Revell P-51D Mustang - 2nd time around

[BlrwestSiR]

Peter, it hadn't crossed my mind that they wouldn't be available in the US.  It is strange since they've been here in Canada for at least a couple years now.

TBH, I just use Mr Color Leveling thinner as it's about a 1/3 cheaper compared to the Tamiya. 

Carl

[Peterpools]

Carl

Pretty much what I I use and no complaints. Just thought some of the ewer Tamiya products might work a bit better on their LP range of paints.

Peter

[Peterpools]

NMF ... Moving Forward

12/10/21

Making some mighty nice progress on the painting front and after allowing the AK 479 Aluminum to dry for a good two days, it was time to apply the Alclad ALC 116 Semi Matte Aluminum and see how close it would come to replicating the Mustangs’ painted wings. Surely seems as if I used more then a boat load of Tamiya Masking tape on the wings and parts of the fuselage, which consumed hours of cutting and applying the tape.

My basic plan was to use drawings done by J.R. Helig I found on various sites plus the same drawings posted by Jennings on LSP. This would show what parts of the wings were painted and which were not. I was hoping the Alclad would do a good job of representing the painted portions of the wings and after painting just the upper wings: success – the look was perfect. I gave the wings a good 24 hours to dry and then did a complete re-mask and shot the under sides of the wings. Gear doors were not painted and I only used them as a holding point when moving the P-51. When the model is ready for the gear to be installed, I’ll remove the gear doors, cut them apart and go through the NMF procedure on them as well.   

While letting the wings dry for a few hours, I decided to mask and paint the Mustangs’ tail with Tamiya XF3 Flat Yellow. The more I looked at the yellow tail, I should have used either MIG or Mr Color, as the yellow was just too flat for my tastes. Thinking of my options right now.

Next Up:

Wing ID bands and the Big Red Nose.

Thanks for checking in

Keep ‘em comin

Peter

 

Ammo Bay Doors: I looked a a boat load of WWII photos and from what I could tell, the ammo bay doors were painted with the wings and were the same color. Of course, loads of dirt, grime and wear would be seen around them but they were not left as unpainted aluminum.

 

Gear doors will be removed, cut apart, stripped and a new NMF applied when I'm up to adding the landing gear.

 

[harv]

Looking really good  !.....harv 

[DocRob]

Very nice silver bird, Peter. The yellow tail looks very prominent now, but with the decals on, it will blend better.

Cheers Rob

[GusMac]

Nice job with the coverage on the yellow Peter. My least favourite colour to airbrush I think.

[Peterpools]

Thanks Rob

Making progress a bit each day, as masking has been taking up a good deal more time then I originally thought. It's been a very long time since I attempted a NMF, which necessitated a lot of go backs and redos. Slowly but surely I'm pushing ahead and in a week or so, I'm hoping the paint work to be finished for this stage of the build.

Keep 'em comin

Peter

[Peterpools]

Thanks Gus and I completely agree, yellow is a bear to apply but I was lucky, that going over a NMF, it's light enough in color as to not effect the yellow's coverage a lot.

Keep 'em comin

Peter

[Peterpools]

10 hours ago, harv said:

Looking really good  !.....harv 

Thanks Harv

Much appreciated. Getting there slowly but surely.

Keep ‘em comin

Peter

[Kaireckstadt]

Great work with the yellow tail Peter. 
Yellow is always a challenge like the triangles on my Mirage.
The tail is really an eyecatcher as will be the complete livery. 
Keep` em coming like you always say!

[Peterpools]

Thanks Kai

Right with you - yellow some how always offers up a set of issues all of it’s own. Of course when I was just about ready to start shooting the tail, I asked myself: you couldn’t find a scheme that didn’t have a yellow tail? Luckily all worked out.

Keep ‘em comin

Peter

[GazzaS]

Very nice, Peter.  Wet sanding that Tamiya matte with 3k-12k grit can help a lot.  Have to be gentle, though.

[Bomber_County]

Peter, sublime as ever, I’m having one months, where my modelling skills are going backwards……..looking forward to the next instalment……

[Peterpools]

Thanks Gaz

Completely agree - always a very gentle touch when wet sanding and smoothing any imperfections out.

Keep 'em comin

Peter

[Peterpools]

Phil

I've run into the same more times then I care to admit. For me, the solutions seems to be to take a few days off, walk away and do nothing more then think about went went south, why and how to fix it. I've gone back and either have redone or fixed a lot of the work on the Mustang including the paint work. Two days ago, the NMF on the fuselage kept telling me something wasn't right and I couldn't figure it out but it just kept bothering me. The more I thought about it, the more I knew something wasn't right and then the light bulb turned on 💡: there were shade streaking in the finish on some panels. My plan was to polish out those panels using the Gravity Polishing System car modelers use and then I would re-shot those panels. I was a happy camper and while I had to back track for a few days, problem solved (which I missed when air brushing the first round) and now I'm moving ahead. Just took a bit of moxie to polished out the panels as there was a chance, I could mess it up and have top start over.

Keep 'em comin

Peter   

[Peterpools]

ADDING COLOR

12/16/21

Pushing ahead with adding all the various colors and that means a boat load of masking needs to be done for each color.

Yellow: what a bear and it didn’t go as well as expected, as the yellow: Tamiya XF3 Flat Yellow that was shot over the tail feathers just looked bleached out after I masked and shot on the ID Wing Bands. The yellow is very translucent and the under-color base greatly effects the color hue. The yellow on the tail surfaces was over AK Aluminum and the yellow ID wing bands were over Alcald Semi Matte Aluminum and that alone effected the final color so much more then I expected. Nothing else to do but re-mask the tail, a light polish sanding with 8,000 and then 12,000 micro mesh and re-shoot the tail. The results are much better but still too translucent. What I should have done was re-prime with white and then the yellow but the Mustang is starting to wear me out abit.   

Red: having seen how the base coat color would affect the final paint color, I wanted the prop hub and red nose area on the tip of the fuselage to be exactly the same shade, as they are smack dab next to each other, so I first air brushed the two piece hub AK Aluminum and then followed up with MRP Red and it’s was a perfect match to the fuselage red; thank goodness something went right.  

The prop still needed a bit more polishing as I was able to see some very slight scratches after the first priming (a definite drawback to Revell’s soft plastic) and I spent some time stripping the paint off, re-polishing each of the four prop blades and then the gray primer was applied once again. Finally finished off the prop with Tamiya LP1 Gloss Black, which will eliminate the need to gloss the prop prior to decaling. Still need to paint the tips yellow – my favorite color.

The OD Glare Panel was tackled next. I struggled to mask off the antiglare panel evenly on both sides as there were no panel lines to use for a masking guide. I needed to fuss a bit masking the front of the wind screen but all should be OK, or so I thought. My plan all along was to pop of the front windscreen off and reposition it before painting and guess who didn’t follow the plan? Hopefully I won’t need to pop it off now but we’ll see how it goes.  The antiglare panel was painted with Hataka CO65 OD thinned with their own lacquer thinner – excellent results, smooth and no issues.

Next up:

All the gear and getting the Mustang on her feet.

Thanks for checking in

Keep ‘em comin

Peter

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harv]

Purdy....harv

[Peterpools]

Thanks Harv

Getting there slowly but surely

Keep 'em comin

Peter

[Kaireckstadt]

Great looking progress Peter. This will really be a colorful bird. I love these bare metal schemes. 

[KevinM]

She's a pretty girl isn't she

[GazzaS]

Exceptional masking and painting, Peter.

[DocRob]

Nice Peter, The red front is balancing the yellow tail, that looks tres cool. Since you've solved the bright color issues, there should be no more obstacles in finishing the Mustang. Painting yellow can be a nightmare. I tend to prime a thin white coat under yellow, at least, if there are different colored underlayers, like with your bird. 
Tamiya X and XF-Yellow are very translucent and on my first try, I liked the AK RC color yellow better for opacity.

Cheers Rob

[Bomber_County]

Very pretty Peter, yellow is a bear to make it look solid but no problem for the maestro……..looking forward to decals now……

[Peterpools]

Thanks Kai

Finally things are coming together and I've had to do a lot of backtracking, redo's light buffing and polishing. The yellow has been a bear at best and I've now done the tail twice and what it is , it is. Next up, I need to add some of the various assorted colored NMF panels and install the gear.

Keep 'em comin

Peter 

[Peterpools]

Thanks Kev

That she is .. one gorgeous looking gal for sure.

Keep 'em comin

Peter