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

[LSP_Kevin]

3 hours ago, TorbenD said:

Here’s my 6 cents/pence worth for contenders:

 

If Red 8 proves not shiny enough (it was sanded back paint) how about this one? I believe it’s one tested in the US just after war.

 

 

I built that one in 1/48 scale to test some Delta One decals, and am seriously thinking about repeating the exercise in 1/32.

 

Kev

[airscale]

umm - I just pulled the trigger...

 

[dodgem37]

I know you did.  Plenty of information on this one.  Hopefully it won't be onerous.  Looking forward to this one, as well.  Good show.

 

Sincerely,

Mark

[Markjames1968]

22 hours ago, Bil said:

There is also Eugen Lorcher's FW-190-F8 which was mostly bare metal.. sorry couldn't find much else about it online:

Excellent choice as you could use the 1/18 merit kit at 60 quidish and save fortunes on the expensive hph model (as good as they are) 

[airscale]

howdy folks

 

after that interesting interlude (thank you all as I now have a next project which is comforting, love that Fw190 too ) we return to some Mustang madness...

 

..it's all about getting ready for paint and getting details that need the model to be handled done, before I can flip it over and start mounting the gear, doors and finally start the tailwheel (been putting that off, don't know why...)

 

Radu Brinzan is kindly doing some masks, and Torben did the nose art font for me many moons ago so I am grateful to him too so I should get paint on next time I post..

 

...for now, I had to finish all the tailfeathers - mainly adding the tips to the stabilisers and fin and rivetting all the fillets. I did get some PE fasteners done for this, but there are about 60 to do and they are freakin tiny so I chose the lazy way out..

 

 

..I cheated a bit as these are under paint and didn't do them in one piece, I used annealed metal for the fronts, but hte back of the tips where it is profiled to the stabiliser I just bent plain litho to keep the stiffness and maintain the shape..

 

 

..I also painted the prop blades & exhausts - Steve at Model Monkey scaled up his amazing hollow 1/24 set for me and all I did was add weld beads from PVA..

 

..the blades are not fixed yet, so excuse pitch or whatever please

 

 

 

 

 

..the last bit of airframe work was adding the MN20 loop fitting (I got some great help from the forums on identifying & getting drawings for this )

 

 

..I started by laying down bare metal foil so I can work and things don't stick to the fuselage..

 

 

..then I CA'd a disc of litho and the profile of the bottom mounting plate..

 

..some P38 filler built up the shape and the whole thing was popped off and cleaned up..  you can also see here a sheet of annealed litho 'hinged' off the fuselage so I can start covering the shape to make the mounting plinth..

 

 

..done, rivetted and drilled to accept the loop mounting plate..

 

 

..the loop fitting itself was made from profiles & filler and a 1mm brass rod bent around a 10mm punch..

 

 

..I think it's bronze green, so I went with that - it's not fixed yet, and nor are the bolts that hold it in place added..

 

 

..thats all for now

 

TTFN
Peter

 

 

[chuck540z3]

Crazy good work.  I'd love to see all your power tools to create these amazing parts.

 

Cheers,

Chuck

[dodgem37]

Very nice.

 

Sincerely,

Mark

[KUROK]

Beautiful job on that whole DF loop!

[TorbenD]

Wonderful stuff Peter! (Thx for the name check) So looking forward to the paint going on - Lopes is such a smart scheme

 

Torben

 

 

[Chek]

Lovely stuff Peter.

I've been out of the loop for 3 months and am really looking forward to your e-Book on this baby, if it's anything like your Spitfire one.

 

One thing for all the aero nuts following this exquisite topic:

I understood the cuffed prop blades were introduced to improve the airflow through radial engines.

If that is so, why their use on inline engine fighters?

[JayW]

Just super work Peter.  And I would be just fine with the prop pitch you have shown.  

[airscale]

evening boys & girls

 

On 11/23/2019 at 10:55 PM, chuck540z3 said:

Crazy good work.  I'd love to see all your power tools to create these amazing parts.

 

Cheers,

Chuck

 

 

well Chuck, there isn't much to show - I only have a standard dremel with a flexi-drive and a small axminster C2/300 mini-lathe - I wish I had a pillar drill, a milling machine and a proper mans lathe, but alas not

 

 

On 11/24/2019 at 8:34 PM, Chek said:

Lovely stuff Peter.

I've been out of the loop for 3 months and am really looking forward to your e-Book on this baby, if it's anything like your Spitfire one.

 

 

 

Thanks Chek - I haven't plans for a book, and I am not sure Kev would put himself through that again - poor guy had to go through 10k raw images to find the ones I had used in my build thread and do A LOT of editing!

 

the time finally arrived to add paint... I am not a fan of the process and find it difficult (which is why I like NMF birds..), but I can't get away with it anymore so after getting the custom masks from Radu I thought I would try the MRP paint range (I used enamels on the Spit).

 

I did some test runs to see how the paint adapts to going on unprimed aluminium and the results with the black for the tail was positive - it goes on really smooth and taked wire wooling without a problem so a start was made..

 

..not too many in progress pics, but here is one of the insignia on the wings...

 

 

..I put a different black on the lower tail as there are painted over serials here that can still be made out, the idea being I put one black down, then mask the numbers and then the main black for the tail so there is a subtle difference in colour - also set out the rear stripe by setting down equal bits of tape to follow the line with more flexible tamiya white tape..

 

 

 

..the MRP 'super matt black' is a wonderful colour and I am really happy with how it turned out - bit of a problem where some paintv lifted when lifting the serial masks, but I think I might leave it..

 

..wire wooling the surface gives a really realistic sheen and naturally fills panel lines & rivets with lighter dust which makes for a nice weathered effect..

 

 

..the rest are just glamour shots - the fuselage insignia had to be stripped off as the white lifted when I removed the masks, so Radu is doing me another set and I will do these with enamels - I also scaled the nose art name incorrectly so that is being done again too

 

 

 

 

 

 

stuff like the prop, the gear and the 'sit' are not right as it's just jerry rigged for the photo's, but the finish line is edging closer...

 

TTFN

Peter

 

 

[KUROK]

Awesome!

 

cannot wait to see your next project. A P-38!

[zaxos345]

Speechless!!!!!!!

 

John

[Landrotten Highlander]

On 5/7/2018 at 8:21 PM, airscale said:

If anyone knows where / how to get a selection of micro balls I would be very interested to hear as I can never make them perfectly spherical

I do not know if you ever got an answer to that question, but I do figure painting and ofter when sculpting 'busts' from scratch, some steel balls as used in ball bearings are used for eyes.  You should be able to find them in any dimension you need.