Super detailing Guillow's P-51D Mustang

[Skyediamonds]

After the first half was dried, the fuselage was then flipped over and the second half of the formers were then glued into place.

 

[Skyediamonds]

As you can see looking sraight down the length of the fuselage, it pays to be careful when adding the side longerons.

 

[Skyediamonds]

Just as the basic frame was removed from the building board, is when the deviation fron the instructions were startred. I trimmed back the thinkness of one of the longerons that covered only the cockpit area, leaving the remaining strips at their normal thickness before the cockpit and well aft. I decided if I'm doing to super detail the cockpit interiors, the thick longeron would be too thick for the cockpit walls. I also decided to do something about the instrument panel as well.

 

[Skyediamonds]

To fabricate a "hollow" former to which I can start the proper formation of the instument panel and the dash (coamong), I need to laminate thin strips of balsa to help achieve and maintain the proper upper deck curvature. I took the instrument former, rolled it down the length of the balsa strip and when it came to the end, I simply cut off the end, allowing for a small margin of trim. Once the strips were cut to length, I simply used the instrument former as a template to wrap the laminated strips together. From there, it was just a matter of attaching the hollow former to the fuselage.

 

[Skyediamonds]

Once the "hollow" laminate cockpit instrument panel was glued in place, the rest of the fuselage was completed with the addition of the remaining stringers.

 

[Skyediamonds]

From this point on, I deviated from the normal route of leaving the stringers in place for the tissue covering and began the laborous process of "infilling" with thin strips of 1/16" balsa in between the stringers and formers. Yep, an occasional broken stringer is bound to happen now and then and is easily fixed with glue. From there, the infilling continues along the fuselage, filling in gaps here and there. I purposely left the areas around the cockpit exposed for my access to interior deailing.

 

[Skyediamonds]

Humming along nicely and even took the time to cut away some of the lower keel to the wing saddle to make more room for the cockpit interior. At this stage, with all of the laminated side strips of ba;sa wppd. the fuselage is strong enough. I even adjusted the sharp curve of the belly air scoop.

 

[Skyediamonds]

Finally, comes the time to double up on the lamination of woods to help the model fuselage reflect the outlines of the real aircraft. This doubling will also add additional strength and smooth out the laminations as well; making for the addition of filler material to be kept at a minimum..

 

[Wurger]

Great!

 

[special ed]

Another very impressive build and work in progress. I especially like your engineering of the fuselage fill strips and then the overlay. I instantly realized if I had known your ideas when I built my powered Guillows SBD (two of them), Bf-109, and Ju-87 they would have been strong enough to last more than a few flights and still been light enough for the engine to fly it. I still have a few old Guillows kits and thanks to your engineering, I can build them and fly them. I may try the Flite metal, but the detail won't match yours.

 

[Airframes]

Good stuff.
When you get to finishing the wing surface, remember that this was 'sealed', being puttied and polished, so no rivet or panel lines showing (other than the gun bay hatches).

 

[Crimea_River]

Nice work and narrative.

 

[Skyediamonds]

Wurger, Crimea, Airframes, and Special Ed;

Thank you gentlemen for those marvelous compliments and comments. Special Ed, I sincerely thank you for taking the time to write. The infill method has been employed for many years by various modelers and between us, I didn't know about it until just a few years ago. Even then, I thought it was unnecessarily labor-intensive. Well, here I am, doing the same thing and adding yet another layer on top of that. Once you get into the "groove," it really doesn't take all that long. The second layer has been used by model boat builders for decades and my guess is that us airplane modelers picked that up from them. Sort of like a cross-over between the two different modeling fields, yet we all have that modeling "thing" in common. Between all of us, modeling is a marvelous endeavor to which we all benefit.

My hopes with the use of Flite Metal will inspire you to give it a try. In all honesty, it is not as easy as it initially appears. Just like tissue coveriing, or the use of heat-shrink films, the application of FM is another new skill to learn. It requires a different approach to handling and covering. The extra efforts will (hopefully) be well worth it. But then again, to achieve the excellence we all strive for in modeling, is worth the extra efforts.

Airframes: You are absolutely correct and I also extend my thanks to you for that reminder. I've taken some added research and of all places, found the answers right here in WW2aircraft.com. I will be showing you my effots to minimize the rivets, dents, and small imperfections on the top surfaces of the wings.. Mr. Wurger was also instrumental in helping me and guiding me in the right direction.

To everyone, thank you and please keep the comments and observations comming in.

Gary (Skye)

 

[Skyediamonds]

I was going to edit my last post on the second layer of strips of planking, but I know all of us tend to simply start where we left off, ignore the previous postings and go from there. I'd like to call to your attention what happened to the overall planking once the second layer was applied. On the last picture with the fuselage facing toward the camera, notice how smooth ther whole surface became. There will be very little filler needed at this point, making my work a bit easier. So, for the added effort in the beginning of adding the second layer, pays off by not having to do extra work with fillers further on down the road..

 

[Skyediamonds]

With respect to our fellow member, Mr. Airframes: I'm jumping ahead a bit to show off my faux wing section to illustrate how I will be paingting silver paint over the FM to help give the top wing that appearance of smooth puttied look. Of course, all those rivets will be absent from the real covering as this was just a test to see how the silver paint would A) react to FM, which is to say, great, and B) how the silver paint would look compared to the FM. The silver painted side is on the left. Again, thank you for your comments. They're greatly appreciated.

 

[Skyediamonds]

With the fuselage at a temporary standstill with all the plankiing in place (at least as far as I'm going), I jumping into the framing of the wings. As with the fuselage a bit of research is needed here too. Also, I'm adding a bit of extra detailing in having the right wing machine gun bay to be left open. I'll leave the left wing machine gun bay closed for give viewers a persective of one open and one being closed. Well, okay, okay... I'll admit it'll also save me extra work too.... :0)

 

[Skyediamonds]

It is also my intentions to leave the flaps extended for a dynamic display. So, further research is needed here too. Also, I needed to know how the rivets will be patterned and how far the flasp are to be extended, and the markings on the leading edge of the flaps as well. The last photo is really a good representation of the ideal finish of the wing for the BBD model.

If anyone has detailed drawings or photos of the top surface wings and flaps to show the outlines of the panels and rivet details, it would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Skyediamonds]

Airframes: Got this reference from right here at the WW2aircraft.net I carefully filled it away and kept it for special occssions.

 

[Skyediamonds]

In the meantime, I haver laid out all of the major components to the wings over the model plans. I will be some making some different alterations to the right wing to allow for the exposed machine gun bay, for the flaps to be extended, and a little bit of extra "something." I decided to add detailing to the wheel wells, so the model could be on display sitting on top of a mirror for viewers to see the detailing. To perform all of these tasks will take a lot of planning and imagination.

 

[Skyediamonds]

This planning of the machine gun bays took a combination of eyeballing and a bit of comparison of drawings and model plans. It's far from perfect but I'm satisfied... (I think)