Yes! I had to keep reminding myself of that, the model is 1/48th scale. It's amazing that he would work on such details and have a lengthy debate on the merits of the added accessory or the accuracy of the detail. I'm sure he must have been using a lamp with built-in enlarging lens. Either that, or using a form of magnifying glasses. Either way, just the mere fact he was able to cram in all that detail into such a small cockpit is still astonishing. Use of toothpicks, tweezers, and similar such "surgical" instruments must have been the tools of trade here.
I'm still trying to pick up my mouth off the floor. I also learned a great deal about the Mustang itself. That is one of the benefits of modeling. It's one thing to learn about aircraft in general terms such as its historical significance and performance abilities, it's quite another to become intimate with its systems, designs, the specific locations of cockpit switches, the reasons for their locations, the updates of field modifications and so much more. I thought I knew a lot about Mustangs in the general sense, but here I learned how much I didn't know. All of these small and subtle variances have added tremendous insight into the inner workings of the Mustang.
It wasn't until last year (sounds like a long time ago, when it's really only last month), that I learned through this marvelous site, that the wings to the Mustang were puttied over to help maintain the smoothness needed for laminar airflow. Until then, I "assumed" that the Mustang's wings were just like all those of other aircraft. that the wings were made up of skeletal structures covered with stressed skin and riveted together with no use of putty. If paint was to be used, it was purely for camouflage, or unit markings.
I'll be working on the Guillow's model today and a bit ore tomorrow. I'm hoping to achieve more results that are worth posting. This model is for my daughter. She was quite adamant that I build it in the first place (I love all aircraft,, but the Mustangs were one of those planes that, if you've seen one, you've seen 'em all). Secondly, she insisted that I model it as Big Beautiful Doll. She even has a large poster of the cockpit to a BBD Mustang hanging on her wall to her home ( I believe it's a restoration of the original BBD, but the cockpit is absolutely gorgeous).
My own sense of modeling is, if I'm to build one, I might as well do the best I can with what abilities I have. Taking that path, I decided to take a stick-n-tissue model and infill the fuselage structure with balsa wood to give it more of a solid metal appearance. , Then cover the whole fuselage with a combination of chrome vinyl and a patented product called "Flite Metal." These products are similar to a very thin highly polished metallic surface "shelf paper" with a sticky backing. One only needs to cut with a pair of scissors the desired panel,, peel off the sticky backing, and then affix the panel to the desired location. I hope to have simulated rivets embedded to the covering first prior to sticking onto the model. This, along with modifications to the wing are what I hope to achieve a model worthy of setting standards to myself.
Flite Metal is advertised on RCSB modeling website (a site mainly for R/C sized models whose goals are to maintain scale fidelity and accuracy) and has a lot of adhesive backing. The chrome vinyl is very similar, but it will tend to bubble over the surface under heat -or more accurately, under warm temperatures.