this is my latest off the bench, Tamiya P-51D.
was supposed to come out as "Petie 3rd" but thanks to my WIFES cat (the single clumsiest animal ever) who decided to have a closer look at the decaling process and stepped into the water bowl spilling water all over the decals....so I had to use what I could salvage and some from the kit decals to make due.

anyway it has a verlindin wheel bay, and a black box cp with a true details seat (again thanks to the cat...)

That's one beautiful build! I really like the differentiation in the color shades on the various panels. It's something I've got to work on in the future.

What did you use for your BMF?

I see you cut the tail rudder. That's a very nice touch.

Hey Bender. That's one pretty bird you have there! She looks great! I have this kit, so I'd love to know how you went about doing the multi-toned silver paint job.
Congratulations on a great build! (IMHO)

Silver looks great. I have always had trouble with large sections of silver

Great looking P-51
It is going to be a really tough vote for February model of the month
Someday I am going to have to break down and try a metal finish on an aircraft. All you guys make it look so darn good

Great modeling,
Wayne

Bender,
That looks great! Cat or no cat, it is beautiful.
The wheel well looks really good!! How was its fit? After seeing the way it looks, I am tempted to get one for the mustang in my stash...AWESOME.
Leon

Nice job Bender. I really like the second pic. Good job on the natural metal. I saw a show on these beauties on the History channel. They showed some of the pilots buzzing the ground around ten feet off the deck, it was so cool. Once again, great job, Wingman out.

Bender,
Nice work, very good

Bender,
Nice work, very good

thanks guys. the finish is plain old household aluminum foil held in place with bare metal foil adheasive, and some work with a scotch brite pad(very gently) most of the panel shading was done with very thin tamiya smoke sprayed on a little at a time.

as for the wheel bays, the dont fit well at all, took a ton of sanding and thinning both top and bottom wing halves, you can easily see light thru both sides and they are very fragile, but the look is good, alot of work tho.

one other thing about the finish, after I was done with this ac, I played around with alclad II on an old kit, from reading BMF tips at swannys modleshttp://www.swannysmodels.com/index.html (go to tips page) I used some krylon spray paint decanted from the spray can and put directly into my airbrush w/ no thinning. used that for the primer. let it dry about 12 hours and shot on the alclad II bright alum. w/no thinning it looked great and was waaaaaaay easier, dont know why I was so scared of using this stuff its just so easy to get a great finish with. honestly its the best spraying paint I have ever used straight from the bottle, just use light coats and build up the finish!!
I have a p-38 on deck just begging for this alclad stuff.

Hi Bender,

If you put fuel in it, will it fly??? Sir, an exceptional finish--superior to what I have been able to achieve.

I'm currently building Tamiya's P-51B, Don Gentile's "Shangril La". Hope it turns out as good. I may even try your NMF technique.

One lil' nit-picky thing, for improved airfoil performance, North American primed the wings, painted them with aluminum paint, and polished them at the factory. There shouldn't be any structural panels or panel lines.

yep, you would be speaking of the laminar air flow wing, and I know all about it, just chose to not do it and go for the aluminum panel look.

only panel lines left on the wing would be for maintance of the guns, and loading of ammunition.

Excellent Job! Makes me want to get back into building planes.

An excellant job, I've been experimenting with aluminium foil and bare metal foil adhesive but couldn't illiminate the brush marks in the glue, which showed up in the finish. My hat off to you I too concluded that Alclad II, or SNJ, is the way to go. What shade of blue did you use? I have this kit and now with 2 blue noses posted here I feel like doing mine in the same scheme
Thanks for sharing
Mal

the blue shade is just MM dark blue, it looks really good just under straight future, but mine darkend with the pastel wash.....so you may want to experiment or use a oil based wash on the nose.

and yea, the brush marks are a pain to keep out of the foil finish

That's it! I'm building a Mustang! Man, it's a beautiful aircraft. If mine only turns out 1/10th as good, I'll be a happy modeler!

I might just join the Swedish Steel campaign and do a J26...

I have done a P-51 before, but it didn't come out as good as this one! Very nice. I like the way you used a different color metal to show the lifters and rudders and such.