This is my next project, AMT’s boxing of the 70’s vintage 1/48 P-51D Otaki/Arii kit.
It’s a pretty nice kit of this vintage… decent cockpit, most of the Packard Merlin engine, recessed exterior panel line & rivet detail. I made quick progress on the engine & cockpit, plus the wings
next up I need to fill in many of the wing panel lines as WWII NMF P-51s had the panel joints puttied, sanded and sealed to maintain the laminar flow wing. Hello Mr Surfacer…
I hope you have a stash of Mr. Surfacer if you use the bottles, especially the black 1500. My LHS has not been able to get a restock for months.
I have one bottle each of the Mr Surfacer 1000 and 500. But obtaining any replacements is easy peasy for me.
I love these old Arii kits. I have a P-40E awaiting finishing as well.
Damon.
I built that one as a kid back in the 70’s. I would not mind building it again…
I have a busy afternoon ahead, but I did get the Mr Surfacer 500 applied on the wing panel lines that need to be removed
I’ll reapply after sanding and seeing where shrinkage while drying needs to be addressed
Todays update- between yesterday and today, I was able to get the panel lines that I had filled with Mr Surfacer 500 sanded smooth by wet sanding using sanding sticks starting at 180 grit and working up to 1000 grit
Wing underside before and after
wing topside before and after
I started doing some airbrushing today and getting the interior colors applied
And here is todays progress report -
I did the detail painting in the cockpit and engine, then installed the engine
I still need to add a seat harness… once that is done, I’ll install the cockpit and get the fuselage closed up. I also airbrushed on the aluminum for the bare metal areas of the wing using AK Real Color Aluminum
Tomorrow I’ll get those areas masked off, then paint the sealed lacquered areas of the wing using Tamiya LP Gloss Aluminum
Lots of progress on this today…
First I airbrushed on a coat of Tamiy LP Gloss Aluminum onto the lacquered areas of the wings.
The contrast with the AK Real Color Aluminum is more noticeable in person, depending upon the angle and brightness of the light source…
Next I got the cockpit finished up and ready for installation
Then I glued the cockpit into place on the fuselage right half. I had glued the engine in place last night
I have since glued the fuselage halves together and have them rubber banded and clamped while the glue is drying…
Today I finished polishing up the canopy, which had been seriously scuffed up in the box over the years. I then gave it a dip in Future to keep the shine going. It’s currently drying in a container to keep any dust off. I spent the rest of the day doing seam clean up and filling on the fuselage. Most of it was good except for in the oil cooler/radiator area where I had to do some filler work, amd a couple of sink areas on the upper & lower engine cowling…
of course afterwards I had to do a test fit of the fuselage to the wings. It’s a pretty snug fit but I can see where some filler will be needed at the joining points
Next up I need to rescribe the detail lost in seam clean up, which really isn’t that much… stay tuned until the weekend for the next update.