Well I finished my p-51, and while she doesn’t stand up to 90% of what I usually see here, she came out pretty good in my eyes. I had a big problem with decals wrinkling so don’t mind the fact that a few(many) might be missing.
This build had a couple of firsts for me. My first natural metal finish. The NMF was easier than I thought it would be and I got some great help and advice from plenty of friendly forum members.
This is also the first time I’ve tried exhaust staining using an airbrush…I usually use pastel powder. The staining on the right side of mustang looks pretty good to me, but I think I got a little heavy handed on the left side (if a little looks good, a lot must look better right? [;)]).
Here she is… any questions, comments, criticism and suggestions greatly appreciated!
Well it looks like a faultless build to me. As for the exhaust staining, id just suggest that maybe 1 of the cylinders was a little worn on the L/H bank hence it was blowing a little more than the other side. The NMF looks very nice. As i say, all round a fantastic build.
Thanks for the comments everyone… you’re too kind!
After looking at the pics, I just noticed that I forgot to put the gun barrels in the wings… oops.
Buckeye - I used alclad II sprayed on per Swanny’s directions… worked out great.
Luftwoller - This is the 1/48 hasegawa mustang mkIV ‘hunsdon’ kit. The fit of this kit was absolutely beautiful. Believe it or not there is no glue or filler at the wing root… that’s how nice it went together.
The decals are superscale and as I said before, I had massive problems with them wrinkling. There is supposed to be black lightning bolts on the wings and side of the fuselage. I had so much trouble with them that I just peeled 'em right off. Looks good just the same.
Mate, for a few firsts, she certainly ended up looking pretty nice. The MNF came up very well. The exhaust staining looks great to me…
One thing - thought you might be interested…the P-51B (and onwards) had a interesting hydraulics system - the flaps and the gear doors were operated by this system - after shutdown, the system would bleed off pressure and the inner gear doors and the flaps would both drop over time and the constantly reducing hydraulic pressure due to gravity - if the inner gear doors were down, then the flaps would have been down as well - they had no mechanical lock in the up position.
In general, if the flaps were up, then the inner gear doors were as well…
Other than that, it’s a very nice model - you should be very happy with that - and thanks for sharing the pics, mate.
Very Nice job man. Great job on the decals - I don’t see any film - which is tough to do on a natural metal finish. And the slight coloration differences keep it interesting.
The only critique I can offer would be to clean up the seam line on the spine. With a natural metal finish, that will take alot of sanding and polishing in order to make it invisible.
LeeTree - Thanks for the info on the hydraulics! I knew that the gear doors would bleed down, but didn’t realize that the flaps would too. I saw a picture here of a mustang someone had built with the gear doors starting to drop with one hanging lower than the other. I was going to try doing that but impatience and laziness got the better of me[;)]
Bossman - Other than the wrinkling I experienced with the decals(which is nobodys fault but my own) they were very nice. For some reason I thought that there was supposed to be a seam on the spine… guess I was wrong with that one. I double checked and you are definitely correct. I’m not even going to attempt to correct that mistake… that’s a nightmare waiting to happen!
The next mustang I have waiting in line is a tamiya p-51b and when she gets built, I’ll make sure to remember everyones advice. Thanks for the help[tup]
jmabx, nice build! I’ve got the Hasegawa kit on the bench right now and I concur with the comments on the great fit. So far all errors have been self induced! I hope my turns our as nice as yours. Kudos on the great Alclad job as well!
