Red Tail - Airfix 1/72 P-51D - Tuskegee Airman Lt. S. Ellington

 

The P-51D of 1Lt. .Spurgeon Neal Ellington, "Lollypoop"

The Airmen!

It seems I like the stories of "Firsts" or the out of the norm.  My previous work was the Po-2 Night Bomber of the 46th Taman Guards Night Bomber Regiment - the only All Woman regiment of the Soviet Union in WWII.  That was a delicate 1/72 Bi-plane with significant rigging.  I needed a rest!  Airfix kit of the P-51 was just what I needed, although every kit does have it's challenges. Silver is always a challenge although I did not expect this......

.....I have drawn circles around the "pins" for insertion into receiving holes.  Well, I guess the styrene did not flow completely into the molds because a couple of these "pins" were not there!!!  I had to think of a way to assemble pieces DIY!  A bit of sprue here and a drop of cyano gel there (between tire and wheel cover) did the job as you will see later.

But first, the interior.  The kit has some nicely molded detail, plus a very nice instrument panel decal.

A nice seat, radio equipment etc, painted in accordance with cockpit photos.

In order to close up the fuselage it was necessary to install the prop.  The way it was attached to the sprue facilitated its painting and application of decals.

Tail and wings were a quick and easy assembly.  I had painted the rudder and tail planes red while still on the sprue.  I did mask the fuselage.

Lt. Ellington was "dressed" in his flight suit on the sprue as well.

The Testors Silver enamel started at the tail.  I like the 1/72 scale for hand painting and work from panel to panel avoiding the panel lines.  I do this with a very small brush that I have cut short.  The paint is applied in a stipple fashion with not much paint on the brush. Almost a dry brush that allows rivet depressions and panel lines to stand out without an enamel or acrylic wash, although some washing is done on the wings later.

I took care of the anti-glare panel and the windscreen frame.  With the bubble canopy, frame painting is reduced to the minimum (which is a nice change).

The next silver is around the wheel wells.  the interior green was applied to the molded framework of the wing while still on the sprue. Note some wash used for the brass casings discharge.

Once the gear wheels and covers were painted the attachment went smoothly since the fit into the wing receiving holes was well molded.

Eventually a decision will need to be made, either closed,

or open???

Panel by panel the silver is applied first on the underside,

working around to the top surface.  The order of panel painting was chosen to minimize handling of previously silver painted surfaces.  No matter how long you let silver dry, if you leave your fingers on it long enough you will leave prints!!!  A clear topcoat will be sprayed on after decals are set. notice that the red spinner is paint whereas the red on the fuselage is a decal.  In this photo you can see that some panel washing was done.  Thinned Gun Metal applied and over paint immediately wiped off with paper towel.  My panel by panel silver application easily covered any leftover wash.  The exhaust manfolds (again painted on the sprue) have been inserted into the receiving slots, and Lt. Ellington has taken his position in the cockpit.

Decal application followed as surfaces were painted.  Once the underside paint dried, on went it's decals.  Look closely.  The kit is supplied with almost any decal you can think of.

Moving to starboard,

then port and upper wing surface.  There is more to go!  FYI, the canopy is still dry fit.  The decision to open or close is still being debated (in my head).

The drop tanks were painted and assembled and decaled while on the sprue.  As an experienced modeler I have a tendency to assume I know what to do and too quickly remove parts from the sprue.  This must be resisted.  The drop tank hard points are not identical, plus I was supposed to drill holes in the bottom wing half before assembly - Ooops!  Fortunately I studied the hard points and got them and the tanks oriented correctly.  From instructions I spotted the forward most hole location and drilled it.  I snipped off the rear of the two pins on the hard point, scraped off a bit of silver, put down a drop of cyano and put the tanks in place - whew - another bullet dodged.

Those yellow stripes on the bottom were a bit tricky as they were in 4 pieces and had to be lined up.  Some needed trimming to remove edges as well as drawing the xacto tip along panel lines (after they were dry) and adding additional Microsol.

We are just about done here.  A few more teeny decals, pitot tube and radio mast and this little kit will be done.  Airfix 1/72s are nicely detailed and fun to build (still trying to make up my mind on open or closed canopy).

A simple mistake determined the canopy to be open.  I hit the upper side with Dullcoat without masking the windscreen - D'Oh!  Two other things.  First the antenna mast is too small and disintegrates coming off the sprue, so I had to replicate with stretching some sprue!  Also I realized that since I had painted the tail piece on the sprue early on, I had not considered washing the panel lines.  Fortunately it was easy to do now that I had sprayed on the Dullcoat because any overage could be quickly wiped off.

The End.