Forgotten War Mustang

[Biggles87]

Certainly does!

As for the weathering, I think it would be quite difficult to ‘ go too far ‘ on a Korean War machine.

Looking forward to it.

 

John

[Dutch Man]

Very cool John. You got me purchasing a TAM P-51D. 

I'm planning a ML-KNIL P-51D/K from (1947-1949).

This is slightly OT, but K stands for Pacific, and the ML-KNIL had those D/K version.

Ain't Korea close to Pacific?

What is the difference with a standard D?

 

Kind regards,

 

Robert Jan

[John1]

15 hours ago, Dutch Man said:

Very cool John. You got me purchasing a TAM P-51D. 

I'm planning a ML-KNIL P-51D/K from (1947-1949).

This is slightly OT, but K stands for Pacific, and the ML-KNIL had those D/K version.

Ain't Korea close to Pacific?

What is the difference with a standard D?

 

Kind regards,

 

Robert Jan

Thanks guys!  

 

Jan - good luck on your project, I'm a big fan of more obscure subjects (WW2 ETO Mustangs have been done to death in my humble opinion).   With regard to your questions - D and K models were identical, except maybe with small differences between canopy style and props (see above).   The K was nothing more than a stock D that was built at North American's Dallas, TX factory.  K's served in both Pacific and European theaters. 

 

The only thing you'd have to check is if your subject is a later version D-25 / D-30 (or the K equivalent) that were fitted with HVAR rocket launchers.  If it was, you should probably wait until Tamiya releases their upcoming Korean War F-51D.  That will have the rocket launchers and everything else you need for your project. 

 

By the way, what are you going to use for decals?

 

Regards,

 

John

Edited February 12, 2020 by John1

[Dutch Man]

Hi John.

Thanks for clear explanation on D & K. Makes an interesting story to know backgrounds of an AC. Still have to pick a registration number, which can be linked to the airframe.

I ordered Flevo Decals 32-007(clearance at Hannants) , depicting the ML-KNIL 1947 / 1949 period in Indonesia. 

 

Kind regards,

 

Robert Jan

[themongoose]

Hey those decals really brightened up that dull finish as you put it   Definitely looks sharp!

[John1]

Now onto the weathering.   I've done a bit on the top.  At this point mostly working on weathering the decals and added gun soot.   The upper wing markings got beat up pretty bad, as they were stepped on frequently during rearming.   See below, how the "U" in USAF is nearly worn off:

You can also see soot from the MG's aft of the gun compartment.  

 

I weathered these decals (and also the large serial numbers on the fuselage which would have been scratched while the pilot was climbing into the cockpit) with a mix of light sanding, scratching them with a new Xacto knife and pastels. I then used Micro Sol to get the cut edges to tighten up.   After all the decals were addressed, I lightly sprayed the model using a mix of dullcoate with a bit of gloss.  Once I was done with this process, I then shot the gun soot using diluted flat black with a few drops of dark brown added.   Here is a pic of the progress so far:

Still very much a work in progress here.

 

Now on to the bottom.   Any combat aircraft is typically filthy on the bottom, it's the spot where all the oil leaks occur plus, it's typically "out of sight, out of mind" so it really isn't cleaned that often.   Add to this that from videos I've seen of rearming in Korea, they simply opened up the .50's and swabbed them with a large brush dripping with solvent.   All that stuff eventually leaked out onto the lower wing. Factor in that, along with the mud that was kicked up and you have quite a mess.  My pics also show the markings close to the rocket mounts were also heavily scratched up and faded.  Speaking of rocket mounts, I added the resin Fawcett HVAR stub launchers.   Very nice stuff!

 

Weathering again is a mix of airbrushed soot, followed by brushed on diluted black for the leaked oil, topped with some tan for dried mud.  I then used pastels.  Here is where we are at.  

 

Also, I drilled out all the holes in the carburetor air intakes on the nose.  The sharkmouth decals stood up very nicely to this.  Still need to do a final cleanup but it looks much better than a decal over a solid plastic part.

 

 

That's it for now guys.  Keep in mind, this is still a work in progress, I've got a lot to do still, including going back and cleaning up a nasty black finger print near the right wing tip and tweaking some of the weathering (especially the mud splatters).  It looks rough now but it's gonna get better, trust me! 

 

 

[John1]

Weathering continues...  Here is a nice reference pic posted earlier that shows how grimy the aft fuselage could get.  Note the "U" in USAF heavily worn.  A bit of an extreme example but I think this would be appropriate for most Mustangs, even WW2 birds that didn't fly as often.  The problem is there aren't very many detailed pics out there that show the undersides of combat aircraft.  

 

Anyway, I've been tweaking the weathering on the bottom and am close to calling it done.   Last step will be to clean up some mistakes, add a bit of chipping to the weapons pylon and black stripe and then I'm on to adding some small bits and the napalm and rockets.    Here is where we are at:

 

 

 

 

 

I'm definitely outside of my comfort zone here.   I know this models looks grossly over-weathered but I've got the pics to back up that these birds were absolutely filthy in service.  Any suggestions or comments are welcome.   That's it for now, thanks for looking!

[John1]

Nape and rockets are hung.   I decided to go with just 4 rockets installed.  No idea why, probably cause it just looks a bit different.  Typical load was 6 but I've seen multiple shots with only 4 mounted, including this one which is my standard for weathering the undersides.

 

As far as why only 4 rockets were hung, maybe to increase range / loiter time or maybe they just had a shortage of HVARs?  

 

I also took this time to clean up a few weathering issues and installed the landing light in the starboard wheelwheel and the underwing pitot tube.   Still need to add arming wires for the napalm tanks.   Here is where we are at so far:

 

 

 

As always, thanks for the feedback and for looking! 

[USMC Herc]

John this coming along great.Looks to me like you’ve got the colour just right.

 

Now I am going to be critical on the weathering....

In the picture above of the aircraft being loaded with 50 cal. The panel of the feed tray would also be dirty from mechanics opening and closing.I do not think the weathering would be pulled black as gun dust. Panel would have have more dirty black and brown just along the panel line.

The USAF markings on the top could be even heavier weathered. Looks as if the loaders have worn the "A" just about all the way off.The "S" is heavily weathered and the next "A" has some good damage. 

The aircraft pulling into a left roll...

the Oil Cooler will leak oil. Which would leave brown streaks behind the cooler. and older leaks would have picked up dirt, grime, etc. would make a huge black color. 

 

And looks that when you glued the napalm tanks, you dropped glue on the left tire.

 

now the good.. with current weathering it looks good as a total package. The weathering looks as if the aircraft has just gotten into country.

 

Jason 

[John1]

Hi Jason,

 

Thanks for the feedback!  I thought about going further with the USAF weathering but was worried about possibly destroying the decal so I left things in that state.  Figured it's a good compromise. Agreed about the gun soot and weathering on the access panel.  I'll be tweaking this area.  

 

I went with mostly black grunge on the aft fuselage and then hand painted some diluted glossy dark brown stains to replicate fresh leaks.   I'm nervous about going further in case it comes out overdone.

 

With regard to the tire, I think you are referring to the flat spot on the base?   If so, that's not a glue smudge, it's just the portion of the Barracuda resin tire that connected with the base.  Nothing could be done on that section but when the model is upright, it's completely hidden.

 

Best regards,

 

John

[John1]

Just a few shots of the topside weathering.   This section is still a work in progress.   It didn't appear that most of the F-51D's over there had extremely pronounced exhaust staining so I went somewhat light in this area.    As mentioned, added some additional scratching to the "FF" number on the fuselage sides since this would have seen some wear and tear due to pilots and maintenance techs accessing the cockpit area.    

 

 

 

 

[John1]

Final update of the weekend, I completed work on the underside, added some bits for the open MG bay (the door is just a press-fit, I've got to add some details in that area) and continued weathering the upper sides.   

 

 

Not entirely happy with the worn out USAF (particularly the U and the S).  More work to be done here.

 

Still have some cleanups to do in certain areas but we're getting there....

[RLWP]

 

Because I don't know, why is the filler on the drop tank (if it is the filler) surrounded by red splotches?

 

Richard

[John1]

2 hours ago, RLWP said:

 

Because I don't know, why is the filler on the drop tank (if it is the filler) surrounded by red splotches?

 

Richard

 

Hi Richard, great question!   After doing a bunch of research on Korean War napalm tanks (there is a separate thread on this over on the Aviation Discussion forum), I found the pictures below.  Apparently loading napalm into these tanks was often a very messy affair.  They added the gelled fuel (dyed red) and a powered (white) thickener into the tanks.   

 

d

 

There are also many pics that show relatively clean napalm tanks but I'm always looking for stuff out of the ordinary so I opted for the "messy" ones. 

 

Regards,

 

John

[John1]

For those that are interested, I've made a few tweaks to the weathering.   Painted over some streaks that were too heavy, further worked on the upper wing USAF (additional chipping and then faded the markings a bit), and added some mud / dirt to the wing roots and areas around the MG bays.  I also completed the bottom.   A bit of additional weathering, removed some too heavy mud splatters on the aft tailplanes and added the underwing ID lights and pitot tube.  I think I'm done on that portion of the model. 

 

Next up, I removed the masking.   This is always a "hold your breath and hope for the best" type of event.   More than once, I found some pretty bad paint spray that got onto the clear parts.  This time around, it wasn't too bad.  I had some light overspray, nothing that a very sharp toothpick couldn't remove.  I'll hit the clear parts one last time with some polish at the end of the build.  

 

So here is where we are at:

 

 

 

 

Still have some work to do on the upper surfaces.   Next tasks that are up will be adding the latching mechanism to the canopy interior (strangely enough, Tamiya left this completely bare), adding details to the MG access door and completing the propellers (I just received Quickboost's cuffless Hamilton Standard props).

 

As always, thanks for looking!