Hey everybody
This is my latest project. It is Tamiyas P-51D Mustang in 1/48 scale. This has been the easiest kit I've put together so far and is also my first try at a metal finish. After the camo jobs I've been wrapped up in this was a nice change of pace. The hardest part I found about this particular kit was the messaging all the decals into place. The antenna broke off at some point during the build and I have yet to find it. Model Masters aluminum paint and metal sealer was used along with a tiny bit of Tamiya weathering kit (soot) around the exhausts and guns. Other than that this build is 100% OOB. Hope ya'll enjoy it as much as I did building it and as always feel free to point out what I need to work on.

Thanks,
Hermon

Looks good, only one question though. The inside of the wheel-well doors is green, I always thought, and have seen doors like this yellow, or zinc-chromate as they call it, when did they start using zinc-chromate on aircraft?

Nice build!!

Cheers!

Shain, the color I used in the wheel wells and doors is interrior green. This color was used on probably half of the American WWII planes that rolled off the production line. Other colors included the yellow you mentioned, a rusty (salmon) color, and natural metal.
Having said that, this is not the correct color for the P-51 as far as I know. Every color pic I have of the P-51D shows the wheel wells as natural metal or aluminium. I painted mine interrior green just to sort of break up all that shiny metal everywhere.....and just because it's my model and I can. :-)

Thanks for lookin'
VonCuda

Nice job Hermon!
Well done. You really nailed this P51.
You reckon Im building fast but youve done 3 great 1/48 builds and Ive done 3 1/2 1/72 builds with no cockpit detail etc so I reckon your actually building quicker than I am :-)
I saw a 1/48 Tempest on Ebay.I think it was Academy, that comes with the decals for Pierre Clostemans mount.That would be ideal to go with your Spit.
Talking of your first model,the difference between that and this P51 is amazing. I keep looking at my first Spit and thinking about building it again to compare the 2,but seeing as Ive got 4 Spits in my stash I think I'll hold out on that for a while.
Keep up the great work and keep enjoying yourself.
Looking forward to seeing more soon.
Nige

Thanks Nigel.
I was beginning to wonder if anyone would notice this one. I've already put it on the shelf and started a new Russian Yak in 1/48.
You really should consider jumping up to 48 scale. With your painting skills I'd say you could really turn out some beautiful planes.

Hermon

Hi Hermon.
A Yak eh?,,sounds interesting.
Ive often thought about doing something in 1/48,put space is at a premium at the moment so its 1/72 for now.
Im really pleased with the results Im getting now Ive got a double action airbrush.The 109 is my favourite paint job so far,and Ive got a couple of German fighters in my stash.One of which will be a real challenge.Its a 190 with a red underside with white stripes.Luckily (?),the white stripes are decals but its got a really interesting light mottle in 3 different colours which is going to be either a lot of fun or a great amount of grief.
Ive finally got a matt black finish Im happy with on my Mosquito and next stage is Klear and decals.Im still undecided about scratch building the radar ariels.Hopefully it'll be finished in time for MOM. Have you seen the standard of this months entries? WOW.Competition winners all of them in MHO.
Congratulations again on a fine Mustang!

Nice finish.....
wheel wells =silver....
rear spar= yellow chromate

I only know this due to a 6 month arguement at another site over it.....

Hello Herman!

Very nice finish on that mustang!! Loks lovely!

ìve one of those on the pile and i never decided to give it a blow, but seeing yours....

Great job. Very nice !!!

Thanks for the compliments guys!
I made a few mistakes on this project as mentioned above but it was alot of fun to build. The metal paint was something I sort of dreaded in the begining but now that I've figured it out (thanks to the advice from folks here) I'm looking forward to trying another metal finished plane real soon.

Hermon

Just a little sugestion, in your next metal finish project, try to use different shades of metalizers in some panels. You first paint the gral. metal finish, for ex. aluminium b. m., then you mask around some panels and apply another metal finish, maybe stainless steel b. m., and in the cowling the panels where the exhausts shows trough you can use burnt metal b. m.

I also use Model Master Metalizaers with very good results.

Hi Carlos
I actually had planned on using different shades of metal paint on some of the panels. I took the idea from Pixilaters P-47 that he showed a few weeks ago. The problem I ran into was that when I tried to mask those areas the tape began to pull up the aluminum paint from the surrounding surfaces. The tape I used was Tamiya and I've never had this problem with it before. This was even after 48 hours of cure time. I even tried to do it again after applying sealer but had the same problem.......so in the end I went with the one solid color of aluminium over the whole plane.
If you have any suggestions as for how to overcome the peeling paint I'd be glad to hear them.

Hey Carlos, have you checked out my Yak-1 thread? Any help on this paint scheme problem would be greatly appreciated. No one seems to have taken an interest in this question and I'd really like some advise on how to do winter white paint over a green and black camo scheme.

Thanks,
Hermon

Hi Hermon,

Nice bird! I haven't had the guts to try bare metal yet, yours looks good

On the subject of the wheel wells colour, I'll have to say I don't quite go with Dave's comments, I have some reference material (see sample below) that shows P-51s with both bare metal and interior green in the wheel wells, so I don't think the debate is done yet on that one. I would be bound to say that though, coz I did my P-51's w-wells int. green too :-)
Sorry Dave

Steve

Hi Hermon:

Next time try to mask around the panels with the Post It papers from 3M. I use them and work fine. They have a very low tack adhesive.
I´ll check your Yak 1 thread and see if I can help.

Hi Hermon!

Nice one! In a short time you have build a real Air Force! :-) The progress you make is amazing... can you still be considered a beginner? I like the mirror effect on the wings (second picture), very realistic! Did you use a gloss varnish or Future

Jean-Luc

Hey Hermon. Your mustang looks great! I agree that you can really see growth in your building. After a few more completed you should post a thread of all of your builds to showcase that growth

The only question I have, and I ask because I'm really not sure, should the decal areas be coated with a flat? Of course that would be a huge pain to do. By the way I do agree with the post-it notes, or another very low tack mask is parafilm-m. (let me know if you want a little parafilm to play with, I have a roll that will last me a lifetime and I would be glad to send you a little to play with - I love the stuff)

Anyway, again it looks great and is one you should be very proud of.
Leon

Hey Jean-Luc
I'm going to consider myself a beginner for as long as I can. That way I'll be able to make excuses for all the mistakes I make. :-)
The glossy mirror effect is basically by accident. Being my first metal finish I wasn't sure of how much sealer to use or if I had to use future as well, so I ended up going with the following. 2 coats of MM Sealer.....1 coat of future.....and then a final coat of MM Sealer. I know this probably isn't right but one benifit is that now you could almost shoot this plane with rifle and the bullet would bounce off. As far as building myself an airforce, I'm doing a Russian Yak-1 right. My goal at the end of this year is to have at least one plane from each airforce engaged in WWII.

Hey Leon
Thats not a bad idea about posting some transition pictures. I've learned loads of tips here from everybody and when I get a little better I'd like to start helping other newbies.
About the decal areas, I'm not sure if they should have recieved a flat coat. Actually, in my opinion this whole plane needed a flat coat but I was shy about doing it over so many coats of metal sealer and future. Wasn't sure what would happen. :-)
The plane looked ok all glossed up until I added the exhaust stains and cordite stains on the gun areas. Now the stains look a little out of place. It's almost as if some groundcrew man waxed the plane without taking the time to clean off the stains.

I don't really know what parafilm-m is. Is it something found in hobby stores? So far I've been using Tamiya tape and cooking paper sheets....the kind my wife uses to bake cookies on.

Anyways, you guys have NO IDEA how good it feels not only to finish a decent model but to have other people (IMHO professional modelers) say that your work looks great. All of you guys kind words are one of the reasons that beginners like myself stay with the hobby even after we run into a string of tough builds.

Thanks everybody.
Hermon

Hermon, The tamiya tape is excellent. Parafilm is just another method that someone turned me on to that I really like. Here is an article you can look at that explains it pretty well.

http://www.clubhyper.com/reference/usingparafilmda_1.htm

Again, if you would like a little to play with, I would be glad to send some your way. (It is the same someone did for me, so it is like passing on the favor to another...)

Leon

Hey Leon, great link!
Parafilm looks like the best thing to happen to modeling since liquid glue. I tried using scotch tape to mask canopys but found it leaves alot to be desired. Most often I just wait till the kids are in bed and everything is quiet and then break out the toothpicks and freehand the canopy frames. I can see from reading that artical that Parafilm is the way to go. Have you ever tried using it as a mask for camo schemes?
If you really want to part with some of the Parafilm you have I'd be more than greatful. I'll send you a PM with some info.

Thanks for the help
Hermon

Nice job on the plane

Wet strips of newspaper work very well. Even the so called low tack stuff will lift a metal finish sometimes.
Very nice job on the model.