Forgotten War Mustang

[RLWP]

13 hours ago, John1 said:

Oh crap!!!   Well, it’s too late to address, got the fuselage buttoned up.    You are correct.  I know I’ve see some late model D’s with the early glareshield but I can’t believe I missed this.  I might see about glueing some strips of sheet plastic to replicate these.    Thanks for the catch!  

 

Try painting a bit of tape (Tamiya masking tape for instance), cutting a thin strip and sticking that in place. If it works, you've made a great save. If it doesn't, peel it off and throw it away

 

I have just used this technique to make a framed panel for a Roland C.II. I didn't want to risk fogging the clear stuff with glue

 

Richard

[John1]

So to pay penance for my apparent inability to read instructions (Tamiya did specify that the ribbed glareshield was applicable to later versions), I spent a wonderful hour carefully peeling off the ribs from the correct glareshield and gluing them in place.   Followed by painting (I added a some silver scratches since these appear often in pics and then reapplied my pastels.  

 

Next up is the gunsight.  Late WW2 and beyond Mustangs were all fitted with the "Acemaker" K-14 gyroscopic gunsight (although I'm guessing that in Korea, pilots locked the gyro and simply used a fixed "pipper" for air to ground workd).   Tamiya provides a nice K-14 but Barracuda's resin one is fantastic, so I went with theirs.  I did add the microscopic "No Handhold" label to the sight's cushioned crash pad, this decal came out of the Barracuda cockpit placard set. 

 

One question I had was the configuration of the gunsight.   See Tamiya's instructions below, their K-14 has two bits of glass and a sheet metal sunshade.  I've seen this in a few pics but the vast majority of pictures I've seen show no sunshade and a single piece of glass, especially for Korean-era F-51D's.   

 

 

I painted the sight in various shades of black, went over the cushion with dark brown to replicate worn leather and then added the decal and glued in place.   

 

You can barely make out the No Handhold marking on the crash pad...   I'm not happy with the chipped paint effect on the pilot's seat and am going to tone it down a bit with some interior green.  

 

A lot of F-51D's in Korea seem to have a map tucked into the corner of the glareshield.  I'm going to see if I can replicate one once I get further along with the build.

 

That's it for now, thanks for looking!

 

 

Edited December 14, 2019 by John1

[Gazzas]

The worn pit looks great!

 

[John1]

Still plugging away.  I've installed the cowling framework.   Typical Tamiya, everything fits precisely.  I'm not sure if I'm going to leave the cowling sections off or not but regardless, the kit gives you a very good idea of how compact the engine installation is.  NAA did a great job of squeezing everything into a very small space. 

 

This picture also shows a feature of the later Mustangs.  To make room for more radio equip aft of the pilot, the battery was relocated to the engine compartment.  It was squeezed in between the back of the engine and the oil tank. With the cowling in place, the only way you can tell if a Mustang had this feature was by the small cooling scoop for the battery on the lower section of the cowling. 

Given that at best, I'm going to have just one of the side cowling panels off, I didn't go crazy super-detailing the engine. For those that want to leave the entire cowling off, you could spend hours adding all the wiring and small details.

 

Note the multitude of aluminum colored coolant lines.  A single bullet hole in any of these lines would lead to the loss of the aircraft.   A main reason why the F-51D was very much unsuited to close support missions.  Still wonder how many pilots would have made it home had they been flying P-47's....  Sorry for the crude paintwork but as noted, this area won't be visible.  Had I decided earlier in the build on this, I wouldn't have bothered painting any of this (or adding most of the kit parts).

 

A better picture that illustrates the exquisite Barracuda K-14 gunsight and "No Handhold" decal.

 

As mentioned, I toned down some of the metal scratches on the pilot's seat.

 

That's it for now, thanks for looking! 

[MikeMaben]

Gunsight looks fine John. Nice fix on the IP shroud.

Just an FYI, the battery was originally moved only in

the Pacific theater as the hot climes overheated the

battery sitting back there in direct sunlight.

Model on doood

 

 

[John1]

Thanks Mike!  Not 100% sure on the reason for moving the battery.   Late in the war, they needed room for extra electronics (primarily the IFF unit) and I always thought that was the reason for relocating the battery.   Maybe you are correct but I would think it would still be hot as hell being mounted right behind that Merlin!

 

Anyway,  I've made a small bit of progress but before I get into that, I figured I'd share some feedback I got on another forum.   A gentleman who is considered to be one of the preeminent experts on the Mustang informed me that many of these aircraft that served in Korea were actually painted a grey metallic color. Prior to this, I always assumed all USAF Mustangs were simply NMF, with the dullness just due to weathering.  In some ways, it's irrelevant because exposed aluminum fades to a dull metallic grey.    Here is one of my favorite F-51D pictures, you tell me if this aircraft is faded aluminium or painted:

 

 d

 

Anyway, getting back to modeling, I've completed the main landing gear and a few minor bits.   The kit landing gear is exquisite.  Unlike most models, Tamiya provides the brake lines, which fit perfectly.   They even replicate the air valve on the wheels!   The only issue with the Tamiya parts is that they provide vinyl tires.  I have no idea why they do this, vinyl is tough to paint and adds nothing from a detail standpoint.   Thankfully Barracudacast offers a selection of highly detailed resin Mustang tires for very cheap money.   Well worth it IMO!

 

I had fun with weathering the tires, unlike most pristine USAF state-side bases, Korea offered PSP runways (often flooded), dirt taxiways / parking aprons filled with mud and (as noted in the pic above) copious amounts of spilled (or simply dumped) waste oil.    I tried to replicate these tires with a buildup of dirt and some oil that stuck to the tires when the pilot taxi'd through various spills.   

 

 

 

 

I also added a very dark brownish wash to replicate brake dust and general grime.   Aside from tweaking the metallic chrome finish on the oleo struts, these are pretty much done.  Here's a nice picture that shows those grubby wheelsd (also appears that the inside of the MLG wheel well cover is yellow zinc chromate, most references have these being NMF) :

That's it for now, thanks for looking!

 

 

Edited December 27, 2019 by John1

[MikeMaben]

5 hours ago, John1 said:

Thanks Mike!  Not 100% sure on the reason for moving the battery.   Late in the war, they needed room for extra electronics (primarily the IFF unit) and I always thought that was the reason for relocating the battery.   Maybe you are correct but I would think it would still be hot as hell being mounted right behind that Merlin!

 

Eventually they were assembled that way. I just remember reading somewhere about

a move of 20 a/c to the Pacific and requested the batteries be move because of overheating.

Coulda been bunk I guess. 

 

Nicely dirtied wheels 

[Biggles87]

An Interesting idea about them being painted, there is a certain uniformity under the grime to suggest a painted finish.Did your source specify wether the entire airframe was painted or just the fuselage if the wings were already lacquered?

I’m building one of these in 1/48 and have a deadline to meet, it would certainly cut down on time not having to do a NMF then try to produce the oxidation effect.

 

John

 

 

[N4521U]

Just my observation. At the top left of the Bar and Star, there is a piece of the blue surround missing, it's the same gray as the rest of the fuselage. Wondering if it would be a bit shiny if it was bare aluminum? I sure like what you are doing with this build!!!

 

I am presently building a 32nd scale Merlins Magic race 22 modified D model mustang. Lots of interior and exterior mods. Building it as after it dropped a rod and in the middle of an engine change.

 

Now my questions are, I grew up in the San Francisco bay area, San Lorenzo when I was 9-10 years old. I watched the CANG Mustangs fly in and out of the Hayward airport. I want to build a second Tamiya kit for this group. I will be creating artwork for the CANG Hayward decals. Would they have been flying D or F models in 1952-3? I have some exterior photos of this group over SF but know nothing about the interiors other than stock photos. Would they have been the same as your build here? I do remember the shinny skins.

 

Bill

[MikeMaben]

Hi Bill , by that time they were flying the P-51H.

Most of the Ds were shipped off to Korea but

I suppose it's possible you could have seen some.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/194th_Fighter_Squadron

 

In any case , have fun. 

 

[John1]

On 12/26/2019 at 6:18 AM, Biggles87 said:

An Interesting idea about them being painted, there is a certain uniformity under the grime to suggest a painted finish.Did your source specify wether the entire airframe was painted or just the fuselage if the wings were already lacquered?

I’m building one of these in 1/48 and have a deadline to meet, it would certainly cut down on time not having to do a NMF then try to produce the oxidation effect.

 

John

 

 

Christian (AKA Tourist) just mentioned that in Korea, there were a mix of NMF and overall metallic grey (which I would interpret as being aluminum lacquer) F-51's.    He didn't state either way but I'd assume that the entire airframe would have been painted.  

 

Here's another example of what he said was a painted F-51D:

My only concern with this picture is that if you look at the top of the flap, it looks (to me) like it might be bare metal.

 

I honestly don't know.   There is a fine line between very oxidized aluminum and a metallic grey painted finish.  Check out the old aluminum canoe below:

 

I'm going to paint my F-51 in this shade and I'll leave it for others to decide whether it's old crusty aluminum or grey metallic paint! 

Edited December 27, 2019 by John1

[Biggles87]

Good idea, I think I’ll probably do the same. Tamiya do a colour called “ Metallic Grey “ which I’ve use in the past for the centre section of the F-86 wing, so I think I will start with that as a base and play with it. I probably won’t be at the painting stage for a least a month yet so I’ll try it on my paint mule and see what happens.

Thanks for the info.

 

John

[John1]

13 minutes ago, Biggles87 said:

Good idea, I think I’ll probably do the same. Tamiya do a colour called “ Metallic Grey “ which I’ve use in the past for the centre section of the F-86 wing, so I think I will start with that as a base and play with it. I probably won’t be at the painting stage for a least a month yet so I’ll try it on my paint mule and see what happens.

Thanks for the info.

 

John

I'm doing the same thing here.   I'm playing around with various ratios of flat white enamel and AK Extreme Matt Aluminum.    Since I've never worked with this paint before, I'm also evaluating different primers and seeing how the stuff holds up to handling, masking tape, etc.  Slow work but I'm getting there.   Good luck on your project! 

 

John

[Antonio Argudo]

3 hours ago, John1 said:

My only concern with this picture is that if you look at the top of the flap, it looks (to me) like it might be bare metal.

yes, that inner part of the flap was bare metal as you can see in this other picture clearly. 

 

you can recognize the "metallic grey"  applied when there is no difference  or contrast in the exhausts panels  

 

 

 

you can see in this one an aluminium cowling  panel which contrast the rest  "metallic grey"  color 

Edited December 27, 2019 by Antonio Argudo

[John1]

Antonio, you are the man!   Any doubts I had about whether some F-51’s were painted have been put to rest.