Beany's Airfix 1/72 North American F-51D Mustang

[beany]

I love this idea of doing a build for charity, so for the Jimmy Fund charity build I will do the new tool Airfix 1/72 North American F-51D Mustang.
I chose this subject based on an assumption that those bidding in the auction would probably be based in the US and hope the subject matter would appeal and glean more bids - the name of the game is to make money for the charity after all. I could be way off here but we'll see how we go.

I bought it yesterday for £7.49 - I don't know the current exchange rate but I'm pretty sure that would be less than $20.00 limit set by the organisers.
I will model the Mustang as the silver Korean theatre version with wheels up, in-flight with a prop blur acetate to replace the propeller - I make them myself so no additional expense here. I'll then mount the plane on a photo frame (spare/scrap - again no expense incurred) with a backdrop painted by myself in the likeness of the box art so the whole thing can be hung on a wall. The whole thing should still be no bigger than 8 inches x 6 inches I reckon and should be able to be boxed up easily for shipping to who knows where?!

Box Art


Box Contents


Decal sheet


Paint Plan - I do like the fact that Airfix do these in colour now


Sprue Shots








There is a little bit of flash which I found surprising for a new tooled kit.




The clear parts - these will have a dip in Johnsons's Klear soon.


Work commences - cutting parts off of their runners and tidying up where necessary


Ready to begin painting with USAAF Interior Green - Humbrol H226. This is an old tin that I brought from Ratch as part of a job lot as he has made the switch to acrylics like many folk seem to be doing. I stil have far too many enamels to contemplate that just yet.


All for now.
Cheers
Al.

[Ian]

That flash is a bit strange. I'm building a Mustang IV for this build. My kit was flash-free.

[BlohmWolf]

It's strange that after more of these kits are produced, flash is a more common thing. I hope the moulds are not growing old already, which is a real shame to see these aren't standing up to time very well.

[Chris]

I bought it yesterday for £7.49 - I don't know the current exchange rate but I'm pretty sure that would be less than $20.00 limit set by the organisers.

Its about 12 US dollars and fifty cents more or less.

[Migrant]

Cool, Al. I'm building this exact kit in the 'Museum' GB, so maybe we can benefit from each other's experiences. So far, I'd say be careful of the wing to fuselage fit. It's super tight, and if you don't sand a little off the mating surfaces you may end up with no dihedral; at least that was the case with mine. There was a bit of flash on my sprues, but nothing like yours

[Dirkpitt289]

Nice choice. I have one but have yet to build it. It comes in way under the $20 wire.

[Dirkpitt289]

Any progress Beany?

[beany]

Sorry, I've been suffering from sever Mojo loss since Xmas and haven't even been in my modelling room, but as this one is for charity I'll make the effort, so thanks for the reminder Dirk.
Here is what is in the box at the moment:


To get me in the mood I knocked up the base/stand that the plane will be mounted against from an old photo frame:


It needs a bit more work but I'm quite please with the first coat of paint - this took about 15 minutes but will need to dry before adding a bit more fire and smoke - I may use pastels rather than paint to get the blurred look of the actual box picture, we'll have to wait and see.

I've undercoated the aircraft in gloss black ready to spray over with in bare metal - not sure whether to go with steel, silver or chrome yet - it will be quite heavily weathered whichever I choose. More to come soon...

Cheers
Al.

[Dirkpitt289]

Box art build. I like it....