An (not at all crap...ish) Airfix P-51D

[LyleW]

What Clilnt said. Good call.

[Stikpusher]

I’m sorry to hear about that Stuart, but I understand your reasoning. Time is a most precious commodity, and it feels to be wasted compared to what could be done alternatively, then move on in the better direction.

[mustang1989]

I really hate hearing that for you Stuart. I've had a couple of kits do that to me along the way. The one true kit that I really wanted after a number of years was a 66 Barracuda kit but man.......that kit was dang near un buildable. It would take someone with some BIG time fabrication skills to ever get that thing together. I see that instance mirrored here with yours. Eduard kit?

[midnightprowler]

After seeing this me thinks I'll pass.

[Stuart]

Thanks Gents - having gone for a walk today I had a look at it again to try and figure out where the problem was...

I found I could sort out the wings and tailplane by bending, heat and re-melting the join, but it still looked odd (despite the bent fin). I've realised that the fuselage is actually warped. If you look at the aircraft from the front and draw a horizontal line over the top of the cockpit, and then draw another through the centre of the intake - they're not parallel - the intake actually looks like it's trying to climb up the side of the fuselage. There's actually a twist behind the cockpit

[Stuart]

So it would appear that this is the kit that would not die...



I had a bit of a nasty argument with my wife last night, and although we got it sorted out pretty damn quickly (I never let bad feeling fester) and that it was more to do with her venting her bottled up emotions about herself that anything to do with me (thanks COVID!!!!), come 1am I a bloody evil headache couldn't sleep and needed a bit pf plastic therapy....

...and as this bastard of a kit was still next to the bench, I picked it up and started working on it pretty mindlessly whilst the painkillers kicked in. I started by adding some bits to the wings and some bits to the fuselage, and then I thought whilst I'm doing that I might as well see if I could sort out the warped fuselage - so I hit it with some hot water - before you know it I had progressed pretty and hopefully saved the build. No the warp isn't gone 100%, but as long as you don't look at it directly from the front it's now not noticeable. The intake is still trying to climb up the side, but it's now not too bad and I've lessened the effect even more by some creative fitting of the intake lip. I also had to straighten out the flaps and the ailerons with hot water as they'd bent as well...



But anyway - it REALLY helped my mood and my headache, and now I feel I owe it to this highly annoying bit of plastic to get it finished. Next up is the few bits around the windscreen and then onto (maybe) filling the wing panels. Although I was advised against it by a well respected modeller, I'm going to try to do it with Perfect Plastic Putty. He told me the stuff was crap, BUT, I've been using PPP for about 5 years and I probably know a hell of a lot more about working with it than he does - so I'm going to give it a go.

I've also been wondering about the scheme - I've seen a lot of NMF 'Stangs recently and I really feel like something different - so I'm going to go with an OD over grey scheme and have ordered this set of decals (and my favourite Hataka paints!)...

(I'm obviously going for the bottom one!)



As an aside, I want to apologise to you guys if I've been coming across as a bit negative recently, I've had a pretty rough week in both my part time jobs and trying to sort out that with stuff going on at home as led to down a rather dark path , I've also been hanging out in some pretty negative parts of FB which I don't think has helped.... hopefully normal service will resume shortly. (I took my wife out on a 10 mile hike today which has really helped).

Cheers!

[Stikpusher]

I’m happy to hear that you had a change of heart on this kit. And also that you and your missus sorted things out. The hike was a great way to get the endorphins flowing and set a pleasant frame of mind.

Nice work on meeting the challenges of this project.

[speedgraflex]

There are no apologies necessary at least from my perspective. It is I who should apologize to you, Stuart. I think I took a back seat to following your build, when at the very least I could have added more useful information about the aircraft which I spent months studying and will always be studying in order to understand better how the aircraft was designed.



Your new subject choice - like Old Crow - is one of my favorite schemes. Wonderful choice.

[BorgR3mc0]

Bravo! Perseverance is a great skill! You can be proud Stuart!

[Medicman71]

Glad to see you're back at it!!

Word of advice though, get off Facebook. I hardly get on there anymore cause it's nothing but crap and drama.