**** DONE: GB-43 1:48 P-51D - Aces' Aircraft of all Eras

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Much appreciated, bookmarked and finished up to page 15. Way too much detail for me but great references. Almost finished filling in the panel lines on half of the lower section.

001.JPG
According to the diagrams Wojtek posted, these small panels on either wing will not be puttied over?

002.JPG
 
Still plugging away at plugging the panel lines; bottom is done and tops to do.....tedious. Why is it that whenever I hold a piece of sandpaper within 5" of a panel line all detail is lost but to intentionally fill and sand the panel line flush is akin to removing barnacles from a battleship using a 4" scraper. Anyhoo......I was reading Brett Green's new Eduard P-51 build and he has painted the entire wheel well area yellow zinc chromate. I was to understand that only the rear part was this color and all else was an aluminum coating. Hoping to get on with the actual building tomorrow
 
Regarding the wheel bays .. it has been disscussed here and on other forums a lot of times. While the YZC colour for the entire bays seems to be be more suitable for the early P-51/51A and A-36 , the aluminium ( silver ) with the YZC iron seen as the rear wall of the bays should be for P-51B/C. The wheel bays of the P-51D had , let's say, more complex colour scheme. All parts of the wing structure ( ribs, formers , stringers etc... seem to be of the YZC ( green ) paint but the wing skin there was of the NMF with many small red inscriptions "ALCLAD" the surface. The bay doors were either of the whole silver NMF or often there was the YZC strip applied at the area only where the landing legs were covered with the doors. In the case the YZC was becoming of the dirty tone quickly. Just my opinion.
 
Good to know about the seat as I copied Andy's. I have found one colour period photo that shows a very small section of the seat that bears this out. So far I'm up to page 12 on the BM thread. I will be doing the wheel wells as post by Wojtek and the many other threads I've seen.....minus "the many small red inscriptions "ALCLAD"". Curious as to why Brett Green chose his route though
 
Geo, do you have a good printer? If you do you may print the Alclad strings as the decals on a clear decal sheet. Then cut thin strips and put between wing formers. Just keep in mind that the red strings could go under formers as well.
 
The 'document' in Post # 33 is an extract from a magazine article published in the late 1970's, with the 'Explanatory Notes' section being from the magazine, and the remainder the actual specification document.
Sorry, I should have explained this when posting, but was in a hurry, running around sorting things for my 'tour'.
 
Here's the post at BM with wheel well info:

Missouri Armada P-51D Mustang: documents and partial scratch from the Tamiya 1/48 kit

It seems possible the entire wheel well could be YZC.

"On all early to mid production P-51D's, the aluminum skins didn't typically require any coatings of zinc chromate on the interior-facing surfaces, and mostly were always left bare aluminum. It was felt that the Alclad coating of the aluminum was enough protection from corrosion as long as the Alclad finish was not compromised. It wasn't until very late production that it was mandated to treat all interior surfaces with zinc chromate - if I recall correctly, this being true of the P-51D-20-NT and later Dallas production, and not until the P-51D-30-NA in Inglewood production."

Note that some had bare aluminum on one side and painted on the other!
 
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