**** DONE: 1/48 P-51B "Lambie II" - Allied Manufactured Aircraft

[Crimea_River]

Don, Dave thanks.

Dave, I was placing my bets on that set up as well based on good close-up photos I saw of the arrangement on the -D. However, poorer quality pics of the -B setup seemed to indicate just one connection in front of the pylon so I did some digging and found the P-51B Illustrated Parts Manual on line. Here's a screen capture of what I found:

This drawing confirms that, indeed, the fuel line (78) and pressure line (79) were not together on the -B. The pressurizing line was slightly aft and inboard of the fuel line which was in front of the pylon. With that info, I proceeded with more confidence to install the tanks. First, I drilled holes to received the lines. In the pic below, you can also see that I drilled holes in the pylon arms to receive some jack screws which I made from stretched sprue.

Next, I drill two holes in the rear cap on the tanks, which had previously been painted with Alcad Aluminum with Magnesium straps. The lines are 0.4mm lead wire with bands of aluminum foil to represent the tube connectors.

The final series of pics show the complete installation. The lines are inserted in the pre-drilled holes and the jack screws are installed and painted. The final pic shows the guns drilled out and painted as well.

 

[rochie]

Magic, Andy, well done

 

[JKim]

Love the work on the wing tanks!

 

[fubar57]

Dayum, that looks awesome.

Geo

 

[Wurger]

 

[Gnomey]

Looks great so far Andy!

 

[le_steph40]

8)

 

[Wayne Little]

great work Andy!

 

[Catch22]

Beauty.

 

[Airframes]

Nice !

 

[Crimea_River]

Thank-you guys. Very close to finishing this now. Need to add the antenna wires (choice of one of at least 3 schemes, though the reference pic does reveal the one to go with), paint the nav and recognition lights, and then do some weathering. Then that should be it.

 

[Wayne Little]

always good to get down to the finish.

 

[Totalize]

Wonderful Progress Andy. The work on the tanks is excellent.

Are the tanks your using on this kit the impregnated paper type? I am going for such a tank on my P-47 but the Tamiya tanks are not accurate. They have these extra bands on the front and rear of the tank that are not present on the paper tanks. Perhaps Tamiya is modeling the steel ones? Resin versions of the the paper tanks are accurate AFAIK but I don't want to buy a set when I can try and modify the tamiya ones by removing the bands. Looks like the ends of the tanks had collars on them and they were glued inside the centre section then sealed with a tape around the joint.

Here's a reference pic.

 

[Crimea_River]

Hi Dave. I believe these 108 gallon tanks only came in one style but I could be wrong. I agree the Tamiya tanks have a bit more detail than on the original but I did not want to try to modify them and risk marring the surface for the silver coating.

I saw your thread briefly earlier today and was unable to respond as I was pressed for time. You had some excellent reference pics there confirming the pressurizing line connection location but they are gone now as it looks like you edited your post. Any chance to post again?

Moving on, I installed the radio antenna after confirming the correct arrangement from the parts manual for this s/n. The pics below show the sequence of the work. A piece of conical stretched sprue formed the insulator. The antenna wire (nylon invisible mending thread) was first CA-glued to the vertical stab then stretched over the insulator and secured with tape. After a dab of CA glue was applied, the tape was removed and the excess thread cut off.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Wayne Little]

same down here too...

 

[Totalize]

Hi Andy,

Yes. I had pulled my comments and pic's as I didn't want to make it look like I was being too nit picky given the great job you did on the drop tanks for your P-51B but here's the gist of what I said.

As I recall I commented that I believed the fuel and vent/pressure lines went into the front the wing because this is what my references show. As you can see from the diagrams and especially the pics the lines for the drop tanks go into the leading edge of the wing. The pics are of restorations and while some are not that accurate I would think that seeing it on more than one P-51B would more so legitimize the belief that the lines went into the leading edge of the wing. Also, the tanks shown are the metal type which I believe were in existence when the P51B came into production and these tanks had their connection lines in the front so it would make sense in my view that NAA would put the wing connections near them ie. near leading edge of the wing. The paper tanks I believe came into existence after the metal ones.

P-51B Restoration "Ina the Macon Belle"

P-51B Restoration "Impatient Virgin" P-51B-10NA

I saw your thread briefly earlier today and was unable to respond as I was pressed for time. You had some excellent reference pics there confirming the pressurizing line connection location but they are gone now as it looks like you edited your post. Any chance to post again?

Moving on, I installed the radio antenna after confirming the correct arrangement from the parts manual for this s/n. The pics below show the sequence of the work. A piece of conical stretched sprue formed the insulator. The antenna wire (nylon invisible mending thread) was first CA-glued to the vertical stab then stretched over the insulator and secured with tape. After a dab of CA glue was applied, the tape was removed and the excess thread cut off.

 

[Crimea_River]

Hey Dave, thanks for posting those again. I'm always on the lookout for good reference pics so will file these on my hard drive if it's OK with you. As to "nit-picking", there is no way I would take this the wrong way. Part of my enjoyment of this hobby is to investigate and replicate the correct technical workings of my subjects - within reason. If I did something wrong, I prefer being called out on it.

Now, as to the specifics of these connections, my thoughts are as follows: The manual reference that you provided above comes from the P-51B Pilot's instructions and does not show the pressurizing system for the auxillary tanks. In order to "push" fuel into the fuel system, air pressure from an engine-driven compressor is applied to the vapour space of the tanks via the pressurizing lines. In your pictures, the pressurizing line can be seen inboard, and slightly behind, the fuel line which is close to the leading edge and just outside the outer gun port. In contrast, pictures of the installation on the D model show the fuel line and pressurizing line entering the wing together:

This setup for the D model is confirmed via reference to the Erection and Maintenance manual which clearly shows these lines close together.

The bottom line is that the installation for the B is different than the D. Having now seen your pics though, it does look like my guess for positioning the pressurizing line was bit off. It should have been a bit more forward and inboard than I placed it but I'm satisfied with the decision to keep them apart.

Hope my response makes sense. Would appreciate you or anyone else offering a rebuttal if you think I'm off base.

 

[Totalize]

Great Pics Andy. Yes. The two lines on the -D were very close together not so in the -B. The picture you posted of the Drop tank on the P-51D is a very good one. I have a similar picture in my Mushroom book on the P-51D which I think is taken from Happy Jack's Go Buggy which is considered the most accurate to date of a restored P-51D. Your picture doesn't show it but there was also a glass break line near the end of the tank on the outboard side. It's amazing to me that just 30 years after the great war engineers were coming up with such cool ideas for releasing an aircraft drop tank while in flight in an efficient and safe manner by just using a glass tube. Simple yet very effective.

Here's a reference pic showing the glass break line on a P-51D.

 

[Crimea_River]

Yep. That would be this one: