Tamiya 1/48 P-51B Build

[dneid]

Hey, Guys,
I just started on Tamiya's 1/48 P-51B. Thought I would post my progress here.

My plan is to build this in the kit markings of Don Gentile. Always loved that plane.

As always, feedback is appreciated.

Dale

 

[meatloaf109]

I almost picked this one up today. You are doing a nice job!
Don Gentile's plane is a great one.

 

[Crimea_River]

Looking good Dale. I don't see anything wrong with what you've done so far. I picked up this kit at a swap in the summer and am looking forward to building it, though it won't be Gentille's rig. More likely will be used for NMF practice!

 

[vikingBerserker]

Off to a good start.

 

[dneid]

hey, Guys,
Thanks for the comments. I am not 100% happy with the cockpit. I found several sources for the various switches (e.g red, yellow, etc). There were some conflicts so I went with what looked good to me. Most of this will be hard to see once the fuse halves are mated. I did screw up in the initial airbrushing. I painted the interior of the wheel doors zinc chromate versus silver/aluminum. I think I will give the paint strip with Simply Green a try to get the zinc off before I reshoot with aluminum. More curious to try Simply Green than anything else. Yeah, maybe a concern with how a zinc chromate undercoat will impact the final color of the aluminum.
I can say the fit of the kit so far is damned nice. The only area I am worried about is the radiator inlet under the belly. Dry fit leads me to believe there may be a need to fill a sink in the mold, not a gap. Of course, I will let you all know. Hey, has anyone seen an idea about using acetone/Qtip to smooth out filler putty to blend it in real nice? If so, please let me know where to find it. I could swear I saw one, but I cannot find it now.
One last thing. I bought an Airfix 1/24th Mossie off ebay. It arrived this last Friday. Holy hell, what a kit!!! I sure hope it goes together as nicely as it seems after a box review. I just LOVE the Mossie and I am looking forward to that one. But, that one is about 6 down in the stack with a 1/48th Tamiya Mossie before it.
Later,
Dale

 

[dneid]

Looking good Dale. I don't see anything wrong with what you've done so far. I picked up this kit at a swap in the summer and am looking forward to building it, though it won't be Gentille's rig. More likely will be used for NMF practice!

Hey, Andy or Terry (still trying to get you all straight in my mind),
Let me know how the NMF works out and what you used and any techniques I need to know about. I am looking at the Tamiya P-51D in NMF. However, the last time I was deep into the hobby, the only NMF technique was using aluminum foil with a specail, thinned down rubber cement. What a pain in the ass. However, with patience (not my strongest suit) you could do a damned nice job. I did a 1/32 P-47N in that and it came out nice after weeks of glue, trim, paste, trim, tweak, repeat. I was looking into the Alclad line of stuff. However, my LHS did not have much in stock. Too bad, they were doing a 30% off sale until yesterday.
Look forward to seeing what you do with the kit and the NMF.
Dale

 

[fubar57]

Curious to here about the Simple Green as well Dale. We used to get this stuff by the bucket load in the last mine I worked at.(for doing the house work in the equipment.) Pit looks nice too.

Geo

 

[Wayne Little]

Tamiya P-51 is a nice fitting kit, done good so far Dale!

 

[Crimea_River]

It's Andy, Dale and I won't be tackling the NMF Mustang for a while yet. Here's the putty link you're after: http://www.centennialipms.org/FillingWithoutSanding.pdf

 

[Lucky13]

Looking good mate!

 

[Airframes]

Looking good so far - it's a nice, simple kit, built a couple myself, so there shouldn't be too many fit problems. Don't worry about any inaccuarcies in the cockpit, as not everything can be seen clearly once buttoned up, and anyway, the floor is wrong in the kit!
Somewhere here in the Modelling section there is a guide on NMF I wrote a few years back, which might give you some ideas. There are other ways of course, but see what you think. from what I remember, it's titled 'Bare metal made easy' or something similar.

 

[Wurger]

With all here.

 

[dneid]

Hey, All,
Happy New Year. I hope you and yours are safe and enjoyed the New Year.

Well, a quick update. I joined the fuse halves tonight. Fit was overall damned good. BUT, there is always a but, there is a distinct gap between the radiator outlet and the fuselage as shown in the 1st pict below:

I sat back and took a good look at the area and decided that with the tail wheel doors just right there filling the gap with putty may not be the best idea. I took some sheet and made a filler. Some initial sanding of the filler piece out of the plane got me close. I then placed the piece into the gap and glued it in place. Yes, there will be some tight sanding to be done, but I think this was easier than putty. Also, note the recessed area I mentioned in my previous post. Looks like that will take some putty and not a minor amount either. I'll know better tomorrow. See picture below:

Oh, I did figure out how to resize my images down. I think I am at 1024x768 now with low quality jpegs. Let me know if these come across ok for you guys.

Dale

 

[Wurger]

Looking good.

As far as these pictures are concerned. These look fine but the 1024 pixels in their width are still too much. Just 800 pixels are enough. And you don't need to set the low quality for JPG files. We suggest using the Irfanview program for that. With the soft it is very easy to re-size any picture and changing its file type. Also the soft changes the file size automatically when saving re-sized image keeping the best quality of it though.

 

[Crimea_River]

Looking good Dale. I think regardless of the presence of the tail wheel doors, puttying a gap like that without a secure backing would never work anyway. I would expect putty to break and fall into a gap that size.

 

[dneid]

Hey, Andy,
I agree with you on the size of the gap and putty. The plastic filler was the way to go. I have the filler installed and sanded, puttied up a few spots on the underside and have them just about done. I need to do a tad bit of smoothing and finalize the final buffing. I should be ready to install the wing assembly this weekend. Initial dry fit looks good. But, there is some torsion on the assembly that leverages the front of the assembly down a bit making for a worrisome issue with the front seam. The seam is tight when forced into place. I am just worried about the issue of strain on the joint over the longer term. I need to look more closely at the aft end of the wing/fuse joint area to see if I can find out what is causing the downward torsion. Any ideas or experience with this issue on this kit anyone?
Another question for all of you wise sages..... the radiator outlet "ceiling" was painted zinc chromate when I painted the cockpit parts. It is readily apparent that it is incorrect. My question is what color should it be? A significant amount of the "ceiling" extends past the radiator outlet door. I assume everything exposed to the exterior is the exterior color. Correct? If so, just how far into the radiator does the grey extend? Does this transition to zinc chromate or aluminum? Is my question even making sense?
Dale

 

[Crimea_River]

Your question does make sense and I recall dealing with this on my build about 8 years ago. Damned if I can remember the answer though and I'll need to look at my references and get back to you. Mind you, someone will probably beat me to it given my time zone.

 

[Airframes]

Those examples of the real thing I've seen, live and in photos, restored and WW2, appear to have the 'roof' in the exterior colour all the way in to the rear of the radiator, with the 'walls' and inside the retractable vent 'scoop' in either bare metal (clear laquered), or zinc chromate.
It's a couple of years since i built this kit (and the ICM version), so I honestly can't remember if there was a fit problem in the area described.

 

[dneid]

Hey, Guys,
Thanks for the input on the internal radiator question I posted. I am glad I made sense. It was a long day the day I posted the question. I found the cause of the wing joint torsion. Pretty easy to find and almost done with the fix. Pics posted below.
Pic 1 - this is a profile shot of the radiator/fuse gap with the plug installed and sanded down. I need to polish the sanding a little more, but it is difficult fit. I cannot get my finishing pad in there. So, maybe some toothpaste and a ton of patience.

Pic 2 - shows the underside with the limited puttying that was required. Additionally, I have highlighted the issue with the wing fit. The "lug" on the underside of the cockpit floor appears to be making contact with the main gear well. I have trimmed it down some with an xacto knife and the fit has improved. I need to dig my moto tool out of the garage and use it to finish reducing the interference.

That's it for now. I hope to make far more progress tomorrow.

Dale

 

[Wurger]