As Murphy would have it. Finally got my prop assembled, was getting ready to start decal-ling, then the decals start to disintegrate right on the plane , this has never happened to me before.
First time for everything I suppose.
Now to hunt some new decals down.

More of the detail painting in the interior is done. Hasegawa would have you paint the entire inside in olive drab!

Picked up this beauty of a P-51 yesterday Excited to get some work started on it. It'll be an RAF bird, to do something a little different, with the Malcolm hood. First Mustang, first RAF plane, first camouflage paint scheme... Let's see how this goes!

Major assembly is complete. Now's the time for primer and filling.


I am quite disappointed by the ramjets. The moulds slipped so they have huge steps top and bottom, and the fit of the intakes can best be described as abominable


I'm going to need to do a lot of sanding and filling here.

Logan, let us know what you think of the kit. My Monogram P-51B/c turned out to be a re-boxing of the Pro-Modelers kit.

Jessica, ouch good luck with that

Well, after some time off for emergency surgery, I got back to the workbench (since the doctor won't let me back to work until Wednesday).

This is the reference picture I am going to use be using for my early Mustang. Altho it looks pretty beat up, it is in fact a brand new aircraft.
Mustangs were shipped over to Europe on anything big enough to carry them. They where wrapped in heavy oiled paper to protect them from the sea air. When the tape was removed to unwrap the planes in England, a lot of the camouflage paint came off with it. National insignia and unit markings where, of course, applied once the planes had arrived at their destinations.
The P-51B that I am doing is B6*R, the second plane in the photo, since it still has it's NAA canopy. I'll be using KitWorld P-51 markings for camouflaged aircraft for the Group and individual a/c numbers. The decal sheet also supplies numbers in yellow for the serial number.
Lastly, using B6*W as my guide, I tried to replicate the paint loss from the packing tape.
Now to finish decaling and then to Dullcote, and hopefully it will come out, looking okay.





Well, that's all for now

Later

Okay, I'm calling this one done. The kit went together very well. I didn't need any filler for it. The one problem with the kit is the lack of detail in the cockpit. I could have gotten an aftermarket resin set and some photo-etch for it, but I decided to go with the very nice pilot figure instead. The real downfall of the it is the canopy, the fit of which can only be described as atrocious.
I actually had to cut the canopy from the side windows and sand each piece to fit. Sad
All that being said, I'd build this kit again. For the price, it's a very nice kit. For a few bucks more, you can get a good Mustang from ICM and, of course, for a lot more bucks more you can get the Tamiya kit.

Bruce, that's a nice triumph over that ancient Revellogram beast which is nearly older than most of us here (it was first released in 1967, after all). It's no surprise that it doesn't meet current-day standards, but you've more than adequately proven that with a little "some modeling skills required" a definitely decent model can be achieved from it

Aw-shucks Twernt nothin' ma'm

Thank you Jessie

Later

Ok, both these 'stangs have been primed, basecoated in citadel black, and coated with Humbrol Metalcote Chrome Silver, and as you can see, it looks so much better when airbrushed.

Cheers Everybody!

Bruce,

Could you share your opinion on the KitsWorld decals? I don't have any experience using them, but I have bought a couple sets for projects down the road and would be interested in what people think of them.

Your Revellogram is looking pretty good for such an old bird.

Tamiya 1/48 F-51D

I managed to start. I took a chisel to the sidewalls in preparation for the Eduard photo etch and some scratch details, and I started working on the resin seat. I'll get some pics up as soon as I spray some paint on the interior.

Well, got a coat of primer on. (Sorry for the awful quality, I just had my cell phone for pictures. The kit actually has really nice surface detail, not that you could tell with this quality.)

Fried Mustang on a stick, anybody?

Paul, without a doubt, KitsWorld decals have been the best I've ever used. Opaque, they cover all camo schemes; tough, they will take a lot of handeling without coming apart. They snuggle right down into panel lines with just warm water, yet don't have an adverse reaction to the strongest decal solvents.

Nigel Franklin, the owner of KitsWorld is very approchable if you have a favorite subject and can't find the decals for it. He the B-17G "Times A' Wastin" for me.

As you can see, I'm a big fan

Later

Trying to mask off the white for my invasion stripes. This is my first time ever trying something like this, and so far I think it's working alright. Still have to mask off the fuselage and undersides, but I'm ready for a little break from the masking right now...

Nice progress, Logan. Looking forward to see the final result of the invasion stripes. Looks great so far.

After my mishap with the decal sheet, I manged to track one down from a Tamiya Kit, y marking plans changed a bit.

Lt Col John Meyer, 487th Sqn.

Here are some pictures of my completed P-51 with another one I completed last year, Korean War 2nd Sqn (Flying Cheetahs) South African Airforce.




Will post pics in the campaign gallery later.

Finally got my invasion stripes completed! My air compressor is being finicky, so I had to use rattle cans, but I still think they came out alright, just a few minor touchups that need made.

What do you guys think?

Looks much too neat

Jessica, I know! I saw a picture once from D-Day of some guys standing on the wing of a C-47 with mops to apply the invasion stripes and all I could think of was I bet they'd get gigged by a judge at an IPMS contest for uneven invasion stripes

Later

Hmm, maybe we'll just say that a really, really, really skilled painter did the stripes on this plane?

Heritage Models P51 built as Strega

I am new to the Aeroscale/Kitmaker forums and am joining the Mighty Mustang 75 Campaign build. My kit of choice is the Heritage Models Reno Air Racer, 1/32nd scale P51 VooDoo. The kit is resin, white metal and vacuform canopies. I plan to build it as Strega instead of VooDoo. This requires a few changes to the kit, but is fairly straight forward as the two aircraft are fairly close in real life. I am using the Draw Strega decals, after market gear and doors, Barracuda cast cockpit sidewalls (all highly modified), Eduard Interior stick on PE parts and placards for cockpit, CMK Remove before Flight Tags as well as lots of putty and filler. Here is the kit and parts intro. More to follow.

That one's going to be interesting!

Heritage Models P51 built as Strega
Here are some more out of the box pics and start of construction. Lots of flash. Notice no engraving of panel lines or rivets. Most Highly modified racers at Reno do a varying amount of filling of rivets to increase airspeed. Also, the panel lines are supplied as a kit decal to be applied over paint scheme.






Started in the cockpit as usual. Real aircraft has a stripped cockpit, but the Heritage model is fairly clean of detail. I added PE parts and parts from three resin after market cockpits.

Heritage Models P51 built as Strega

Continued progress on Strega.

Cockpit finished and installed (in progress and installed pics).
Fuselage closed up and wing installed. Large amounts of Squadron White Putty, sanding (and more sanding) and Tamiya Fine Surface Primer. More sanding. Base color next up.