Eduard P-51D Mustang Shu Shu; UPDATE: 5/26/24: READY FOR PRIMING - ALMOST

[Peterpools]

EDUARD P-51D MUSTANG

Shu Shu

Maj. Norman M. McDonald, CO 318^th FS, 325^th FG, 15^th AF

Mondolfo, Italy April 1945

The Kit

Shu Shu

My next project is one of the Mustangs from Eduard’s Limited Run Red Tails & Company Dual set. Initial review of the parts; the details are amazing, with masks and PE included but no resin parts as this is not a Profi Line kit. 

My build plans are for an OOB build with a NMF fuselage and lacquer painted aluminum wings. There are no rivets at all on the wings but there are the major panel lines, which I plan right now on leaving. Decals are Eduards new style and I’m planning on removing the carrier film from the fuselage but not removing it on the rest of the Mustang.

Finish is going to be a combination of Alclad and AK Metallics and Vallejo Metallics for the wings right now.

Starting work later today.

 

[JohnB]

Nice choice Peter. Will make a eye catcher!

[Peterpools]

Thanks John

I once saw a 32nd scale Hasegawa kit on display at the old Squadron Shop in Syosset with this scheme and always wanted to build a Mustang with this scheme. 

 

[CANicoll]

I have the same kit so looking forward to your work, especially with the decals.  You've worked with them before to great effect. The scheme is definitely eye catching.

[Peterpools]

Thanks Chris, completely agree, Shu Shu should be an eye catcher for sure. Yup, I've used Eduards new style decals before and no issues at all. If use in the traditional manor, they are applied as always. Removing the carrier film is an extra added bonus if needed.

 

 

[Landlubber Mike]

I'm in for this one!  What a great scheme!

[Peterpools]

Thanks Mike .. right with you and love the scheme. Underway with the front office and hoping to have that part of the build finished this weekend.

 

 

[Peterpools]

THE FRONT OFFICE 

The more time I spent working on the front office and marveled at the details, I am constantly being reminded of all the Tamiya 32^nd scale Mustangs I’ve built – Eduard's detail and molding is that good for 48th scale. Molded parts are crisp and detailed, enhanced with an excellent painted cockpit PE set. 

No resin is included and that’s fine. I did add some Quinta details to the office from my spares box including the seatbelts and harnesses as I wasn’t crazy about the PE ones. With PE, I prefer to glue them in place prior to painting and then would need to struggle to hand paint them. I just replaced them with Quinta’s offering.

I used a host of paints for the front office, both airbrushed and brush painted:

MRP, AK Real Colors, Model Air, Tamiya Acrylics, Ammo by Mig and AK Metallics, all were applied over a base MRP Black Primer. Loads of dry brushing to bring out the incredible details with Tamiya Sky and Medium Gray.

To help with the blacks, both the fuel tank and office floor were painted with Tamiya Rubber Black as these parts were part rubber to start with.

The IP and rudder pedal assemblies are finished as well but are to be added much later in the build.

Even though all my other Eduard Mustangs have PE frets included with the kits, I’ll be adding the appropriate Quinta sets as well.

 

    

 

[Landlubber Mike]

This is looking really great Peter.  You've made a lot of details pop!  I particularly like the brown leather housing for the control yoke!

[Peterpools]

Thanks Mike, very much appreciate. The boot does have some character and unfortunately, as soon as I close up the fuselage, never to be seen again. Just fun doing it and knowing it's there.

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[DocRob]

Your interior looks great, Peter. Good to hear about the quality of Eduard´s Mustangs. I´m considering buying the P-51 Royal Class boxing of their P-51-B

Cheers Rob

[Peterpools]

Thanks Rob, much appreciated.

I've also been eying that kit as well as their dual boxing set for the P-51B Overlord set.  The Royal boxing seems to be a better option as it comes with the SPace IP set, resin, foam masking for the gear bays and the medallion - all of which the dual boxing doesn't include.  I used the PE set (included in both kits) for the IP and detailing and it just isn't in the league of 3D resin sets.

  

[JohnB]

Coming along well Peter. Nice cockpit!

[Peterpools]

Thanks John, so far so good. While Eduard's details are as impressive as Tamiya, I've reached the wing and fuselage assembly point and here, fit still goes to Tamiya at this stage of the game.

[Peterpools]

READY FOR PRIMING (ALMOST)

With the front office and interior completed, I was ready to close up the fuselage.  

The wings leading edges were a bit finicky to glue up in front of the gear bays due to the top of the gear bays being flush up against the upper wing panels – just no wiggle room at all. Once done, the wings were joined to the fuselage, while not perfect, needing some tweaking and sanding, most likely due to the builder efforts.

Tailplanes and the rudder were added and the seams needing a bit of filler. The IP and rudder pedals were now added and the front windscreen needed a lot of tweaking to fit and is now glued in place. An excellent Eduard canopy mask set is included with the kit and ready to go.

The kit includes three sets of canopies, all look almost identical and all three were broken off Eduard's round style clear parts fret and just rolling around in the clear bag, including the front windscreen. I needed to identify the correct canopy for the version I am building, identify the second one for the -5 version I plan on building down the road and the last one will be a paint/masking mule. I spent some time online researching the history of Mustang canopies, learned a lot and was able to figure out which canopy should be with which version. I did discover that both the Inglewood and Dallas canopies did find their way onto other Mustang variants after delivery over time as replacements.

Ready for priming - almost.    

 

 

 

[JohnB]

Looks good Peter. I think it was very common to see canopies and other parts from different builders on various other Mustangs since, I think, they were interchangeable. Must have made the replacement situation good for the maintenance folks.

[Peterpools]

Thanks John.

You hit it right on the head as the more I researched the canopy issue, that's exactly what happened.

It seems the later styles of canopies were curved more on the sides, increasing the pilots' side and downward views and the peak of the canopy was moved forward, adding to the pilots' comfort and headroom. 

 

[CANicoll]

Peter, still amazed at the amount of detail you are able to pull out of the Eduard kit.  I agree that their 1/48 efforts are terrific but you continue to make the best of a terrific kit. Excellent shading on the fuselage fuel tank - nice work!  I've gone through the same canopy challenge.  Especially in 1/48 the differences are so small.

[DocRob]

Neat and clean, Peter, she looks like a nice Mustang right now. Good you figured the canopy types. I have only the Zoukei Moura Mustang, where the three different canopies are described in the manual. You may want to look for. The manual is available on Scalemates.

272083-44-instructions.pdf (scalemates.com)

Cheers Rob

[Peterpools]

Thanks Chris, very much appreciated. Glad my very light/slight weathering efforts paid off and for the most part, the kit is terrific. Been really fussing with the windscreen as I must have done something amiss as there a few fit issues - but I'm working on it.

 

[Peterpools]

Thanks Rob so much. I'll check out the instructions on Scalemates to make sure I have it sorted out correctly.

Just over on Scalemates and downloaded the instructions - excellent info.  - Thanks Rob for the heads up.