The part of this build that made me nervous is no longer an issue. The Aires gear bay, designed for a completely different wing profile, now fits the laminar flow wing, wasn't easy, with resin and plastic being paper thin in places. This is how a dry fit test looks like:

Florin,
Outstanding adaption of the Aires wheel wells. I'm sure it was no easy task.
Joel

Had to pull it through, the alternative would have been to scratch build the whole bay, not impossible, but time consuming. One thing is sure, it's a cakewalk from now on.

Correcting a minor inaccuracy - the landing flaps, being too narrow, outboard by 2 millimeters and inboard by 3mm were removed and will be replaced:

Perfect fit, the transplant is a success! This is how a Trumpeter windshield looks when fitted to the Revell fuselage.



A while back I manged to swap my very last 1:48th kits (working only large scale now) for a Trumpeter Mustang. It's inaccurate as hell, but the windshield and main landing gear legs are better than their ancient counterparts. These parts were kept and will be used on the Revell kit, while the rest of the kit was unceremoniously disposed of.

Florin,
Nice conversion with the glass. It looks quite good.
Joel

Starting to look like a Mustang

A new pair of flaps was fabricated using flaps found in the spare parts box. The top half shall be engraved on the wing halves. The narrow ones represented in the kit were filled by using a strip of Evergreen.

Note that the outline shape of the wing overlaps the plans perfectly

Florin,
Those flaps are absolutely perfect in scale.
Joel

Many thanks for your constant companionship, Joel!

The landing flaps have received their rivet patterns:

Florin,
You're more then welcome.

Are you using the Archer rivets? Never used them myself, but I really need to.

Joel

Apparent rivet heads would be inaccurate, the patterns were done by using a riveting wheel, are recessed and temporarily filled with graphite so that they are more visible. Other than a panel on the belly (you will see that soon enough), the Mustang had a very clean surface, with flush rivets.

Florin,
I'm really impressed that you got the rivet lines that straight with a wheel.

Espeically the wings rivets and seams were filled then painted with Aluminum dope for the smoothest surface possible.
Joel

Need to close the fuselage. The Aires cockpit floor has bent like a banana, so a new one was made out of styrene. This is a test fit of the new layout:

These are the ribs that might be visible through the quarter panels.

Florin,
The cockpit floor looks quite nice. But those ribs are really well done.
Joel

Hi Florin,
Just found your build. (I've been out of the loop for a while)
She's looking really good.

I myself prefer the B to the D particularly if it has a Malcolm canopy, just looks sexier somehow.

I'll be following along.

Cheers


Chris

Hi Florin, that's a sweet build you've got going on. Your scratch building is first rate.

Thanks, guys, hope you enjoy this as much as I have fun building it!

Just like on the real aircraft, fitted with the "Malcolm" hood, a right-angled triangle was glued on top of the cockpit sides. One of its sides has 2.1 centimeters, while the other measures 0.5 millimeters.
This is important because it gives the correct angle for the guide rails on which the "Malcolm" hood slides.

The armored glass behind the windshield was replicated from clear plastic and thick aluminum foil.

Didn't the B and C models come without the wood floor. The floor was the wing. D models and up had wood floors. Dave

Check your references carefully, Dave! Only the Allison powered versions of the Mustang (P-51 P-51 A and the A-36) had the metal floor sections that were the top of the wings. The B, C, and D versions had wooden cockpit floors.

Yet another tiny update, this time it's the oxygen hose made from stretched sprue and sewing thread wrapped around it