Hi all, some might know me from my odd post here, more likely from the Early Aviation section. So I was tempted away from the beloved Linen and wood for a while and here's the reason.

I meant to do more of a blog, show my mods and findings as I went but camera woes and other things scotched that plan.

The kit is beautiful, any critism I offer is meant constructively some points though I do think a little badly about considering the cost of the kit I thought a few options would be inclusive, one for instance being the flaps, couldnt Tamiya have included upper halfs for open and closed versions to save messing about with fillets? Little things like this surprised me. Another issue I found was the decal sheet, quite brittle and the images quite grainy.

I bought the Eduard Cockpit set for the dragon kit and modded parts to fit, Decals from Tamiya for a few of the panels etc might have been nice additions they missed.

Okay enuff griping heres some pics of my WIP effort so far.





In the cockpit I rudder cables, springs et, all of which not visible here (will try to get some flash shots) I used Eduards instument panel, it looked far more credible than Tamiya's I used their seatbelt again better than Tamiya's and garnished with a few wiring additions and Airscale placard decals here and there. I made a few mods. added control rods for the throttle quadrant etc.



Life bites will post more later this afternoon.

Keith

Tuther half of my post.

I used the decal sheet from Kits-world, I have to say I'm well pleased with the results, their paint call out for the black wingstripes though I'm still not sure about, the pics I've seen of Daisy mae and other craft from the same unit seem not to have stripes. I suppose they came and went, not knowing much about such things I erred on the side of leave-em off. Easier to add than to remove theory.

She's very WIP. lots still to add, the tip of the spinner to spray red, lots of details and wear/weathering to do. I tried desperately to remove the seam on the rubber tyres, finding Enamel thinners actually dissolves the rubber?





Theres things I've spotted in these pics I need to address too. I decided to show the wheel doors up but bleeding down, apparently a common factor. I used the closed option doors and modded them a bit.
Unfortunately when fiddling with the windscreen I managed to crack it while painting, So it's either replacement or finding a suitably posed mechanic polishing the glass to hide it. Beautifully moulded and crystal clear but delicate.

The windscreen bubble cowlings and spinner are all just dryfitted as are the undercarriage leg doors, I will most likely buy after market wheels as Tamiya's are too stubborn to sand and lack a weighted option, Dragons tyres were weighted but fit like wellie boots on the rims or I would have pillaged them for this build.

Anyway, sorry for waffling.

Keith

WOW! What a great looking build there. I really enjoyed looking. Thanks again for posting. Russell

Great looking build

Thanks for the comments guys, much apprecated.

Incidentally the paints are mainly citadel their Malachite red is a nice match for the decal red,

Keith

I got wind that you were building Tamiya's P-51 in 32 scale and well , just had to come and have a peek .

Thumbs up my friend on this build so far ! Did you detail the engine ?



Terri

TY Terri.

No I started to then because I like Daisy Mae so much I would keep the panels on, I had thought of leaving one off the other side but what you can see is negligable.

The other reason was I don't know as much about Mustangs as I do Albatri.

K

Very nice build Keith

The P51 is one of my favourites outside of WWI of course

Mikael

Same here Mikael,

Though I have a fondness for many WW2 A/C and other genres but since discovering Early Aviation I seldom build much of anything else

Keith

PS just updating the DII blog

You may not build much else, Keith, but what you do build is wonderfully inspiring. Great modeling.