1/32 P-51B

[Rockie Yarwood]

Great work on your metal skinning, Fabio! A few questions: What is the setting time of the epoxy you are using, and how are you applying it? (by brush?, to the foil or to the plastic?). How are you cleaning off the excess epoxy before applying the next panel?

 

Cheers,  Rockie

[airscale]

absolutely brilliant

 

..that is such a challenge to do properly in plastic, let alone then skin in metal - you have done an incredible job of it Fabio

 

Makes me quite nostalgic looking at the internals of the C model - I remember every single part when I made mine

 

Really glad you posted it - thank you

 

Peter

[skiner]

Wowwww fantastic

[Flex66]

@adameliclem

You're welcome.Providing infos about has a double goal, sharing own experience and  pinpoint errors that someone else could see, and correct them.

 

@airscale, skiner

thank you.

 

@Rockie Yarwood

What is the setting time of the epoxy you are using, and how are you applying it? 

For this first trial I use a very common glue, we can find here in every wharehouse. It has 15 min of slow bonding and became hard after 3 hours, so you have plenty of time for any adjustment.

I followed this steps:

1- work panel by panel, surrounding the one to be glued with tamiya yellow tape

2- clean the plastic and tin section with acetone with a cloth. Not much amoutn to avoid melting.

3- make the section rough with sand paper, usually 400

4- I mix the glue component on a cardboard, put a drop of glue on the tin foil placed on another cardboard with the plastic palette provided with the glue or a toothpick. Then I spread the glue with a small brass plate in order to obtain a thin glue film

 

5- once the glue cured, remove any excess with the small cloth and acetone, not much of course.

 

The tin foil has the big advantage of being flexible on its own, without an annealing passage, but has a huge downside. It's so soft that every scrath, bend or incision stand out; and cannot be fixed, especially the latter.

 

Ciao

Fabio

 

[Troy Molitor]

Some really nice efforts going into this one Fabio.  Thanks for sharing your work with us.  I'm hoping you have also show the manufacturers that we really want a proper P-51B/C.   

[Rockie Yarwood]

Thanks Fabio!

[dodgem37]

Late to this party.  My apologies.  Great work.

 

2- clean the plastic and tin section with acetone with a cloth. 

Use alcohol.  It cleans and won't melt plastic.

 

The top of the central panel should not be in alignment with the previous or successive panel.  In addition, there is no second step.  See page 50 section from parts manual below:

 

 

I happen to be doing research on this aircraft for a build of my own, tho in a different scale.  If you have any questions I may be able to help.  Great stuff.

Sincerely,

Mark

 

Sincerely,

Mark

 

[Antonio Argudo]

https://ibb.co/qMfyLQj

 

https://ibb.co/z5S8fNg

Edited December 2, 2020 by Antonio Argudo

[Flex66]

Thank you Mark and Antonio.

You're damm correct, so

 

 

2 options; leave as it is and live with this or try to insert a small, really thin strip of tin and sand it to flush (or maybe a touch of soldering). I'll try the second option on a result kit before making a choiche.

[Flex66]

As every drama there will be an happy end, but a nightmare begin. None of the 2 option worked out. The tin is too soft to create any thin strip and with the soldering I managed to make a hole like a flack shot!

Here came the 3rd option: strip it down and reskin.

 

Luckily everything went right, with minor damages recovered with some putty.

 

 

This should be the correct shape

 

The final result

 

 

 

I did some test on a scrap foil before acting on the model with this tools

 

 

#1 is a steel point pen - very harsh point tha produced a too dip groove, not neat

#2 trumpy - same not neat work

#3 I do not remember the brand. More suitable for plastic rather than metal  <<EDIT - mr. scriber narrow https://www.mn-modelar.com/mr-scriber-narrow-black-1/

#4 is one of a dental probe set, very sharp. It is the best one that leaved a clean and clear groove

 

 

Coming back to the origin of my error, I have used this publications

 

 

Now, if I'm not wrong, most of them show the panel line I initially made.

This are some abstract:

 

# polish books

 

# planes & pilots

 

# osprey profiles

 

# osprey plan is instead correct, right?

 

Waiting for your confirmation about my work and documents.

Thank you for suggestions and critics.

Ciao

 

Edited December 10, 2020 by Flex66

[ironman1945]

Hi There! I've been conducting a similar conversion build as well combining Revell's newish P-51D, combined with parts from both the Revell and Trumpeter P-51Bs.

 

With respect to the panel lines, as far as I was able to deduce, the drawings with the extra panel lines are actually P-51B - 10 NAs. 

 

The last line drawing is, I think, actually a P-51B  - 5 NA.

 

According to the Osprey book " P-51B Mustang - North American's ******* Stepchild that Saved the Eighth Air Force" published just this year/2020, the -5NA was an early production run without the fuselage fuel tank (although the book says  most -5NAs were field modified with the fuselage tank at some point), while the -10NA came from the factory with the fuselage tank already installed.

 

I'm fortunate in that I am modelling Jame's Howard's early Mustang "Ding Hao" and I have found photos which shows it without the extra panel lines.

 

It can be very confusing sorting through all of this, hope that helps, and hope this info is accurate.

 

Cheers!
 

Dave/Ironman1945

[Rockie Yarwood]

Beautiful recovery, Fabio!

[dodgem37]

Nicely done.  Thank you for following that up, Dave.

 

Sincerely,

Mark

[Flex66]

Here I am again with you, after two months of hell work. Everyone wants everything and for yesterday. However, I always sneaked a look at the forum. Last week I took a few steps forward of this penelope canvas.

I started to fix the gun sections, luckily only two per wing, by inserting brass tubes. I realized too late that the gun were not parallel with le leading edge, but I do not feel to touch the wings. I will have to live with this error.

 

 

Actually these two tubes weren't visible, but I liked it and left them.

Landing light. With a small burin found in a fleas market many years ago, I obtained the dome of the bulb and pre-cut the foil of the shape.

 

For the first time ever I experienced the thrill of the 'future' and I am amazed by the clarity that is obtained.

 

 

Tin foils have the advantage of being flexible but the big disadvantage of being too soft. This results in an imperfect alignment of the sections, with evident cracks and edges that are not perfectly linear, resulting with the finding that the joins of the wing panels are anything but acceptable. Here it cames in handy the real manifacture of tha wings, that I will follow: putty and silver laquer!

So I filled  every seam line with black cyanoacrylate. Another advantage is that the cyanoacrylate has leveled the recesses that the model handling has created (another disadvantage of tin).

 

 

With the burin I deep-drawn the leading edge fairings which were integral with a bonnet panel. I used the fuselage of a Revell P-51D new tool.

 

 

 

The result seems presentable.

 

 

 

The deep drawing of the front air intake made me sweat a lot and the highlighted part is still missing.

Basic step for undewing lights, then I'll see how to proceed.

And finally wings glued to the fuselage. We begin to see a plane

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you for the appreciation and for the time dedicated to reading.

Ciao

Fabio