Hi all,
Some of you may know my pet Real World modelling projects are preserved "warbirds". I'm almost finished doing ICM's 1/48 P-51D/K as the late Col Pay's CAC Mustang A68-107/VH-AUB, an aircraft familiar to many airshowgoers in Australia. At the same time I'm doing a Kiwi Civilstang - the petrol company-sponsored "Mobil Mustang" ZK-CCG from the 60s - so don't be surprised if you see double in the photos!
Key to doing this project are decals: the lovely Red Roo set for VH-AUB, and Red Pegasus of the USA for ZK-CCG. I ordered the Aussie ones with a bunch of other stuff and they arrived very quickly...but in 1/72! An email to proprietor Gary saw me return them in exchange for the right scale set...and then a second set arrived a few days later?! He said I can feel free to hang onto it and pass it on to anyone who wants it. Very kind.
First up on the bench was VH-AUB, the Aussie bird. I was in the mood for a quicker build so rather than mix a match for RAAF Cockpit Green I just used Tamiya XF-71. I also got a set of Red Roo CAC prop blades. I removed the radio boxes and also the headrest, in line with photos I've seen of the real AUB. ZK-CCG retained the military radios for a while so I kept them in place for that one.
A casualty of my "quickbuild" ethos was the wing dihedral on AUB: "measure twice, cut once" when it comes to this kit, it seems! The wings are flatter than I'd like but it's still unmistakeably a Mustang. The fit is actually quite nice overall, but the Tamiya one is (surprise surprise) even better.
VH-AUB is the one on the left. I painted the nose first as you need to install the exhausts before the top cowling.
AUB still on the left. Most photos I found of her on the ground show the flaps down, so that's what I went with. It's half-and-half with CCG, but as the flaps fit nicely as-is they're down too. CCG will take a lot longer as I need to get some white spray paint. Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh how I hate painting white, yet so many delicious subjects are white
Both aircraft had the shell ejector chutes faired over, so I masked and filled these on each model.
I'm using overall Tamiya XF-16 Flat Aluminium on the Aussie bird. The rudder almost always looks darker than the rest of the airframe in photos, a fact mentioned in the Red Roo decal instructions, so I did two coats of Flat Black followed by two of X-32 Titanium Silver (not applied here). The effect looks right to me, although I'm kicking myself for not buying more Tamiya Acrylic Thinner before using the X-32. It gets more gloopy the more you use.
Here's where I left it last night (Red Roo resin CAC wheels and tyres now fitted). The whole thing (apart from canopy and windscreen, and gear) has received a coat of Humbrol Gloss in preparation for decals. The eagle-eyed among you may see the guns appear to be rounded - both AUB and CCG had domed covers over where the gun barrels protrude from the wing leading edges. A few passes with a sanding stick and voila! Instant civilianisation!
The decals should go on AUB this weekend...unless
the Mosquito flies, in which case I plan to spend Saturday drooling over that silver warbird instead. CCG will need to wait.
