1/18 P51C Mustang "Lopes Hope the 3rd"

[Troy Molitor]

Great drawing Mark.  I need this small end cap part for my Spitfire spinner.  1:1 scale.  Interesting.  

[airscale]

evening folks

 

On 3/16/2019 at 4:49 PM, PROPELLER said:

Hi Peter,
Your work is really outstanding! I'm always speechless...
I thought I heard, but my english is awful, french people you know,
that is a problem for you to find aluminum sheets.
Take a look here:

https://ghw-modellbau.de/index.php?cPath=60_101_196

 

Hats off sir!

Dan.

 

Hi Dan - thank you very much, I will have to try some of this - I have just bought 100 sheets so enough for a lot of models, but it seems many metals have different properties and are more or less flexible and polish up to different tones so it is always useful to have a choice of materials

 

On 3/16/2019 at 4:52 PM, Out2gtcha said:

Lovely, my friend! Glad the sheets made it ok. 

I noticed the sat in customs for a bit

 

Thanks for all your efforts Brian - you really went the extra mile to get them to me and I REALLY appreciate it - problem is, now I need to skin the whole bird and have no excuses

 

On 3/18/2019 at 5:20 PM, JayW said:

OMG - what an effort on the exhaust stacks and cutout.  Bravo sir, Bravo.  And the spinner is just awesome.

 

A reminder on the spinner (I learned this when I did the spinner for Miss Velma).  The front end of the spinner is flat.  See drawing 102-44003 (front shell):

 

A rubber cover was pushed into the 7/8 dia hole (see drawing 104-44002)

 

Is that cool or what? 

 

I added the flat, and added a little round filed .01 thick piece for the plug, and it turned out very convincing.

 

 

Thanks Jay - I had spotted it as a feature, but now it seems what I thought was the empty hole is actually a black rubber cap so another good save!

 

 

On 3/19/2019 at 5:02 PM, hamfists nz said:

Since you’re now in possession of an HpH Merlin, why don’t you model a cowl open?

 

Well, I did think right at the start of doing that, but it would add about another year to the model as I can't help myself going nuts on details so decided not to - that is not to say I might open up a cowl on my planned 1/18 Lancaster....

 

(tongue firmly in cheek...)

 

anyways - thanks for all your comments and lets get down to it..

 

I have made up a master prop blade which took tons of research and shaping, but I have no pics and now it is encased in rubber to make a mould so we better move on..

 

now I have the aluminium to skin the airframe I have been thinking about where to start.. I looked at the wings and thought I could do those before working towards the fuselage and the major outstanding work which is all the cockpit integration & frear canopy area..

 

..with that I chose this panel with the formation lights... - this is a useful pic as it shows rivets / panels and areas I will need to cover..

 

 

..as soon as I started looking at it, I realised I had masses of shaping work yet to do on the wings - a bit of a pain given there is a lot of fine detail in the wheel wells to be careful with and which would have to withstand some pretty rough handling

 

..the aileron housings at the tip were 9mm high instead of 3.2mm which shows how wide the rear face of the wing was - I had to get the household sander out and take loads off - all the way down to the internal foam in places..

 

I also found the wingtip was the wrong shape so I made a brass core the right shape..

 

 

..this was let into a slit I made in the wing.. I have already removed lots of the rear part of the tip - the original had a big thick and wide trailing edge to the fine point at the aileron edge..

 

 

..once the rear of the wing had been thinned, I decided to replace the aileron housings as they had pretty much been sanded off..

 

I took some 'L' shaped brass and added it - here the top one has been added, and a sheet is taped to the wing to get the sit of the trailing edge of the 'L' at where it will meet the wing skin..

 

 

..so they look like this...

 

 

..finally after 2 solid days of effort, filling, sanding, adding, taking away, I could start on the lights..

 

Here I have drilled out where the lamps go and have rebated the skin to take coloured perspex blanks that have been cut & polished from thicker sheet..

 

 

..made the lamps by putting soft ali over a hole on a chunk of brass and resting the ball of a tiny ball pein hammer over the hole and whacking it with another hammer - viola, a domed punched disc..   added a bulb from clear stretched sprue held up to a flame so it rolls back on itself into a round..

 

 

..the blanks are then CAd to seal them in (so no dust can get in) and sanded / polished to the wing surface, plus the tips are finally shaped..

 

 

..I also added a thin false panel along the leading edge (which you might just be able to see) so I can align all the wing panels to it and stuck some discs on the formation lamp centres so I can put tape over it and burnish & mark the outline of the skin panel that will go there..

 

 

..then I timed out, so the first skin panel to go down will be in the next post - once that starts I am hoping to really get stuck into it so by May / June I have most of the skinning laid down

 

TTFN

 

Peter

 

 

 

 

[Fooesboy]

Peter! you big tease....  

Where is the money-shot?

[LSP_Ray]

Wow, a lot of work on that wingtip!

Nice fix.

[Out2gtcha]

Ah genius in the making! (per usual of course)

[dodgem37]

'1:1 scale.  Interesting. '

Most if not all of the parts are 1:1 scale.  Installation drawings are other scales.  I'll see if I can post an installation drawing so you can see its' scale and exactitude.

 

Nice prep work, Peter.  Love that trailing edge.

 

Sincerely,

Mark

 

[JayW]

Peter - stunning work as usual.  I have it on high authority (the P-51 SIG) that wartime Mustangs had a finish application on their wings which smoothed the surface, such that flush rivet heads were basically invisible, and perhaps skin butt joints as well.    The advanced wing airfoil shape, which was so crucial to bringing the Mustang's baddassery all the way to Berlin and back, also was more prone to flow separation and stall - something that could be forestalled with an ultra smooth surface, so the story goes.  Soooo - when skinning those wings I would not create rivet patterns my friend!

 

BTW - I recall searching the drawing database for this surface finish callout, to no avail.  I invite you to research it further to make sure.  Do you belong to the P-51 SIG?  What a resource!

 

Jay Wheaton

[Out2gtcha]

Or you could make a rivet pattern and cover it up with smoothing putty just like the real deal!

[Chek]

Hi Peter, I found this period photo that I thought might be useful to you when the time comes to return to cockpit detailing and finishing.

It's a Tuskegee Airmen P-51C 42-103960 1 Skippers Darlin’ III, 100th FS 332nd FG 15th AF in the care of Capt Andrew D Turner in Aug 1944.

Edited March 29, 2019 by Chek
edited to add serial number

[airscale]

evening Mustang fans

 

On 3/25/2019 at 5:31 PM, JayW said:

Peter - stunning work as usual.  I have it on high authority (the P-51 SIG) that wartime Mustangs had a finish application on their wings which smoothed the surface, such that flush rivet heads were basically invisible, and perhaps skin butt joints as well.    The advanced wing airfoil shape, which was so crucial to bringing the Mustang's baddassery all the way to Berlin and back, also was more prone to flow separation and stall - something that could be forestalled with an ultra smooth surface, so the story goes.  Soooo - when skinning those wings I would not create rivet patterns my friend!

 

BTW - I recall searching the drawing database for this surface finish callout, to no avail.  I invite you to research it further to make sure.  Do you belong to the P-51 SIG?  What a resource!

 

Jay Wheaton

 

Thanks Jay - the wing filler on the surfaces is a little problem I am trying to get my head around right now, and I think I am going to need a little advice from the community!

 

 

On 3/29/2019 at 12:24 PM, Chek said:

Hi Peter, I found this period photo that I thought might be useful to you when the time comes to return to cockpit detailing and finishing.

It's a Tuskegee Airmen P-51C 42-103960 1 Skippers Darlin’ III, 100th FS 332nd FG 15th AF in the care of Capt Andrew D Turner in Aug 1944.

 

 

that is a stunning photo Chek - really useful, thank you - one interesting thing is the rivets - on a P51 it seems they are tiny and flush and as can be seen here are acually lots of different tones in themselves - I can't hope toreplicate the tones, but it is a good prompt to go down to tiny sized when it comes to the fuselage..

 

so, since the last update I have been trying to work out what is going on with a P51 wing skin surface - I know there have been useful threads on the forum but I can't seem to find them so am asking for any advice to be offered right here if you know about this stuff

 

here is what I know - I know filler is applied to certainly the front of the wings, I know on the Oshkosh Grand Champion resto of Lopes Hope (and they are as nuts about detail & accuracy as we are..) the wings were also painted silver all over apart from the gear doors, and the lower skins over the wing fuel tanks

 

this pic shows how they did it..

 

 

..and another..

 

 

..on a couple of upper surface ones I can definately see a few panel lines on the leading edge near the wing root, but curiously on the bottom it looks completely smooth..

 

I toyed with not skinning the wing and just doing it smooth, but then I saw this pic of Lopes Hope wing being done..

 

 

..all Aircorps Aviation WIP pics only show the leading edge being filled to about a thrid of the chord, so my current working theory is that I will skin the whole wing with aluminium, fill to the line I can see they are doing and then paint the whole wing apart from the panels they also leave NM..

 

..now then - this is where I need a spot of help - does that sound right?

 

hopefully someone knows a lot more about this than me and can give me some pointers while I get on with the skinning..

 

..speaking of which I had better post some actual work..

 

..I stitched together multiple factory drawings to try and get the layout of ribs, stiffners and access panels - printed these to scale and stuck them to the model with pritt-stick paper glue..

 

 

..then I cut along every line with a scalpel so I could draw it out on the wing - after doing so I brush water on the paper & strip it all off..

 

 

I started the skinning with the Nav Light panel - taking a template from the model & blending it with drawings to get the shapes and lines of rivets - the holes were dremmelled out with a wide based triangle burr..

 

 

..after rivetting it needs washing in thinners as the awl I use for rivets actually punches out a tiny disc of tape & these can come free and mark the metal as I burnish the part on a hard surface to flatten out all the detailing..

 

..the light lens bracket was one of the extra bits of PE I did when I did the 1/24 airscale Hellcat cockpit set..

 

 

..added that panel & moved onto the next - this one has a tricky oval access panel and sets the position of the panels above & below it as it sits below the wing spar - here I am using tamiya tape to hold it in position so I can just fold it back, add the contact cement and fold it into position - the masking tape stops me getting glue everywhere I don't want it..

 

 

..then the other panels were added and the area cleaned up..

 

 

 

..I always work synchronosly so that I don't get bored repeating an action later on, so the same panels are made at the same time for the other wing... this side has a big lens in the leading edge for a landing light so I haven't got to that yet..

 

 

..in other news, i made castings of my prop blade master, cleaned them up a bit and shot a coat of mr. surfacer..

 

 

..they still need more sorting out, but they do fit the prop hub...

 

 

..and I think starts to give that unmistakeable P51 character to the nose..

 

 

..so yes, I do intend to skin the wings and then cover it in filler....

 

I must be mad..

 

TTFN

Peter

 

 

 

 

 

[Out2gtcha]

Brilliant!

[TorbenD]

Mad as a mad man from Mad Town! 

 

Torben

[LSP_Ray]

I thought you couldn't impress me any more, but wow! And then you are going to cover it up...

 

Outstanding work!

 

[Antonio Argudo]

Hi Peter,  about the Wing finish All  Mustangs even Allison engine models had their wings treated, this diagram by John Terrell is very illustrative, also attached is the NAA prodeceture, hope it helps!

cheers

 

[JayW]

Antonio - just absolutely amazing find!!!  And Peter - the wing surfacing is perfection in the making.  Makes an old P-51 fan proud.  I also love the cast prop blades.  I had to cast one for my P-47 - what an adventure that was!