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

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I had dabbled a little already on this one and then came across a potential issue. Some have elsewhere pointed out that Tamiya messed up on this kit by providing a cockpit floor contoured to the upper surface of the wing. Whereas this was correct for the P-51A, the flat, wooden floor was apparently introduced with the B model. Pictures I have would seem to verify this but I thought I'd check with you guys before committing to install a floor.

Minimal detailing be damned. I hate it if a kit is flat out wrong. Thoughts?
 
Yes, it should have the later floor. I said 'B*gg*r it!', and left it 'as is' on my Tamiya and ICM kits, as it can't really be seen that clearly anyway, and a bit of paint did the job of the floor.
EDIT: - I lied - I forgot I added a simple wooden floor, made form plastic sheet, to the ICM model, but just painted the Tamiya version.
 

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Having set aside the Lightning for a while, I turned my attention to this build. As mentioned above, I decided to add a wooden floor above the curved wing surface provided by Tamiya. The pic below shows the added floor painted black to represent the non-skid paint. Metal skid plated are also added, as are the fuel guages which are square bits of sheet styrene with the middles drilled out slightly to represent the gauges.

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I had bought some time ago an Eduard cockpit set for this kit. Here's the assembled instrument panel.

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The tub and cockpit area were then painted with a mix of Tamiya colours to represent Dull Dark Green and highlights brought out with a slightly lightened mix of the same paint. Here's the IP and seat installed and the basic colours finished.

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Viewed from the front, the seat is seen with the lightening holes drilled out.

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Here are the two sidewalls. Zinc Chromate is featured aft of the cockpit, though this will be barely visible. I didn't boter cleaning off the ejector pin marks for this reason.

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Should get some more done tomorrow and will post more then.
 
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Thanks guys.

I continued with the cockpit today and got the fuselage halves together. The radio was enhanced with some cables and the right side of the pit got a new oxygen hose made of guitar string. After getting the Eduard seat belts on, I installed the oil cooler, made sure that anything seen through the rear wheel well and air scoops got some paint, and then glued up the fuselage and clamped the pi$$ out of it.

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Thanks guys. So, I'm now contemplating filling in all the panel lines on the wings, except for the gun access panels, as these were puttied over and painted at the factory.
 

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