F-51D & P-51D Dual Build WIP #2

Onwards with the Mustangs build, and this has gone very quick so far especially on one of them. I will start with the RAF P-51 first in this post. After I had primed it up, I was glad to see that the time spent lining up the fuselage halves paid off and no further work was needed to deal with any visible join lines on her. Painting now started with spraying a few light coats of Xtracrylix's XA1006 RAF Ocean Grey over the top half of the model. Once this was dry, I laid out the camouflage pattern using blutac worms. I decided to play dangerously and not mask off the grey areas with tape, take the risk of spraying around them instead. So, light coats of XA1110 Forest Green at a lowish pressure were carefully done. This was about 80% successful, only a few slight over-sprays occurring which were touched up freehand after the worms were removed. The top half was now masked off and the lower half was sprayed with XA1015 RAF Lt Aircraft Grey before giving the model a couple of coats of Alclad's Aqua Gloss clear. This stuff goes down really smooth over the Xtracrylix paints.

On this kit, there is only a few decals supplied as it is one of Airfix's starter sets. So it did not take too long to put them all on. The instruction said to paint the propeller all over black, but I found in some photos that this squadron painted the prop hubs red. So I went over the hub with some white primer and the brush painted it with a few coats of matt red paint. 

After giving the model another coat of Alclad clear, it was time to start weathering her. First I started by giving a wash over the panel lines with some Flory/Promodeller black wash then wiped it off the following morning. Next I added some oil stains and streaks using Mr Hobby's oil colour paint. Next I started to add some soot stains around the exhausts, guns and cartridge jettison holes under the wings . First I used some Mr Hobby's soot colour, followed by soot colour weathering powders from Carrs. The fuselage was then finished off with a coat of matt clear to seal the wash and powders.

I decided to try out the super fabric seatbelts from Eduard on these Mustangs. A set were ordered along with sets of RAF early and late, and Luftwaffe fighter belts from Hannants. For this scale, these are ideal and so much easier to use then etched ones. They look great and were fitted in a matter of a few minutes. They suggess to use white PVA glue to secure the belts in place, but I just used some thinned down matt clear for the job instead. Plus it dried quicker then the PVA.

Just a little mishap with the original kit aerial, it broke whilst I was cleaning it up. So I scratch-built one from a piece of plastcard, which ended up being a lot stronger then the kit one. You can also see in the below photo the aerial cable running through the cockpit canopy, just as the real aircraft.

This was a record for me, completed the model in a week, and the F-51 is also at the decal stage (will post on this one tomorrow). This is a lovely model to build. There was no problems with it, except for the delicate joystick and aerial. It assembled up without any trouble and everything was clean without flash or misaligned panel lines. In all, a great kit. Once the F-51 is finished, I have two more P-51D's in my stash, I did not realise that there was another one of these starter set Mustangs there to. The kit cannot be faulted, well done Airfix, can't wait to see what the Vampire I have is like to build! So here are the photos of the finished model.

F-51D & P-51D Dual Build WIP #1

Well, I needed a little break from the F40, so I dug out these two great kits from Airfix. I also have one of the Red Tails Mustangs to, but that is packed away in a box up in the loft still along with an old P-51B from Airfix. The RAF Mustang is one of the starter sets, but the paints are not being used, I do not think they are any good. So, both are the same kit, except the F-51 has an extra sprue included containing a different propeller, missiles and bombs. 

Construction has been done on both models at the same time, this also continued onto painting the interiors on them. Airfix have produced a nice kit with these Mustangs, the detail inside and out is clean and crisp. My only gripe with them has been that the control sticks and masts are very fragile, easily snap when cleaning them up. I have had to make a new control stick for one of them from wire with a blob of superglue on the end. The masts, well, tried to clean one up and SNAP! So I am leaving them other one on the sprue to use it as a pattern to make two out of plaststrut. 

The interior was sprayed with Mr Hobby's H58 interior green then brush painted the detail. Once all of the detail painting was completed, I went over the interior with some of Vallejo's Game Color black wash to tone things down. To finish off the interior, I added the decal containing the dials.

Assembling the fuselages were a dream, no issues aligning them up and minimal effort to cleaning the joints. It was the same with the main wings, remembering to drill the holes for the pylons and for the missile carriers on the F-51. After the first one was finished, assembling the second was even quicker. Well done Airfix, you have done yourselves proud with this tooling!

Onto painting now. As the F-51 is going to be in natural metal finish, I will be using Alclad for this job. First I sprayed the model with Alclad's gloss black base, then went over it with their honey primer. The P-51 will be painted using Xtracrylix paints, so I used the grey primer from Alclad on this model. I think these are some of the best model primers around to use.

The stage as it was last night. The F-51 had been painted. The whole model was sprayed with Alclad's airframe aluminium, before certain panels were picked out with duraluminium, dull aluminium and dark aluminium. To finish off, I sprayed the model with the gloss clear from Alclad to protect the finish. More progress on these two later.

Ferrari F40 "Blackstar" WIP #7

What a busy week it has been. The chassis and interior on the F40 are both completed now. Just spending that little bit extra on the seats putting the rounded off edges has made the difference on them in this scale. As you can see in the following photos, the seats had three extra holes drilled for the seat belts to go through as in a 5 point harness set up. But I have only installed 4 point harnesses on the model just as you find on the real F40's. 

For mounting the harnesses in the model, I have made some anchor loops out of wire and fitted them behind the seats on the bulkhead and the floor either sides of the seats. For securing the belts to these loops, I made a set of buckles to hook onto these from some plasticard. They are not perfect and if there were some etched ones available, I would have got them. But they are passable and not in clear view of anyone looking at the model. There seems to be more aftermarket items available for 1/12th and 1/20th scale cars then 1/16th, which is a shame due to the amount of models available in this scale.

Well, back to the F40. As you can see, the chassis is all completed and I am just waiting for the body to be finished off. I have started to clear it now, but it still needs a few more coats before I am happy with it. But I have decided to have a short break from it for a week. So I have dug out two of the great Airfix Mustangs in 1/72nd scale and build them side by side. I will post about these two tomorrow.