1/32 Revell P-51B Mustang

[ghodges]

I was gifted this classic 1/32 kit at a club meeting a month ago. Since Eduard has announced a new mold "state of the art" 1/32 P-51B for 2025, I figured why be a wussy and wait for that one!  😉 It was molded back in '69 and does need some work to bring it up to date!

I began by sanding off all of the raised rivets and scribing new panel lines, cutting out the flaps from the wings, adding the missing wing landing light housing, and opening the shell ejector slots in the wing bottoms. The flaps were rebuilt using split lengths of plastic tubing and sheet plastic.

The filter vents on the nose sides are just molded-on lines that are lost in the sanding.... so I cut that area out and grabbed some spare vent covers from the newer 1/32 Revell P-51D kit, inserting and blending them.

The kit has NO underwing stores... not even wing pylons! So I Frankensteined a set of wing pylons using parts from the spares box, some sheet plastic and wire pins.

The kit has no radiator exhaust housing or tail wheel housing, so those were added using sheet and strip plastic. Since I wasn't going to use the kit engine, the engine exhaust areas had to have housings built up behind their openings to seat the resin exhaust pipes that will be added at the end of the build. I also altered the tail wheel gear locating pins to allow the tail wheel to be added at the end of the build.

The air scoop overflow exit door wasn't there at all, so it was opened up and the door scratchbuilt out of soda can aluminum, along with a better radiator exhaust door. The radiator face itself came from the extra one included in the 1/32 Revell P-51D.

Another of the kit problems is that (IMO) the exhaust pipe openings are much too large.... so I used strip plastic to make each opening smaller and fit the resin pipes much tighter.

I bought an Aires resin/pe cockpit set for the model which fits surprisingly well with little adjustment needed.

The 4 pics above show the interior after painting. The main IP comes with a film instrument backing that fits behind a pe center section that inserts into the middle of the resin main IP. The only part I needed to make was the O2 hose... which was built using coiled solder wire.

Pieces of metal screen were cut to close off and detail both the main bottom air scoop and the nose carburetor intake.

The kit's anemically thin prop blades were replaced with Quickboost resin prop blades.

Another kit problem is that the windshield and the right rear canopy quarter-panel both had hinge holes for the original kit "working" birdcage canopy (which my kit didn't have anyway). There was NO way to remove those hinges without marring the clear parts, so I had to vacuform a new windscreen, as well as replace the right rear quarter panel with thin clear sheet.

The kit tires were replaced with True Details resin tires and a new tail wheel tire scrounged from the spares box.

Since the engine was left out, I had to cap off the nose and make a new prop shaft to mount the propeller assembly.

The kit gear well was lacking in detailing, so I cut out and added the hydraulic/pneumatic cylinders to the center bays along with some solder wire hosing.

The model was first primed with Interior Green to be sure the clear parts had that color inside their framing.

The basic scheme..... OD over Neutral Gray with full D-Day stripes and white tail bands. Note the masked "cut-outs" on the fuselage stripes in order to fit the side codes in place.

As of today, the decals are on, the models has had a wash applied, and the first flat coat is on. All that's left is some weathering, painting the position and IFF lights, and then adding all of the fiddly bits. Pics in the Aircraft Topic below as soon as it's done in a day or two!

 

Gil 

[Stikpusher]

Gonna have to save this for future guidance for the same kit in my stash. Great stuff!

[Mark Deliduka]

Unbelievable! What amazing work you're doing here. Man I love watching your build threads!

[Pepenador]

Excellent detailing, a new life for an oldie...