Lovely work so far Andy!
GB-64 1/48 Mustang Mk.IV - One Trick Pony (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Crimea_River
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SaparotRob
Unter Gemeine Geschwader Murmeltier XIII
You guys know better at what's going on at this stage in a build but it's sure colorful.
- Thread starter
- #163
Crimea_River
Marshal
Thanks guys. Smoothed out the above seams but found another small blemish at the nose that needed attention. Primer applied once again and will need to fully cure before I can move ahead.
T Bolt
Colonel
Nice job on that yellow Andy
- Thread starter
- #165
Crimea_River
Marshal
Thanks Glenn.
Seams fixed, painted, then underside was all glossed for durability.
Seams fixed, painted, then underside was all glossed for durability.
fubar57
General
Nice
Vic Balshaw
Major General
You did a good job there Andy. 
- Thread starter
- #168
Crimea_River
Marshal
Thanks for the comments guys.
While the clear coat is curing, I tackled some fiddly bits - and fiddly they are. The bomb racks had been painted bare aluminum and the stencils applied. Next, I had to add the stabilizer bars which are provided as PE parts, like this:
The folding refers to the little circular pads which come attached as two discs daisy-chained to the main bar. Well, they don't fold but instead break off. After diddling around trying to fold and add them separately, a task made impossible by the fact that the CA glue stuck to everything but the parts I wanted to glue, I said F! it and went with slices of round styrene rods:
The PE bars still need to be bent toward the ordnance but I'll worry about that later.
Next, on the fiddly theme, this time self-imposed, I started tackling the air and fuel tubing on the drop tanks. This is the look I'm going for (pic posted in the "Missouri Armada" build on Britmodeler):
The larger line is the fuel line and the smaller one is the compressed air line. The latter in the case above originates near the wing leading edge which I understand was the case on later Mustangs. On earlier ones, the air line came out farther back, somewhere near the midpoint of the bomb rack whereas the fuel line was near the leading edge as shown above. I'll be replicating the above arrangement, though I have not verified if this was the case on my bird with s/n 44-11383. The reference pics on page one show a line or lines near the leading edge but I can't make out if there are one or two. Note the glass break-away tubes close to where the lines connect to the tank.
I decided to get cute here and try to replicate all the individual bits. A while ago, I took home a sleep test rig whose vinyl tubing was to be discarded before I returned the unit to the clinic. The modeler in me saw this as potentially useful stuff so I kept it. For now, I had the idea of trying to stretch it like sprue with candle heat. The stuff is very sensitive and broke easily so I ended up cutting about a foot of the stuff to get some useable lengths of very fine tube which I could use for the hose connections.
The glass tubes were made with stretched clear sprue which in the case of the bent fuel line was bent around a piece of rod while still hot to get the bend. Below you can see the assembled air line. The silver parts are 0.3mm lead wire, the black hoses are the stretched vinyl tube painted black with silver straps, and the glass tube is a short length of the stretched sprue.
For the fuel line, I'll use 0.4mm lead wire but I'll tackle that later as I can only handle a little bit of fiddly work at a time.
Another subassembly was the prop, which has now been completed and awaits a matte coat:
Thanks for taking a peek at my progress. Should get more done during the week.
While the clear coat is curing, I tackled some fiddly bits - and fiddly they are. The bomb racks had been painted bare aluminum and the stencils applied. Next, I had to add the stabilizer bars which are provided as PE parts, like this:
The folding refers to the little circular pads which come attached as two discs daisy-chained to the main bar. Well, they don't fold but instead break off. After diddling around trying to fold and add them separately, a task made impossible by the fact that the CA glue stuck to everything but the parts I wanted to glue, I said F! it and went with slices of round styrene rods:
The PE bars still need to be bent toward the ordnance but I'll worry about that later.
Next, on the fiddly theme, this time self-imposed, I started tackling the air and fuel tubing on the drop tanks. This is the look I'm going for (pic posted in the "Missouri Armada" build on Britmodeler):
The larger line is the fuel line and the smaller one is the compressed air line. The latter in the case above originates near the wing leading edge which I understand was the case on later Mustangs. On earlier ones, the air line came out farther back, somewhere near the midpoint of the bomb rack whereas the fuel line was near the leading edge as shown above. I'll be replicating the above arrangement, though I have not verified if this was the case on my bird with s/n 44-11383. The reference pics on page one show a line or lines near the leading edge but I can't make out if there are one or two. Note the glass break-away tubes close to where the lines connect to the tank.
I decided to get cute here and try to replicate all the individual bits. A while ago, I took home a sleep test rig whose vinyl tubing was to be discarded before I returned the unit to the clinic. The modeler in me saw this as potentially useful stuff so I kept it. For now, I had the idea of trying to stretch it like sprue with candle heat. The stuff is very sensitive and broke easily so I ended up cutting about a foot of the stuff to get some useable lengths of very fine tube which I could use for the hose connections.
The glass tubes were made with stretched clear sprue which in the case of the bent fuel line was bent around a piece of rod while still hot to get the bend. Below you can see the assembled air line. The silver parts are 0.3mm lead wire, the black hoses are the stretched vinyl tube painted black with silver straps, and the glass tube is a short length of the stretched sprue.
For the fuel line, I'll use 0.4mm lead wire but I'll tackle that later as I can only handle a little bit of fiddly work at a time.
Another subassembly was the prop, which has now been completed and awaits a matte coat:
Thanks for taking a peek at my progress. Should get more done during the week.
fubar57
General
Nice work on the fuel line. I've used Bic ink cartridges though not as clear and I haven't tried to bend them
- Thread starter
- #170
Crimea_River
Marshal
Thanks Geo. In this case it wouldn't matter as I'm using it for the rubber hose connections, not the break away glass.
Masking the model for upper camo as we speak.
Masking the model for upper camo as we speak.
Vic Balshaw
Major General
You've raised the bench marks on this one Andy, some very nice work and good instruction.
le_steph40
Chief Master Sergeant
SaparotRob
Unter Gemeine Geschwader Murmeltier XIII
That's great work Andy....
T Bolt
Colonel
Great looking detail on the tanks
- Thread starter
- #177
Crimea_River
Marshal
Thanks everyone. Spent most of the morning learning about the (to me) odd camouflage scheme of this bird and found some interesting reading here: 3 Sqn RAAF Mustang Mk.IVa's P6 - The 'Loop' scheme
The scheme is referred to in this article as the "loop" scheme and is, in theory, a repaint in the UK of the factory scheme using MAP colours rather than the US ANA Equivalents. Eduard's profiles below match very closely where we can see the camouflage demarcations in the photos on page 1 but I was more concerned about the wing uppers which are not visible. However the profile calls up US colours, rather than MAP.
I looked closely at the photos of other camouflaged 442 Squadron Mustangs and they all seem to carry this pattern and, where the wing uppers can be seen, the Eduard profile is generally consistent though there are minor variations. One thing Eduard did get wrong is that the yellow on the canopy framing did not extend above the sill, these appearing to be unpainted in the photo of Mallandaine in the cockpit on page 1.
With all this in mind, I'm now comfortable with going ahead with the scheme shown above.
The scheme is referred to in this article as the "loop" scheme and is, in theory, a repaint in the UK of the factory scheme using MAP colours rather than the US ANA Equivalents. Eduard's profiles below match very closely where we can see the camouflage demarcations in the photos on page 1 but I was more concerned about the wing uppers which are not visible. However the profile calls up US colours, rather than MAP.
I looked closely at the photos of other camouflaged 442 Squadron Mustangs and they all seem to carry this pattern and, where the wing uppers can be seen, the Eduard profile is generally consistent though there are minor variations. One thing Eduard did get wrong is that the yellow on the canopy framing did not extend above the sill, these appearing to be unpainted in the photo of Mallandaine in the cockpit on page 1.
With all this in mind, I'm now comfortable with going ahead with the scheme shown above.
Good work so far Andy!
