**** DONE: 1/48 NA F-6B - Jet/Recon/Transport GB

[T Bolt]

Thanks guys

Looks good Glenn. Did you do the black with freehand spray or cover all the green with mask first!

Green first than masked for the black

 

[T Bolt]

Did the black acrylic wash tonight. Detail painting next.

 

[N4521U]

I just can't seem to push all that wash around on my colors. I freeze up with the brush in my hand....... one day I will bring myself to do it.

Nice work there.

 

[Wayne Little]

Nothin' wrong with that....

 

[Crimea_River]

I agree.

 

[fubar57]

Looking good Glenn, and I'm really, really really, happy to see the separate nose parts go together smoothly.

Geo

 

[Wurger]

 

[Vic Balshaw]

I just can't seem to push all that wash around on my colors. I freeze up with the brush in my hand....... one day I will bring myself to do it.

Tend to agree with you Bill, but I have a plan…………..

 

[Wayne Little]

I just can't seem to push all that wash around on my colors. I freeze up with the brush in my hand....... one day I will bring myself to do it.

Nice work there.

A good alternative is Pastels Bill...

 

[N4521U]

So you're gonna keep this Plan a secret?
Or just wait till it works or fails????

Maybe the nose art plane, an A-20, I'll try and Age... I dunno.

 

[T Bolt]

It's easy Bill, just a dab of acryl black in a pop bottle top thinned about 10 to 1 with alcohol. (no not the kind you drink)

 

[T Bolt]

It's been 2 or three weeks since I've worked on the F-6B and there's a good reason. I received a copy of Bert Kinzey's Detail Scale P-51 Mustang Part 1 and It clarified a few thing for me, one of which made me halt work on this project. The Allison engined Mustangs had a prominent carb intake on the top of the cowling. there were several designs to this intake and all but those on the very first Mustangs looked the same from the side but looked very different from the top. making identification very difficult from pictures. One style is narrow and has straight sides when viewed from above wile another is much wider with curved sides. What Bert Kinzey's book did was show me that I had the wrong model to make a F-6B. My kit was a F6A which was based on the P-51 or British Mustang Ia with the thin straight thin intake(picture 1), wile I needed the one based on the P-51A or Mustang II with the thicker curved intake.(picture 2)

Now that I knew I just couldn't let it go. I thought about modifying it but decided that would look like cr@p so I bit the bullet and went on eBay and found a reasonable P-51A which arrived today(picture 3). This has the added advantage of having the proper gun installation of 2 fifties so I don't have to cut off the cannons. Most but not all sources I've read say the F-6B version was unarmed, but I can leave the empty gun ports instead of trying to cover up where the cannons were. Also, now the shell ejector slots will be correct, another thing I was going to have to deal with.

So now I'll change the kit description in my first post and try to catch up to where I was before, which wasn't too far after all.

 

[Wayne Little]

Cool!

 

[Airframes]

Good catch there Glenn. I've spent ages trying to figure out which kits give the correct intake for the RAF versions - rather confusing at times!

 

[N4521U]

So there it is, the first thing I have learned today. I had no idea the intake was anything but straight!!!!

Thanks for that.

 

[T Bolt]

Good catch there Glenn. I've spent ages trying to figure out which kits give the correct intake for the RAF versions - rather confusing at times!

Here you go Terry, put together from my resent research:

ALLISON ENGINED MUSTANGS

NA-73X
One of a kind prototype. Short, narrow carb intake and variable radiator intake. no guns, but holes for two under nose guns and three in each wing. Looked pretty much like the early Mustang I's with the short carb intake.

XP-51 = Mustang I
Two Mustang I's from early in the RAF order were supplied to the USAAC as XP-51's. The early ones has a shorter carb intake which was later changer to the longer ones. They also had variable radiator intake and bulged fairings that the under nose guns came out of. Guns were two .50 cal under the nose and one .50 and two .30 in each wing. One XP-51 is on display at the Air Adventure Museum in Oshkosh Wisconsin.

P-51 = F-6A = Mustang Ia
Straight, narrow(when viewed from above) carb intake and variable radiator intake. Two 20mm cannon in each wing and no under nose guns.

A-36
No RAF version although one supplied to them for evaluation
Dive bomber version with dive breaks on upper and lower surfaces of wings. Carb intake wider with straight sides when viewed from above. Two .50 cal in each wing plus two .50's under the nose with out the bulged fairing. Fixed radiator intake, although of a different design than in the Merlin Mustangs.

P-51A = F-6B = Mustang II
Wide carb intake with curved sides when viewed from above as in the A-36. Fixed radiator intake also the same as The A-36. Two .50 cal guns in each wing. No under nose guns.

 

[Airframes]

Thanks Glenn. That clarifies things for the intakes.

 

[Wayne Little]

Good info Glenn!

 

[rochie]

i can here Glenn's Wife saying "you bought another model just 'cos one little bit is different and nobody is gonna notice anyway " !

 

[meatloaf109]

No, that's my wife you heard.