Airfix 1/48 P-51D Mustang finished

Finally! I didn't think I would finish this one after all the issues I've had (mostly of my own making) so I'm pleased to see it done and it breaks my track record of USAAF subjects which haven't made it to the end. 

So here then is P-51D 44-14868 'Hurry Home Honey' from the 364th Fighter Squadron, 357th Fighter Group flown by Major Richard A 'Pete' Peterson;

 

Airfix 1/48 P-51D Mustang

I was having a look at another modellers P-51 the other day (that Spencer Pollard chap) and the way he had picked out different panels using the base colour and another colour and although I have already applied the decals I wanted to do this on my model.
The decals needed masking so I coated them with Winsor and Newton masking fluid and when dry put Tamiya masking tape over them. The AS-12 that I used as the basecoat was decanted into a jar and when it had degassed I mixed in some XF-1 black and sprayed the wing gun panels and around the exhausts.

Mostly the masking fluid worked at protecting the decals when removing the tape however the red lettering on the nose suffered a bit;

The solution was to paint in the red by hand using Andrea basic red, a fine paint brush and hoping it matched the decal. I think it worked;

All I need to do is apply the national insignia on the wings as the Microscale decal sheet arrived today and the grey on the stars and bars seems to match that on the EagleCals sheet.
It's not going to be perfect by any means but I'm glad that the finishing line is in sight, particularly as it would have just been sitting in the Box-of-Shame plus I've learned a couple of new things too which is always a bonus.

Airfix 1/48 P-51D Mustang

After all the issues I had with the model during painting I'm pleased to say that it is now up to the decalling stage as over the past few days I've been masking and painting, followed tonight with a coat of Alclad Aqua gloss;

If I was to do this scheme again I would leave the exhaust stacks off as they made masking tricky for the red and yellow chequers around the nose.
I was very dubious about the handling properties of the Tamiya AS-12 spray paint but I had no issues with paint lifting of the model and it seems to be fairly tough stuff so it bodes well for future natural metal finishes.
Considering that this was a basket-case a few weeks ago and consigned to the Box-of-Shame I'm pleased that I've actually got it this far, with a bit of luck I might actually finish it.

Edit; I had two decals left to place on the model when this happened;

The decal just broke into pieces after I got it out of the water! What's more annoying is that although I have replacement decals in stock, NONE are the grey type of insignia as depicted on the aircraft I wish to build.
The decals I'm using are from an EagleCals set and they are one of the best aftermarket decal companies out there so I'm very surprised this has happened, anyway I've found a Microscale Mustang insignia and stencil decal sheet that features the grey stars and bars so I'll have to wait for this to arrive. Bugger!
Stupid bloody hobby.....

Airfix 1/48 P-51D Mustang and Heller Mirage IV

Having calmed down a bit from the last time I touched this model I decided to give it one more shot so I resprayed the wheel bays then masked them off along with the cockpit.
Instead of using Alclad I decided to use a Tamiya rattle-can (AS-12) as recommended by one of my model-making buddies , this being applied directly to the bare plastic.
There were STILL some issues with the styrene looking rough in a couple of places on the fuselage sides however I gave the model three coats and it's more or less evened out and will do for my purposes;

I have to say the AS-12 looks pretty good! The next test would be with masking tape as this model will require the olive drab anti-glare panel, yellow band around the nose, a yellow tail and black invasion stripes masking off.
With that the first area was the anti-glare panel and where everything started going wrong last time so using Tamiya tape the nose was masked off and sprayed with Tamiya XF-62. The tape was carefully removed as I was concerned about the silver paint coming away but there was no need as the AS-12 seems to be pretty tough stuff;

This bodes well as I may actually finish the bloody thing! The cockpit still needs touching up due to the Mr Muscle oven cleaner getting in but after looking the other day it's not THAT bad and repairable.
While I was in the loft I decide to get some paint on the Heller Mirage IV;

I used Tamiya X-27 for the base coat however it was very warm in the loft and the paint was drying out before it hit the model so I've been left with a rough surface that will need going over with Scotchbrite before applying the green for the camouflage scheme.

Airfix 1/48 P-51D Mustang. I give in!

I sprayed the model with Vallejo Metal Colour Aluminium and as this stuff is quite thin it can go straight through an airbrush, however the needle tip started clogging fairly quickly so I added a few drops of acrylic retarder to slow the drying time down a bit.
I have to say the finish is really nice and smooth, unfortunately a few days ago some model boxes fell over and caught the Mustang and although I inspected the model before spraying tonight the Vallejo paint showed up a few dings and added with all the other defects in the base coat I've had enough and this model will not progress any further.
Anyway this how it turned out;

As has been pointed out to me and in articles I've read the base coat HAS to be flawless otherwise the aluminium paint will show every defect so I think I've reached my limit painting-wise and will stick to camouflaged subjects in future.
Also USAAF aircraft continue to be my achilles heel as this is number 5 that I've fucked up...weird....

Airfix 1/48 P-51D Mustang

Mainly to stop myself falling asleep in the evenings and the fact this model is bugging me I decided to give it another go. Even though the upper engine cowl had been rubbed down numerous times I could still see where the paints had reacted so using neat IPA (Iso Propyl Alcohol) I cleaned all the paint off down to bare plastic, this area was again rubbed down;

After clean up the entire model was resprayed with Tamiya X-1 gloss black;

The model will be left to cure before applying a coat of rattle can silver, probably Tamiya TS-17 aluminium silver or whatever I have in stock rather than mess about with Alclad, just so I can get the bloody thing finished.
Anyway at the moment I have a shiny black Mustang, if things go wrong again it will either become a test piece or a landfill item depending on my mood.

Airfix 1/48 P-51D Mustang

The model is finally up to the spraying stage so tonight I gave it a basecoat of Tamiya X-18 semi-gloss black to prepare it for the Alclad paint that I will be using later. Current wisdom states that you should use gloss black for Alclad finishes but I didn't have any in stock so X-18 is as near-as-dammit, also some folk don't like primer coats but I'm glad I did prime the model as it has shown up some areas that need attention before the final finishing coat goes on;

I've never airbrushed Alclad before so I shall practice on an test subject first rather than risk buggering up the P-51.

Airfix 1/48 P-51D Mustang

I've begun to start getting this on the home stretch and today I sprayed the canopy and windscreen interiors, the wheel wells and gear bay doors. Once the windscreen is in place I can then start spraying the whole model;

Edit; after painting the wheels well and gear doors with ZCY (Zinc Chromate Yellow) I've decided to repaint them with the interior green mix I've used for the cockpit. This was due to a conversation with a fellow modeller and finding a pic of the P-51D I'm basing my model on;

This is P-51D 44-14868 'Hurry Home Honey' assigned to the 364th Fighter Squadron, 357th Fighter Group. Looking at the pic it appears to me that the starboard gear door interior is quite dark, especially when you compare it against the checks around the nose as these were yellow and red (the lighter tone in the pic is yellow) so my guess is that the interior colour would have been green;

I found this interesting piece along with the photo of 414868 that explains the heavy exhaust staining on the fuselage;

'44-14868 P-51D flown by Major Peterson at the end of his second tour of duty, shown here temporarily refueling at an abandoned German airbase in Auxerre, France, in January 1945.

Patton had just liberated the town, and after some delay, parted with some precious tank fuel to allow the grounded squadron of 3 P-51s to return to Leiston after burning their fuel up dogfighting with Me262 jets.

The exhaust soot on the fuselage was the result of Major Peterson chasing a jet in a full throttle dive to 700mph at 25,000ft, losing aileron control when encountering compressibility at the sound barrier, and regaining control by throwing the prop pitch to minimum which forced the engine RPMs to scream over the tachometer's redline, but broke up the air and allowed him to pull safely out of the dive with his trim tabs. The soot is likely the forced engine oil and unburnt exhaust from the redlining. The squadron followed the jet to its Lechfeld, Germany base where they split into pairs and circled "fence post high" around each end of the runway, awaiting the jet and dodging anti-aircraft gunnery. Major Peterson's wingman, Roland Wright, flying "Mormon Mustang", shot the jet down, and they ended up in Auxerre where they finally ran out of fuel.'

Airfix 1/48 P-51D Mustang

With the T-55 built I came back to the P-51 as it's another I want off the bench as the queue of stuff I want to build is getting longer.
I've managed to glue all the control surfaces on and although the fit of the tail wings looked OK on top, underneath the joints were pretty horrendous with large gaps to fill so these, along with the joints around the nose were filled with Mr Surfacer 1000 and left to set before lightly sanding and finally polishing with a ladies nail buffer (these things are invaluable for model making);

Panel lines were restored by using electrical tape as a guide then re-scribed, liquid glue was then brushed over them to clean out the swarf. I used to use Dymo tape for this but it doesn't seem to stick as well plus it's much thinner these days so the electrical tape makes a decent substitute. 
So far it's not a bad kit and the build is nearing completion but I'm still surprised about the fit of some parts, it will be interesting to see how the new Airfix Sea Fury shapes up in this regard.

Airfix 1/48 P-51D Mustang

The tail section was glued into place, filled with Mr Surfacer (1000 grade) and cleaned up using fine grade wet and dry and paper then a ladies nail buffer. It was VERY important to polish the plastic due to the natural metal finish I had planned so nail buffers are an essential piece of kit. Overall the fit wasn't THAT bad really and any gaps fell along natural panel lines which helps;

The fit of the main wings was a little tricky as the mating surfaces are very narrow. I had glued the areas inside where the upper and lower wings touch so I split them again to see if that helped with the fit (it did somewhat) but it all came together when fitting the lower cowling and wing section.
I used masking tape to hold it all together and ran a length from wingtip to wingtip to keep the dihedral and to help with the wing joints, which look very good actually and may not need filling.

What WILL need filling are the inserts on the leading edges for the machine guns as there are some considerable gaps;

Again care will be needed as the model will have a natural metal finish so any scratches will need to be buffed out otherwise they will show up massively.
After the experiences with the wing roots of the Hurricane it's nice to have a good fit of parts in this area and I have to say I'm quite impressed with this Airfix kit so far.