1/24 TRUMPETER P 51 D 

the saga of PETIE 3rd!  Part 1

by Patrick Spitaels

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Well, we've heard lots of things about this kit and I agree there are a lot of troubles with the kit....I paid 107 Euros for mine.......as a P51 lover, when I saw it was coming to the Hobby Shops, I had toorder it!  Whow, when I received the box, I was really impressed, what a big box, nice plastic, great panel lines....

The first questions...what can I do with those 3 figures?  They didn't have interesting poses.....why did they put that in the box?  Could be interesting to lower the price without those figures no?

The building.

Engine:

Well, I started with the engine, and that was my first disappointment....didn't really look like a Merlin.  The details were a bit poor ad undersized... especially the top of it? I tried fitting the engine into the nose and I understand  that it is too low...on the real pictures the engine fit the entire engine compartment.  After trying lots of  replacements, adding plasticard to make it bigger, i decide to forget the engine!

Cockpit:

Well...second disappointment, pretty low in detail and still undersized!  Looking at the seat...good for a 32 second scale.  So, I rebuilt the entire cockpit using plasticard, tubes and wires.  

 

 

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The floor was also replace with a plasticard sheet that I scribed to give it the appearance of the wood. I also rebuild the instruments panel. For the seat, I added plastic to widened it and rebuild the back. I used foil for the belts and made the buckles with plasticard (we are all plastic eaters no ?).  

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About the instrument panel, I first made it with 2 sheets of plasticard then paint it in matt black from Humbrol.  Before the black is completely dry, I used a needle to scribe the instruments, so the white of the plasticard shows through.  

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Just have to add some clear plasticard  that I punched before at the right dimensions  into each instruments.

All the cockpit was painted in different shades of green from Testor and weathered using Smoke from Tamiya.
I also add some details on the K14 gunsight.

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On the rear part of the cockpit I just add wires on the radio and battery.

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Fuselage:

Well, it came out pretty well, I was just worried about the back of it, and sanded a little of the spine....after a little putty / sanding I rescribed the panel lines of the junction.

Also there is nothing behind the carburetor intake...I made the rest from plastic sheet.

As for the exhausts, I rebuilt them with plastic tubes....the kit ones are not really interesting !

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Wings:

Well, one of mine has two different sizes...so all the guns nozzles were twisted a bit...but nothing overwhelming. I didn't choose the open the guns bay...modeler mind is pretty difficult to understand, when we didn't have it in the box....we scratch it...when we have the option...we don't use it?  Same for the wheels wells, I added nothing inside.

Talking about the guns nozzles, I think they are too big, so I sanded them and replaced the original guns with plastics tubes.

About all the movable parts, I didn't use the photoetched parts as hinges....I prefer gluing the flaps and other parts. There, I understand that those pieces where a bit big for the rest (static parts of the wings...) so I sanded them a bit before gluing them.  For the flaps, I also had to sand the junction with the wing as there is a big gap between......

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Gears:

I didn't use the option to add a spring in it....I didn't want to see my Mustang reacting like a low rider...moving from up and down.  So I glued the gears at the good position!  The addition of the soft wire is a good idea!

For the wheels, well it was not so easy to make them, those vinyl wheels are pretty difficult to place (it's like changing a wheel on a motorcycle) and I decided to glue them with cyanocrylate....so nothing would move further.  The gears were painted using some Tamiya metalic paints and weathered with smoke...

Patrick

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Photos and text © by Patrick Spitaels