1/18 Scale P-51B 3D Print Build

[JayW]

I took a shot at the blue with some Vellejo pastel blue colors, added in some Tamiya flat blue - and I got this:

 

 

 

No weathering or chipping yet, which will slightly alter the hue.  I suppose it could be a tad lighter, but the brightness is cut down a good bit which is what I wanted.  Comments?  

 

BTW - the Hamilton Standard decals are complements of Thunnus.  He took a scan of the Cripes A Mighty 1/32 scale decal set, scaled it up to 1/18, copied it onto clear decal sheet, made a white oval shaped mask of the correct size, and sent it all to  me a few days ago.  What a nice fellow.  Thanks John.   He did plenty more than that too - you will see.

 

I do not think I am not going to do the data stencil decals we commonly see on the prop roots.  I think the details are too small for a mask.  If I had good decals for them I guess I would.  But I do not.  I could make them and put the yellow lettering on a black background and print onto white decal paper.  I have done that before.  But the result is only marginally acceptable.  Besides - I see quite a few period pictures where the props no longer have the stenciling for whatever reason.    Including one of this particular aircraft in the EagleCals book, where it appears the stencils are missing.  

Edited November 11, 2023 by JayW

[geedubelyer]

Hi Jay, the painted prop and spinner look brilliant. 

Have you heard of 1manArmy?

I believe the owner might be called Sven (please correct me if I'm wrong someone.)

His company produces extremely fine stencil masks. I'm talking legible stencil data placards at 1/48th scale. 

I don't know if he produces custom work but it can't hurt to drop him a line can it?

https://www.1manarmy.be/contact

HTH,

Guy

Edited November 11, 2023 by geedubelyer

[easixpedro]

Jay, I like that blue. 
 

Also have recently switched to Vallejo paints. Cool thing is I’ve discovered they can be thinned even more with Alcohol. I actually use cheep vodka (my wife uses it to clean glass). Those big jugs are like $11, so you have a life time supply of paint thinner  They airbrush beautifully this way.

-Peter

[JayW]

On 11/11/2023 at 6:33 PM, easixpedro said:

Also have recently switched to Vallejo paints. Cool thing is I’ve discovered they can be thinned even more with Alcohol. I actually use cheep vodka (my wife uses it to clean glass). Those big jugs are like $11, so you have a life time supply of paint thinner  They airbrush beautifully this way.

-Peter

 

Oh yes.  The acrylics seem to readily accept alcohol as thinner.  However I have not tried cheap vodka!  91% stuff from Walgreens instead.  Which I also use for 3D print cleanup and wash.  

 

For those kind souls who looked at the last blue I came up with - this:

 

 

And thought "I think that is not quite right.", and didn't come out and say it - well you are too kind!  Thank you.  But I kept looking at it and told myself "I think that is not quite right."  Well it turns out there are some opinions out there on what might be more right, and quite a few agreed that good options are Tamiya flat medium blue XF-18, and Vallejo medium blue 70.963.  Wish I had seen that earlier.  So after a phone call to the LHS, I ran down and picked these two up, wasn't entirely happy with either, but mixing them about 50-50 and adding a bit of white, I got this:

 

 

And I think that comes much closer.  I am declaring victory.  So I am committed to this color now, and as you can see the prop spinner is painted with it, chipped, and weathered.  A couple more shots:

 

 

 

Looking at wartime pictures of this aircraft, it certainly looks as if it was "rode hard and put up wet".  So you see paint chipped off the spinner from pieces flying off his foe from an attack dead astern (done with the hairspray method) - something Preddy did alot of, the aft half of the spinner dirtier than the forward half (Flory wash) - something I see consistently in period pictures, and of course the paint wear on the aft face of each prop blade (also hairspray method).

 

So celebrate with me on the very first 100% complete sub-project on this very involved build. 

 

I am not sure what you will see next.  I might keep going with the blue which means skinning the rest of the engine cowls.  Or, more transparency work.  Soon. 

 

  

Edited November 13, 2023 by JayW

[JayW]

It's been a few weeks since I showed any progress on the engine cowl.  I decided to just skin the thing and be done with it.  For those unfamiliar, I use .005 inch thick aluminum sheet either soft (annealed) or hard (heat treated).  These are cut to shape and formed, and glued onto the model using contact cement.  I will forever be thankful to Peter Castle (Airscale) for teaching me this method. 

 

For the engine cowlings I have used mostly the soft stuff, because most of the cowl panels have compound curvature where much work is done to get the sheet to conform to shape. 

 

Here is one of the simpler panels being laid out on a piece of alum sheet.  From the outline on the tape, you might guess that it is one of the panels with the exhaust stack cutout:

 

   

 

You will see.  

 

Much more difficult were the uppermost panels, which had to take on that weird curvature just behind the prop spinner,  Here is one after burnishing it into submission:

 

 

I show it with the tools of the trade.  Airscale would approve!  And here is the same panel glued onto the 3D printed cowl:

 

 

It was a victory to get a smooth nose for that panel.  Less and less gray, more and more sparkling natural metal. 

 

Even more difficult were the wing fillet panels that mate up with the wing leading edge where it meets the fuselage.  Peter (Airscale), on his Lope's Hope P-51, resorted to just damning the torpedoes and jumping in and bashing on soft alum sheet to try and get a shape.  He succeeded after much effort.  I did the same thing.  First, an innocent looking piece of aluminum:

 

  

 

Placing it on the model and taping it down:

 

 

Then the fun begins.  I chose to make this part out of two pieces; one piece just was not going to take on such a severe shape.  Using balsa wood sticks and a small ballpeen hammer, the aluminum begins to reluctantly take on contour.  When you get a portion close, tape it down, and continue.  Tape and continue, tape and continue.  Until you get this:

 

 

 

Then glue it on:

 

 

Now for the bottom half.  Same process and you get this:

 

 

This part slightly overlaps the upper piece.  When glued on it gets a vigorous sanding job to try to hide the seam.  Take a look:

 

 

I am happy enough with that, believe me.  

 

While doing the right side part, disaster struck:

 

 

Here is what it is supposed to look like:

 

 

Yikes!  I broke off an important flange that defines part of the landing gear bay opening.  Panic ensued.  But after settling down and taking the dog for a walk (to think on this), I devised a plan and got it repaired with some plastic stock, CA glue, and P-38 bondo:

 

 

Now the skinning could continue.  Until it was done.  Some shots:

 

 

 

 

Needs some blue paint doesn't it?  Now - to not drop it.  Those little fillet fairing protrusions are fragile. 

 

I think this skinning job went pretty well.  It isn't perfect, but then neither were the actual aircraft.  I hope you all are happy with it as well.  More later.  And for those who celebrate it, Happy Thanks giving!!    

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 20, 2023 by JayW

[denders]

Happy Thanksgiving, Jay! Looks FABULOUS!

[JayW]

One more thing - take a look at this panel:

 

 

And the drawing:

 

 

That little door behind the exhaust stack cutout is a cover plate for what would have been an extendable/retractable scoop for a "carb hot air induction system" inlet.  It is on the LH side only.  Being right behind the exhaust stacks, I guess that is where the hot air came from.   This system made it on about 60 P-51C-1NT's and that was it.  It was discontinued.  But the cowl panel support structure behind it continued on for quite a while, including the opening for the scoop.  So, a simple plate was used to cover it up.  This silly configuration is effective on all P-51B-5 and -10 NA aircraft.  The -1's and the -15's didn't get it, nor did the -D models.  And Preddy's Cripes A Mighty had it:

 

  

 

You can just make it out.

 

Any of you Mustang experts have anything to add?  I am curious about this feature's history and why it was discontinued.   

Edited November 20, 2023 by JayW

[cmayer]

Jay -

Have you seen this site? https://ww2fighters.blogspot.com/2021/06/profile-153-twenty-years-laternorth.html

 

Artist John Mollison connected with Punchy Powell (428 FS/352 FG pilot of P-51B 42-106914, 'The West "ByGawd" Virginian') years ago while researching his Mustang for a color illustration. Long-story-short: he has a modern-day color photo of Punchy Powell holding a relic of his original Mustang, showing the actual shade of blue (the "early" 352 FG lighter shade of blue used on the noses of their P-51s) on a piece of the nose panel his crew chief rescued from his wrecked aircraft after he crash-landed it at Bodney, with an engine failure on take-off...Punchy got out of the airplane before the whole center section of the Mustang burned up...but the unscathed nose panel relic hung on Punchy's office wall for the next 70 years, out of direct sunlight, etc...and I would bet it's the most accurate reference for a 352nd P-51B nose "out there."

 

Just thought you would be interested in seeing it. I think your latest color mix is really, really close! The color on Punchy's relic might be a tad lighter and a tad yellower (which I guess would translate into a greener corner of the color wheel). But I'd use that photo to show how close your color really is...

 

Your prop and nose are looking fantastic. I really think you captured the look of those propeller blades by recreating the "twist" along the length of them so well; which allows you to place them at the high pitch-angle at the base, while the prop tips look closer to perpendicular to the thrust line. I would think the 3-D rendering and printing process makes that possible. Bravo.

 

Good Hunting!

[LSP_Kevin]

Just superb, Jay! Amazing craftsmanship.

 

Kev

[Antonio Argudo]

[Antonio Argudo]

 

I have this is a piece of fabric with blue paint from a Mustang, not from the 352th though

 

[JayW]

13 hours ago, cmayer said:

Have you seen this site? https://ww2fighters.blogspot.com/2021/06/profile-153-twenty-years-laternorth.html

 

I have not.  The picture of Punchy Powell with this fragment of engine cowl - I have seen it before.  Let's get it out in the open:

 

 

The blue color I came up with:

 

 

I agree that the photo with Punchy might represent that early blue color better than any other.  That said - he's a pretty old man in that shot, and paint fades.  It looks to me as if there might be primer underneath the blue.  I only say this because the more faded areas seem to be exposing a greenish color.  Whether or not that is the case, I wish I had seen this before I mixed up my last blue combination.  I think I would have added a drop or two of yellow.   Otherwise I am happy enough with it. 

 

"I really think you captured the look of those propeller blades by recreating the "twist" along the length of them so well; which allows you to place them at the high pitch-angle at the base, while the prop tips look closer to perpendicular to the thrust line. I would think the 3-D rendering and printing process makes that possible."  Says cmayer.   

 

Well the Tamiya prop blades look perfect to me and they are injection molded.  But yes - I was very very satisfied with the 3D printed prop blades.   They involved near zero creativity on my part.  So it wasn't so much "captured" as it was "recreated".  All I did was to research and find good engineering data on shape and pitch angle through the length of the prop, convert that data into a cad file, and then print it up with my handy-dandy 3D printer.  And like magic - four accurate P-51 prop blades.   That is actually what I am attempting to do with this entire project - no guesswork, or as little as possible.   Truth be told though - there wasn't very much data out there on the cuff.  A bit of educated guesswork there.... 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 20, 2023 by JayW

[wingman777]

This is way cool!!! Great job, keep going!!

[JayW]

With skinning of the engine cowls done, don't you know I could not resist continuing with the blue paint. 

 

My first task though was to airbrush on a coat of clear Tamiya X-22, which has worked pretty well for me on aluminum in the past.  Then, to paint the steel panels around and behind the exhaust stacks.  These panels always have a different darker hue to them, so I tried some Vallejo Metal Color Magnesio, which looked about right.  It was too, until it lifted off without the slightest provocation.  I mean - it was just ridiculous.  So it had to go - all I had to do was tape over it and lift the tape.  Presto - the paint came with it. 

 

So I substituted some Tamiya light gunmetal.  Not totally happy with the metallic look, but at least it doesn't lift up. 

 

And then - drum roll - the bluenoser blue.  First a test panel which went OK although there were signs of some fragility.  No problems laying it down.  But to my great dismay, the blue lifts up and chips very easily.  Not as much as the Metal Color Magnesio, but very fragile anyway.  Well all it has to do is survive the masking and painting of the nose art.  So I tried it this morning, and after a few hours I got this:

 

  

 

Weathering will make it look the part more, and I will do that in time.  The other side:

 

 

Thunnus made the Cripes A Mighty stencil and outline decal for me.  Thanks so much John!  What an adventure making that happen.  To do that without any appreciable paint lifting was a minor miracle.  Thankfully John's stencil was not very tacky, and the Vallejo blue stayed on the surface (if just barely).  Had it not, I would have been faced with removing all that blue and converting to Tamiya.  

 

More:

 

 

 

 

Maybe I should just quit now.  Or, get the exhaust stacks on there, weather it, and stop.  This project as much as any other gives me great anxiety.  Great satisfaction, but with it great anxiety.  I worry I will ruin it.  And already I have come close a couple times.    

 

Now to just leave it alone and move on to other exciting things.  

 

Again - Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate it!  

Edited November 21, 2023 by JayW

[geedubelyer]

 

Amazing!

 

Those masks worked a treat. Great job