). 
When I set out to build the M, I knew I wanted one that had a 262 kill, so I chose the markings of the "Ugly Duckling", flown by Col. George Bostwick of the 56th FG/63rd FS. Bostwick was an 8 kill ace to include an ME 262 jet. The 56th FG was the only FG to get the "hot rod" Thunderbolts and they scored 4 ME 262 kills. Bostwick's came on March 25th 1945 when he caught one with his 8 fifies as it was taking off. The kit came with Bostwick's markings.
I started with the cockpit. Other than seatbelts, it needs nothing. Tamiya did a beautiful job here. Resin would be a complete waste of money. The kit offers decal seatbelts but I prefer to raid my photoetch stash for the belts. It seems to be dwindling and I was short one lap belt. I guess I'll pretend the starboard belt is hanging down the side of the seat out of view. Anyways, I used the kit recommended XF-5 Flat Green and XF-8 Flat Blue mix to simulate Republic Dull Dark Green. Of course I tweaked it to my eye. I used the kit decal for the instrument panel which sat perfectly in the bezels under Micro Sol. No need for PE here either.
I decided to make a Oxygen hose out of fuse wire coiled around a needle to detract from the missing lap belt. Not too shabby eh?
I worked the fillets from the inside to avoid distrurbing the panel lines. I learned this from a previous bubble top build.
I then turned my attention to the PW R-2800-57 engine. This thing just cries for detailing. I scratchbuilt an ignition harness and here's how I did it. All you need is the following supplies and some superglue.
I started by painting the cylinders Alclad Dark Aluminum and the gear box XF-53 Neutral Grey. The instructions call out the wrong magnetos and it was unfortunately too late for me. Oh well. I fabricated a ignition ring out of .25 styrene rod then added the "points" with .10 rod glue together and sliced (above). It will look like this at this stage.
I then used the speaker wire, cut the length to size, then bent it to go from the "points" to the cylinder. Once you find the right size, dip the tips in superglue and attach them. Heres how it should look.
Once satisfied, the ring was painted Floquil Old Silver and the the wires XF-28 Dark Copper, which seemed to be the most common color for these. After a dusting of Testors Gloss, I then added the Pratt and Whitney decal followed by a detailer wash.
It was finished off with Testor's Dull then a quick blast of full strength X-19 Tamiya Smoke. The smoke gives it a smokey used look.
Much better yeah?
The underside got different shades of Alclad.
For the upper side, I mixed up the Tamiya recommendation of XF-18 Medium Blue, XF-2 Flat White, and X-16 Purple, which is supposed to be similar to Azure Blue. I sprayed it and thought it looked too purple. I added some XF-83 RAF Ocean Grey and liked it better. Once It looked ok to my eye, I added white and made condensation streaks across the wings.
I then used the instructions as a reference and masked off the camo pattern with Blue Tac.
I then mixed up the darked blue. I went with the reccommended XF-17 Sea Blue, XF-1 Flat Black then XF-2 Flat White. It looked too grey to me so I added a touch of XF-8 Flat Blue. I then added more white and streaked this too. Here's how it turned out..
I removed all the tape and gave the air frame a light post shade. I also taped off and sprayed the black band around the cowl. I read some scuttlebutt that this band signified a jet kill, like a badge of honor, but I couldn't verify this. Truth be told, I think it looks silly and kind of detracts from the overall look.
I used a mixture of Superscale and the kit decals. I had some uncharacterist wrinkling on the Superscale fuselage insignias. I just couldn't get a few creases out. I drenched them in Micro Sol now they are barely noticeable. Normally I dont have problems with Superscale. The rudder was done in XF-8 Flat Blue lightened to match the tail codes with XF-2 Flat White.
A Flory wash and Testor's dull coat finished it off. As I've said, the Tamiya Jugs are modeling bliss for me. Pure joy everytime. These are by far my favorite kits and are highly recommended. Ugly Duckling was built mostly out of the box, except for PE seatbelts and Ultracast tires. My research revealed that the 56th did not use wing pylons for extra speed, so I did the same. Of course afterwards I found a pic of this plane with pylons....ugh!. I decided not to retrofit them. I did manage to lose the canopy brace so I robbed one from another M in the stash.
Comments welcome.
Joe
That is a B E A Utiful bird. Thanks for the tips and how-to as well. Most appreciated.
