Tamiya 1/32 P51D Mustang - Passion Wagon

[BarryW]

I have started work on the main canopy. Three are supplied by Tamiya offering different styles for different options. They are clear and well molded but there is a fine seam along the middle. It can be seen in this picture.
[ATTACH]285116[/ATTACH]

I used different fine' grades of sanding stick to remove the seam and then I dipped the canopy.

The result:
[ATTACH]285117[/ATTACH]
I now need to drill a small hole for the aerial and mask it up.

The aircraft I am building need a small round mirror but none of the options offered by the kit has one. But, taking a good look at the sprues, I found one!!!! You can trust Tamiya San to produce a very comprehensive set of parts with his 1/32s....
[ATTACH]285115[/ATTACH]

I have now removed all parts from their sprues, pulled together my initial sub-assemblies ready for the next painting stage. I have some work on the canopy to do and a seam to sand before I prep the parts for the next paint session.

Here are all the parts done and ready....

[ATTACH]285118[/ATTACH]

[Guest]

Superb work and review.

[BarryW]

My second session with the MRP paints and they did not disappoint. In this session I had 8 colour changes over about 50 miniutes spraying. If this was Vallejo I would have had to stop at least once probably two or three times to clean the airbrush to prevent tip drying. I did not have to stop once and suffered no tip drying at all. All I did was spray a cup or two or i.p.a. between colours. At the end of the session I did a strip clean and once again found the inside of the airbrush a lot cleaner than I would have with the Vallejo. I am using a lot less cotton buds than previously!!!

To be fair only 6 of the colour used were MRP, the other two were AKI metallisers, dark aluminium and titanium. These AKI metalisers share a lot of the same properties as the MRP paint. Given that MRP metalisers are also getting good reviews I will consider swapping to them once my supply of AKI have run out or depleted.

[ATTACH]285208[/ATTACH]
We all know how yellow can be problematical. I found previously that using a yellowish primer improved coverage and the amount of paint and coats used. MRP is no exception. I first sprayed the MRP Sand Yellow primer and then the MRP RAF Marking Yellow. The result, as you can see, is a flawless finish. I will be masking off the tips of the prop tonight to spray the rest black. I sprayed the spinner base yellow simply to ensure that I had a consistency of red across the spinner. The trick tonight will be to mask the yellow band ready to spray red. That is always trickey but I have a method that has worked before and I will post that in some detail.

[ATTACH]285209[/ATTACH]
Inside the wheel wells, sprayed interior green plus the tail wheel strut. Some more masking and detail painting to do there tonight.

[ATTACH]285210[/ATTACH]
MRP Tyre Rubber on the tyre wheel looks a good tyre colour to me. I clearly put the mirror in the wrong batch and painted that with the black primer.... not an issue as it saved me from doing it later when I black base the airframe. The wheel legs were painted AKI Dark Aluminium to a beautiful even finish.

[ATTACH]285211[/ATTACH]
A few more parts above. The inside of the wheel well doors are painted AKI Titanium and when I took this shot one was still a bit wet. I overdid it a bit on that one but, fortunately, when I looked later the finish was fine, like MRP the AKI metaliser was very forgiving. This was at the end of the session and I was a bit over-confident!!!

[ATTACH]285212[/ATTACH]
AKI Dark Aluminium again....

[ATTACH]285213[/ATTACH]
These I painted with the GMP silver primer simply because I expected to show up some corrective work to be needed on the seams and wanted to check out its appearance. I was not wrong! I will be treating the seams when I get a chance. I also rather like the colour for these drop tanks that I believe were not actually metal but were painted silver. I think I will repaint with the primer and leave it that colour, apart perhaps from what I believe to be metal bands which I will paint another metaliser shade.

that is it for last night.

Once I have painted the detail I will be glossing and weathering these parts.

[papa 695]

Fantastic work Barry, and the paints do look very good indeed.

[dave]

Looking good. Just picked up a couple of the MRP paints for my next kit, so will see how I get along with them.
Something I do not believe you mentioned the MRP paints appear to have an object to aid mixing in the bottle.

[BarryW]

Looking good. Just picked up a couple of the MRP paints for my next kit, so will see how I get along with them.
Something I do not believe you mentioned the MRP paints appear to have an object to aid mixing in the bottle.

Yes, an agitator in the bottle, which is really needed. I thought I mentioned it!
I hope you get along with them as well as I do, please post your experience Dave.

[BarryW]

I spent my session masking up ready for the next paint job.

A lot of time was spent masking the spinner which will need to be sprayed red once I have masked off a yellow band. Masking spinners like this is always trickey and I thought I would post how I did mine.

First I applied a very thin masking tape to create a base line. Fortunately I could use the end of the 'holes' where the prop fits as a guide. Nevertheless getting a smooth even 'ring' was not easy.
[ATTACH]285257[/ATTACH]

Next I needed to make some 'spacers'.

I laid a wide piece of masking tape on my cutting board matched to the lines on the board to ensure it was straight.
[ATTACH]285258[/ATTACH]
I made sure I had more than I really need in case I went wrong.

Next I worked out how wide the yellow band needs to be and at each end of the tape place another thinner tape as below. This gave me a guideline that is easier to work with, I laid my metal ruler between these guidepoints and worked it out to the right width, these guide made it easier to judge the width needed along the length of the tape. this was all Mk 1 eyeball. I then cut along the rule.
[ATTACH]285259[/ATTACH]
The bottom piece of tape is the right width so I removed the guide tapes and cut four pieces as below.
[ATTACH]285260[/ATTACH]

These were positioned on the spinner as below. One above each 'prop hole'.
[ATTACH]285261[/ATTACH]

I then cut more pieces of tape and added four more spacers between this in place.
[ATTACH]285262[/ATTACH]

Next I needed to run a piece of thin masking tape around the spinner even with the top of the spacers. Again it was not easy to keep a smooth run of tape.
[ATTACH]285263[/ATTACH]

Then I just needed to fill the spaces between with more tape.
[ATTACH]285264[/ATTACH]

Ready to spray. How well it turns out we shall soon see. It looks good but only when the contrasting colour is sprayed and the masking removed can I be sure.

Tonight I will be doing a spot more painting, mostly spraying MRP again though I have some detail to do with brushes and Vallejo.

[BarryW]

I have been getting on with the detail painting. MRP are performing flawlessly and I am gradually getting used to how you get the best out of them.

Here is the progress for the spinner and prop.

After masking the tips I sprayed black and was able to remove the masking quickly thanks to its quick drying time.
[ATTACH]285323[/ATTACH]

This is the spinner with the masking removed. The line was spot on but there was some bleed of the red to deal with as you can see. It is not a very sharp line. On the top edge. Perfect along the bottom.
[ATTACH]285322[/ATTACH]

So I did a spot of masking and sprayed
The result
[ATTACH]285325[/ATTACH]
Much better, not perfect, but not far off and once the weathering is done it will be fine.
[ATTACH]285326[/ATTACH]
Worth looking at it straight down and you can see how even the band is around the spinner.
[ATTACH]285327[/ATTACH]

I also treated the seams in the drop tanks and researched. Unfortunately,as I think you can see, I have some more work to do on them. A bit more Mr Dissolved Putty and a bit of sanding will finish them off.
[ATTACH]285324[/ATTACH]

More detail painting and weathering to do.

[Steve Brodie]

That spinner is the biz

[dave]

Nice work on the spinner, looking forward to the next instalment.

[yak face]

Great stuff Barry , and excellent tip for the spinner band, always a tricky job (in fact ive just had to mask up the nose cone on my boeing 737 and it was a bugger to get right!) cheers tony

[BarryW]

I have been pushing on with the detail work.

Decals applied to the prop
[ATTACH]285368[/ATTACH]

After a fourth attempt I found the joins on the drop tanks still show. But then they are paper tanks so I don't think they are a problem and won't look wrong.

[ATTACH]285369[/ATTACH]
Decal applied after painting the metal bands and filler caps with AK Matt aluminium.

[ATTACH]285370[/ATTACH]
Above are the weathering products I will be using shortly

[ATTACH]285371[/ATTACH]
Parts ready for weathering

[ATTACH]285372[/ATTACH]
These will be ready after a sealing coat once the decal solution has dried.

For where you need a glossy metal finish these chrome pens are brilliant. You may be able to see the glossy oleo part of the legs in the pic giving a nice contrast. Also good for mirrors and inside lights.
[ATTACH]285373[/ATTACH]

Monday or Tuesday I will start weathering.

[flyjoe180]

Fantastic progress Barry. I'm enjoying following this build when I can.

[BarryW]

Another update.
Steadily working through sub-assemblies and will soon be atta ching the wing to the fuselage.

The paper fuel tanks have now been weathered with washes and some fuel spills. I place a drop of AKI Kerosene Leaks wash on the filler cap and use the airbrush to blow it in a random pattern in the direction of the airflow. A quick downward 'blow' to start with as I would expect some to drip down initially.
[ATTACH]285675[/ATTACH]

The wheel wells have received a wash with AKI Undercarraige wash, a semi-matt varnish, then dry brushed with Ushi metal power and dark earth pigment applied. I also used some dust effect wash as well.
[ATTACH]285676[/ATTACH]

The wheels and wheel leg assemblies have received washes and pigments.
[ATTACH]285677[/ATTACH]
here is the tail wheel assembly also with the same washes and pigment treatments.
[ATTACH]285678[/ATTACH]

[BarryW]

Not a lot of progress this weekend.
Started to fix engine panels in place and wings to fuselage. A little bit of treatment of the joins was needed.

[ATTACH]285882[/ATTACH]

As I am closing up the engine I am fixing them in place. Fit is excellent but I don't consider it convincing if the panels are attached only by the magnets.

[ATTACH]285881[/ATTACH]

I will need to use a spot of filler with the surplus removed by ipa dipped cotton bud.