This is a Mustang that served with
the El Salvador Air Force during the infamous "Soccer War," a one
hundred hour conflict which erupted over a disputed call during a soccer match.
Many of the Mustangs used were former civilian aircraft, which were painted and
armed for combat. The auto-retract mechanism for the tailwheel doors
malfunctioned frequently, so they were removed. I have tried to recreate one of
these little-known birds.
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The kit was built
mostly out of the box, with a couple exceptions. I added a set of Eduard
photoetched belts, and I cut wheel cover doors from sheet styrene. The Hasegawa
kit is molded with the flaps in the raised position, so the wheel cover doors
would be closed. After the aircraft was parked for a while, the hydraulic
pressure would bleed, which caused the flaps and wheel covers to droop. Closing
the doors helps cover the only weak point of this kit, which is the shallow
depth of the wheel wells. The kit doors will not fit without considerable
trimming, so I made new ones instead. I also cut a piece of "glass"
for the gunsight from the leftover clear film of an Eduard instrument panel dial
sheet.
I used Gunze Sangyo
acrylics for the camouflage, which sprayed beautifully for the freehand scheme.
The colors are the SEA scheme used by the US during the Viet Nam war. The
roundels and stripes were masked and painted. The other markings came from the
Hobby Craft (ex-Idea) P-51 "Sharkmouth" kit.
Light weathering was accomplished
with pastels for the staining, and a Prismacolor pencil for the chipping. Since
this aircraft was freshly painted and saw only a few hours of service, heavier
weathering would not have been appropriate.
I really like the Mustang
in this scheme. It was built as part of a four-aircraft project for a customer,
so I have to ship it. I will probably build one of these for myself one day.
Bill
Visit my website to see other
models of mine, I also build models on commission. http://www.pix.prettyneatinc.com/
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