Hi all, wanted a relatively quick project before Christmas after my Lancaster build.

Was browsing through my hobby store and picked this Airfix North American P-51 Mustang of the shelf. It was only $12 AUD!


Here are the parts out of the box:

As usual started putting together and painting the cockpit. Kit came with a pilot figure.





Glued together fuselage pieces and wings once done. I was really impressed with the quality of the fit for a low end kit.


Masked off cockpit with some humbrol maskol before spray:


Airbrushed on tamiya XF-16 flat aluminum as the base coat. Ideally I would have liked to have used a tamiya TS spray but I wanted to get through the model economically, and I had a jar of XF-16 in my paint inventory. There difference is not very noticable:

As you might have noticed, I tried to cheat and go straight for the base coat without any primer. I felt inclined to try this because as much I like putting primer on it sometimes reduces the detail of the seam-lines. I will explain why this was kinda a bad idea later on.

Masked off top area and sprayed on some tamiya XF-1 flat black:


Started applying the decals. This went pretty smoothly (unlike usual):


I'll stop here for now. Thanks for following the build so far.

Dinuka,

Looking quite good so far through decaling. I do have to admit that I was somewhat surprised to see your build after paint being held by a 3rd hand that's an alligator clip. Sure hope that it didn't leave any "teeth" marks in the wing surface.
Joel

Hi Joel. Yes it was a bit of a rookie mistake I admit with the alligator clips. It did leave a very light mark, and on realizing this I decided it was more prudent to use a dampening material (actually I used unused sections of the decaling sheet) to protect the model surface. Unfortunately I learn best through mistakes

A good trick for those alligator clips is to wrap masking tape around their jaws. It stays in place, doesn't slip and prevents marks

That's a pretty neat tip Jessica. I'm gonna use it next time!

Hi guys, sorry its been a while since my last upload. I just wanted to finish the build by posting these two photos of the end result (still need to paint the propeller tips):




I am pretty happy with how it turned out. thanks for following this build.

wow! I also have my own North American P-51D Mustang, it can improve any collection, I should admit!

Dinuka,
Nicely done.
Joel