California Highway Patrol P-51D Pursuit plane- finished

[BloorwestSiR]

I loved the encounter between the VF-84 Tomcats and Zero fighters. Talk about a what if!

 

Definitely! The Bluray has an interview with some of the VF-84 pilots who were in the film and they talked about how much fun it was to shoot. I think the flying sequences are better than the ones in Top Gun. For me, it's probably one of the reasons I've liked the F-14 and VF-84 Jolly Rogers hi-vis markings so much.

 

Carl

[LSP_K2]

Should be fixed now. I've been having cut and paste problems with Photobucket. It shows the right link but pastes the same one over and over. I have to manually copy them for some reason.

 

Yep, now they make more sense.

 

[BloorwestSiR]

Well, the important part for the build arrived: deekals!

 

 

 

 

[Out2gtcha]

Ohhhhhh LOTS of possibilities with those!!!!

[LSP_K2]

Interesting decals. I'm surprised at how many chaps build cop car models, there are lots on the web.

[BloorwestSiR]

I was surprised just how many police car modelers there. I picked up the decals from Policecarmodels.com and they have quite the selection to choose from.

 

Back to the build, I blanked over the HHVR rocket mounts and the ejection chutes for the outer pair of 0.50 Brownings on each wing. I figure one pair would be plenty and 6, might be overkill...

 

 

I then attached the upper wings. I had to make some small tweaks at the wing root to make the upper wings fit due to the gear bay. Nothing major and easily done.

 

 

Here's the underside of the wings with the above mentioned slots filled in.

 

[BloorwestSiR]

Here is the wing leading edge with the outer 0.50 shrouds filled and sanded flush.

 

 

Not the best picture but I then primed the entire wing using Tamiya white primer from a jar. It needs thinning but once you go, it goes on very nicely. I'm not certain if it's the same paint in their aerosol cans or if it's different. The finish isn't completely opaque as I was using it to seal the putty. The wings will be finished in black anyways.

 

[BloorwestSiR]

Here's a close up of the underside. The wings are smooth with the slightest hint of the original rivets. I think this is a nice compromise compared to how they were stock.

 

 

I think Airscale was commenting in another thread about how cluttered his workbench gets. Well, this is mine on a good day during a build:

 

 

Just about a bit of everything. Lots of tools, sandpaper, glue, sprues and Star Wars Lego 

I just noticed the green screwdriver. Don't know where that came from.

Edited April 27, 2015 by BloorwestSiR

[BloorwestSiR]

Tip tanks. I thought I would go for something a bit streamlined and also similar in diameter to the FLIR pod I plan to use. I found these in a Hasegawa F-5E kit. They seemd to fit the bill nicely.

 

 

Here's the front of the FLIR pod. It's from the Academy F-16 so is actually a LANTIRN pod of some sort. 

 

 

I'll be trimming off the front of one of the tanks and fairing this into it. 

[Zero77]

Definitely! The Bluray has an interview with some of the VF-84 pilots who were in the film and they talked about how much fun it was to shoot. I think the flying sequences are better than the ones in Top Gun. For me, it's probably one of the reasons I've liked the F-14 and VF-84 Jolly Rogers hi-vis markings so much.

 

Carl

 

100% agree ! One of my favourite movie, far better than Topgun in my opinion (Tom Cruise gets on my nerves !)

[BloorwestSiR]

I made a bit more progress last night. I trimmed the tips of the wings off. I kept part of the lower wing in place to use as a tab to mount the tip tanks.

 

 

Here's the tip tanks in place>

 

 

As I previously mentioned, I was planning to cut the front off one of the tanks and mount the FLIR turret to it. Of course, once I cut the front off,I decided on a different approach. 

 

I decided to mount it under the wing sticking out like R2D2 does in the X-wing. I chain drilled in a circle on the lower wing. 

 

 

I then cut it out and sanded it circular.

 

 

If I had done this prior to joining the wing halves together, it would have been a lot easier. But it still worked out in the end.

 

Here's the FLIR inserted into the hole.

 

 

And a quick mock up to get an overall idea of the look.

 

 

[Out2gtcha]

Nice!      Reminds me of the Cavalier Mustang in this form

 

[Sparzanza]

Nice picture, but why is the Mustang blindfolded? I'll bet it's cuter without it.

[marauderdriver]

Coming along nicely, I like the underwing installation of the FLIR.

 

Tanks are kinda cool too

 

watch'in you

 

Jack 

[BloorwestSiR]

Thanks Jack! 

 

I haven't had too much time to work on it lately but tonight I was able to get a bit done.

 

I painted the entire cockpit semi-gloss black. For the IP, I used the PE option since the plastic one was missing. I picked out the dials a bit with white. For the seat, I painted the cushions in olive drab and did the belts in red for something different. 

 

 

 

At that point, I decided to change it up a bit more. So, out went the stock seat and in goes an MB7 ejection seat I had left over from my F-4D build.

 

 

I also used a shortened joystick from a F-104.

 

 

The belts aren't 100% accurate but then again, neither is an ejection seat in a P-51...

 

Lastly, I also added some various panels from a leftover F-16 cockpit set. They seem to help busy up the cockpit a bit and help to break up the black.