Mormon Mustang

[Martin R]

One thing I am worried about is the front end piece (which you can just see to the left of the fuselage in the first pic). For my paint scheme the spinner will be yellow (or possibly red) but the front needs to be in the camo. I can glue it on with the spinner separate but then the prop will be loose or I will have to glue it (which in my experience is never a good plan, someone always wants to spin it).

Any ideas?

Can you show us how the prop is attached?

regards,

Martin

[fredk]

A slip of paper betwixt them?

[philp]

Martin,
Here is a pic of the instructions.



Fred, that might work.

I am thinking of two different options. First would be to temporarily attach the nose with white glue or something. Then I can paint the camo, take it off, attach the prop and glue it back on. Fit is pretty good so just might work.

Other option is to paint the spinner then attach just the backplate to the nose piece and glue the nose on. Then I just have to mask the back plate while spraying the camo. Fred's idea would be pretty helpful here to help mask the piece.

I will be spraying with rattle cans as my airbrush is still not set up yet. Got to clear a bit more stuff out of the room and make a spray booth.

I did sand the wing roots but see a few more issue areas that will need a bit of touching up before I can start the camo so painted the landing gear and put some putty on a couple injection marks on the tires. I also found some bombs that should work. So, just small progress until I am ready to paint.

[fredk]

If the fuselage frontspiece is a good fit, I'd attach it, spray, take off, then attach prop to it then put the lot on. Decant some of your camo colours into a small jar to use as touch ups at the joint.
Also that way you can get the spinner cone and backplate joint tidy, off the airframe.
just some thoughts

[philp]

Ok, small update today. I glued the spinner together with white glue and used the same for the nose piece.

Then, sprayed white on the spinner and tail followed by Tamiya yellow for the squadron markings.


Do you like my masking job?


Not too bad.

So tomorrow will try and spray the light blue undersides and if that dries in time, maybe put the tan top coat on. I have several colors to check for the upper camo so will be doing some test sprays to see which two I like better.

Still looks like I might be able to pull this off in time. Course, still got to do a blitz or two.

[philp]

On a side note. When I named this thread I thought I was being cute. Little did I realize there really was a Mormon Mustang, three of them in fact.

Roland R. Wright flew 3 P-51Ds during WWII, all of them named Mormon Mustang. Some info here and here. He had 3 kills, the first was a Me-262.

There is a preserved example flying in his markings at the Legacy Flight Museum in Rexburg, ID.

I have a feeling I will have to take a little road trip.

[Jagewa]

A cracking build Phil, sharp masking alright.

[philp]

Sprayed the lower surfaces Tamiya AS-5 (Luftwaffe light blue).

Think I have found my upper camo colors as well so tomorrow will mask off the lower sides and spray the tan.

[Martin R]

Martin,
I am thinking of two different options. First would be to temporarily attach the nose with white glue or something. Then I can paint the camo, take it off, attach the prop and glue it back on. Fit is pretty good so just might work.

Other option is to paint the spinner then attach just the backplate to the nose piece and glue the nose on. Then I just have to mask the back plate while spraying the camo. Fred's idea would be pretty helpful here to help mask the piece.

Phil,

If you really want it to spin, perhaps glue a piece of plastic between the fuselage halves immediately behind where the prop locating collar will sit. Then add some small bits of plastic on each side of and above and below where the collar will sit on the nose piece. When you glue on the nose piece, these scraps of plastic should restrain the collar in all dimensions. Then you can add the prop / spinner assembly after painting, perhaps with a touch of pva on the end of the locating shaft if the fit is loose, or without if the fit is tight.

<edit: Sorry. Should have read the previous posts. The above has been overtaken by events.>

regards,

Martin

[philp]

Thanks Martin. I actually thought about something like that but seemed like a lot of extra work :-)

[Martin R]

Thanks Martin. I actually thought about something like that but seemed like a lot of extra work :-)

You're probably right. Also, your way looks pretty good so far!

regards,

Martin

[philp]

Well, I really can say my least favorite part of building is painting. I tried masking the camo off with silly putty as I have seen numerous others do. Stuff didn't want to stick to the model and then trying to add some tape in between just would have made a humorous video let me tell you.

Anyway, got the camo on and definitely going to need some touch up (understatement of the year). Not sure how I will handle doing that but will wait until tomorrow to tackle that.

Here are the results from today. Camo colors are from Model Masters. 1963 Desert Sand FS33722 and 1954 Light Earth FS30140.

[iggie]

Very neat demarcation lines there!

[philp]

Ok, touch up paint is done, for now.

Tomorrow will add the gloss coat, decals and matt coat.

Then still need to finish the wheel wells, landing gear, aerial, rear view mirror and pitot tube. The insides of the gear doors have a couple of injection marks. Might just leave them as is.

Real fun will be when I finally take off the canopy masks and see what clean up will be needed there.

Not sure if this will make it by tomorrow night (which is 7 hours later than you chaps in England) but we shall see.

[Kitaholic]

Love that camo scheme. Great work so far