Crimea_River
Marshal
Hi all,
Thought I'd post this W.I.P. This is an old Monogram P-51D in 1/48 I bought on sale about 7 years ago that was sitting in my cupboard until about January this year. Although dimensionally accurate, this model had some issues - poor fit at wing roots, a lower removable, very thick engine cowl that covered a not very detailed engine and badly warped wings with very little dihedral. Lots of fixing to do! Plus, I decided on representing the earlier D model without the fin extension so some butchering was in order. So I figured, what the heck, let's butcher it all the way!
I decided to cut the flaps and lower them. This, along with a 3" finishing nail wedged up inside the wing halves,helped to remove the warp, although not completely:
I decided to practice some scratch building techniques on this guy so went wild on the wheel wells. I ground out the molded detail with my Dremel and replaced all the ribs with cut plastic card and added coolant and oil lines made of wire. Unfortunately, I ground out so much that the front edge of the port lower wing half disappered at the junction with the wheel well. Oops! It's replaced with plastic card and you can see it in the below photo:
The detail at the wing roots where the flaps meet it is pretty complicated. After research of many photos, I replicated this area with plastic card:
Here's the modified tail with the fin extension removed and the gaps filled. Rudder was also cut out and put into a turn position:
I didn't get progress photos of the cockpit but it's detailed using an Eduard coloured photetch set. Pictures later
Which brings us to the present. I've stopped detailing the wheel well for a bit and have started finish painting. I'll add all the hydraulics after the wheels are installed. Here's the paint scheme I'll be doing:
More to come as I make more progress.
Thought I'd post this W.I.P. This is an old Monogram P-51D in 1/48 I bought on sale about 7 years ago that was sitting in my cupboard until about January this year. Although dimensionally accurate, this model had some issues - poor fit at wing roots, a lower removable, very thick engine cowl that covered a not very detailed engine and badly warped wings with very little dihedral. Lots of fixing to do! Plus, I decided on representing the earlier D model without the fin extension so some butchering was in order. So I figured, what the heck, let's butcher it all the way!
I decided to cut the flaps and lower them. This, along with a 3" finishing nail wedged up inside the wing halves,helped to remove the warp, although not completely:
I decided to practice some scratch building techniques on this guy so went wild on the wheel wells. I ground out the molded detail with my Dremel and replaced all the ribs with cut plastic card and added coolant and oil lines made of wire. Unfortunately, I ground out so much that the front edge of the port lower wing half disappered at the junction with the wheel well. Oops! It's replaced with plastic card and you can see it in the below photo:
The detail at the wing roots where the flaps meet it is pretty complicated. After research of many photos, I replicated this area with plastic card:
Here's the modified tail with the fin extension removed and the gaps filled. Rudder was also cut out and put into a turn position:
I didn't get progress photos of the cockpit but it's detailed using an Eduard coloured photetch set. Pictures later
Which brings us to the present. I've stopped detailing the wheel well for a bit and have started finish painting. I'll add all the hydraulics after the wheels are installed. Here's the paint scheme I'll be doing:
More to come as I make more progress.
Looking good
