Hasegawa 1/32 P-51D Mustang

[dodgem37]

I think it's dynamite, Kevin.

 

Sincerely,

Mark

[LSP_Kevin]

Thanks, Mark. I felt like blowing it up too, at first. But it's just nice to be modelling again, whatever the outcome.

 

Kev

[dennismcc]

That's coming along nicely Kev, neat and precise.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[mc65]

a very nice and clean job in the cockpit, congratulations!

I have to be honest, I envy a little that line so clean on the instrument panel...

[MARU5137]

Super duper work  Kevin.

Love the flawlessly  neatness of the cockpit et al.

Very tidy and looks AWESOME. 

  (Brilliant job ).

[Greif8]

Great work on the office Kev! 

 

Ernest 

[LSP_Kevin]

Thanks, chaps. I'm pleased to report that I've made just a smidge more progress! Test-fitting showed that the little ridges just inside the cockpit coaming were going to prevent the instrument panel - and therefore the entire cockpit - from sitting right up where it's supposed to:

 

 

I suspect they're there to support the kit instrument panel, and probably the resin one is supposed to fit right in there too. But whether I messed up the geometry, or the alignment is simply poor, they were in the way now, so out came the Dremel:

 

 

While repainting the area, I decided to do the engine bay too, just in case:

 

 

And the resulting test-fit:

 

 

Seems better to me, even though it's a bit fast and loose in there. You can see in the photo below the gaps between the resin and kit sidewalls that I spoke about earlier:

 

 

They probably won't be quite as dramatic as that once everything's closed up properly, but that's a little way off yet.

 

I've been playing around with the engine in preparation for attaching the Moskit exhausts, but I have a question for anyone who has built this kit before: how the heck does the engine attach to the rest of the airframe? It seems to be designed to just float around in the engine bay, held in place by the exhausts and propeller. Any inside knowledge here would be much appreciated!

 

Kev

[LSP_Kevin]

Time for another update! Well, half an update, anyway. I decided to push ahead and see what I could make of getting the engine into place, and test-fitting made it obvious that the exhausts really needed to be fitted in order to help support and locate the engine within the fuselage halves. I was anxious, however, about getting the placement of the Moskit exhausts right, as failing to do so would mean that the engine might sit too low, too high, or not even straight. I'm still mulling some ideas about how to support the engine more explicitly, but in the meantime, here are the Moskit exhausts glued into place:

 

 

They are absolutely exquisite, and terrifyingly fragile! I attached them using flexible black CA (AK's Black Widow product). I'll mask them off and give the engine a quick coat of unifying black paint, but hopefully little to none of it will be seen on the finished model. Check out those openings, though:

 

 

I also fitted the kit firewall, mainly in the hopes that it would help support the engine (I don't think it will), but also to generally stabilise this area of the fuselage when the two halves are joined:

 

 

A coat of interior green is coming...

 

I found among the box of aftermarket products a small, nondescript sheet of photo-etch parts, and it took me ages to work out that it was from the Dragon P-51 kit. It contained some seat belts and a pair of grilles for the radiator duct, so I set about adapting the latter to fit the Hasegawa parts:

 

 

For the smaller grille, I had to patch up the width using some of the frame itself, and both grilles will be trimmed to fit once I'm satisfied that their bonds are nice and strong (I used Gator's Grip for the larger one). I tried to take a photo showing the smaller intake grille from the front, which I think will look the part in situ:

 

 

Again, these mods are really just to provide the impression of some detail on the finished model, using whatever I can find in the two boxes of parts I have. The PE will create a tiny gap where the intake grille meets the fuselage, but that'll be easy to deal with, and the additional detail will be worth it.

 

So, half an update because I only got halfway through most of the planned work. Hopefully we'll see the finished results in the next update!

 

Thanks as always for looking in.

 

Kev

[dennismcc]

Half an updates better than none. keep it up Kev.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[MikeMaben]

Hey Kev, I have a couple of these oldies and when I was building the Revell, I was looking for

replacement canopies. When I looked at the Hasegawa , the canopy is significantly wider but

it fits the kit fairly well. So I measured the fuselage width on both and discovered that the Hasegawa

kit is very close to the Revell 'except' for the cockpit area, which is also wider. Keep an eye on the

canopy fit when adjusting the width when attaching the fuselage halves.

Looking good so far.

[LSP_Kevin]

23 minutes ago, MikeMaben said:

Hey Kev, I have a couple of these oldies and when I was building the Revell, I was looking for

replacement canopies. When I looked at the Hasegawa , the canopy is significantly wider but

it fits the kit fairly well. So I measured the fuselage width on both and discovered that the Hasegawa

kit is very close to the Revell 'except' for the cockpit area, which is also wider. Keep an eye on the

canopy fit when adjusting the width when attaching the fuselage halves.

Looking good so far.

 

Thanks, Mike. I have a Squadron vac canopy at the ready, allegedly designed for this kit, so we'll see how it goes. I do see some challenges ahead with getting the fuselage halves together, though.

 

Kev

[LSP_Kevin]

Trying to get a little bit done every day on this build, which means I have another update for you guys today!

 

If you recall my efforts with the PE grilles from the last post, I mentioned that I glued the larger one in place with Gator's Grip. It's a good glue, but the surface area involved for gluing is tiny, and I was a bit worried the glue wouldn't survive my attempt to trim the grille back to fit the kit part. While it did survive that process, it was hanging on for dear life, and ready to fall off at the slightest provocation. It certainly wouldn't survive a dry-brush! While I was pondering how to save it without removing and re-gluing it, I remembered that only yesterday I had bought the product below on a whim while at the supermarket:

 

 

Yes, brushable super glue! I wondered if this might save the day, simply by brushing a thin coat over the top of the grille in situ, hopefully sealing it in place. Well, I'm happy to report that it worked! The glue itself is medium viscosity, and the brush is a little large, but if you're careful, it's a great way to apply CA to a large area in a controlled manner. I'll be using it again, for sure. (Photos of the results in the next update, after I've finished painting it.)

 

You may also recall that I mentioned I was mulling over some ideas for dealing with the floating engine problem. Well, this is what I came up with:

 

 

 

Basically, I found some aluminium tubing that matched the diameter of the prop shaft (2mm OD - I would have preferred brass for strength, but didn't have any in this size), snipped off the kit part, drilled suitable holes front and back, inserted the tubing right down the guts, and then trimmed it to length. It's secured with CA at each end (brushed on!). I also drilled a hole into the tank (oil?) in front of the firewall, to accept the tubing out of the rear of the engine, and support that end:

 

 

And here's the obligatory test fit:

 

 

It's still pretty loose in there, and will still require the prop assembly to lock it in place properly. But at least the rear end is taken care of, and it will make joining the fuselage halves much less ambiguous.

 

Kev

[mc65]

pretty good idea, that shaft, I think I'll shamelessy copy it!

the exhausts, on the other hand, seem a bit strange and naked to me, for a P51 ... my impression?

[LSP_Kevin]

9 minutes ago, mc65 said:

pretty good idea, that shaft, I think I'll shamelessy copy it!

the exhausts, on the other hand, seem a bit strange and naked to me, for a P51 ... my impression?

 

They'll look better when the upper cowl is in place. You don't see too many Mustangs without unshrouded exhausts, but the one I'm building does, which happily lets me use these Moskit exhausts - which would otherwise go to waste, and that would be a shame!

 

Kev

[Greif8]

Nice progress Kev, your work is looking very good!

 

Ernest