**** DONE: GB-49 1:48 XP-51 - Favourite A/C of WWII

[T Bolt]

Those are great shots Paul, thanks!
Much better than the ones I've found on the internet or the 35mm shots I took myself when I was there over 20 years ago. I'll give you a yell if I find I need anything else.

 

[N4521U]

I'll say they arrrrrrr!
ow you've got something to work with!!!
Go man go.

 

[T Bolt]

I got quite a bit done this weekend

First, The plastic of this kit is very soft and I bent the tail wheel strut when cleaning the tire up so I broke it off and replaced it with brass rod and turned the wheel a bit. Even if I had not bent the strut its better off reinforced like this. I don't think that strut could have taken the weight of the plane on it.

The radio shelves painted and ready to install. I should not have spent time painting what I believe if an oxygen tank (yellow object) as once it was installed it was imposable to see

The side wall details.
I was disappointed by the way these were broken down in multiple parts. The Accurate Miniatures version looks exactly the same but for some unknown reason ICM broke them down into 2 parts making the curved bottom rail serrate with no positive alignment to glue them together, only a 5mm dimension note in the plans. It males for an extremely week joint and came apart several times when trying to get the cockpit tub installed

The control panel.
This part was clear and I'm not sure if I like this. It was a lot of work painting around the instruments and I think it might have looked just as good or better if I had just painted it black, picked out the details in white and then put a drop of clear gloss on every Instrument face

A couple of shots of the finished cockpit tub once it was installed. The harness is made from wine bottle foil

Lastly, the cockpit glued up.

 

[Crimea_River]

Good stuff Glenn. It's a common issue with P51 tail wheels so you're not alone. I never could understand the point of clear instrument panels either but all looks good to me.

 

[fubar57]

Nice work on the innards Glenn

 

[Wurger]

 

[rochie]

Nice work Glenn

 

[Gnomey]

Nice work so far Glenn!

 

[Airframes]

Agree with Andy, and thanks for the heads-up re the cockpit side walls. I thought they looked tricky when i inspected my ICM kit.

 

[T Bolt]

Thanks guys. I'll be working on some modifications to the wing next

 

[Wayne Little]

Doing a good job there Glenn.

 

[Totalize]

Cool stuff Glenn. I Hope the canopy doesn't give you fits my Tamiaya p-51B did.

 

[T Bolt]

Its been a few weeks since I've updated this build and have been working on smoothing things out for the most part. The surface was not smooth enough foe a NMF so when I finished on the fuselage joints I ended up sanding down and polishing the entire surface. sorry for the picture quality but showing any detail on that white plastic was near imposable.

The very early Allison Mustangs has 2 .50 cal Browning's in the underside of the nose, but only the aery early XP-51's/Mustang I's had fairing bulges around these guns. The kit did not have the guns or the fairings so I had to make them up. The first pic is of the nose of the XP-51 in the EEA museum in Oshkosh. The second it the pieces of sprue rough cut for the fairings and the last pic is the fairings glued on. I still need to blend them into the nose some.

 

[Airframes]

Good stuff Glenn.
Fortunately, when I do mine as a RAF Mustang Mk.1,, it won't have the fairings, but I must remember to stagger the guns !

 

[Wurger]

 

[Crimea_River]

Good work there Glenn.

 

[Gnomey]

Good work so far Glenn!

 

[Wayne Little]

Nicely done Glenn.

 

[T Bolt]

I did some more work on the nose gun bulges, smoothing them in with some paste filler and re-shaping them some. I brushed on some gray to see how they looked and I think I'm there. Just a light sanding with 1000 grit.

I also started work on the wing gun bulges that are prominent on the XP_51's.. The first picture is the bird at Oshkosh and you can see the bulges very well. The inside and outside guns ports are positioned right at the edge of the wing wile the center one is offset lower.

I started my adding layer after layer of thick CA to build up the bulges.

I then filed the fronts flat, drilled them out and then spent a couple of hours with mu needle files shaping them. Here's what it looks like now after the second round of brushed gray paint and sanding (sorry, a bit out of focus). I think I'm almost there, maybe one more round of sanding to get rid of some scratches from all the filing.
I'll be glad when this is done and I can put the wings on the fuselage.

 

[rochie]

Great details and well executed Glenn