1/48 P-51D Improving the Tamiya Kit (Tutorial) DONE

[LyleW]

nicely done, sir.

[Adam]

I'm loving this tutorial. I hate those guns. I would also be interested in where you source the tubing. I keep hearing people talk about using all different kinds of tubing but no one ever says, "Yeah you just go to tubes.com and order it."

[lawdog114]

Sorry... Here's the tubing and where I got it...

http://store.spruebrothers.com/product_p/albsft1.htm

It's easy to cut too. Put it on a piece of glass, roll an Exacto over it a few times, then snap it.

Joe

[Adam]

Awesome. Thanks Joe.

[Fermis]

I'm loving this tutorial. I hate those guns. I would also be interested in where you source the tubing. I keep hearing people talk about using all different kinds of tubing but no one ever says, "Yeah you just go to tubes.com and order it."

You might check your local hardware store also! (brass and alum.)
My LH/WS has it for cheaper than my LHS....and they're only 5 mins away...as opposed to an hour round trip.

[lawdog114]

Thanks alI. Fermis, I never thought of that. I will do so. I may find it in bulk.

I'm in for an update. I managed to get quite a bit of work in over the past few days. I decided on Urban Drew's "Detroit Miss" from the 361st FG. Drew was a 6 kill ace and on October 7th of 1944, he flamed two ME 262 jets in this turkey.



Since this is gonna be an Alclad NMF, I had to make sure the seam work was good. I sprayed it with Alclad Grey primer. I found few areas that needed more work, but nothing major. Some folks prime with gloss black but not me, I tend to go for a war-weary look, so the extra sparkle to the NMF isn't needed.




I use the Duraluminum as my base color. Its the perfect "combat" shade to my eye...not too shiney or too dull. With Alclad, I spray it at about 15 psi and get in close so it goes on wet. Despite my best efforts, I still get "pebbling" at the wing roots, never fails. This is fixed with a few swipes of 1200 sandpaper then another burst of Alclad......no big whoop. I decided not to paint the nose which will be yellow.




Now for my favorite part, adding different shades to various panels. Its a matter of taping them off and spraying. I used Magnesium on the gun doors and that promiment panel directly aft the exhaust stubs. I left the main wings straight Aluminum because they were painted as such at the factory. Technically the panel lines should be filled in to preserve the "Laminarflow" , but I forgot to do so and when I remembered, it was too late. The fuselage is a virtual patchwork of Aluminum, Semi Matte Aluminum, Dark Aluminum which is pleasing to my eye.




Next I started taping off for the markings. There's no need to worry about taping over Alclad's normal shades, its very durable. Do refrain on their highly polished stuff though. It's a tad more fragile, but stil better than that metalizer crap by Model Master. The airframe was then painted per reference. I've seen some images of red machine gun panels and others without, I liked the red so I went with it.




It was then grimed up with a post shade, particularly around the exhausts and guns. I also added a bit in the white of the invasion stripes. This is perliminary and it will get more later. Everything then got a coat of Alclad Gloss for decals. I have Detroit Miss markings in a Hasegawa kit in the stash. I may use these or get the Aeromaster sheet.



Joe

[Fermis]

Niiiiice!!!

[LyleW]

Very Nice - what Fermis said.

[Adam]

That looks sweet!

You don't get any tape marks in the Alclad? Interesting. Even with several coats of sealer I always manage to get tape marks somewhere with the Metalizer stuff.