Super detailing Guillow's P-51D Mustang

Wurger,

Thank you. I take it to mean you also approve the outlines of the right side wall?

Yes I do. It looks good.

Thank you! I'll proceed from here onward with the right side panel wall.

I have sent you a PM here too. Please check on that.

Great work so far!

Continuing with the making of the bag, I started off with the easy part of simply grabbing some cloth laying around my home, in which the fabric was thin enough for the size and scale. In this case, it turned out to be a scarf or bandanna with an unusual split camouflage pattern. I then picked out the color closest to the color of the bag. I suppose I could spray paint the bag with a tan or light brown color that might be closer to the tone of the full sized bag, but in this case, I was concerned that the paint would stiffen or exaggerate the fabric out of scale. The fabric was then cut to a suitably sized piece to take into account for wrapping it around the back. Then the whole was glued using super glue.

Oops, I meant to describe the pattern of the cloth as "splinter" instead of split. I kept trying to figure out the correct nomenclature & I believe that is the proper description.

The next step was the zipper bordered with what appears to be leather borders on either side. For the zipper, I was fortunate to find a small metallic brass colored tie wrap left over from one of many clothes my wife buys...... Hmmm

The wire inside the wired tie wrap would act as the zipper itself with the flat sides to be used as supports for the leather borders.

Thin paper strips were cut.
Then painted dark brown.
Then the strips were cut to length and the top ends were beveled to suit the steeple-shaped top end of the bag and glued into place.

Oddly enough, for something so small and seemingly insignificant, the small pull-tag to the zipper required multiple steps.
I again search about the small work shed and found some small gauge wire.
As you can see, even at this small size, the wire was too big.
So I simply stripped off the insulation, exposing the bare wire and it was then approximately the (eyeballed) correct size.

I knew that working in the groundskeeper's shed would pay off. In this case, he has a very heavy vice which I availed myself to using it.
I placed a "T" pin into the jaws.
Using needle nosed pliers, I twisted the wire around the pin.
Then the finished product was sprayed using rattle can of brass color.

Finished bag.
The first picture shows me comparing the twisted wire to the bag for size prior to spray painting.
The last picture shows the finished bag temporarily placed on the left wall.
It is my intentions to complete many of the accessories first, then apply the stenciling to them prior to gluing all in place.

I finally got the laptop and the printer on speaking terms. Now the challenge is to see if I can produce some decals small enough and yet detailed enough to be included into the cockpit interior.

Thank you Wurger, sir. I'll be using much of the references you sent to me for the right side wall. I was very surprised to see some of the vertical supports were tapered from about the middle down to the floor area. Enclosed, you'll see the photo of the cockpit interior undergoing restoration.

Just received & copied the documents on the P-51 pilot's manual. Thank you, Wurger sir (again). It's much appreciated & definitely will be used.

Thank you too Gnomey, sir.

Good work so far!

Good evening one and all. I realize it's been almost a full month since my last post. I had to briefly review many of my previous posts in order to catch up where I left off. To summarize: regarding the cockpit interior; I completed the right side wall, but nothing of the accessories. The right side wall is bare but at least I have the framework to which I can start adding the accessories. I'll be posting photos of how I got to that stage in a moment.

The other events were that I managed to get the printer and laptop to speak to each other and I produced a couple samples of small stencils for the rudder and aileron trim wheels and I'll be posting these photos as well. I'm not too happy with the results and I'll need some feedback. This is also the reason why the right side wall is bare, as much of the accessories consist of radios, avionic equipment and data plates and they require much stenciling.

Finally, while I was fiddling around with the cockpit interior, I made good progress on the wheel well interiors. They are far from complete, but at least I'm making progress in this area. I also discovered that I will have to make some adjustments on my original plans of covering the lower wing from three separate panels; left, center, and right. Now my plans are for just two, left and right. I'll also be posting photos and descriptions of my builds here as well and my reasons for my adjustment. As always, all comments and suggestions are welcomed.

One thing I do take note; that is I was almost intimidated by Peter's build thread of his 1/15th scale P-51C Mustang, Lopes Hope in the Britmodeller (that's spelled with two "L's") forum as his skill level and use of photo-etched accessories are incredible. He has shown such detailed information and skill that I felt were almost unachievable to my own humble project until:...... (drum roll please), it was revealed that he obtained a nearly complete plastic kit of the whole airframe along with Peter having his own photo-etched company, which means he can pretty much have whatever he wishes in the customized photo-etched parts. In all honesty it was also revealed he paid 450 Euro for this "one-of" plastic airframe and he does have to do much cutting away of the original materials. So he did have work cut out for him and I applaud his on-going efforts as of this writing.

I made up a series of Mustang D-specific instruments out of colored paper stock that is easily purchased at local arts and craft stores. I also used black electrical tape painted white and cut into thin strips and finally dry transfer letters and numbers of various fonts and sizes. My reason for using black electrical tape is mostly due to it being very flexible when cut into thin strips which will allow me to stretch it around the circumference of any dial desired.

I wasn't too concerned about being exact in my black paper cut outs ad they will be reduced so small, that no one, not even myself, will notice.

I used my daughter's poster of the cockpit interior of Big Beautiful Doll as reference.

The photos speak for themselves (I hop;e) and as you can see from the last picture, I made a good variety of them. Among the instruments were stencils for the trim wheels of rudder, ailerons and elevator.

In the previous post, you can see the elevator trim wheel stenciling. I was probably making up the ailerons and rudder at the time of this picture. Now for some picture-taking. Since my printer is not capable of reducing my images to 1/15th scale, I took another route. I figured I would take a series of pictures of the stenciling to the rudder and aileron trim wheels at different distances and allow the distances determine the size of the stenciling.

The numbers on the white sheet of paper on the left side denotes the distance. In this case, I started out at 3 feet, then moved onto 6 feet and ending with 9 feet. As you can see, with each added distance the clarity of image diminishes. All this might help to explain the length of time that has passed since my last postings as there was a lot of fiddling around.