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

[rochie]

Yup, very nice Andy

 

[Airframes]

I agree, nicely done.

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks very much chaps. Forgot to mention that I also lightened that cowl panel near the exhaust except for that one small bit seen in the photo.

 

[Gnomey]

Great work so far Andy!

 

[Jeff Hunt]

Sweet stuff!

Jeff

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks Hugh, Jeff.

This weekend saw the decals go on and the start of the fiddley bits.

The Aeromaster decals performed satisfactorily, though the insignia ones were a bit thick and needed some coaxing into the panel lines. There were 2 versions of the "Lambie II" script, one with a shaded red behind the yellow and the other with a red outline. I chose the former as this most closely resembled my reference picture. Following the decal application, I sprayed over all of them and the rest of the model with Future mixed with a couple of drops of Tamiya Flat Base, just enough to take a bit of the gloss out. I'm happy that this turned out to my liking with the first application and it didn't noticeably impact the aluminum finish.

I especially liked the delicate stencil decals on the Aeromaster sheet. These turned out to blend in nicely to the background finish with no silvering.

Once the clear coat had cured, I installed the landing gear. The towing eyes were picked out in red and the tires were flattened with a file as evidenced by the dust that still can be seen on the tire!

After carefully checking my reference and confirming that the exhaust stub were not the shrouded type, I then set about drilling out the stubs. When that was done, the exhausts were then painted Alclad Steel and then misted with Tamiya Hull Red.

And that's how she sits today. Thanks for checking it out guys and for continued comments.

 

[Crimea_River]

So here's a question. If you look at the below pic, it looks like the landing light has been faired over. Anyone know if that's true and if this was common? The Tamiya kit has an indentation in the leading edge of the wing and the light is buried deep inside with no clear part to cover the area.

 

[Wurger]

I don't think the landing light of the kite was hidden or ovelaid with anything. It is the trick of light. The shape of the glass fairing of the landing light made the effect. The glass of the P-51B/C was , let't say, lopsided. I mean it was longer at the wing undersides and shorter at the wing top while the lamp was attached quite deeply into the wing. Here you are shots. In the first one you may notice the dark colour of the top part of the fairing and much lighter and longer one at the bottom part. Also two shots of the P-51B/C where you can see the light effect in. One is the origin copy I found via the net and the second one I edited with the option Gamma correction for revealing of details at the dark sources. The effct can be noticed in many pics of P-51B/C

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks very much Wojtek. As always, your input is thorough, accurate, and useful. I had mistakenly thought that the opening to the landing light was not glazed as I initially could not find the lens in the kit. I checked again and it is indeed there so I'll need to go ahead and glue that on. I agree it's the lighting that makes it look not clear.

 

[Wurger]

My pleasure.

 

[JKim]

Beautiful paint job... it's looking like a proper Mustang now!

 

[Totalize]

Great Input Wojtek.

Andy you are now really hauling A$$ on this build. She's looking great.

 

[Gnomey]

Looks great so far Andy!

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks all.

 

[Wayne Little]

Looks great Andy.

 

[fubar57]

Looking very nice. I like the effect on the exhaust. When I saw the part about red on the stacks I had flashbacks to several other model builds where the builders actually used just a red shade, no misting....awful. You nailed it.

Geo

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks Wayne, Geo. I learned over the years to not paint the exhaust stubs a rusty colour though I made the mistake of doing that in my early builds. At the moment, I'm studying the fuel connections for the 108gal drop tank so I can replicate that area. Though good pics of this area seem hard to come by for the P-51B, I think I have enough of it figured out. The only thing I'm uncertain about is whether both hoses attached to the wing just ahead of the pylon or if the pressurizing hose was connected further back. I'm voting the former.

 

[Catch22]

Awesome Andy, I'll have to remember your exhausts when I paint mine in the future.

 

[Donivanp]

Now that is just plane pretty work, real pretty. VERY VERY nice. I love to watch your build.

 

[Totalize]

Andy,

I agree on the connections for the 108 gallon tank. Both the fuel and pressure lines were connected through the front of the wing. I think the only difference in the set up of the -B and -D was that the drop tank shackles were Phenolic resin on the P-51B and were switched out to metal ones in the P-51D.