Alllrighty. First time I’ve been able to get on the internet for awhile. After doing the Lindy P-47 for a GB, I decided to do a fun build that I"ve been wanting to tear into since I bought it.
Sorry for the picture quality, I only have my cameraphone to take pictures with, but here goes It’s an Otaki P-51…old kit but it was fun to put together. I know its not 100% historically accurate but as I said it was just a fun build. The entire airplane is 100% hand painted. I’m actually proud of the way the yellow and red checkering on the nose turned out, I didn’t even use masking tape or anything. Where I ran into trouble was the decals. The kit was so old even after coating them with Future and letting them dry, some absolutely fell apart. The “Old Crow” lettering decals were the worst, so I painted the pieces that fell apart. Overall…a good build. This will definitely not be the last P-51 I build. The P-51 is my favorite aircraft and I’ll end up with an entire squadron of them probably.
Nice job! And great work on doing those nose checkers freehand! [Y]
She does look a little shiney unless it’s the camera flash. If it’s not the camera you might mask off the clear parts and hit her with a shot or two of Dullcote.
I know that offered you this too late, but keep in mind for the time you build any old kit…
I’ve brush-painted many a bird, and can tell that you’ve got an outstanding piece of work there… As for the memebr who asked about the “Old Crow” being glossy or flat, the OD had a bit of a sheen to it, but not enough to reflect the fuselage markings in the wing-paint… They’d be a big “burr”… A slight “satin” finish would be close enough when you scale down the paint…
TDB will save twenty / thirty-year old decals just about every time… It flexible even after it dries, and won’t crack, break, or splinter while applying (as long as you have dipped the decals in warm water first)…
You can get it anywhere that sells Testor’s Model Master rattle-cans…
thanks for the compliments! i had a lot of fun with this build. and thank you for the pointers on the finish…the only reason i put that much future on the plane was so the decals wouldn’t peel…because trust me…they really wanted to badly. Hans…if i can find some of that testors stuff you mentioned i will definitely get it…i will need it for that P-40 ill be building for the MM group build…its even older than this Mustang!
