Hello Everybody. I am new to the forum and I am just starting my Tamiya 1/48 P51D Mustang. I bought the resin cockpit from Aires, and since this is my first time using resin, I am having a hard time fitting the cockpit into fuselage correctly. I am unsure as to which parts of the original kit I should remove. Do I need to thin the fuselage? If anyone could give me some tips on the correct way of fitting it correctly, I would really appreciate it.
Thanks in advance!
First off welcome to the forum. Second when working with resin your gona have to trim and grind some of the excess rsin off the part and be shure to where a resperater resin dust is vary harmfull if breathed. AS for what parts parts should be removed there the instructions that came with the aries set should tell you or aleast show you what parts need to be trimed or removed but of couse someone more familura with aries might come along ive only used verlindon and grand pheonix resin so i hope you get your answer sorry i couldnt more helpful.
Rob
Smokinguns3 is right. Aires normally indicate the ‘moulding block’ section that you should remove. Resin is tough stuff and the moulded-on detail can be fragile. So it can be awkward to have to remove large sections. Often the moulding block is so large you can clamp the BLOCK in a bench vice and use a razor saw to slice off the detail section! Remember - clamp the block not the detail.
Sometime a power-tool can be better. This is better where there is a very large & delicate area that you can’t apply too much pressure on. I use a small Dremel-style rotary tool with those cutter wheels designed to cut through metal. This works fine but the DUST is a KILLER. Repeated advice! Use a dust mask recommended for the purpose. It also helps to have a vacuum cleaner running close to the cutting point. This sucks up most of the offending dust BUT is NOT a replacement for the mask - it just makes the air a bit cleaner and the model bench a bit freer of dust!
Having said all of this you may still have to sand down the cockpit walls and make the resin section quite thin to get it all to fit. This make take some time but I have had to do this before with some of the Verlinden sets. Measure twice, glue once! Try it, sand it, try it, sand… etc., until happy.
Good luck.
Thanks for all the good info!