1/72 RNZAF Mustang, Airfix + Verlinden

[mumbles]

Apologies for the repost for those who have seen this on other fora!

My latest Mustang build, prompted by the suggestion that I take the other four to the IPMS Nationals in Christchurch last weekend, and the minimum number for a collection is five

This was actually the original concept that sparked off all of my Mustang builds this year. Initially it was going to be the Flying Kiwis (older Hasegawa) kit being dressed up and built on it's own, but one thing led to another and the FK kit is still in the stash while now five of the Airfix moulding are looking for space on my shelves. This is the Airfix F-51D kit with the nose cowlings cut off, and the resin engine from Verlinden's P-51D upgrade set installed in their place. Decals are by Ventura. I'm also at the point where I can build Airfix's Mustang without once referring to the instructions (or even taking them out of the box in this case). I've also built up a reasonable spares holding of rockets, bombs and drop tanks, so if anyone wants any drop me a line. The rest of the upgrade set (cockpit and gun-bay) will probably go into the Hasegawa at some point.

Being designed for a different kit means the engine doesn't quite fit perfectly, and my example was slightly warped, which meant a lot of fettling and shimming beyond the drop-in cut and shut it appears to be. There is still a gap at the bottom that isn't there in the real thing, but I managed to make look like it should be there on the model hopefully The engine is a lovely casting, even if it has the cowling frame running behind the engine bearers at one point. Some detachable sections of the cowling frame are also missing. Verlinden also provided some wiring presumably to add to the engine, but no instructions to place it, and I couldn't find anything that wasn't already on the casting or too small to bother with in 1/72. Shrug.

I made a new radio mast from plastic sheet, and added seat straps from tape, but apart from the engine the rest of the build is out of the box.

Puttied wings as per the rest (although I've since discovered that NZ2413 would have had the putty removed for the timeframe I depicted it), Tamiya gloss aluminium and Rub n Buff with a very thin coat of Future/Klear for the factory finish, and flat aluminium on the rudder.













Handy tip: if you want NMF finishes to show up really well in photos, just underexpose them a little




And with it's four predecessors:


Thanks for looking

[dewobz]

That's really good. Well done.
This Airfix kit, which I gather is re-tooled, looks like a cracker.

[Dave Homewood]

Nice work!

[camtech]

Classic models of a classic aircraft.

[pjw4118]

Beautiful finish Mummbles , you have sparked the kit bug in me again . But glue in my hand seems to come alive and is found in places I am sure I didnt touch.

[flyjoe180]

Wow, more amazing results from your P-51 stable Sam. Awesome work, that engine looks the business. A great build and beautifully finished.

[mumbles]

Thankyou everyone

I took the collection of 5 down to Christchurch for the IPMS nationals two weeks ago(which was one of the reasons this newest one got built, after I took the other 4 to my local IPMS club night and the president suggested they'd look good on a table there) and the came away with a silver ribbon, not inappropriate given the finish

[TS]

Take a bow sir ... Well Done.

[planecrazy]

Like the exposed engine look, is that scratch built or does the kit come like that!

[mumbles]

Oct 21, 2014 22:22:17 GMT 12 planecrazy said:

Like the exposed engine look, is that scratch built or does the kit come like that!

Cheers. It's a resin part from an aftermarket set (the Verlinden bit), and looks like this before you add the engine bearers and cowling frame:



To add it you cut up the fuselage along the cowling lines like so:






Apart from the surgery I didn't add any detail beyond what was provided in the set.

[mumbles]

Oct 10, 2014 8:02:59 GMT 12 dewobz said:

That's really good. Well done.
This Airfix kit, which I gather is re-tooled, looks like a cracker.

It's got one or two minor flaws (no showstoppers), but for sheer value it can't be beat. Apart from the engine and decals all I have added to these models detail wise is seat straps. One has an aerial mast built from plastic card since the kit one was unusable but that's it.

The flaws I've noted are:
-Badly placed sprue gates on the control column and aerial mast, meaning these parts are either hard to remove or unusable.
-Undercarriage legs seem to be a bit warp prone.
-There is a minor moulding error with the elevator hinge line (the mass balance is moulded as part of the tailplane), easily fixed but also only noticeable if you are looking for it.

None of these have stopped me building five of them or thinking it's a great kit in terms of value for money at less than $20 for the F-51, and less than $15 usually for the series 1 P-51 boxing. The F-51 boxing also enables you to build an RNZAF machine more or less out of the box, as it includes the uncuffed prop and rockets with the stub pylons.