1/48 Meng P-51 D Mustang 352 FG John C. Meyer "Petie 2nd" (FINISHED)

Modeling Subjects Aircraft
1

A modern kit that does not require glue? I must admit I was skeptical when this one was announced. Then the reviews started coming in and they claimed it was not only good, but may be better than Tamiya’s 20 year old kit. Since I’m good for at least one Mustang (usually more) a year, I could no longer resist. I broke down and bought one. No glue? We’ll see about that. Aside from decals, some seatbelts and maybe wheels, I’ll be going right out of the box.

I’ve chosen a subject flown by one of my favorite pilots, John C. Meyer’s “Petie 2nd” of the 352 FG/478th FS. Meyer was a great leader and would finish the war with 24 kills, to include 2 in Petie 2nd. I’m also long overdue for a Bluenoser.

I started with the cockpit. The detail is great out of the box, better than Tamiya. Not quite resin, but satisfactory. What stood out to me was how everything is separate for ease of painting. Even the instrument panel top combing is a separate piece. I used Gunze for the interior green and sprayed the fuel tank XF-24 Dark Grey to simulate the self sealing rubber coating. I did use a little Tenax to make the front battery stay in place which kept popping off (so much for no glue). The floor was wooden in the Merlin P-51, so I sprayed it XF-49 Khaki then Clear Orange directly over it. Looks like wood to me. The floor technically had a black coating over it in wartime Mustangs, but I chose to go this route anyways. I streaked the wash a bit to try to simulate the grain. The seatbelts are Eduard Color Zoom from an old Wildcat fret and I used Aeroscale individual dials for the instrument panel. These are great for blank dials and settle right in with Micro Sol…highly recommended.

That’s it for now, I may add some battery wiring too. I also started the 1/32 Tamiya Corsair as well. I’ll be going back and forth.

2

Great start Joe! Yeah I’ve seen some of the reviews too and have been wanting to give this one a try. Glad to see you taking this one on, it’ll be great seeing it come together. Thanks for sharing!

3

Great start Joe, can’t wait to see the results

4

Fantastic start as always! I’ll be following!

Toshi

5

I’ve been wondering when I’d get to see somebody tackle this new kit. =] I was skeptical myself about the no glue talk. Looking forward to seeing what comes out of this.

=]

6

If you give this a thumbs up. It must be good

7

Somehow I haven’t heard of this kit. I’m very interested to see how this comes together. The detail looks really good, and as usual you’ve done a great job painting it.

8

Hmm interesting. I’ve seen those “snap-fit” ones at the hobby shop but I bet none are going to look as good as this one!

9

Beautiful work, Joe! I can’t wait to see how you handle the rest of it. :slight_smile:

10

Great start. I’ve been trying to find this kit for sale, but it’s out of stock everywhere I see it. Kinda kicking myself for not buying it from Hong Kong in December, but I had done a self-imposed moratorium on buying new kits until I finish an old one.

Oh well, it’ll be back around.

Watching this one with interest. I like the wood floor. Seems a bit easier than the method of painting it desert yellow, then streaking burnt umber artist’s oil over it, waiting for it to dry and then spraying a 1:1 clear orange/clear yellow over that. Yours looks great.

And also, I love the subject. My Tamiya 51 wears those markings, and it remains one of my favorites.

Just out of curiosity, how do the kit decals look? I like the schemes, but haven’t built any Meng aircraft, and have no experience with their decals.

-BD-

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This should be interesting. Off to a good start as always, and always nice to see a Bodney bird

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Thanks everyone for the kind words. I found it on eBay a few Months ago and jumped on it. I paid a bit more for it because it was already in the US.

Brandon, I’m going to use an Eagle Cal sheet for the Petie markings but the kit decals look fine from what I can see. Unfortunately you never know until you use them. I’ll need them for the common markings and stuff.

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What are you opinions on this kit thus far?

Toshi

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Amazing work as per usual. Those seatbelts look like PE!

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Thanks all. Maker, I used an old PE fret I had in my stash.

Toshi, I’m going to get into that here. For the folks who have built this kit without glue I must applaud you. You are the Masterclass. I have been having no such luck and it’s been a frustrating, profanity laced experience thus far.

First off, I assembled the fuselage/cockpit/radiator area and it was smooth sailing. I was fat, dumb and happy, all proud of myself until I attached the upper cowl pieces. I couldn’t get these pressed flush and there were large gaps that I had to fill. I ended up gluing them down and filling them with Perfect Plastic Putty.

Close up…

Next gripe. You have to follow the instructions, as the build order dictates how its held together without glue. This was first experienced with the landing gear legs and tail wheel which have to be installed as you proceed through basic assembly. Apparently they want you to paint everything separately and then assemble it. From the factory, the P-51 had an aluminum lacquer gear bay with the back wall (wing spar) in Zinc Chromate. This kit is the first to get this area right in 1/48. I did the light housing in ZC, painted the bulb silver then added a drop of 5 minute epoxy to simulate glass. The gear legs got brake lines.

I managed to get everything together but I just was not happy with the tolerances of the panel lines. There were gaps everyhere. I seemed to be gluing/squeezing then filling everything with putty. I ended up gluing the wing leading edges since the seam was visible.

Then the fun really began. For the life of me I could not get the machine gun inserts to fit. They just kept springing out and I ended up breaking off the starboard aileron (also a lousy design) under finger pressure trying to force them in place. I kept waiting for a “click” that never came…all while trying not to break the landing gears that I had to install prematurely…[bnghead]. I ended up chopping out the insides and then supergluing them in place. I then filled the gaps with putty.

Perhaps I’m being too harsh but for a $50.00 kit, it should perform as advertised. That’s alot of work for something that isn’t supposed to even need glue. Maybe I had one piece that was out of whack or had some flash that I didn’t see that threw everything off. Who knows, I’m not particularly impressed so far.

It will get some primer soon. I’m not sure I’m going to waste my Petie 2nd markings or use my precious Alclad on this kit. I may switch to a painted subject. We’ll see how it looks under some primer. So far it’s safe to say my Tamiya and Hasegawa kits are safe in the stash.

Maybe I’ll switch gears and start that big Tamiya Corsair?..[whstl]

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sounds frustrating, but you’re making it look great. (As always.)

Meanwhile, I’m especially excited to see what you do with that Tamiya Corsair. Have you picked a subject?

cheers

-J

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Thanks Johnny. Out of curiousity, I went and looked at a few builds of the kit and some folks said things were falling off and they needed glue as well. One modeler discovered a niffy alteration to the landing gear so it could be installed later. Interestingly nobody seemed to experience the machine gun insert issues. Perhaps its operator error here.

Reference the Corsair, I’m building Pappy Boyington’s #774 then Tommy Blackburn’s #1.

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Well your doing a good job despite the issues.

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I agree with Bish!

Toshi

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Looks very good so far, sir! I’ve been debating on saving up to buy one if these kits…I may need to wait until it pops up on sale. Very nice work though even with the Issues. The detail looks superb that’s for sure.

Later,

Lee