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P-51D 'Nooky-Booky IV'


ruzlkampf

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Now, just modifying the dihedral a few degrees threw off a lot of other things too like the wing root and where the front of the wing meets the fuse. But it took mercifully few swipes with a sanding stick to get everything lined back up with no huge putty chasms. Everything still fits tight, which is a beautiful thing considering this will be a NMF.

OK, put some styrene back into the wheel wells to give me a 'roof' to put some ribs back into place and busy those up again. Views from the top;

 

 

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Here's a view from where it counts. Spar is now in it's correct location, and the view forward has the appropriate emptiness towad the leading edge and it's ready for some ribbing to be going on in here. My inner gear doors are going to be up so I won't be going to town in that area, but this is a blank canvas for detailing further out where it'll be seen. (yeah, like most people notice....most everybody looks at my models for exactly 20 seconds and says....."oh, how nice" and rolls their eyes. :) ) Let's move on, eh?!

 

 

 

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Alright, it's time to zip the wing up before I run across any more land-mines I'll have to tap-dance around. When I put the upper 1/2's on the wing it 'scrinched-down' the styrene in the forward wheel-well and left it looking more finished. (looks like there's a huge air-gap in the pic above looking forward)

 

 

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Oh yeah, this was a perfect time to install the mg's. These all look different on the real-deal, with the center gun looking a lot like a 'nipple' (oh my), the outer gun had a sleeeve cuz it sticks out just a wee more, and the inner gun is staggered back enough to only have a blast-tube protruding. I tried to emulate this using the Dragon parts and some brass tube. Looks good enough from my house! Gotta go look at an old VW for restoration now, so I need to scram. Working on painting the cockpit/pilot and getting the fuse zipped up tonight, so I'll be back later with more updates. Got an SR-71 waiting for me to finish so I need to slam this one out pretty soon. Later, Russ

 

 

 

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Thanks Kevin, but the hard #'s and dihedral mod is due to Raphael......I'd have never caught it. :speak_cool: Speaking of not catching things,.....duuuuuh don't make yer spar as long as I did in the pics above! :beer4: Well, that is if you're going to put the 50.cal mg bays in the wing. I wasn't going to do it cuz I ain't got nuuuthin there, but at the last second decided they would strengthen the ammo doors above and glued them in. Gaaaaaah, I spent about 2 hours trying to figure out why my wings were 2mm too thick at the wing-roots. First thought it had to do with the dihedral mod somehow, but my test-fits went sweet. Finally had to carefully pry the wings apart at the flap seam and take a looksy. Yep, that spar was a smidgion too long. BLAST!

A mild bump in the road after all, but boy was I freaking for a bit! OK, got the pilot and cockpit painted up today in preparation of zipping this fuse up and adding the wing. Wanted to delve into seeing if the Dragon cockpit parts would slide over into this kit, but the spar fix sucked all the playtime I had for that experiment. Here's the pilot, pre-weathering, sitting in the fuse 1/2.

 

 

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And here's all the detail I'm putting into the insides. Very basic, but suits my style of build cuz the pilot hogs all the view anyway.

 

 

 

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Time to start mocking things up again. Oh yeah, that Dragon head-rest/armor-plate was about 1.5mm too tall. Didn't hit the canopy, but it was toooooo close. Can't see ANYthing in this cockpit from the pilots shoulders down. I drybrushed silver on all the IP dials and such, but phhhhtttt it won't be seen if a pilot is installed.

 

 

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Fuse taped up, and all parts trial fitted. I'm going to be knocking off the raised detail, and filling in where those longerons are. Still a lot easier than filling in what I've seen on the Dragon kit. This shouldn't take long at all with my glazing putty. Oh yeah, check out my aluminum tube exhausts. They're a mite too big in diameter,....but its the closest size I could find in my tubing stash. These are the same size as the PCM un-shrouded exhausts. I could still go either way, as the 'Nookster' here was photographed with both styles. I kinda like these for this build. :speak_cool:

 

 

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Closer look at them bazooka tubes. I really like how this pilot looks in this model, now I just need to vac a new canopy with that clear blister rear-view so I can see him better! Whoohoo!

 

 

 

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Different angle of the nose, cuz I'm STILL checking out the new cowl contours. Still not perfect, but it's close, real close.

 

 

 

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Alright, enough of the fuse pics. Because this is 'practice' Mustang for me, (almost every one I've ever built was a severely modified Reno air racer) I'm having a hard time getting my visuals down for a 'late war' stock look. I just like this angle, looks like a P-51 to these tired old eyes! :speak_cool:

 

 

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Don't have too many pics of what I'm doing on the wings tonight. I'm in-process of adding ribs to the gear wells, and detailing the legs up a bit more with tow-hooks and such. Got the wheels painted and everything mocked up for a looksy. Going to be doing the final filling around the edges and flap area tonight for installation. Getting real close to putting this all together!

 

 

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Whoopee, I think I'm on about day-5 for this build.....and it was a momentuous occasion to get it taped up and on it's gear! Looking kinda crude right now, but this kit has a lot of potential. I'm having a lot of fun with it so far.....but I'm trembling at having to deal with a NMF. Something tells me that's going to be an eye-opener for sure! :speak_cool:

 

 

 

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This particular AC had the tail-warning radar on the vertical fin, so I'm hunting for some really fine wire or sumthin to make that up with. Finally got most of my putty job primered up, so at least it's only down to about 2-3 different colors now! heh heh.

 

 

 

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Last pic of this update. Think the dihedral is looking OK now? Hope so, cuz I'm not chopping into that wing anymore! :beer4: Time to take everything back apart and start gluing stuff together. The elves are on strike right now, and clamoring for some peanut-butter and crackers before resuming work so I gotta go. I'm going to have to trade those onery 'n contrary critters in for some much more placid and technically savvy blue smurfs?! :speak_cool: More pics as things progress! Later, Russ

 

 

 

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Hi Russ!

 

What a beautiful look!

 

Perfect front cowl, dihedral, & love the exhaust detail! everything is ok from my window!

Pilot & cockpit painting job => enough realistic, contract perfectly fulfilled :speak_cool:

 

Can't wait to see it finished, great kit!

 

Raphael

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Looking great Russ! :beer4:

 

If you need/want any tips on foiling; either NMF or what I consider even easier.......kitchen foil, PM me and Id be happy to go over anything your curious about. :)

 

 

Keep the pics comin! :speak_cool:

 

Cheers,

Brian

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Hi Russ,

 

Great work as usual... :piliot:

 

One nitpicking comment though...I am certainly no P-51 expert, but thre lighting reflections on your reworked cowl show a strange "banana" curve that I did not feel existed on the real A/C...As if the front cam cover shape was prolonged too high and too far aft before sloping down to the cockpit, when I would have expected a flatter reflection line...It is fairly noticeable on the cowl aft of the exhaust stacks ...I hope my description is clear enough.

 

Any P-51 expert can tell whether it's just me (most likely) or there is still a bit of scraping for Russ to do ?

 

Hubert.

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Go Russ go...sure looks like a "Stang to me. Not sure if your elves are covered with health insurance or not but just mention to them how you dealt with some plastic battleships this past summer and remind them of how tough the ecomony is right now. With Christmas behind us they'd have a hard time finding another gig. As usual, you're making this a fun and interesting build to watch.

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Elvis is waiting patiently for an elf to fall off the workbench...

 

I like the wheel well work, it really improves the look.

 

Are you the one who snagged the last set of True Details wheels at Sprue Bros??? <_<

 

Go Russ, go!

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