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

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The only question is whether, or not, the wing inner skin is in bare aluminum or YZC. Everything else, including stringers (which you have not shown) is painted YZC

Fully painted:



Inner Skin bare metal. Note the painted stringers:

 
Thanks Andy. I think I'm going to try and pull off doing the bottom photo which will probably take up the duration of the GB and if I make a mess of it.....full YZC it is
 
OK...I haven't been totally inactive. I have managed a small step forward plus I've only got one upper wing to finish. This is going to sit under the closed canopy so close enough

 
I've been busy with the innards, almost at the weathering stage. Should have something to post shortly. I'm going to add some poorly made placards around the cockpit just to busy it up. Airscale has some cool stuff on their site so I thought I get some placard decals, two sets. It looks like I can get eight or so aircraft done

 
Instrument panel. I tried to scratch in that line around the flying instruments. Its visible to the eye but the camera isn't picking it up, maybe the angle. Quick question to Andy. I noticed in your build that you added the sidewalls to the fuselage instead of to the cockpit floor first. Its something that makes more sense. Any problems doing it this way?

 
No but I think I saved some. I anticipated that pinching the walls between the IP and seat bulkhead and gluing it to the floor might have resulted in a gap at the sidewalls. More important to have a clean seam there than where you can't see it so I went that route.
 
Thanks Andy and I agree. Unless the parts lock solidly into position there is always a chance gravity could take hold before the glue sets up. I'll do as you did. Innards now gloss coated for weathering.
 
A bit late in the game now but while I was searching for photos to see how much of the wooden floor was painted black, I came across this caption for a photo of the cockpit in the Squadron "P-51 In Action" book, "....the cockpit, was painted in a North American Aviation version of Chromate Green...." I've never heard of this version
 
The Chromate Green is another name of a mixture of yellow zinc chromate and black. In other words, green zinc chromate or just the cockpit green/interior green. As memo serves the all wood floor areas were to be covered in black non-skid surfacer while all metal areas on the floor were left bare metal.
 
I knew it was a greeny colour but I thought maybe NAA has their own version like the darker Bell Interior Green. Anyhoo....as I was searching for a woody colour to show wear on the floor I found a bottle of "I forgot I even purchased this" Mr Hobby U.S. Interior Green. I wanted to see how close it was to my Tamiya mix....


....pretty gosh darned close. Straight up it was a bit on the yellow side but I knew that, with a gloss coat and then a flat coat it would darken a bit. Just finished some touch-ups and when dry I'll post a pick of the innards
 

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