| I
find that most all the hard work is finished. The fuselage is together, and
the elevators are installed. The wings are completed, and you can seen many
thousands of rivet's applied to the model. I think there were over 700 rivet
applied to the right top wing. There could have been more on the bottom, but I
have forgot. I counted some on the fuselage and tail plane. With a safety
margin built-in, there's over 5,000 of them ! |
| Click
on image below to see larger image |
|
|
With the fuselage glued together, it's time to revise all openings,
fill panel lines and sand the model using 320 to 1200 grit sandpaper.
|
|
Click
on images below to see larger images |
 |
 |
|
|
| Photos to
left show
the before and after sequence on the oil cooler vent and the cut-out in
the wing root for the flaps, which will be installed in the down
position. |
|
| This photo to the right shows
the aft section of the water radiator vent and the tail wheel opening.
And the photo below it shows
a section of the fuselage in the finish process. To accomplish this
I used the following method. After the fuselage has been sanded with
1200 grit, apply a flat black wash. This thin wash dries very
quickly allowing sanding to be done within an hour. Use 1200 grit
paper for this procedure. This method shows any and all flaws on the
model which may then be corrected.
Next using an
airbrush, mist on a medium coat of Tamiya's flat black covering the entire
fuselage. Then mark off where each panel line is to be |
|
| scribed using 0.5mm
diameter / Hg lead in a retractable lead pencil. Different pieces of
.005" thick aluminum, sheet styrene - with different widths - and a 6"
steel ruler are used as templates. Once these Templates are positioned
correctly and taped to the model, draw all the panel lines on top of the flat
black paint. This leaves a gray/silver looking line. |
Scribing begins by re-taping the templates to the
pencil lines one at a time. To scribe in the panel lines, which go
around the fuselage, use 1/16" wide strips of Scotch 3-M #218
fine-line masking tape. The tape is butted up to the pencil line on
both sides, leaving a small gap about 1/64" wide between the
tape. This gap allows entry for your scribing tool, so you can cut
out the plastic. If you do not leave this gap, you will not be able to scribe-in the panel lines
properly.
For 1/32 scale, I make 2 passes with my scribing tool. As you
scribe the panel lines over the black paint you can tell how much plastic
you are removing, as the kit plastic is light gray in color. This
most helpful method gives you consistency in the width and depth of each
panel line.
I used the Bare Metal Foil #3 and the Clev-Dent #13 scribing
tools. The Clev-Dent is a dental pick and is similar to the Bare
Metal tool. For scribing the access doors I use (in one of my
pin-vises) a broken .015" diameter drill bit sharpened to a fine
point. Some people will use a sewing needle for this as well.
| Since I had already finished the tail plane to include "all" the
rivets they must then be added to the fuselage. As a side note, this is
the first time I ever applied "all" the rivets to a model. The rivet lines are drawn on over the black
paint and one by one they were added using the .015" drill bit with the
sharp point. |
|
All the flat black paint is sanded off showing the
results. A few minor screw-ups made for some panel line and rivet
repairs. Another thin flat black wash was applied with a brush to the
fuselage and then resanded. No more flaws were found, so on to the next
step.
The kit windscreen and vacuformed canopy
had been
sanded down with 2000 grit, polished out with "Blue Magic" and dipped
into "Future" They had been drying for a few weeks, so it was
time to apply the pre-cut frisket film on the inside of the windscreen and mask
off the inside of the canopy, so that the flat black Tamiya paint could be
applied.
After removing
the frisket film, the windscreen was attached to the fuselage and sanded with
1500 grit and the rivets added. The windscreen was then resanded using
1500 & 2000 grit and polished out with "Blue Magic". Then
the exterior of the canopy was masked off and the "SnJ Bare Metal"
aluminum paint applied.
|
Click on images below to
see larger images |
 |
 |
With the
fuselage finished it's now time to start on the wing. The complete
ailerons are molded into the top and bottom sections of the wings. The
ailerons were removed first and revised, including the trim tabs. Photos
below shows both ends of the flaps.
| The kit 108 gal. drop tanks were revised and new
accurate pylons including the sway braces were made. Photos below show one tank painted black with some panel lines scribed in using the fine
line tape. |
Click on
image below to
see larger image |
 |
 |
|
|
Necessary revisions to the kit tires/rims and the kits
four doors were also made.
|
|
Click on images below to
see larger images |
 |
 |
|
The landing
light, pitot tube, door hinges and the hydraulic actuator for the main gear doors were scratch built.
The small springs in (found in different locations in the wheel
wells) are made by wrapping .005" copper wire around a .010" diameter
steel wire chucked into a pin vise. Once there are enough wraps, the
coiled wire is compressed together and removed from the steel wire. The
wire is then stretched out to show the coils and cut to it's proper
length. Then bend the ends in a half moon circle making a hook on each
end. These hooked ends are carefully attached to their locations.
What can be said about the wheel well
in a P-51D
Mustang...other than it's a complicated project. Taking just over 200
hours to build in all of the items I think it best to "LET THE PICTURES
TELL THE STORY".
For the main landing gear a master was made, then an
RTV mold, and finally the cast parts on a tree. All that had to be done
was cut the parts from the tree, file, sand, drill in the necessary holes and
assemble the main landing gears. It took about 17 hours to build each
one.
|
Click on image to
right to see larger image |
A penny for your thoughts. "Guess where all
those 13 (big) parts go?
Yes! the parts in this photo went into the wheel wells in photo.
|
|
Happy modelling
Rodney
|
