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Revell P-51D - Great, or merely Good, or ??


CANicoll

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Spreading the windscreen to fit the fuselage flattens the side-to-side curve, and leaves the windscreen short in height. Hence the width and height shims needed to make it fit properly.

 

We're talking maybe acoupla thousands of an inch on the width.

That would drop the height somewhere in the 10ths of thousandths.

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I was thinking about these issues with the windscreen fit. I see some people have that problem, some people don't. I assembled six of these kits and I can only think of one culprit that can cause this problem. I think that the problem is caused by the cockpit section "spreading" the fuselage.  Any flash on the parts can cause this. Make sure that you clean all the flash in the points of contact between the sidewalls and floor, especially the area where the step is at the front of the fuel tank. Make sure you remove ALL remnants of the sprue attachments on the sides of the floor. If there is any flash or bump in any of those places where the parts meet, that prevents the sidewalls from meeting the floor correctly and as a result the assembled cockpit unit may end up a tad too wide. Then, after the whole cockpit unit is assembled, inspect the outside surfaces. If there is any flash, residue around the ejector pin marks, any surface "bump and lump" protruding on the sides of the cockpit, sand it smooth. In fact, I think that it will do no harm to sand the outside faces of the cockpit anyway, just to make them as smooth as possible - that will make sure that the cockpit section meets the fuselage snugly. It will only take a tiny amount of flash to push the fuselage sideways and that will have a ripple effect that will affect the windscreen and the wing fit. 

HTH 

Radu 

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Might buy the second edition with the fin fillet.

 

I imagine the tooling is already done, but which comes first - the single seat Me-262 A-1a Schwalbe or beefier Block 10+ P-51D Mustang?

 

Anyroad, after fiddling with an Amodel kit this week I think anything by Revell would be a breeze.

 

Tony

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in the picture you posted there is no cockpit if the  cockpit is to big and spreads it then you may get a step.   I am just obsessing a bit  I  am scheduled to  get mine delivered today and  I also  have two unbuilt tamiya's in the pile.   I do not mind   the process of  overcoming difficulties that in part is the fun of modeling to me otoh some  struggles  are just not worth it.  Everyone has a different point from only wanting a snaptite fit to  scratch building something.  I think it does depend on your subassembiles as I pointed out the two professionally built models above there are discrepancies.  BTW  squadron has vacuum formed canopies in 1/32.  I have never had much luck with them but it may be worth a try for the windscreen.  I have extra tamiy  canopies and may put some off them on the  trader forum as well  for some minor swag.  Anybody have some Frenesi decals for a canopy?

I'll not be using my Frenesi decals... PM me and I'll be happy to trade.

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After pawing at mine experimentally, I've found the best fit solution, at least for me: Glue the cockpit sidewalls C30 & 32 into the fuselage sides. Be VERY careful about cleaning off flash; I filed the back side of each part thoroughly and found a bunch of issues that affected the fit in doing so. Clamp the pieces in place and run some thin solvent into the joints. I also removed the tab & slot arrangement at the back of the rear bulkhead halves. For the cockpit floor, C17, I filed the edges of the floor extensively and deepened the slots that accommodate the vertical fuselage formers. I also removed the tab at the back that slots the floor into the rear bulkhead. Before, I found that the fuselage was being forced apart particularly around the fuel tank, assembling it according to directions. Now it all goes together perfectly. Removing the tabs & slots provided a little more 'give' to get the fit better; they seemed to be fighting each other.

Hope this helps!

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