North American P-51D Mustang Red Tail - Airfix 1/72

[Ziper_it]

Hi,

Needed to do more practice with my AB, so before moving on with my choppers (have many in the stash: AW101, AB212, Mi35, MH53) I decided to do another small exercise.

For this I chosen a simple and cheap kit from Airfix that however has nothing to envy to oriental kits. Yes, it will be all NM with some masking required (I will paint all the stripes) so a good exercise.

Here's the box

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the kit

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and the status so far

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I'm almost ready to close the fuselage, just have to decide if I want to use the decals or rebuild the IP (that was the plan).

I thought to use Citadel Mithril Silver for painting but I'm very tempted to try the Alclad.

Suggestions in these two points?

Thanks,

Francesco

 

[stona]

Looks good, particularly at 1/72.

I'd stick a decal on the IP. Once you close everything up it will not be very visible anyway.

I've never used the Citadel colours, though I know that they are highly regarded. I use Alclad all the time and find it gives a good finish over my usual grey primer. I only use a gloss black primer for highly polished finishes like this.



It's easy to spray too.

Cheers

Steve

 

[Ziper_it]

Thanks Stona, and a WOW! for your model.

I'm more and more tempted on the Alclad. If I go this way I'd like to use airframe aluminum for the fuselage and burnt iron for the panel around the exhaust outlet, but I'm not sure if I should use another color for the wings that were painted. From what I understood the tamiya primer I usually use should be fine, can you confirm this? Other colors (stripes, red tail) should be done before or I can mask over Alclad?

Thanks,

Francesco

 

[Ziper_it]

Ops, for the IP thanks for the suggestion but I'm afraid it's too late.

I've already done this ...

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Francesco

 

[Ziper_it]

Now complete, ready to close the fuselage.

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Francesco

 

[stona]

Good job on the IP.

Your usual grey primer should be fine. Alclad is quite "hot". If you spill it on plastic it will etch it......I found out the hard way!

When you apply it you should apply very light coats. It dries very quickly so you can build it up without really wetting the model. I've masked over various Alclads with Tamiya tape with no problem though others do seem to have found it fragile. That I can't explain.

The Alclad was sprayed first on the underside of this Fw 190 D.



Then masked before spraying the RLM 82.



The wings of the P-51 were indeed painted in an aluminium paint. I have seen this simulated by adding a drop or two of grey paint (lacquer or enamel) to the Alclad. I sometimes create a darker shade by tinting Alclad with the addition of a drop or two of black paint so I know it works

Cheers

Steve

 

[colin m]

I bought this one for daughter No 2 after watching the film with her. It's been sat here a year covered in dust ! Anyway, looks like a nice kit, and you're doing a great job on it.

Colin M..

 

[Ziper_it]

Thank you guys.

BTW I tried it on landing gear an it worked fine. Only point is that I wasn't able to clean the AB with turpentine, despite what I read on another forum. Still brushing it inside to get it clean!

@Steve,

Did you mix with which brand? I suppose I cannot mix with Gunze as it is not really a laquer, can I

Francesco

 

[Doug Hughes]

Holy smoke! I had to check back to the top of the thread to check the scale - fantastic detail in 1:72.

 

[stona]

@Steve,

Did you mix with which brand? I suppose I cannot mix with Gunze as it is not really a laquer, can I

Francesco

I would have used either Humbrol or White Ensign enamel paints. I can't say anything about the Gunze paints as I've never used them.

Cheers

Steve

 

[Ziper_it]

Thank you guys for your suggestions and nice comments.

Francesco

 

[Ziper_it]

Short update: fuselage is closed now, some sanding ongoing. The need for putty was minimal, just few drops of Mr. Surfacer here and there on the joints. However had to fix some imperfections on the fuselage and wings due to the not perfect injection.

Francesco

Francesco

 

[Ziper_it]

Primed, still sanding as on the fuselage there are few flaws from molding.

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Francesco

 

[flyjoe180]

Nice work Francesco, I like this one. I have the 1/72 F-51D kit, looking forward to building that one.

 

[Ziper_it]

Nice work Francesco, I like this one. I have the 1/72 F-51D kit, looking forward to building that one.

Thanks Joe and guys.

Being used with Citadel red I did a mistake and sprayed the Gunze red directly over the grey primer, here's the result.

When wet the color looked good, I may try to put some transparent on it (I will try first on the LG cover) and see if the red comes back.

What would you do, respray white then red then alu or alu (then white?) then red then transparent?

Francesco

Edit: I reread this post and realized I was not clear. Basically the red is not intense as I would have expected but more like a purple. So now I have to fix that.

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[eddiesolo]

Looking good there Francesco, this is turning into a lovely tidy build.

Si

 

[Ziper_it]

Looking good there Francesco, this is turning into a lovely tidy build.Si

Thanks Si, really appreciate.

Francesco

 

[mobear]

very nicely done,and in 1/72 really clean

mobear

 

[Ziper_it]

Thank you mobar.

So I removed all the paint and restarted with the Alclad.

I followed the suggestion from Steve and mixed it to define some panels. Now, I don't know if Alclad can be mixed with Gunze but this is what you get:

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Thanks Steve.

One question: can someone of the Alclad experts can help me to understand what happened here and how I can recover it?

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I got few of these spots but I don't know if it is too much paint or a not-well-prepared base. I tried to polish it with some Tamiya compound and resprayed slightly and been able to recover some, but I didn't want to insist and risk to do a bigger damage.

Francesco

 

[Ziper_it]

Yellow bands on wing top are done, mini preview for you mates.

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I will probably fade a little bit more the panel on the side.