Duchess Arlene Tamiya P-51D

[CANicoll]

By the way.  There IS supposed to be an order to installing the flaps and ailerons.  Ailerons first, THEN flaps.. Oops... Gotta keep an eye on those instructions...  

[Biggles87]

Sorry but this is going to be too late to help you now, but here goes.

I have used Mr Surfacer on the wings of a couple of Mustangs ( Dragon and Meng ) which had ‘ rivet’ holes. I used Mr Surfacer 500 brushed on thickly, and then rubbed down until just the rivets were filled. Very laborious and time consuming but it worked well.

 

John

[CANicoll]

5 hours ago, Biggles87 said:

Sorry but this is going to be too late to help you now, but here goes.

I have used Mr Surfacer on the wings of a couple of Mustangs ( Dragon and Meng ) which had ‘ rivet’ holes. I used Mr Surfacer 500 brushed on thickly, and then rubbed down until just the rivets were filled. Very laborious and time consuming but it worked well.

 

John

 

Hi John,

Thanks for the  message.  I ended up airbrushing Mr. Surfacer 500 on a few layers which worked to my satisfaction.  The wings are not perfectly smooth but I like the effect.

Chris

[Out2gtcha]

Excellent work my friend!     Looking real fine

[CANicoll]

Thanks Brian!  I can ALMOST see the finish line here.....

[CANicoll]

Making Progress!  I screwed up some painting order so had to go back and redo some earlier work, and then for the life of me can't seem to acquire the correct red from MRP so ended up with multiple Reds on the tail.  That was corrected with a new light coat of white primer and then the Vallejo Red which seems to be the right shade.  

 

Spent some time on the wing again, doing some light sanding and buffing on the top to smooth it out, but it still looks like a matte coat.  But overall I'm pretty happy with it.

 

Have the tail bits together finally.  The fuselage piece with the antenna is dry fitted, as is the wing (which fits pretty well, although the AMUR flaps are a tight fit).  The flaps look like they have dropped down some, which they have.  They pivot on the pins I used so once the wing is attached they will push right up into place.

 

The canopy is one I'm using as a mask.  It was SUPPOSED to be the final canopy, but JUST as I was pushing down one of the last masks to make sure it was laying flat, the canopy cracked.  It is attached with white glue at the moment and I've not started masking its twin yet.  Also have a bit more painting to do of the exhaust panel before getting that installed.

The wing color is a mix of Vallejo Light Gray FS36300 and Aluminum, about a 5/3 mixture.  It should have a smoother finish best as I can tell, but this is where I am at for this build.  If I told you how many coats of primer, Mr. Surfacer (500 AND 1500) and paint are on there you would be amazed.  I'll get a better wing picture up - the machine gun wing access panels look better than the picture shows.

 

Installed the identification and wing tip navigation lights, colored using Tamiya Clear Red, Orange and Green, with Future as the adhesive to hold the lenses in place.  For the wing tip running lights it was  a small dab of white glue.

 

And the underside.  Next up is to install the landing gear, which I need to get onto the plane after the wing is installed to properly position the flattened Barracudacast resin tyres.

 

Seriously contemplating trying to paint the insignia using Maketar's masks.  Would start on the underside of the wing first if I give it a go!

 

I'm pretty sure by the end of this month I'll have her done.  

 

Chris

 

 

[CANicoll]

She has wings!

 

Added the bomb racks to the wings, and here is what they look like with the magnets in place.  I could have fared them in a bit better but here you go.  I've drilled the holes for the fuel lines already.

 

MRP Olive Drab panel on the nose - MRP goes on so smoothly - about 25% Mr Color Self Leveling Thinner.  Still have some seam work to do on the front of the wing.

 

Top view, at this distance you don't see the wing rivets, up close you see the hint of the rivets so not completely smooth.  Getting there!

 

Thanks!
Chris

[MikeMaben]

[CANicoll]

Getting closer and finding that my long layoff from building (work, travel, moving...) has seriously eroded my skills.  I've painted and repainted due to not doing things in the right order and I have a LOT of seam clean-up still to do.  But I'm getting a lot better at cleaning up canopies (since Tamiya has that nice seam right down the middle to deal with...).

 

I also think I didn't trim the canopy floor enough to deal with the Barracudacast resin sidewalls as there seems to be some stress in the fuselage.

The EagleCal decals responded extremely well to MicroSol but did NOT like to be moved or adjusted very much.  The fuel caps are painted.

 

The red is Vallejo Red, the Olive Drab panel is MRP over white Vallejo primer.  Wings are a mixture of Vallejo Metal Aluminum and Vallejo light gray.

The yellow stripe is also Vallejo yellow over a dusting of Vallejo white primer.  Fuselage and the panels by the exhaust are Vallejo Metal Color over Vallejo gloss black primer.  The Prop is simply Vallejo Black Primer (and Tamiya decals).  No over coat yet on the aircraft, but will hit it with clear flat here shortly...(and THAT's why I should not have taken off the windscreen masks - blast!).

 

 

 

What is interesting is that almost nothing on the bottom of the aircraft is glued on.  The landing gear is screwed on, and the landing gear doors are a press fit (and a very tight one at that!  And the drop tanks will be attached with magnets.  Tires are the resin Barracudacast set.  Nice detail on the wheels.

 

 

Everyone have a good Sunday and a Happy Mother's Day!

 

Chris

Edited May 10, 2020 by CANicoll
text edit

[markiii]

Hi Chris, 

You are almost to the finish line, I'm about the same stage as you. I'm working on the FunDecal stencils now. I want to mention that the landing gear clamshell doors are red on the exterior. I didn't paint mine before assembly either and have to mask it all up.

Cheers

[CANicoll]

15 minutes ago, markiii said:

Hi Chris, 

You are almost to the finish line, I'm about the same stage as you. I'm working on the FunDecal stencils now. I want to mention that the landing gear clamshell doors are red on the exterior. I didn't paint mine before assembly either and have to mask it all up.

Cheers

 

Mark,

Good catch!  I completely missed that.  The 'good' news is mine are just press fitted into the fuselage so hopefully will be able to extract them to minimize the masking.   The are pretty well pushed down into that groove however...How well they paint will be a completely different matter!  Considering how difficult they are to see, tempting to go with a big red decal.....or even brush painting....

 

Some of the pictures I've seen of this aircraft doesn't show a lot of stencils on it so I'm going with the bare minimum.  Not that the pictures are that great, to be honest.

 

Attached the Exhaust stubs and fitted the drop tanks and anti-sway braces.  Waiting on the canopy to dry (Future dipped) for another day or so before I start masking that.  In the mean time will clean up some of those nasty seams I left, and do the plumbing on the drop tanks.  The wing is drilled for the two sizes of pipes, now have to drill the tanks, paint the wires I'm using, and get it all fitted.

 

Good luck with your build!

[markiii]

Thanks, 

Yeah mine are assembled together but not installed in the bay yet ( to save getting damaged). Hopefully I'll be able to airbrush the red. I used the closed door piece to protect the bay while painting the exterior colors.

Cheers

[CANicoll]

Thanks, Mark.

 

I pulled the clamshell doors off the plane and was able to paint them without a lot of masking.  I used a piece of the white Tamiya flexible tape to mask the center piece - it was the perfect width.

 

 

Also got the new canopy masked and painted using the HGW Inside and Outside masks.  The set I have has masks for the three different Tamiya canopies in the kit and they fit perfectly.  Easily adjustable and sharp paint lines.

 

More to come!