1/32 Tamiya P-51D-15-NA Mustang, "The Millie G"

[Hoss FL]

Thanks all for the comments. I'm nearing the end of the construction phase. (And I'm still enjoying the afterglow of my Gunfighter flight.) 

 

With the covers on for show it's starting to look like a Mustang !

 

 

Thankfully the fit in the engine area is spot on. The cockpit area around the canopy rim has a very slight outward bow which I suspect is related to the subpar fit of the sidewalls with the cockpit floor. It only showed up after mating the wings. Not sure how to fix this. I'll need to be more disciplined with my test fitting at each step. I'll probably leave it alone since it's very slight and only noticeable when the canopy is positioned closed. The windscreen fits perfectly and I'm planning on having the canopy fixed open so it should look fine.    

 

I'm starting to think about the painting sequence for this scheme. 

 

 

I have the Barracuda decal set which seems to be very high quality - Cartograph. At this point I'm thinking about painting the checkered nose and the red stripes, but I'm not 100% sure yet. I'll be using a lightened version of Mr. Color RAF dark green C-330 for the main green areas and darken it a bit for the nose checkers. It matches the decals and I agree with Roy Sutherland's conclusion of the dark green on the nose. 

 

It's time to make the final tweaks and start masking this beast. 

 

Comments and critiques are always welcome. Thanks for looking.  

[MikeMaben]

Looks good to go Hoss  .

[dennismcc]

Wow, I've wandered into the super detailing section, what fantastic amazing work is going on here, and the icing on the cake was the Mustang ride, dead jealous about that one.

I have a nice collection of the Tamiya uber lits but have not had the nerve to build one yet, I'll have to carry on honing my skills on lesser kits for a while longer.

Keep up the fantastic modelling.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[Hoss FL]

Thanks for the comments.

 

The main build is finally complete and I buttoned everything up and masked all the key exposed areas.

 

 

I probably over-masked some detailed areas but I figured it can't hurt. 

 

 

The next step was priming. I primed most of the parts with Mr. Finishing Surfacer 1500. I primed the resin and metal parts (the MG access doors and the barracuda tires) with MRP fine surface primer. By the way, I really like the Barracuda tires compared to the kit rubber tires. I also tried the Eduard Brassin wheels/tires. Although the detail was impressive, the molding was poor on both the tires and the rims to the point where they didn't fit correctly and I decided they weren't worth fixing. 

 

 

I primed the main build with Mr. Finishing surfacer 1500 supplemented with a little extra MR Surfacer 1000 on the front halves of the wings. 

 

 

Mr Surfacer polishes up so nicely and I got a little to carried away and busted the limit tabs on the flaps when I was polishing the flaps. No big deal. 

 

 

The work I did in filling the rivets and panel lines on the wings really paid off. It's not perfect as there are some rivets barely visible as well as the faint hints of some panel lines, but the overall effect of smooth, puttied wing surfaces really looks great IMO.

 

I spent quite a bit of time sorting out the paint sequence for this bird. I decided that it all starts with the white for the tactical stripes on the stabilizers.  

 

 

 

The white for the invasion stripes under the wings and on the fuselage was next.  

 

Not very dramatic, but it's nice to see some paint going down on this one. 

 

Finishing the invasion stripes with black is next. 

 

Comments and critique always welcome. Thanks for looking. 

 

[LSP_Kevin]

Coming along nicely!

 

Kev

[Neo]

On 5/13/2022 at 8:17 PM, Hoss FL said:

I'm making incremental progress and have just completed the MG bays and assembled the wings. I used the Eduard upgrade kit for the top plate and heaters for the .50's and the bay doors. I still have to add the latches and support rods and will do that toward the end of the build. The doors themselves are significantly more detailed than the kit doors. I have some more weathering to do -- chips and scratches and a little more grime. 

 

 

I primed the area with MRP primer and used Mr. Color Zinc Chromate Yellow for the main colors. Drybrushing, gloss coat and an oil wash followed. The MG's were painted with a Mr Color mix of Metallic black, blue and silver. Wiring for the solenoids and heaters was also added. 

 

 

The Eduard doors come with hinges that would allow you to glue them open. I wanted to be able to remove them so I added a plastic post on the bottom outboard corner of the door, replicating the kit door mounting scheme. 

 

 

The Eduard upgrade also has some nice detail for the rear and bottom of the gun bays. I'll get some better shots and post them later. 

 

I stuck with the kit ammo trays and chutes. Even though the painting was a project, it looks better than the 2D Eduard PE ammo belts. 

 

 

I'm starting to think about the paint colors for the wings and fuselage. 

 

For the wings, I'm thinking about a 1:1 or 2:1 mix of a light gray and sliver, using Mr. Color paints. Any advice or tips would be greatly appreciated. 

 

For the fuselage, I'm planning to paint all the main colors, including the checkers on the nose. My NMF approach is a base of Mr Color GX 2 gloss black, followed by SM 201 Super Fine Silver. I'll paint specific panels Super Stainless and Super Iron as well. 

 

For this scheme, I know there's debate on whether the green color was olive drab, RAF dark green, jeep paint or some other green. I'm definitely in the RAF dark green camp and am evaluating Mr. Color C309, C330 and C361, which all seem pretty close, but are different. Any insight from the experts would be more than welcome.  Right now I'm leaning toward C330. 

 

And now for the big news!  As luck would have it, the Airpower History Tour (https://www.airpowersquadron.org/daytona-beach-fl) is in Daytona Beach this weekend and I've booked myself a ride in this baby:  

 

 

Tough to beat this bucket list item. And it's the same marking scheme as the Millie G so I'll keep my eyes open for details and take lots of photos. 

 

Thanks again for looking. Comments and critiques are always welcome. 

 

More later. 

 

 

 

Mind blowing, those gun bays are amazing

[Hoss FL]

Thanks Kevin and Neo. Made some good progress today: Invasion stripes and main NMF areas. 

 

The invasion stripes on the wings were relatively straightforward.

 

 

 

The complex shape around the coolor area was a little more tricky. The guidance was 18" wide for the stripes, but I followed the photo of Major Giller's plane, which varied the width, which I'm guessing simplified the job to make use of the panel lines and other features. 

 

 

 

The invasion stripes were safely masked for the next painting phases. 

 

 

Ready for gloss black for the NMF areas. 

 

Mr. Color GX2 Ueno black was used for a gloss black surface for the Mr Color Super Metallic 2 paint.

 

I've only used this a couple of times but I'm really happy with it. It seems to be thinner than standard Mr. Color gloss black. 

 

 

MC01 Super Fine Silver was used for most the NMF areas. MC 204 Stainless was used for the forward most wing fairing. 

 

 

 

 

MC 203 Super Iron was used for the trim tabs. 

MC 201 was used for the scoop area, flaps and ailerons.

 

MC 203 Super Iron was used for the panels around the exhaust and MC 204 Stainless was used for the drop tanks. It's tough to pick out the subtle color variation in the Mr color metallics in photos. I'll try to better show the differences in future posts. . 

 

 

 

Thanks again for looking. Comments and critique always welcome. 

[Scale32]

5 hours ago, Hoss FL said:

Thanks Kevin and Neo. Made some good progress today: Invasion stripes and main NMF areas. 

 

The invasion stripes on the wings were relatively straightforward.

 

 

 

The complex shape around the coolor area was a little more tricky. The guidance was 18" wide for the stripes, but I followed the photo of Major Giller's plane, which varied the width, which I'm guessing simplified the job to make use of the panel lines and other features. 

 

 

 

The invasion stripes were safely masked for the next painting phases. 

 

 

Ready for gloss black for the NMF areas. 

 

Mr. Color GX2 Ueno black was used for a gloss black surface for the Mr Color Super Metallic 2 paint.

 

I've only used this a couple of times but I'm really happy with it. It seems to be thinner than standard Mr. Color gloss black. 

 

 

MC01 Super Fine Silver was used for most the NMF areas. MC 204 Stainless was used for the forward most wing fairing. 

 

 

 

 

MC 203 Super Iron was used for the trim tabs. 

MC 201 was used for the scoop area, flaps and ailerons.

 

MC 203 Super Iron was used for the panels around the exhaust and MC 204 Stainless was used for the drop tanks. It's tough to pick out the subtle color variation in the Mr color metallics in photos. I'll try to better show the differences in future posts. . 

 

 

 

Thanks again for looking. Comments and critique always welcome. 

Man that is looking gorgeous! 

 

Cheers Bevan 

[Hoss FL]

Thanks Bevan. Much appreciated. 

 

The next step was to paint the wing lower and upper surfaces. I used a mix of Mr. Color C8 and two grays I had (C335 and C338) to get the color I was after to represent the aluminum lacquer. 

 

 

The upper surfaces were next. 

 

 

I'm happy with how the Mr. Surfacer treatment of the wings came out -- nice and smooth. 

 

 

Here's the upper surface view with the masking tape removed from the control surfaces. Nice contrast. 

 

 

Here's a view of how the Mr Surfacer putty process ended up. Nice and smooth on the forward 40% of the wing and rivets and panel lines visible further aft.  

 

 

With the engine covers on. I'm happy with the look at this point. 

 

 

The invasion stripes turned out pretty well. 

 

 

Thanks for looking. 

 

Comments and critiques are always welcome. 

[LSP_Kevin]

Beautiful work so far! This will look amazing when you're finished.

 

Kev

[Phil Smith]

Really superb work! Welcome to the board. Seems as though we are at about the same stage in our P-51 builds

[Hoss FL]

On 5/26/2022 at 1:09 PM, Phil Smith said:

Really superb work! Welcome to the board. Seems as though we are at about the same stage in our P-51 builds

Thanks Phil! I've been following your excellent work on Mrs. Bonnie -- great scheme. 

[Hoss FL]

The 28-step marathon main painting process is now complete on The Millie G and I figured it was a good time to post the latest update. 

 

After the wings and invasion stripes, it was time for the dark green on the fuselage. I decided to skip preshading and use a post shading approach. After a few light coats of Mr. Color C330 with 10% white, I added some highlights to the panel centers and various access ports and control surfaces. The highlight color was 50/50 C330 and white. 

 

 

For the darker areas, I added a little black to the base color and applied it to the panel lines and various other areas. 

 

 

After a few tweaks, I applied a very thin coats of the base color +10% white until the fading and shading was dialed into the look I was after. 

 

 

Here's the reveal of the NMF areas next to the dark green. I was thinking about using the decals for the red stripe, but I concluded that they were too short and too narrow. My assessment from the photos of this plane was that the red stripes on the sides are 4" wide and the decals (Barracuda) are only 3" wide. So I masked and painted the red stripes next using Mr Color C327. Sorry for the lack of photos but I guess I was moving along too fast. 

 

 

 

The nose was masked off for the yellow and green checkers. I started with a very light coat of white for a good base for the yellow (C329). 

 

 

I prefer the paint the checkers so I can be sure the colors match between the checkers and the spinner. Here's the masking approach for the checkers - one row at a time.

 

 

As usual, this process is extremely tedious but not very difficult -- just lots of measuring and adjusting. 

 

 

Here's the completed first row of green checkers. The color is straight Mr. Color C330 RAF Dark Green and looks pretty dark in this view. Many other profiles show this green as a lime, sea or basic green, but as pointed out in an earlier post by Roy Sutherland, the photos of the plane clearly show that it is darker than the fuselage green color. The decals from Barracuda have the same dark color for the green. 

 

 

Skipping ahead to the spinner, it was masked with Tamiya flexible tape. 

 

 

And I think came out pretty well after painting. 

 

 

And here's the beast with the main painting complete and masks finally removed. 

 

 

Here's a shot of the underside with the nose in place. Note that the spinner and prop are just positioned for the photo and are not attached yet. 

 

 

 

One of the ambiguous areas on this scheme is the underside of the stabilizers and elevators. The Revell instructions show NMF with black stripes and the Barracuda decal profile is silent on the subject. I've seen other projects with green and white stripes. However, I think the available photos look dark under the stabilizers and I see no evidence of a white stripe. So there it is. 

 

 

Here's another view of the nose and air intake dressed up in checkers. 

 

 

One of the interesting items I uncovered was that the red stripe is painted over the white invasion stripe on the rear of the wing fairing. I thought that was strange but the photo clearly shows that the red strip extends to the end of the fairing. I would have thought they'd paint over the red stripe when slapping on the invasion stripes. Maybe they painted the white around the stripe. Dunno. 

 

 

Here's a section of the photo showing the stripe arrangement. I found this photo on the web but don't remember the source.  

 

 

The other item this photo shows is the thickness of the red stripe behind the nose checkers. Based on the photo I thought it looked to be about 1.5" wide in actuality when you compare with the other nearby features. See below. The checkers are 6"x6". 

 

By the way, I masked the engine area underneath the covers with saran wrap. I know from experience that you can quickly trash the work on the engine area and framing during the painting process without being careful. 

 

I clearly still have some clean up work to do... 

 

 

Another couple of fun views. 

 

 

 

 

I really enjoy hitting the "main painting complete" milestone. It really starts to breath life into the model. 

 

After some minor clean up, it will on to a gloss coat and decals, another fun milestone. 

 

As always, thanks for looking!  Comments and critiques are always welcome. 

 

 

Edited May 29, 2022 by Hoss FL

[JayW]

55th FG colors are some of my favorite paint schemes for the P-51D.  You have really done yourself proud.  Am pleased you went with the darker British paint for the spinner and checkerboard pattern - I understand that is accurate.

[Scale32]

Absolutely stunning!

 

Nuff said!

 

Cheers Bevan