1/24 Airfix RCAF Mustang IV…finally done

[dmthamade]

Looking forward to how you build the pit with all the scratch building.

 

Don

[R Palimaka]

Wow, thank you Peter and Don for the encouragement. It's been a bit frustrating not having the time to work longer for the moment, but even the occasional hour late in the evening helps keep things moving. I'm finding the sub-assemblies fun, seeing what else you can add. Scratch-building these in sections makes the work more manageable, and I'm wondering why I didn't try my hand at scratch building before. Like I said, once all the prep work and improvements are done I think stuffing all this inside and assembling will go quickly.

Edited January 25, 2017 by R Palimaka

[R Palimaka]

The theatre production will be done this weekend so I'll have my evenings back. In the meantime some detailing bits have been arriving in the mail; resin rivets, replacement resin tires/wheels, seatbelts, various hoses and generic photo-etch parts and placards, and new a new die-punch. I will post photos of the cockpit work I've done so far shortly too.

 

...and like an idiot I bought another 1/24 Airfix Mustang at a hobby store in Toronto. It's the boxing with the 19 Squadron Mustangs on the front, and has the uncuffed HS and Aeroproducts props in it, as well as post-war RCAF markings. It was a good price and I will do another one...but not soon though lol. That should ensure that Airfix does a new tool 1/24 Mustang.

 

Edited February 2, 2017 by R Palimaka

[R Palimaka]

Slowly getting momentum back after the break. Here are a few photos of some of the cockpit parts I've been working on. Sorry for the large size of the photos, tried to resize them but Photobucket was misbehaving and froze on me.

 

The seat provided in the kit is meant to represent the Schick Johnson version...sort of. This seat was common in the later production Ds and Ks. I cut the sides off the kit part, trying not to lose too much width, and replaced them with card stock topped with flattened styrene tubing to represent the turned-out metal on the armrests. I also added the reinforcement tubing on the back. I still have to add the riveting which was pretty visible, and some handles and attachment points for the seat harness...and smooth it up and prime it.

 

Before:

 

After:

 

Edited February 9, 2017 by R Palimaka

[R Palimaka]

I also added some detail to the armour plate behind the seat. Later in the production run the armour plate was increased in height to better protect the pilot, so I added 3.5 mm. above where the plate angles forward and reshaped it. I had to laugh at myself, spent 3/4 of an hour adding beading and texture/wrinkles to the scratch-built headrest...AMS has settled in. I still have some smoothing and minor trimming to do.

Before:


After:

Edited February 9, 2017 by R Palimaka

[Shawn M]

nice work, big improvement there

[Shaka HI]

Ya...Looks the part! Good to see you back at it!

[ClumsyDude]

Looking really good, big improvement.

 

Jim

[R Palimaka]

Thank you guys! The encouragement is appreciated! I'm working on the floor and port side console now. I cut almost everything off the console; trim wheels, flap, radiator and landing gear handles and the bomb release controls. Now I just have to replace it all somehow. I'm also building new radio equipment for the rack on top of the fuel tank.

 

I wonder if restoring a real one is this much work?

 

Richard

[Guyman1]

Very nice the seat is looking great.

[R Palimaka]

So here are some of the cockpit parts in the raw, they still need some smoothing and priming. I'll post more photos after it's all assembled and painted. Sorry about their huge size, I can't seem to get Photobucket to resize them. The large photos make them look more rough than they are...really.

 

The curved kit floor and was replaced with flat cardstock. Other additions: holes for the fuel gauges, a new canvas boot made of Milliput for the control column, thin card to represent the canvas covering the well under the seat (snaps will be added after painting...and of course none of it will be seen after the seat is in place lol), a new control column from tubing (unusually the kit part is too thin) and new rudder pedals to replace the very poor kit parts. Other items I forgot to photograph...a control lock was built from one of the discarded landing gear scissor links, and an air filter tank for the instruments goes into well in the middle of the floor. And I did build a relief tube too, very important!

 

 

The rudder pedals were converted kit parts. I cut the pedals off, mounted them upside down on the opposite cross bar and lined them with thin card and embossed them tightly onto the pedals with a dowel. Still needs some refining and smoothing but looks ok. The shadows make them look like they're leaning but they are straight! I'm trying to figure out a way to emboss the North American Aviation logo on them...but maybe that's probably going too far... 

 

 

The port console is not wide enough so I added a layer of thick card. Pretty much everything was removed and replaced: a new landing gear selector (out of scrap F-86 landing gear parts), trim knobs from punched discs (I filed knurls around the sides...severe AMS!), covering plates sanded off and replaced with card. There is a circular receptacle for the landing gear selector handle that had to be drilled in. Yet to be made are a flap handle and carburettor inlet levers, bomb salvo handles at the front, and Waldron placards to add once painted. Canadian Mustangs also had a guard added around the front of the landing gear selector to prevent the pilot from accidentally operating it with his boots or pant leg. (The blob peeking over the top edge of the console is the wad of Sticktac that I used to stand the console up a bit. 

 

Edited February 14, 2017 by R Palimaka

[Shawn M]

can you cheat and use 1/32 rudder pedals with the logo?

That said they are so far buried in the stang's cockpit no one will notice

[R Palimaka]

Thanks Shawn, that's a good idea. As you said, they're so far underneath that it won't really matter. And if I turn the rudder a bit,one of the pedals will be even further back. 

[Shawn M]

I may have pe pedals if you need them

[R Palimaka]

Thanks Shawn, but I'm good there. After your suggestion I went through my stash and found a couple of 1/32 PE pedals for Mustangs, one from Eduard and I think the other is from the Trumpeter P-51B. They are quite a bit smaller but if I mount them in the middle and blend them in with filler I think it'll work. Close enough for what will be seen down there anyway.