P-51D Mustang, 1/48, Revell

 

On the workbench for way too long now, this 1/48 scale kit from Revell is a Level 2 kit from Michael's craft store, bought on a whim several years ago, as it was so cheap. I bought this primarily because I want to try an aluminum finish and this is a good test kit for that. I'd been wrestling for quite a bit on what scheme I wanted to do, and there are so many nice options out there, as well as what was included in the kit. I’ll state upfront though, that it has sat unfinished for a long time, though I’ve been fiddling with it on and off between other builds.

Overall though, this is not a bad little kit, but the interior lacked quite a bit of pizazz, especially the cockpit interior...so instead of doing an out of the box build, I decided to at least invest in an aftermarket kit from Squadron (I believe...this was a long time ago!), with highly detailed side interior controls; and I also bought a far nicer pilot seat. Thinking back on it now, i wish i saved them for a better kit, but oh well.

 

My bevy of clamps to hold in place while curing...

 

As the build was well underway, I ran into this cool little story about the story of the High Flying Beer Run! As the true story tells, back in WWII Normandy, USAAF and RAF plots had been engaged in shipping beer into Northern France privately, using what the troops called "flying pubs"!

 

 

So I decided to do a little conversion of the same idea used on other aircraft, to my P-51D. Figuring for Yankee Ingenuity, whether factual or not in what I started scratching together, I fashioned Beer Kegs to be attached under the wings...

 

"...hey, hold on just a minute...were those flaps I just saw a minute ago?"

Ah, yeah. In a moment of bad judgment, after seeing some reference material on static, ground craft with flaps down, I decided to hack the suckers off this kit. Big oooops. I can't wait to see how I get out of this!!! This is where I left off a few years ago...

 

I snapped some new shots today…

 

 

 

The far improved after market cockpit details may save this kit!

 

 

 

She's a little dusty, and as yet, waiting for some love; and even though I've been away from building for some time, a part of that was this bird scares the crap out of me!    ...but I have every confidence I can make something out of it!!!

This kit had gone all kinds of sideways and this is where I was about a year ago… I'd been a little trepidatious jumping back into this build (...like, for years!) but, I spent a little time with her between home projects today to finally work on those damned flaps. They required some finetuning to edges and underwing parts, as well as the actual wing to receive them, cutting and sanding...it was tricky and fidgety, but not as horrendous as I'd envisioned. Dry fitting and prepping the wing cutouts were the important parts of this process... the gluing went smoothly; more smoothly than my work when I started the kit and she started t nose dive...sharp-eyed viewers will note some glue spots.    I propped [ <--- see what I did there?) them up for an overnight cure. So yeah, not perfect, but I'm gonna call this a win!

One OK...

 

Two OK…

 

And a close up (...hey, don't judge me harshly!)

 

Is it perfect? Hardly, but I'm just trying to survive this one    At least I achieved the objective of flaps down!

I'll stress at this point, more for me than you, that the original intent for this kit choice was to tryout the (then, new) Vallejo chrome colors...that's where the rubber will hit the tarmac in my book!!!

Beer's Up!!! ...kinda, literally! I worked on the beer barrels today, shaving down the cut-out styrene I'd attached to the ends of the make-shift barrels, made from the fuel tanks that came with the kit.

 

The fun part was reattaching the t the wing mounts; I'd removed the glued on fuel tanks previously... but the "beer barrels" reattached nicely, with the aid of some Tamiya tape after the glue initially bit. everything will sit overnight.

 

 

...I had a few minutes to spare and decided I wanted to tackle something quick.

A little more work on the 'stang! The beer barrels came out pretty nice.

 

...however, I am thinking of taking a little artistic license and going with a nose cone...

 

...that second shot is of the nose cone held on with bluetac. I'm hedging towards the no-nose cone but haven't decided yet.

Meanwhile, I dryfitted the cockpit canopy slide today, which needed some alterations in order to fit with the specialty cockpit interior walls. Deciding whether to glue now or wait until after I start paint application.

 

 

Building is approaching an end. My only grievance to this point is, I lost one of the wheel enclosures (the thin, outer one)... oh well. I love the Tamiya Extra-thin!!! What a game changer! This is where the build sits at the moment.