Super detailing Guillow's P-51D Mustang

Skyediamonds · Jul 9, 2020

Wurger,
Thank you sir. It is always a pleasure to hear from you. I sent a private email. Wishing you all the best.
Gary

Airframes · Jul 9, 2020

Nicely done and very effective Gary.

Skyediamonds · Jul 9, 2020

Airframes,
Thank you sir. I take that as a compliment of the highest order since I know you're aware of other Mustangs being super detailed. I'd like to think due to the uniqueness of my situation of Guillow's model made out of balsa as opposed to plastic. & combined with its scale of 1/15th makes it a bit more challenging. All this, plus my lack of access to photo etched parts & aftermarket items makes for my having to pursue a more difficult & imaginative route. Any ideas or suggestions will (always) be welcomed.
Gary

Gnomey · Jul 9, 2020

Lovely work so far!

Skyediamonds · Jul 9, 2020

Gnomey,
And a special Thank You too, sir. My next task will be most challenging & possibly end up throwing out unnecessary funds out the window in my attempts to find the right size for each stencil & data plate. But..... isn't that is what money is for?
Gary

Skyediamonds · Aug 2, 2020

Gentlemen,
I've managed to find a company (actually a one-man company) called Bedlam Creations that has agreed to convert all of my home made stencils into water slide decals. I'm told it would take him about two weeks or so. In the meantime, I thought I would bounce around the model and complete other projects while waiting for the decals. Of all the unfinished or unstarted projects, I thought I'd try my luck with the machine guns and the open bay to the right wing. I've started this build with the intentions of having the m/g bay open for display. I've progressed nicely up to a point. I'm now working on fabricating the machine guns from scratch and I'll be posting my builds. However, there's a part of the machine gun that I have no clue as to what its function. So I am of need to ask "what is this?" I've posted a picture. You can see a small silver-colored object attached to the right side just below the belt. I think its a solenoid to fire the guns. But I'm not sure.

Airframes · Aug 3, 2020

Yes, it's the firing solenoid switch.

Skyediamonds · Aug 3, 2020

Airframes:
Good morning & thank you, sir. I suspected as such, had to ask the experts on this site.
Gary

Skyediamonds · Aug 4, 2020

I've been working on some ideas on how to fabricate a .50 caliber bullet but could use some suggestions. It should be approximately 3/8" or slightly less than .1 cm long. Any ideas? I've enclosed a photo of some .50 cal. bullets I found on the Internet.

Skyediamonds · Aug 9, 2020

Good day to everyone. In this post, I'll be posting the fabrication of the machine guns followed immediately by the bullets.. Initially, I was going to post the bullets first, but I got to thinking that it would make more sense and logic to show the guns and then have the bullets to fit. In my previous post, I inquired if anyone had any ideas about fabricating a 1/15 scale bullet. My reasoning was to obtain any ideas while making the machine guns and then to incorporate those ideas when the time came to fabricate the bullets and ammo belts. In essence, to stay one step ahead; making one thing while coming up with ideas about how to segue into the next step without too much delay or experimentation. Unfortunately I had to do a bit of both as my postings of the bullets will reveal.

As always, any comments and suggestions are welcomed.

Gary

Skyediamonds · Aug 9, 2020

I'm going to jump slightly ahead of myself. The first picture shows me using a pair of tweezers about to install the first machine gun nearest to the wing root of the right wing. As you. can see in the first photo, there's a solenoid and what appears to be some sort of accessory attached to the forward end with a thick wire or tubing. I couldn't find any references that would explain what this accessory is or where the lead-on wire/tubing goes. So, I just used a bit of imagination combined with what photos I could find on the Internet and went in that direction. I've also enclosed the next b+w photo that closest represents what I'm talking about with regards to that accessory being attached to the forward portion of the solenoid. The next coup[e of photos represents a sampling of the many pictures I was reviewing on the Internet, including plastic kits to help give me a better idea of how to fabricate the machine guns within the bay. The last photo is the one I used the most as my main reference source for details.

Skyediamonds · Aug 10, 2020

These two photos were my primary source of information. I also used several others to supplement when added details or colors were needed to be verified. i quickly found out that even the "standard" .50 cal. machine gun, like cockpit interiors, also had slight variations such as the artist' concept seen here shows the barrels to be natural metal which closely resembles silver in color whereas other photos show the barrels to be overall black. even then, I could not make a determination as to whether this was glossy or flat black. So in this example as well as several others, I took artistic license and employed what I felt would be either a more accurate representation or at least more appealing to eye-candy..

Skyediamonds · Aug 10, 2020

Using what I felt was my "tried and proven" method of employing thin plastic over wood, the following photos pretty much are self-explanatory. If this method looks familiar, then you're correct. This is the same method used successfully on my previous Guillow's S.E.5 on the Vickers machine gun and radiator. I've found it both easier to use thin plastic to produce a smooth and consistently flat surface that is ready for painting, rather then going through the laborious task of sanding the wood smooth, filling in the grain, sanding the filler, checking for imperfections, then priming and sanding again. Even then with all that sanding, there's always a risk of over-sanding or sanding one end too much or not enough, the list is almost endless with potential mistakes.
The last photo shows me adding what appears to be a hatch of sorts.

Skyediamonds · Aug 10, 2020

Here, I used some spare pieces of wood to help orient the machine guns within the bay. You can see that I've added some extra strips of plastic on the bay floor.
The second photo shows my semi-assembled guns placed in the same order to help me get a 'feel" for how the overall look of the open bay will look and determine whether or not to add the solenoid, any extra detailing to the bay itself and extra wiring.

Note too, the staggered placement of the inner most gun compared to the other two.

Wurger · Aug 10, 2020

Gnomey · Aug 10, 2020

Excellent work so far!

Skyediamonds · Aug 25, 2020

Good evening everyone. Had to review my previous posts to see where I left off so I can keep the consistency of my builds and avoid confusion. As mentioned previously, I've been jumping around the Mustang build while waiting for the decals. Unfortunately, he has not come through. So I need to find another source for cockpit stenciling.

I last left off just installing the first of the three machine guns into the bay. I thought tonight it would be a good idea to show you how I arrived at this step.

The next series of posts may be somewhat too detailed for some of you. If this is the case, you may skip around or let me know & I can always abbreviate my postings. to suit. The reason why I thought this might be a good idea , would be to illustrate the (many)) steps needed just to achieve what might otherwise be perceived as a simple accessory requiring no more than a step or two and a dab of glue.

To begin: I'll be finishing off what was the start of fabricating the breech portion of the machine guns. This is the approach that I took with the use of simple household tools & bits of plastic, paper, brass & plastic tubing. I'll also (try) to minimize my texts and let the photos do most of the talking.

I'll start out with finishing off the machine gun bay area using the finished machine guns as a guide to help me place the remaining strips of plastic to the floor area, mask off the remaining area and then finish off with a light coat of zinc chromate green.

Skyediamonds · Aug 25, 2020

As you may recall from my previous postings, I had already glued plastic sides to the balsa core and painted them black. In. these steps, I did a little highlighting. I spray painted silver into its top & used it as a de facto cup to dip my brush. From there, I rubbed the brush over a paper towel several times until nearly dry. Then brushed over the edges of the breech to give some of the panels a bit of highlight. The last photo shows it did a fairly good job.

Skyediamonds · Aug 25, 2020

The last photo shows the gun breeches in the bay for alignment purposes and to ensure room for the next steps which involves adding accessories.

Super detailing Guillow's P-51D Mustang

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