items that made my life a lot simpler. I am pleased with end results even thought this is no show winner. It looks like one of my all time favorite aircraft's in my favorite markings. Even with the few aftermarket items I did not break the bank and it cost me half as much as the Tamiya kit and about $10 more than Hasegawa’s boxing.

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Gorgeous model Mike, and really nice photography too.

 

I've moved this one out of the Mustang GB, as the Rules of the Road state that to qualify a model has to be 25% or less finished.

 

Kev

Edited by LSP_Kevin
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