Super detailing Guillow's P-51D Mustang

[Skyediamonds]

Night Fighter,

Thank you for sharing. That's an interesting approach to modeling. I bet your weather vane will definitely stand out proud.

Gnomey, thank you sir.

Wurger, I sent you an email.

 

[Wurger]

Answered.

 

[Skyediamonds]

Good evening gentlemen,
With all of experiments thus far completed as much as possible, it's time to move forward with the build. Even here, I proceed with caution and do a bit of trial before taking the next step. I had to review many of my previous postings so that I may continue in a linear fashion rather than hopping from one subject to another without any continuity. In this case, I will continue with the construction of the wheel wells, the underside of the wing and my "solutions." As I left my last post, I had the underside of the wing painted a flat black to allow for the ejector chutes along with adding strips of balsa to the undersides of the wing ribs to help mitigate the flat bottomed look that is standard with most Guillow's kits. Tonight, I'm going to focus on detailing of the wheel wells themselves. Because it's a wooden model, most likely what we take for granted in a plastic kit must be fabricated here. To begin, I've already had the "ceiling" of the wheel wells installed as we've seen in previous postings.

Now I shall add some of the detailing by comparing the wheel wells of both plastic models from scale model magazine as well as many photos that I personally took while burying my head inside the wheel well. I'm sure I must have looked rather strange to many people standing by, but one must do what one can in order to achieve their goals.

The pictures here may appear to be a recap of what was discussed previously. I'm actually adding the glossy paper cutout to the last rib within the wheel well. This will effectively give me a three-walled "room" that is shaped like a wheel well from which I shall add more and more bits of detail. At this point, the "walls" within the wheel well is smooth with no detailing.

 

[Skyediamonds]

After completing both wheel wells, I temporarily flipped the fuselage upside down and added the wings. I wanted to see where I stood in relation to the wheel wells, how much room, and factoring into the wing dihedrals which will influence how I can detail a faux main wing spar with all of the detailing that goes with it includng the plumbing.

 

[Skyediamonds]

From the pictures of the model and the undersides of the full sized P-51, the "ceiling" has reinforced stringers running the length of the wingspan. I started by added thin .060" X .015" plastic strips from Evergreen to the "ceiling" of the wheel well. They were all cut to the same length. I knew ahead of time that I would not be able to complete the entire wheel well sets unless the two wings were together and mounted to the fuselage. This would have to wait. However, I felt it is necessary at this stage to detail as much of the interior of the well as possible, knowing in advance that the underside of the wing will have been added and thus making access to the interior very difficult if not impossible.

Each strip was turned on its edge and super-glued into place.

The final step at this stage was to add green colored paint to simulate the zinc chromate of the real aircraft. I only had access to rattle cans of spray paint and therefore, I knew it would be difficult to cover all of the details when I add the faux interior ribs as they may get in the way of the spray and cast "shadows" of incomplete paint within the interior. This also means that I would have to spray additional paint into those areas risking the chance of too much paint running down the sides and losing detail.

 

[Skyediamonds]

Just prior to adding the details, I made up my mind to affix the landing gear in a manner such that it would minimize any interference with the wheel well detailing, preserve the top-most portion of the landing gear itself, and finally retain some meaure of securely mounting it to the wing frame.

As the picture illustrates, the landing gear wire is bent at 90 degrees to the vertical strut. I carefully glued in place behind the last faux rib a solid hard balsa block to which the short portion of the wire will be glued in place.

 

[Skyediamonds]

In these photos of the real Mustang, you can easily see how the interior walls or faux ribs will look. If the photos appear as if I took pictures of them from a screen, you're correct. They were posted on another site with my permission, as they are all from my own collection. I could've gone through the facility and retrieve the original negatives and reproduce the pictures, but that would have entailed a twenty five mile rount trip, converting of b+w negatives into digital format and then uploading the results into my laptop to be stored in my folder.....

As you can easily see, the stringers are very prominent under the ceiling of the wheel well; which should explain why I glued the thin plastic strips on edge.

 

[Skyediamonds]

Next, comes the templates for the faux ribs within the interior. I used that word in underline on purpose because the faux ribs will be made from a thicker plastic to reflect the thickness of the real rib and had quite a good time cutting and recutting them to fit not only within the curvature of the wheel well, which changes as the wheel well extends to the tip of the wing, but also depth and of course cutting clearances for reinforced stringers.

The second picture shows I had many trials and different fittings before getting each one to fit correctly and within tolerance. They will eventually be "hollowed out" as on the real articles, but the top of the ribs are all tightly fitted around the stringers and therefore I kept to this tolerance.

One can also see from the two pictures why I decided to first paint the "ceiling" to avoid having the faux ribs block the spray from hitting other areas that should be painted.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Airframes]

Nice work.
One point though - on wartime P-51s, the wheel bays, and insides of the gear doors, were normally clear- lacquered alloy, with only the rear wall (the main spar) in ZC.
Currently restored / airworthy P-51s often have the wells and doors painted or in ZC.

 

[Skyediamonds]

Airframes:
Thank you! I never knew that. Although my overall intent is to finish the model as if the Mustang is highly polished & in restored or pristine condition, I still would've liked to have presented it "frozen in time" as if it was just rolled out the factory in its original production & therefore, I would've only painted the main spar in ZC. It is still my desire to follow your suggestions about the wings being puttied over & painted silver, as opposed to those restored Mustangs where even the wings were left in their highly polished state. How the pilot's fly their highly polished planes without being blinded by the reflection of the sun, I'll never know.

I'd like to plumb the wheel well interior with wires & pipes in various natural metallic finishes & wire coatings in order that they stand out from being blended from within. I doubt I'll have the patience to follow exactly how each well is plumbed as the real Mustang as many plastic models already have that feature molded in, an advantage they have over me. Still, I'm going to try to get as close as reasonably as possible.

Does anyone have photos of the well interiors? I have a few from those I personally took, but about 35 years ago when taking those pictures, never in my wildest dreams would I be doing this level of detail.

 

[Crimea_River]

Do a Google search of P-51 wheel wells and you will see plenty of pictures. Note also that the "ceiling" that you have added to your model is actually the outer skin on the real aircraft and would not be sitting on top of your balsa rib extensions.

 

[Skyediamonds]

Crimea,
Thank you. I'll do a search & see what I can find. I figured the "ceiling" to be the outer skin on the real aircraft. That's why I lined the inner curvature of the balsa strips that were used to preserve the airfoil shape with glossy paper & maintained that curvature. What is being seen with the glossy paper, is the interior of the wheel well & the balsa strips are outside. It will be sort of like a double skin, where I will cover the outer "skin" with laminate of paper & Flite Metal. I decided on this small discrepancy in lieu of using only a thin skin for both the top surface of the wing and the ceiling of the wheel well in order to maintiain strength of the model. I probably could've used fiber glass or some hardened materials, but I'm only working in a limited budget & with what materials I have at my disposal.

However, since all the strength of the wing is taken up with the strips of laminated balsa plus the main balsa spar is being used as well ( I'm covering it over with glossy paper decorating as if it was a real main spar), I've decided to use only a laminate of glossy paper & FM foil for the under surface of the skin. The challenge here is the wheel well cutout plus mating the interior faux ribs exactly to fit both top & bottom "skins" such that nothing is sticking out or the ribs being too short where the skin may have that "caved in" look & still preserve all the interior details with plumbing & more.

Thank you again! Any suggestions or comments will be certainly welcomed.

 

[Skyediamonds]

I'll try to take more pictures of the wing & interior / exterior wheel well areas as well as different parts of the center section to help give everyone a good perspective of what I'm trying to achieve & see if this helps. I can always use (& value) your opinions.

 

[Gnomey]

Lovely work so far!

 

[special ed]

Excellent craftsmanship.

 

[Skyediamonds]

Good evening gengtlemen,
Thank you Spl. Ed and Gnomey. Always a pleasure to hear from you and fellow members. I took a lot of pictures tonight and thought it best to try to convey as best as possible my ideas. I'm optimistic at this point and could use your opinions.

I'll start off with the wing panels themselves. Guillow's kits were basically designed for rubber power and later, for small glow engines. With that in mind, the whole airframe was to be built as light as possible using tissue for covering. As you know from my previous postings, my airframe is entirely different and now venturing into unknown territory.

The Guillow's P-51 wings do not have a main wing spar. The two separate left and right panels are basically held together by a combination of sitting under the fuselage saddle, the leading and trailing edges and with just 1/16" square strips of balsa to hold up the dihedral. Thus, I thought it best to show the plans for your review and the changes made to both compensate for the extra weight as well as doing away with full ribs in order to make room for the wheel well detailng.

The first picture reveals an overview of the wing plans
The second picture shows a close up of where the two wing panels are to be joined. Note, there is not provision for a main wing spar.
The third picture shows the completed wing panels placed where they're to be joined. As you can see, I've added a large wing spar to each panel. This will be used to help join the two panels together and compensate for the added weight as well as for the needed extra strength from cutting out the full ribs nearest to the wing root.
The fourth picture shows the method outlined on the plans for the two panels to be joined. I meant to say "1/16" square ..." Funny how that abbreviation from "sq" to "so" changes everything when I left out that little dash on the "O" but the meaning is there.

 

[Skyediamonds]

A quick review: As everyone knows, I've done some cutting away of the four full sized wing ribs to allow room for the wheel well detailing.
The thin strips of laminated balsa has done a pretty decent job of maintaining the top curvature of the airfoil to the wing
Next photo reveals the full sized Mustang's wheel well detail. I'm trying to mimic this detail in order that I can maintain both the curvature of the airfoil to top and bottom sides as well as allowing room for the wheel well detail in addition to holding everything together from a large cutout.
The third photo shows me holding both the top and bottom skins onto the wing. Nothing is glued yet. Nothing is cut out yet. I'm holding it only for the purpose of taking this picture to show the "before" shot.
The fourth photo shows the area to be cut out of the template
The fifth photo shows the same thing, but I've cut out a portion of the template to illustrate my attempts to replicate the detail of the wheel well on the full sized Mustang as shown in the second picture
The last photo shows me holding both top and bottom skins to the cutout template. Note here, the wheel well outline has not been cut out

 

[Skyediamonds]

Here's where things start to get "interesting."
Allow me to start with the top surface of the wing. As you can see, I'm only using the foil itself as a cover for illustrative purposes of this picture. It will be laminated to glossy paper while they're both sitting on the top surface of the wing. Just as the laminations of the strips of balsa is used to maintain the curvature of the airfoil, so too, in theory, the laminations of the two large sheets of paper and foil should also maintain this same airfoil shape.

The sacrifice here is that I give up some "headroom" within the wheel well by approximately 1/8" from the strips of balsa and the glossy paper lining the ceiling. I'm aware that realistically, it would be a "stretch" to believe that the landing gear and wheel will fit inside the wheel well, and I'm not even including all of the plumbing detail. However, the model is being built for display only with the gear permenantly down. So, I'm hoping people won't pay too close attention to this "slight" error. Equally, I'm hoping you guys won't tell..... :0)

 

[Skyediamonds]

The challenge:
I started out by tracing the full wheel well outline on notebook paper.
Next, I traced the outline onto a thick piece of glossy paper. Note here, I only traced a portion of that outline that fits to the wing panel. The rest of the wheel well outline goes into the wing that is under the fuselage.
Then I cut out the outline on the glossy paper to be used as another form of "template" to help me (us) see how this is coming together.
A photo of the glossy paper resting on top of the faux rib template that's been cut out illustrates how fragile the concept of where the skin has to connect to the faux rib supports as close as possible to the airfoil shape of the wing in order to maintain the outline of the wheel well.
Now flip the wing right side up. This is the correct orientation as everything is underneath.