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Finally Finished!


snelson

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I managed to finish my first "real" model in a year-and-a-half this afternoon. It's Academy's 1/72 P-51C built as Lee Archer's "Ina the Macon Belle." I originally started the project back in February..our club had a contest, and the theme was "something red." I figured a Red Tail Tuskegee P-51 would be perfect. Also, it was Black History Month, and Archer (America's only black Ace) died about that time. I tried to keep this project fairly "box stock." However, I couldn't resist cutting out and dropping the flaps (since you'd never see them up on a Mustang that's been parked for more than a few minutes.) I also added some tape seatbelts and resin wheels, and replaced the gun barrels with brass tube.

 

Here's the cockpit before buttoning her up. A little drybrushing popped out the molded details. I went with Interior Green, but used Dull Dark Green on the seat for variety (apparently many "high back" Mustangs had DDG seats, made by a subcontractor.) The wood floorboards on Mustangs were painted with black not-skid paint.

 

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One reason this project took so long was that it fought me every single step of the way. First, I had problems with the paint. I used Floquil Bright Silver lacquer, but primed with Tamiya Gloss Black acrylic (cut with lacquer thinner.) I then masked off the red and yellow areas and shot them with Tamiya Flat White (again cut with lacquer thinner) which promptly became riddled with cracks. Fortunately I had only done the wing stripes, but I had to sand them down and repaint..stalling the project for awhile.

 

Then I discovered that the silver didn't adhere very well to the primer. While adding decals I managed to rub it off in a few spots. I masked off the decals with post-it notes to touch up the paint. I'd heard all sorts of horror stories about Academy decals, but figured they couldn't be THAT bad. It took liberal amounts of Solvaset to get them to lay down, and I figured it would take a tactical nuke to remove them. BUT..when I pulled off the "low tac" post-its, this was the result..

 

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I set the project aside in disgust, and considered trashing it. Fortunately, a fellow club member encouraged me not to let it beat me, and another provided some Aeromaster decals..so the project was back on. I finally got her finished this afternoon..warts and all. She's OK as a "shelf sitter," as long as you don't look too close.

 

I flat-coated the portions of the wings that were puttied and painted on real Mustangs (although I didn't fill the panel lines) and applied some Bare Metal foil to the around the exhaust stacks to simulate the stainless steel panels.

 

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I made one slight deviation from historical accuracy. Archer was only officially credited with four kills before being rotated back to the States, even though he actually got five. It's widely speculated that there was an unwritten policy to remove the Tuskegee Airmen from combat before they made Ace. Black flyers were good for PR, but the "powers that be" didn't want them to be "too" successful. A few years ago, Archer was finally given official credit for his fifth kill, officially making him an Ace. So in his honor I put five kill marks on the model (Kermit Weeks did the same when he restored his P-51C in Archer's markings.)

 

Cheers!

 

Steve

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Steve, it's amazing how good this looks after that decal/post-it challenge. Outstanding recovery and thanks for posting this. Interesting note about the Tuskegee airman and the denial of their victories. What a shame it took decades to make an attempt to correct the wrong. Model on, Brother of the Sprue.

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Great job Steve. Great detailing. It looks like you masked both sides of the two canopy side panels. Great detail. Why does it look black at the edges of the glass? Did you paint both sides black before the final colors?

 

The belts including the tape look very realistic. Well done!!

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Thanks all! I'm glad I managed to whip this one into submission, but I think I'm going to stick to nice flat camouflage schemes for awhile now, though!

 

Clare: I did mask and paint both sides of the open canopy panels. Normally I would just mask the outside, and paint the interior color first, but I figured that since the inner side would be so visible it would look better if painted. The inside was just painted Interior Green, but the outside was primed with black first, then painted silver. The black is visible in the extreme closeup due to the thickness of the clear plastic.

 

Steve Nelson

IPMS #30925

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The black is visible in the extreme closeup due to the thickness of the clear plastic.

 

Steve Nelson

IPMS #30925

Interesting. As far as I'm concerned it makes the close-ups of the model look all the more realistic.

 

Also, I sympathize with you on decals. Yesterday, I was putting some stars on the top wing of an Su-27. After everything was lined up I set it aside to dry. One star "floated" about 30 degrees. When I noticed it, they were dry. Nothing would make it refloat. Finally, I tried to remove it. I started with scotch tape, then more tape, then more tape etc. Finally, I had to scrape it off. Therefore, the modeling Gods must have been against you when your decals came off. Maybe they just wanted to cause you to make it even better. :smiley20:

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Here's a photo of Kermit Weeks' restored P-51C for comparison with the model. Looking at this photo, your model should have been chrome plated [as Weeks has it], but that would not be correct with respect to the aircraft actually flown in WWII. Yours is a great model in every respect.

 

Ed

 

23-03-28-04.jpg

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