Tamiya 1/48 P-51D - Chuck Yeager

[shortCummins]

This build will be my salute to one of my childhood heroes...

Chuck Yeager, who would make history as the man who broke the sound barrier, flew combat missions from RAF Leiston during WWII. He was shot down over France on March 5th 1944, after escaping to Spain with the help of the French Resistance he returned to England on May 15 1944.
Yeager was prohibited from flying over enemy territory, because if he was captured he could then compromise resistance groups. After speaking directly to General Dwight D. Eisenhower he was reinstated to flying combat as he argued that the resistance movement was by then openly fighting alongside the Allies.
On October 12 1944 Yeager became the first pilot in his group to make "ace in a day", downing five enemy aircraft in a single mission. He finished the was with 11.5 official victories including one of the first air-to-air victories over a jet fighter (Me 262)



His aircraft was named Glamorous Glen after his girlfriend, Glennis Faye Dickhouse, who became wife in February 1945.

I'll be using Tamiya's current P-51D offering for this build



previous versions of this kit have included decals for Yeager's aircraft but sadly this version doesn't, it also doesn't include the 'paper' drop tanks so I'll build it with the aluminium versions if I decide to add drop-tanks (probably will)

I really enjoyed using PE and resin along with some scratch building on my Beaufighter so I've got quite a bit of after-market:
Aires resin wheel-well
Airscale USAAF instrument dial decals
Albion Alloys slide fit tube selection 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 1.0mm
Eduard paint mask
Eduard PE interior set
Eduard PE interior set (pre-painted)
Eduard PE Mustang placards
Montex paint masks (Chuck Yeager P-51D)
Quickboost resin exhaust
Quickboost resin propellors
True Details resin wheels

I've ordered a "Rosie the Riveter" from Petr DOUSEK that I'll put to use when it arrives.

In the mean-time I'll make a start on the interior

until next time
as always, any suggestions or comments will be gratefully received.
rgds
John(shortCummins)

[Avgas]

[shortCummins]

a small update for what seemed like quite a lot of work?

PE added from this set






a little scratch added…



the air hose (red) was made by wrapping thin wire around some fuze wire

I also added the PE for the landing gear


next up will be painting the interior and then adding the other PE sets

until next time
as always, any suggestions or comments will be gratefully received.
rgds
John(shortCummins)

[mincemeat]

Looking good!

[shortCummins]

I've spent the past couple of days cutting, scraping, filing, sanding and fettling to allow me to put the first coat of primer and then to add the interior colour.

After the primer I first spayed Tamiya XF-4 Yellow Green, followed by a coat of highly thinned Vallejo 71.094 Green Zinc Chrom. I wanted to use the two colours to try and represent light and shade before adding any washes…







the main floor will be painted to simulate wood (eventually) and the batteries will be painted black


this is the biggest piece of resin I've used so far, the detail is stunning!
the down side is that I've had to remove a lot of the kit parts, it took far longer than I imagined

the next step is to pick out the boxes and add the additional PE
until then
as always, any suggestions or comments will be gratefully received.
rgds
John(shortCummins)

[Timmie]

Great subject.
love the resin wheel well

Grtz Arjan

[shortCummins]

I've been adding PE like its going out of fashion!
I've used 3 Eduard PE sets which I've detailed below

Interior has been painted, first Tamiya XF-4 Yellow Green and then Vallejo model air 71.094 Green Zinc Chrom, knobs and dials detailed and a dark wash, then the various PE added…



wood effect for the floor was achieved by first painting Tamiya XF-59 Desert Yellow and then dragging Vallejo 828 woodgrain


I'm not too happy with the result but as I think it'll be quite difficult to see once buttoned-up I'll live with it


the seat (still to have the PE seat-belts added!)


the armoured plate behind the pilots head should be matt black, but I like it green

I can't get the camera to focus on the cross-member as I wanted to show the wear and discolouration



the foot pedals


the rear wheel well

I've used 3 sets of Eduard PE

FE109


FE216


FE198 (Mustang Placards)

here I've labels the various bits of PE used...




so next up will be finishing the cockpit, seat-belts, IP etc. and detail painting the main wheel-wells

until next time
as always, any suggestions or comments will be gratefully received.
rgds
John(shortCummins)

[shortCummins]

so I've been finishing the cockpit, adding the PE seat-belts to the seat, IP and joystick


the seat-belts fitted


IP and joystick in place



seat fitted

these are a couple of photos I took at the RAF museum Hendon earlier this year of the wheel well



and this my efforts…

black wash and aluminium pipework

copper pipe detailed

so thats where I'm up to, tomorrow I should be able to button up the fuselage
until next time
as always, any suggestions or comments will be gratefully received.
rgds
John(shortCummins)

[heel]

John,

Great to follow this build. It's looking fantastic.

[shortCummins]

John,

Great to follow this build. It's looking fantastic.

thanks heel, I'm really enjoying it

rgds
John(shortCummins)

[shortCummins]

small update, basically I've nailed the fuselage together…


a couple of shots showing the completed cockpit


this will be hidden(?) under the cockpit

dry fitting the cockpit...





and finally both sides glued together


so next up will be attaching the wings
until next time
as always, any suggestions or comments will be gratefully received.
rgds
John(shortCummins)

[shortCummins]

wings added

the resin wheel well caused the front of the wings not to fit and quite a bit of filler was required

the cockpit will be quite visible





the resin wheel well looks fantastic and even though it caused an issue with the fitting of the wings it was worth it


next will be fitting the last few bits and bobs before getting the paint on

until next time
as always, any suggestions or comments will be gratefully received.
rgds
John(shortCummins)

[Nige201980]

Love the cockpit and wheel wells John cracking build so far.

[shortCummins]

Love the cockpit and wheel wells John cracking build so far.

thanks Nige

[shortCummins]

a quick update, vallejo primer in preparation for the vallejo metal color aluminium…



during my research I've found that the wings were painted aluminium, the body was polished, so I masked the wings and sprayed the vallejo metal color…



… there was a little bit of over-spray, I'm not too bothered by that however the primer has come off in three or four places so I'll have to repair that before I paint the wings


interior green used as an undercoat


exhausts painted and ready to be weathered


landing gear with PE



wheel bay doors weathered

so next I need to repair the primer and then spray the flat aluminium on the wings
until next time
as always, any suggestions or comments will be gratefully received.
rgds
John(shortCummins)

[EricM]

lookin excellent! whos decals are you using?

[shortCummins]

lookin excellent! whos decals are you using?

Thanks Eric

I'll be using Montex masks...


I'll used the stencils that Tamiya supplied but most of the big stuff, stars-and-bars, checkerboard, numbers etc. I'll use the masks

I've also used an Eduard PE placard set,(EDFE198) which I highly recommend


rgds
John(shortCummins)

[EricM]

Fantastic! ill have to find me a set also! id like to try the painted on look for a couple aircraft.

[whiskytangofoxtrot]

Fantastic, inspiring work! Thanks for posting.

[shortCummins]

a bit more paint completed

masked and resprayed the primer for the "flat" aluminium colour on the wings



I also masked a couple of body panels and sprayed dark aluminium





when that was dry I masked for the anti-glare and I sprayed the machine-gun bays dark aluminium



next I'll be spraying the red and yellow checkerboard on the nose and the "stars and bars" and "invasion stripes"

until next time
as always, any suggestions or comments will be gratefully received.
rgds
John(shortCummins)

[shortCummins]

so today I've been busing myself with the nose checkerboard and preparing the "stars and bars".

I've used this Montex mask


the yellow nose and white base of the stars and bars…




the yellow is a 4-1 mix of Tamiya X-8 and XF-4

the propellor will be red & yellow, I've painted the entire thing yellow to match the nose checkerboard

masking for the red


red XF-7 and silver 1-1 mix


masks removed


I need to do a little touch-up on the yellow, both the checkerboard and propeller but overall I'm really happy with the results

next I'll concentrate on the stars and bars
until next time
as always, any suggestions or comments will be gratefully received.
rgds
John(shortCummins)

[qeialto]

Simply beautiful painting work

[shortCummins]

Simply beautiful painting work

thanks qeialto, the Montex mask set makes life far easier than it would be otherwise, I can highly recommend them

rgds
John(shortCummins)

[shortCummins]

just a quick update, propellor spinner and stars and bars…

I used a circle template as a guide for the approximate size of the red top to the spinner, I've seen a number of amour guys use this technique for their wheels and I thought it was worth a go.
The only couple of issues were laying the template flat while trying to spray the colour and the fuzzy edge which was easily corrected with a circle of masking tape and respraying the bottom (yellow) colour.



If I was doing this again I think I'd change the order that I painted the red and yellow. I decided to paint the yellow first, being the lighter colour, however if I'd painted the red first then I wouldn't have needed to re-spray the bottom part of the spinner? when I get 5 minutes I'll try spraying a lighter colour on an darker one to see what difference it makes as most of the colours I use are opaque and I often "pre-shade" so this would be the same idea?

So next was the "stars and bars"
Montex provide a 3 part mask, the outer shape, inner star and bars and then a "spacer" to align the star and bars to…

base colour, Tamiya white, sprayed and star and bars mask(s) applied

blue applied, AV model air 71.087 steel blue
the blue was sprayed without thinning at a psi of approx. 18

masks removed…



next up I've decided to paint a few more panels different shades of vallejo metal color aluminium, I really like the variation between the couple of shades I've used so far so I'll be picking up some others to see what they look like
If you've not watched Will Pattison's video's on them I can highly recommend them, it'll take a couple of hours but he's done a really "in-depth" review and gives an honest "warts and all" review of the paints, take the time to watch Will's review…


until next time
as always, any suggestions or comments will be gratefully received.
rgds
John(shortCummins)

[EricM]

looking very nice! looking forward to the finish!

[shortCummins]

just a small update, I've been painting various panels different shades of Vallejo acrylic metal colors



the photos don't show the subtle differences, in real life their so much better.

here's the different paints...

the "main" colour is vallejo acrylic metal color aluminium
1 - Tamiya flat aluminium
2 - dark aluminium
3 - AV model air steel 71.065
4 - duraluminium
5 - white aluminium
6 - dull aluminium

these paints spray really well, I had to drop the pressure to around 15psi, higher pressure meant that I had to hold the airbrush further away. I'm using a H&S Infinity with a 0.2 needle
I've not tried to get a really shiny finish as I want to portray an "in-service" aircraft rather than a museum piece.

so next will be painting the invasion stripes and weathering the anti-glare, stars and bars etc.

until next time
as always, any suggestions or comments will be gratefully received.
rgds
John(shortCummins)

[Stokesy44]

Looking good. Love the stars and bars. Brilliantly done.

[Nige201980]

Looks cracking mate. I'll have to get some of those masks me thinks.

[shortCummins]

so I've been working on the invasion stripes and applying the stencil decals…

first the invasion stripes


first the white

mask for the black

for some reason the wing invasion stripes have only one black stripe




after a coat or two of Alclad Aqua Gloss the decals were applied




it was at this point that I realised I'd painted the wing stripes in the wrong place! so I had to "fix" it

masking to remove the black


dull aluminium covered the black nicely


black stripe painted again, in the right place this time!


until next time
as always, any suggestions or comments will be gratefully received.
rgds
John(shortCummins)

[heel]

John I must say this is amazing work. Great stuff

[shortCummins]

John I must say this is amazing work. Great stuff

much appreciated heel, in-spite of my mistakes I'm really enjoying this build, the metal color paints are fantastic

rgds
John(shortCummins)

[Twokidsnosleep]

VERY impressive airbrushing my friend, very impressive indeed

[shortCummins]

VERY impressive airbrushing my friend, very impressive indeed

thats very kind, I'm learning how to recover from mistakes anyway

rgds
John(shortCummins)

[shortCummins]

so I've finished the weathering, I used a mix of Tamiya weathering set, AK Aircraft Engine Oil & Kerosene and Ultimate washes






I used Ultimate washes for the wheels and exhausts



the propellor and spinner assembly


I've given everything another coat of aqua gloss, when this drys I'll give the wings and anti-glare a matt coat

next will be assembling the landing gear and fitting the final bits'n'pieces

until next time
as always, any suggestions or comments will be gratefully received.
rgds
John(shortCummins)

[shortCummins]

well I'm calling her done.

I've made a few mistakes along the way, some I've been able to "fix", others I'll have to live with

the two most noticeable mistakes are the body invasion stripes, their too far down the fuselage, and the oil leak under the main air intake starts too far forward. Next time I'll get these right!

As for the kit, well its a Tamiya so its "modeller friendly", the only issues were self-inflicted and if I'd been more patient and paid attention I'm sure there wouldn't have been any drama.

The Eduard PE, all 3 sets are first class, I can recommend all of them they really transform the cockpit and as the canopy is quite large you get to see a lot of the interior, so its worth spending some time getting it to look the best you can.

The Aries wheel bay, the detail is stunning, the fit is difficult.
I'm assuming that most resin parts require considerable modification to the original kit, it would be nice is the manufacture would supply YouTube videos on how to fit their part to the kit? Would I use it again or recommend it, yes however how often will you turn your model over to have a look at the wheel bay?

Montex mask set, these were excellent, the stars and bars were probably over-kill, I could have used the Cartograph decals, but I wanted to "give 'em a go".

Vallejo's acrylic Metal Color paints, fantastic! providing you get the psi correct, my gauge read 12 but vallejo recommend between 15-20, they go down without any problem. The tonal variation between the different shades is really subtile, my photography isn't good enough to show it but trust me "in the flesh" they look excellent.
I used vallejo's black gloss primer, which wasn't fun! Spraying the stuff was OK, no issues however even though I'd "washed" the plastic with iso propanol alcohol and allowed it to cure for over 3 days, it still lifted when masked with "de-tacked" Tamiya masking tape. Next time I'll get some stynylrez, I'll need to buy a bigger needle for my air-brush, and then use the vallejo gloss primer on top of the "stable" base.

So all in all I think I have far more positives than negatives from this build, I've learnt a lot and hopefully improved my skill level, this is my 5th completed build since returning to the hobby after 30+ years and I can't wait until the New Year when I can start my next build.

here's a teaser for the final reveal…


you can see the full reveal here…
http://www.intscalemodeller.com/viewtop ... 45&t=15788

until next time
as always, any suggestions or comments will be gratefully received.
rgds
John(shortCummins)

[demarcation]

Great work with that P51 buddy. looks the part!

[Dopplershift]

Great build thread. I learnt lots from it.

Thanks for all your efforts creating and posting it.

[Kevthemodeller]

Wow fantastic great build mate.