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.
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 ?).
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.
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.
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 !
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......
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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