Here’s my most recent project, Major Edward Giller’s “The Millie G” (44-14985). Major Giller had three confirmed kills, including an Me 262 over Munich on 9 April 1945. Giller also had six credited ground kills and two damaged. He flew one P-38 lightning and four different P-51 Mustangs, all named for his wife. This project depicts the first of his four Mustangs.
I used the Tamiya kit as the base and the following AM goodies for added detail:
- Barracuda instrument panel
- Eduard engine detail kit
- Barracuda cockpit upgrade kit
- Barracuda P-51D decals
- Barracuda P-51D cockpit stencils and placards
- Barracuda P-51D sidewalls
- Eduard wheels
- Eduard gun bay late
- Eduard exterior detail kit
The main paints used were Mr. Color lacquers. All of the main markings were painted except the stars and bars and tactical lettering, which were decals. The stencils from the Barracuda decals were used instead of the kit stencils.
The ailerons and elevators were glued in place. The rudder and flaps are movable and do a pretty good job of staying in place.
The Eduard gun bay doors is an excellent upgrade over the kit doors. The ammo belts are from the Tamiya kit.
The engine covers are all removable and fit reasonably well with Tamiya’s magnet system. The starboard panel just under the exhaust is a little fiddly.
The weathering was a combination of oils, airbrushed Tamiya acrylics (heavily thinned) used for local effects and with sponge chipping and spatter templates. Colored pencils and pastels were also used for various effects.
Mr. Color GX100 was used for gloss coats and GX114 for flat coats. Great stuff.
I used Mr. Color C330 RAF Dark Green for the fuselage.
And a slightly darker version for the nose checks and spinner green. The NMF paints are Mr. Color Super Metallics.
The checks on the nose were painted.
The drop tank fuel and pressure lines were created from 0.5mm wire. I kept the weathering on the drop tanks relatively light since often they were single use items. All of the fastener holes in the engine panel frames were drilled out.
Light colored oils were used on the NMF surfaces to depict varying amounts of oxidation on the panels.
Eduard’s engine upgrade contains PE hose clamps for all of the main hoses and piping in the engine. They are a pain to attach and paint but look pretty snappy when complete. Also, the edges of the gunsight glass were painted Tamiya clear green to simulate the look of the thick glass plate.
The aluminum paint on the wings was rendered with a combination of the Mr. Color Silver and light gray. Mr. Surfacer was used to fill the rivets and panel lines on the forward 40% of the wings.
Grime and wear was depicted using a combination of Tamiya acrylics, oil paints and colored pencils. Some wear is down to the primer and some is down to the base metal. The primer toward the back of the wing is ZCY and the primer toward the front is dark gray putty colored, based on the construction process.
The Eduard gun bay doors really add a lot compared to the kit doors.
The Eduard doors come with a hinge at the bottom of the door for gluing it permanently in place. I wanted to be able to remove them, so I made tabs similar to the kit doors and glued them onto the Eduard doors. I also added a support rod made out of 0.3mm wire.
I really like the iconic 343 FS, 55th FG markings.
Chipping around the panels and doors was done with acrylic paints and colored pencils.
The cockpit detail from the Barracuda kit is quite good. One note was that I changed the wiring from the radio box behind the pilot seat because the cable harness would interfere with the canopy support bracket. So I converted to a strand of speaker wire and painted it black.
Thanks for following along! Comments and critiques are more than welcome.
Thanks again.
