Froggy Horse .... * D N F *

[JohnRatzenberger]

I almost forgot I signed up for this. I feel the need for a CBK and something I've not done yet, so ....



Here's the FROG Mustang II, with some Model Alliance Decals -- I'll be doing the topmost one.

As you can see I haven't even opened the baggie so I have no idea what's in there, but assume it'll be a simple OOBag build, with the exception of the aftermarket decals.

[Dirkpitt289]

I've never built a frog kit. They look like they require a lot of work. I look forward to seeing the build. Oh and for the record I like the bottom most decal set for Dooleybird.

[Chris]

I like that SL Y choice, looks sharp. I have this kit in the stash myself.

[JohnRatzenberger]

I've never built a frog kit. They look like they require a lot of work. I look forward to seeing the build. Oh and for the record I like the bottom most decal set for Dooleybird.

If you have a kit, I'll send you the markings .... I don't do "bubbletops", just too far away from an open cockpit ....

[Wookie13]

Dooleybird was one option for the Matchbox P51D, takes me back roughly 35 years!

[Eric Mc]

I built the FROG P-51 in the 70s. Like all FROG kits from that era it went together quite well was a bit devoid of internal details. The one problem I had was with the cockpit canopy which didn't fit that well.

[JohnRatzenberger]

In the spirit of the original model engineer's intent, mine will stay devoid of internal details and today we have Kleer and trowels to slop it on with

I did open it up, the canopy does not appear to be a thing of beauty. I also noted the decal instructions have consistency errors for my subject, and frankly don't look the best decals either -- they are uniformly thick and what I thought were registry errors on the roundels are in fact a slight oblong-ish shape to them. They may will get replaced with generics where possible.

[Saxon]

looking forward to seeing this and it still has a stand!!

[JohnRatzenberger]

OK, I'm not AWOL, it's just that my days have been a bit interrupted.

Here's the instructions and the decals again. I think I mentioned the decals aren't what I hoped. Slightly out-of-register, slightly out-of-round, a bit too thick. I think I'll be using more generics than anything else.




Parts. Raised rivets & panel lines. A half-dozen sink marks. Otherwise fine. LT Frogman will be replaced. The only real flaw is the air scoop isn't very open, something I forgot to fix before I closed it up, so I whacked away afterwards - better but still not "right".




I'm going to do this pretty much as I would have 50-some years ago -- simplicity and I'm not going to spoil it.
There is no cockpit detail, so I painted the whole thing black.
It has a nifty stand, so I'll use it but don't think I'll bother with prop blur.
I'm going to do it gear up so I don't have to worry about the wheel wells.
The Frogman has to go, replaced by a Revell version, appropriately "Baderized" and afflicted with palsied arms to fit.
The raised panel lines and rivets are mostly gone; I sand down until barely visible, still leaves a little detail - unsure if I might not pencil some in after I paint.




This has to be painted in "DuPont colors" so I'll work on mixing up a lighter DE, a drabber DG, and a gray sky -- or something close.

Moving onward ....

[Chris]

Real old school John.

[JohnRatzenberger]

The tiny airscoop continued to bother me



So I sliced off the bottom, reglued it more open, then put some filler around .... may not be right, but looks better to me.



The wings fit OK, but are just flat and that in turn causes a gap at the root on one side. The Tamiya Tape Jig holds them in about the right place and a liberal doze of a hot glue appears to resolve the root problem ....



We shall see in the morning when the tape comes off ....

[jssel]

It will work, John. Nice build going on here.

[JohnRatzenberger]

Still plugging along; I am obviously the broken-down nag and not the spirited pony ....

The wing is on, sanded, and filled. I added the tail planes, they'll need a bit of filler.



Now, I know that I did a rather rough job of aligning the main planes when I put them on, so that's part of the problem. I had to make sme subtle adjustments to the tailplanes to make them look all spiffy and squared away -- good enough.

In the process I discovered the fuselage appears to be warped from the cockpit back to the left, such that if I carefully align the centerline and the wings to a grid, the rear of the rudder is offset to the leftside about 2-3mm. I don't think I could have done this, and I had absolutely no problem mating the two fuselage halves, so I can only think that it is a kit flaw -- in short it looks that it was designed this way. I will try to get a picture of this later. Any other FROG Mustang builders have this problem ?

Next up is some filler on the tail, some minor clean-up and I think we can be off to the paint shop ....

I do have to apologize for lack of participation, we seem to have a lot going on here, some of which is caused by almost nice weather finally arriving so all of my backlogged outdoor spring projects are now clamoring for attention ....

[Gregers]

No need to apologize John. Your making great progress. I'll watch out for the fuselage warping when I dig mine out of the stash.

All the best.

Greg

[Old_Tonto]

It looks like a Stang John.

I once had to take a Spitfire into a warm bath with me to straighten it out. People look at me like I am a nutter when I tell them that!