**** DONE: GB-57 1/48 P-51K / Mk.IV Mustang - WW2 Foreign Service

[Totalize]

Nice stuff.

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks all. Should be able to pull up my chair again tomorrow but I need to get my Spitfire advanced as well.

 

[Crimea_River]

I have a question. Does anyone know of a cross reference of RAF serials of lend lease aircraft (in this case KM272) with US serials? I'm trying to determine what production block "Dooleybird" was (-20, -25, -30)?. This will help determine if the wheel wells should be YZC or not as, apparently, Dallas built P-51's from the -20 block onwards started to see a lot of YZC on interior surfaces.

 

[Crimea_River]

Dug a bit deper and found the answer. Joe Baugher's site does give the information but you have to go find the RAF serial buried in the US description which is a bit of a crap shoot. I started with the below info from here: British Mustang IV/IVa US serial blocks? (highlights mine)

P-51D:- 44-11168 - 44-11187 & 44-1253 - 44-11262 = KH641-670; 44-12903 - 44-12942 = KM493-532; 44-12960 - 44-12999 = KM533-572; 44-13050 - 44-13100 = KM573-623; 44-13141 - 44-13180 = KM624-663; 44-13221 - 44-13252 = KM664-695; 44-84391 - 44-84397 + 44-84468 + 44-84681 - 44-84720 = KM696-743.
P-51F:- 43-43334 = FR409.
P-51G:- 43-43336 = FR410
P-51H:- 44-64181 = KN987
P-51K:- 44-11374 - 44-11413 + 44-11478 - 44-11517 + 44-11579 - 44-11618 + 44-11699 - 44-11738 + 44-11819 - 44-11858 = KH671-870; 44-11953 - 44-11992 = KM100-139; 44-12263 - 44-12433 = KM140-310; 44-12552 - 44-12602 = KM311-361; 44-12628 - 44-12707 = KM362-441; 44-12759 - 44-12809 = KM442-492; TK586 & TK589 (44-13332) were trials aircraft.
KH470 & 687 crashed before delivery. KM744-799 were allocated, but never delivered.


From this I scrolled through Baugher's pages and found that KM272 was a P-51K-10 with US s/n 44-12395.

 

[Crimea_River]

Just a quick shot of the issue I mentioned earlier at the rear of the tail weel bay. A pretty bad misalignmnet has, believe it or not, been improved by prying the seam open and resetting it. This is how it looked today before I set about smoothing it all out.

I'm mulling over filling all of the panel lines to reduce the severity of their apprearance a bit. A couple of sprayed passes of Tamiya Surface Primer should leave a bit of relief there but soften them up. Not fully decided yet but stay tuned.

 

[Vic Balshaw]

I'm tuned in

 

[Wurger]

 

[le_steph40]

Nice fix Andy

 

[Donivanp]

Good on ya Andy as always great catch and work.

 

[T Bolt]

Great work here Andy.
How do you like this kit compared with the Tamiya mustang?

 

[Crimea_River]

Great work here Andy.
How do you like this kit compared with the Tamiya mustang?

Thanks Glenn, jury is out really. Lots of detail on this one that Tamiya doesn't have. Tamiya's surface details are more to my liking though.

I've been filling the wing panel lines on this kit but have been concentrating on the Spitty. Hope to get back at this build soon but lots of things are competing for my time.

 

[Crimea_River]

Wing panels filled and sanded. I used Tamiya's grey surface primer.

I expect that some will still be visible once paint goes on so I'll splash on a coat of primer first and fix as needed.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Donivanp]

It's a pain but somebody's got to do it, as usual great work

 

[rochie]

Nice work, always admire your attention to detail Andy.

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Looks good Andy.

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks gents.

 

[Gnomey]

Lovely work so far Andy!

 

[Wayne Little]

Good stuff Andy.

 

[Crimea_River]

Decided to paint the stringers in the wheel wells YZC and I did this by hand. It was easier than masking but admittedly not as tidy. A wash will help to even things out. I hate these close-ups......

The instructions have you glue in the clear lenses for the signal lights but say nothing about painting them so I went ahead and painted the inside surfaces of the lenses before gluing the wing halves together.

The guns are nicely moulded but the inserts are a bit clunky. Even after some trimming to improve fit there will still need to be some filling and sanding to blend them in.

The above shot was taken just after assembly of the wing halves and gun inserts and the leading edges and inserts will all need to be smoothed out.

I'm losing a bit of mojo on my two builds for this GB. Fortunately the Spit is almost done but this one may fall back in the box unless I can find a way to give it the attention it deserves. Thanks for looking anyway.