patricksparks Posted January 31, 2022 Share Posted January 31, 2022 Well my A.D.D. has gotten the best of me again, this is my new challenge, I actually started one of these about 15 years ago, unfortunately I trashed it never thinking that these models would become very expensive !!! I actually had 2 Blue Box P-51s the one I trashed and the other went to a kids toy donation... at least it went to a good cause(hope the kid was able to cash in on it..) I was able to find the model on ebay out of the box at a decent price(just shy of $200 US with shipping) the good thing it is a second generation model which has both seperate flaps and ailerons and no riveting on the suraces except for the ailerons and flaps(it won,t matter, metal is going over them). The wing is a little shallow in the cord, the span seems to be good the fuselage outline it very close to being correct(good enough for me). I started with taking the model apart which wasn't too bad, the spinner/prop assembly was a bit of a challenge... After cutting off the kit's dorsal spine down to the horizontal panel line below the canopy on the model and removed the vertical stab's fillet as well. I made up a pattern for the "B" spine, it runs from the front of the horizontal stab's fillet to the rear canopy frame, I would have made it longer with the canopy section, but I don't have a vacuum forming machine that's large enough. I made the spine in one piece so that it would be strong and not worry about gluing it together down the center -line. I put in the fuselage formers and "A" frame for the pilot,s seat behind the cockpit, I still have to make the fuel tank and install it before I glue the spine onto the fuselage. I am going to cover the model with aluminum, I have been wanting to do this process for quite sometime, thanks to Peter AKA "AIRSCALE" I'm taking the plunge, Peter's builds have been soo inspiring , and his articles have cleared up alot of proceedures for this application.. THANK YOU PETER !!! I wanted to start messing around with the aluminum to make sure that I could even pull it off.. The spacing of the rivets was the big worry to me, I decided to make a "ruler" for lack of better terms out .010 clear evergreen sheet styrene, I cut a strip about 6 inches long, I scribed a parallel to the edge of the strip with is the scale offset distance of the rivets from the edge of a panel, I layed out rivet centers along the length of this line, I then used a pointed scriber to center punch each rivet center I then drilled .021" diameter holes at each center. The reason I made the "ruler" clear was so that I can lay it over the surfaces and see everything below, i.e. drawing, aluminum panels, existing rivet rows, I swiped some sand paper over it just so I won't lose it on the work bench.. . I spent a couple hours yesterday trying out panel making, much to my suprise it actually went pretty quickly for never having tried this method before, I was able to make up 4 panels that all butt up to one another, for the panels with curved edges I used Peter's method of putting masking tape down onto the model's detail(wing fillet) and using a sharp pencil marked the line onto the tape along with straight lines of the panel, lifted the tape off(gently don't stretch it) the apply to a piece of aluminum and score it with a knife, the aluminum I am using is "Shim Stock" which is hardened the same as the litho plate that Peter uses is, when it is scoered with a knife you just have to bend it on the line a few times and it breaks right off. This aluminum is just for the panels with no compound curves, the compound stuff needs to be done with "annealed" material that can be worked and stretched.. The panels that I made are not glued down, so the gaps you see in the photos are not bad panels they just not down tight to the surface, they actually butt-up perfectly to each another, I was quite surprised how well ??? Thank You AIRSCALE !!! Pat dodgem37, Derek B, Greg W and 28 others 31 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
easixpedro Posted January 31, 2022 Share Posted January 31, 2022 Oh man, this is gonna be good! So many people with out of the box ideas around here. I feel a bit like Odd Ball from Kelly's Heroes. So many positive vibes... This is gonna be yet another great one to follow. -Peter JeepsGunsTanks, patricksparks and Out2gtcha 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Out2gtcha Posted January 31, 2022 Share Posted January 31, 2022 1 hour ago, easixpedro said: This is gonna be yet another great one to follow. X2! patricksparks 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
williamj Posted January 31, 2022 Share Posted January 31, 2022 Wow, really like this, another super build. patricksparks 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anthony in NZ Posted January 31, 2022 Share Posted January 31, 2022 Oh my word, thats amazing so far! patricksparks and Derek B 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Kevin Posted January 31, 2022 Share Posted January 31, 2022 Excellent work, Patrick! Kev Derek B and patricksparks 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomprobert Posted January 31, 2022 Share Posted January 31, 2022 1 hour ago, Out2gtcha said: X2! x3! Derek B and patricksparks 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warbird Kid Posted January 31, 2022 Share Posted January 31, 2022 Three 1/18th WWII US fighter projects right now on this forum. Fantastic! patricksparks 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brahman104 Posted January 31, 2022 Share Posted January 31, 2022 Do you even sleep Pat? Brilliant work on the litho! Peter has quite a lot to answer for doesn't he? I'm always amazed by how quickly you progress your projects. Really enjoying this so far! Cheers, Craig patricksparks 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg W Posted January 31, 2022 Share Posted January 31, 2022 Friggen Awesome. Stellar work and for a first go? Heck fire your good! Follow patricksparks 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KiwiZac Posted February 1, 2022 Share Posted February 1, 2022 8 hours ago, patricksparks said: Well that's just achingly gorgeous. WOW!!! Derek B, patricksparks and williamj 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Lund Posted February 1, 2022 Share Posted February 1, 2022 Uhh that looks fantastic. I have a project too where I plan to skin it with aluminium. I did a little testing with punching rivets into the plate, but found them to be a bit too deep and pointy. But looking at the spoon in my coffee cup I ran the curved side over the back of those pointy dips and that brought the centres of them up so it formed - on the front - a round circle with a centre up in line with the surface. I kinda like that patricksparks 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Barry Posted February 2, 2022 Share Posted February 2, 2022 Excellent. Love it! patricksparks 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troy Molitor Posted February 2, 2022 Share Posted February 2, 2022 Love the -51B.... This is epic so far. thanks for sharing this with us. patricksparks 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
airscale Posted February 6, 2022 Share Posted February 6, 2022 I love this on so many levels... my favourite (and under represented) version of the P51, plus a new convert to skinning in metal (you will never go back ) and the skills to pull it off ..it already looks fabulous Patrick, but if I can help in any way, just ping me a message ..also I have a set of decals from my 1/18 P51C for instruments, placards etc if you want them Peter patricksparks, KUROK and Derek B 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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