karimb Posted November 7, 2014 Author Share Posted November 7, 2014 I dry fit the two cowling covers and the fit was good but the area where the exhaust should attach to the engine was weirdly out of position although everything else was where it was I decided to snip the three bulges on each side of the engine off, the ones that dont appear in any of my references (see yesterday) and to put a thin sheet of styrene on the inside of the cowlin in order to attach the exhaust stack to from the outside. Sure i will thin the exhaust stacks before attaching them but below a photo so you understand what i mean This way i can be sure that the exhausts attach at a similar angle and extend at a smilira distance from the cowl rather than have them skewed or i dont know, possibly not be able to even attach them. I know that on the real aircraft the cowlings were sheet metal, so thin (the kit parts are very thick btw) and that you had space between the cowling and the said exhausts but im not going to worry alot about that by the way things are going on this kit. Tomorrow i will be using the rust product to see how it looks like on the exhaust of an lsp after rusting and after sanding down the rust. I glued the engine cowlings after finishing the modification i did to them and the fit was okay. I ended up with a small 'step' on the top separation line which i sanded down before dinner. Then came the headache. I had left the top part of the wings to assemble later as i knew there was something fishy about the looks of the dryfit... Well it was terrible. The right side wing went on with alot of coaxing and sanding. The left wing didnt fit at all. for some reason the wing was completely moved 1mm to the left side at that applies to all the locator pins, the gun openings and everything. i dont know why. since the right wing fit was less than acceptable, but it still fit, why was the left wing not working. I started sanding and slowly carving the wing joint part of the wing in order to eat off the extra styrene (almost lost a finger in the process lol im exagerating lol)until i could, with ALOT of coaxing, get the wing to fit. Photo below In the photo you can clearly see how the wing is skewed. i wonder if this also is the case with others that have built this kit. I was left with massive seams to fill in the leading edge of the wings and on the fuse/wing joint on the starboard side. i got the CA out and some kicker and started the filling and sanding...and the curse words started flowing for the next hour. after getting sore hands sanding i glued the horiz stabs with the elevators drooped down. I made sure both of them were drooped similar, and the filling and sanding started again. I got tired and didnt bother with filling the seams on the bottom part of those... you know when you need to get away from it all, i was starting to feel like this at that point. I also added the ailerons and the flaps which i dropped too both of them similar angle. There is no indents or insertion tabs or anything to tell you how much the angle should be when you want to drop the flaps, so i used my mk1 eyeball. You could theoretically pose them at a 90 degree angle to the wing they would still fit so be careful and eyeball it, or if you have references on how much droop you should get and you feel like applying that, by all means do so lol... I also tentatively tried the front part of the canopy on the fuse and it needed sanding in order to conform to the shape of the fuselage. I started on this then i got too tired and too fed up with working on the kit today, so i put everything aside for tomorrow... Today really drained me working on her... this kit is to say the least, tiring... mating the major assemblies together was a real pain. alot of grinding and pushing and cursing and filling and sanding... Thats it for today folks one last photo of where we got when i left the workspace Regarding the announcement i wanted to make prior lol... Lets put it this way Since you guys and gals out there are far more talented than i am, and i am positive some of you are willing to give much more tlc to this kit that i am willing to at the present time, ive decided to : GIVE AWAY my other dragon P51D kit FREE of charge and mail it to any of you guys out there...on one condition though, and the catch is... drumroll... To have this kit built as a WIP here on lsp... I'm sure someone would make out of this kit a beautiful masterpiece and id love to see that in the making If anyone's up for the challenge just pm me. It is still boxed and unopened yet and ill gladly mail it if you'll gladly do a wip with it lol Well the plan tomorrow is to get the issue of the two part canopy sorted out , and then it will be time to prime the model with mr surfacer to bring out all the horrors im going to have to refill and resand and we'll decide on what scheme to paint out of the three you get in the box. Im not leaning to any specific marking option as i have no aftermarket decals but im sure petie 2nd has been given a modeling overdose, the other two i havent really seen done though im sure they have and in numbers. ill put a photo up tomorrow of the three choices, ones petie 2nd, ones a yellow and black checkered nose and one has a red tail and an olive drab nose...we'll see Well, till tomorrow then Stay safe and happy modeling Karim p38johnny 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karimb Posted November 7, 2014 Author Share Posted November 7, 2014 Great tutorial Karimb. Very helpful. Coming along nicely.......Harv Thanks Harv...blood sweat and mostly tears lol Karim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitey Posted November 7, 2014 Share Posted November 7, 2014 Wow, hats off to you Karim. Great modelling and great descriptions. I'm glad I built the Tamiya Mustang. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loic Posted November 8, 2014 Share Posted November 8, 2014 One blink of an eye and it is almost ready to get painted ! Nice work Karim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acarothers896 Posted November 8, 2014 Share Posted November 8, 2014 Wonderful work on a difficult kit! I would take you up on your offer, but I have 2 Dragon kits in my stash and I do not have the patience. Started the early production D a couple years ago and ran into the same problems you are experiencing. Got frustrated enough that I put what I got accomplished back in the box and relegated to a dark area of the closet. Again, kudos for your persistence and excellent work. Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Peterpools Posted November 8, 2014 Share Posted November 8, 2014 Karim What a project and I'm following your all out effort with great interest. I've built three Tamiya Mustangs so far and am planning on at least a few more next year. Seeing what you have gone through and "Dragon's" creative approach, Tamiya's Mustangs are under priced. Looking forward to your next update Keep 'em coming Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karimb Posted November 8, 2014 Author Share Posted November 8, 2014 Wow, hats off to you Karim. Great modelling and great descriptions. I'm glad I built the Tamiya Mustang. Whitey thank you for your kind comment... you bet you should be glad you went for the tamiya offering lol this to me is like the kit from hell...not that much but pretty close lol One blink of an eye and it is almost ready to get painted ! Nice work Karim Loic merci ... started on the painting today...also surprises as usual popping up with that Wonderful work on a difficult kit! I would take you up on your offer, but I have 2 Dragon kits in my stash and I do not have the patience. Started the early production D a couple years ago and ran into the same problems you are experiencing. Got frustrated enough that I put what I got accomplished back in the box and relegated to a dark area of the closet. Again, kudos for your persistence and excellent work. Andy Andy thank you for the comment. You should have seen me yesterday i was fuming lol I even thought at a point in time about turning this build into a diorama that would represent the first hypothetical reveal of the p51d to government officials and in the diorama i would have the kit draped up in a huge tarp just showing the tail peeking out below the said tarp...thats how i felt yesterday...and a little bit today too Whenever, if ever, youre interested in taking up my offer please let me know. Youre the only one that actually said something about the 'offer'...i think everyone is actually running away from this kit but im going to keep plodding on lol...thank you again for the support Karim What a project and I'm following your all out effort with great interest. I've built three Tamiya Mustangs so far and am planning on at least a few more next year. Seeing what you have gone through and "Dragon's" creative approach, Tamiya's Mustangs are under priced. Looking forward to your next update Keep 'em coming Peter Peter thanks for dropping in my friend, and thanks for the encouragement lol I am putting everything in it...hoping something would come back in return.. well today its starting to give a peak of promising results lol but still very faint...and im still ttethering on the edge of madness lol... ive got the 3 tamiya kits in the stash (the F4J the F14 black knights and the a6m5 zeke) and im just waiting on the eduard and the resin to be delivered... after building the last 4 kits from trumpeter and this one from dragon i cant wait to do a tamiya one and 'take a break'... really, i cant wait lol thanks again for the support Peter... Well, its time for tonights update Spent another whole day trying coax this model into something acceptable...baby steps but we're getting there... Got two more things rubbed of the 'to test' list and the last one is in the process now (i have coated the exhausts for rusting, its a matter of letting the product do the job until tomorrow) First thing tested today was the whole range of polishing compounds on the canopy, more on that below Second thing i tested today was the silver plating paint today with mixed results...more on that below also... So this is how it all went today. First order of business was to get the canopies polished and masked. The quality of the clear parts is dubious in some sections. the sides of the main canopy are clear but when you look through them they give you a warped view of whats behind the canopy. nothing i can do about that. There is (was lol) a big seam running down the middle of the main canopy which i gently rubbed off with my blade. After that i used the coarse, fine, superfine compounds and they worked very well. on top of that i used mr hi coating which, to be honnest, i have no clue how to describe. I can tell you it was recommended by a modeler friend of mine and it works a treat. Its supposed to coat a surface and it is antistatic and glosses up the surface. My friend uses it to coat painted surfaces that are glossy. im going to use it from now on as a last stage of polishing canopies. i find it gives them a nice shine and its a protective film...so below the photos of the products and the result of the work I know the props look horrible in the third photo... theyre wrong...but oh well After that i shot a first layer of mr surfacer to see all the horrors i had hacked yesterday specially at the wing to fuselage joints, at the wing leading edges and all around the engine cowling... it looked pretty bad, so i knew i had a long day ahead of filling and sanding, and respraying primer, then sanding and filling and respraying primer until things improved... Just after lunchtime, my whole morning of filling and sanding finally paid off. its not perfect, but to me, it got to a stage where i could finally say 'yup...good enough' Some photos below. All the sanding and filling erased some rivets specially at the wing to fuse joint but i didnt even bother to rerivet the area...the rivets of the model to start with are like craters...look close enough at the photos below and you will notice how trenchlike the panel lines are and how the rivets are. On the other hand i did rescribe the areas that got erased, and i did add some missing panel lines that were not molded on...nothing drastic though. I need to change scribers too as the one im using has become utter crap. Got a tamiya P-cutter in the mail already... nuff said The two panel lines were recribed in the last two pictures... The 'step' that resulted from the two engine cowlings joining at the top, which i noticed yesterday, really gave me a hard time to sand today but at the end it worked out fine. Due to all the sanding and filling, they unded up looking as a single piece under the coat of primer so i scribed a line down the middle to make the cowlings appear as split... After that i dry fit the prop assembly and when i was taking a look at it looking top down on the cowling, it turned out it was skewed to the left... some swearing and headscratching later, i came up with a simple enough solution. I inserted a styrene shim on the left side of the engine between the engine and the engine frame in order to get the prop centerline to the right and it worked... sigh of relief lol Nothing surprises me anymore coming from this kit lol... photos below Notice the c**p scribed panel line on top of the engine cowlings, and on the first photo, you can notice how thick the actual cowling is (and i do have fat fingers ) All that done, last touchups and all, i put the whole model through the mr surfacer treatment... some photos below First a photo of how the tail ribbing i did with sanded stretched sprue looks kind of okay...better than a bare flat rudder i think I know the ribbing is maybe inaccurate but oh well... i tried so, fair enough lol more in the post below Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acarothers896 Posted November 8, 2014 Share Posted November 8, 2014 Karim: The polished canopy looks excellent! Keep plugging away. Your persistence with this build has got me thinking about pulling the early production D kit I started earlier from the dark recesses of the closet. It is not unbuildable, but it is a huge investment of time to correct the deficiencies. Really enjoying your build. Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karimb Posted November 8, 2014 Author Share Posted November 8, 2014 And another picture of the whole model primed After that i had a stroll let everything settle down and came back to get some paint on wooohooo...well half hearted woohoo lol because of the results afterwards I was waiting to try the plate silver mr super metallics... i have always used the aluminum buffable paint from the same company and it always worked fine like on the previous p38 lightning i have in the rfi section. i usually buff it with my dremmel at slow speed and with some patience and careful handling it comes out like a mirror. I was expecting this to come out like it or even better... i know people that swear by it, and although being on the 'very expensive' side of paints i bought myself two packs of those. each pack comes with a bottle of paint and its own thinner. finding references or how to guides to using this paint is catastrophic. the labels are in japanese, i dont read any japanese, and no references/manuals/how tos at hand... some of you will say, oh how hard can it be? its just paint. Well some paints have special ratios and special issues that need to be dealt with the right way in order to get the best result from them. I think this paint is one of those. Ive seen results with this plate silver that turned out like a mirror, and with no buffing, just like the alclads. but not with me... I suspect the grey mr surfacer beneath it dulled it down and gave it a darker shade, but that shouldnt be a reason for the shine not to be there...except if the shine didnt really come through because there is no gloss coat below it. Besides i have no access to any lacquer paints in order to paint it a gloss black layer below the plate silver. I know that lacquer on top of acrylics is a horrible mess...although i did 'buff' up the mr surfacer... oh well you live and learn. more testing until we get that paint to the point it should be, but that will happen on another model i guess and at another time. the way it turned out is more like duraluminium or a darker shade of aluminium.... some photos below I thought whether to repaint the fuselage tomorrow with buffable chrome silver and leave the wings with this as they were supposed to be duraluminium but decided against it... the chrome silver is the last pot of it and id rather keep it until i restock so i started masking up panels to paint with different shades of metalizers as per my references. I do not have all the colours so approximation was the best bet for the colours... I painted the flaps a light iron (the buffable mr metal color range) and a panel on the dorsal part of the fuselage. i repainted the ailerons and the elevator with chrome silver. Tomorrow ill paint the rudder with acrylic silver from the tamiya range as the rudder on the real aircraft was 'painted' silver on top of the fabric...photos below The dark areas look much more subtle than in the photos...the difference in alu color on the ailerons and elevators shows well in the first photo above I let all dry, then i started with the masking for tomorrow. i masked the nose cowling and some different panels that still need to be painted different shades of metalizers tomorrow like the horizontal stabilizer leading edges and the panels around the radiator exhaust. I plan on painting them titanium although i know there was no titanium back then , but ill do that because the titanium metalizer has this beigish tint to it but still look like aluminum... Ive also decided to go for the petie 2nd scheme, and i know my aircraft when finished will look like the worse most inaccurate version of it...so from this instant, purists out there be kind with me lol.... I still need to get the correct tint of blue mixed yesterday and i have no clue yet of what ratios or what blues i will use. ill trawl the net before sleeping to see what the blue hue really looks like instead of using the box art or maybe get the FS approximation from the gunze color callout in the paintsheet... So the plan for tomorrow is more paint, more masking and more tweaking until we're satisfied with where things are going... maybe ill find the time to paint the little breakable bits too... i hope i dont get any more bad surprises tomorrow lol only thing left that could turn sour are the decals, but since they are made by cartograf i dont really see where it can go wrong....hopefully... Till then, I, and the kit from hell, bid you farewell lol Stay safe and happy modeling Karim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 8, 2014 Share Posted November 8, 2014 WOW, your fast, and good ! One question, did you putty the rivets on the wing ?.....Harv Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karimb Posted November 8, 2014 Author Share Posted November 8, 2014 Karim: The polished canopy looks excellent! Keep plugging away. Your persistence with this build has got me thinking about pulling the early production D kit I started earlier from the dark recesses of the closet. It is not unbuildable, but it is a huge investment of time to correct the deficiencies. Really enjoying your build. Andy Andy thanks... yes it will be a huge time investment...i wish you all the best if you decide to go down that path lol hehehe At least im starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel...but who knows what is going to pop up tomorrow At the moment what im really worried about is how the gear is going to attach... But thanks for tagging along, and for all the support...Saying you guys are enjoying the build is very rewarding to me and i appreciate Thanks again Karim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karimb Posted November 8, 2014 Author Share Posted November 8, 2014 WOW, your fast, and good ! One question, did you putty the rivets on the wing ?.....Harv Harv lol yes i puttied them... Well it turned out a coincidence rather... the rivets that have dissapeared next to the wing joint dissappeared from puttying and sanding the wing/fuselage joint. I thought of giving the same treatment to the wings overall but i just didnt have enough steam to putty all the rivets, i didnt even have enough steam to rerivet the sanded areas so i left it at that... lol This kit is very naughty Karim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karimb Posted November 8, 2014 Author Share Posted November 8, 2014 I also appropriately edited my 'signature' to correctly describe how i feel about this kit looool...well off to grab a bite then Have a good saturday night guys Karim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Peterpools Posted November 8, 2014 Share Posted November 8, 2014 Karim Incredible progress and I am amazed at both the clarity of the canopy and the NMF. Looks fantastic and that's coming from an Alclad Guy! Keep 'em coming Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Kevin Posted November 8, 2014 Share Posted November 8, 2014 GIVE AWAY my other dragon P51D kit FREE of charge and mail it to any of you guys out there...on one condition though, and the catch is... drumroll... To have this kit built as a WIP here on lsp... I'm sure someone would make out of this kit a beautiful masterpiece and id love to see that in the making If anyone's up for the challenge just pm me. It is still boxed and unopened yet and ill gladly mail it if you'll gladly do a wip with it lol I'll take up the challenge Karim, if no one else has. Kev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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