Blue Nose Stallion – 1:32 Tamiya P-51D

-51 MUSTANG BUILD 7 – P

Blue Nose Stallion

Alan Kelley takes a look at the fantastic 1:32 Tamiya P-51D

o most, this is one of the most iconic and

Timportant aircraft of all time - the North American P-51 Mustang. Most modellers have built at least one in their time and I have built several of Tamiya’s 1:48 offerings as well as the 1:72 Airfix ‘Red Tail’. So when I got the chance to get my hands on one of the fantastic 1:32 Tamiya kits, I just couldn’t resist. For so long there was a gap in the market for a top class 1:32 Mustang; now the Hasegawa version is not bad, but is showing its age and suffers from a lack of detail in places and raised panel lines. Many people thought the problem had been solved when Dragon announced their version - but this kit disappointed so many when released. Then along came two top class kits within a relative short space of time - the Zoukei Mura offering then this masterpiece from Tamiya.

I have modelled her as 414906 ‘Cripes a Mighty’, the P-51D, of Major George E. Preddy, of the 328th Fighter Squadron, 352nd Fighter Group, the famous ‘BlueNosed Bastards’ of Bodney, and this is how she looked in October 1944. The Tamiya kit is beautiful straight-fromthe-box and comes with three decal options and a choice of three versions of the Mustang - an early NA-5 without the fin fillet, an NA-10 and NA-15, with the only visible differences between the -10 and -15 being the cockpit. There are a lot of modular components in this kit - the landing gear can be swapped to allow you to model the aircraft with landing gear up or down. You can also display the engine area and the gun bays open or closed, and all these areas are held in place using a system of tiny magnets, a fantastic innovation, in my opinion.

Construction began with the Merlin powerplant. The kit’s engine is a very good representation straight-fromthe-box, although it does leave a lot of the wiring and piping out. I chose to leave it as is, the intention being to have the cowls in place most of the time. Be careful

North American P-51D Mustang

MANUFACTURER: TAMIYA SCALE: 1:32 KIT T YPE: PL ASTIC INJEC TION MOULDED KIT NUMBER: 60322

when building the supercharger though, as there are two included, one for the P-51, but also one for a Spitfire Mk IX. The engine was painted with Tamiya XF-69 NATO Black, with all highlights being dry brushed with XF-69 lightened with XF-52 Buff. I then used AK Interactive Steel Pigment on the exposed edges for a metal effect. As good as the Tamiya kit is, there are still some opportunities to super detail, starting in the cockpit. I wanted to use as much of the kit as possible, adding only the Barracuda Cockpit Upgrade Set and Cockpit Stencil Set, together with HGW Seat Belts and Dinghy. You can replace both sidewalls with Barracuda resin replacements, but I chose to stick with the kit parts. The Barracuda Cockpit Upgrade Set I used replaces the radio, batteries and wiring harnesses, the throttle quadrant, control column and K-14 gunsight, and I have to say

-51 MUSTANG BUILD 7 – P the stencil set is a must, as it really brings the cockpit to life. I used Mr Hobby H58 Interior Green highlighted with other Vallejo shades. This was one area of the build where I really emphasised the contrast between the dark shadows and highlight areas. The instrument panel was painted XF-69 and the raised areas dry brushed again with some homemade wash to darken the shadow areas. I also chose not to use the floor decals, instead painting the floor with XF-64 with a touch of yellow added to it, and applied some streaking effects with Vallejo acrylics to simulate the wood grain. Once dry and after a coat of Johnson’s ‘Future’, I added some AK Interactive Chipping Fluid. Next I sprayed the floor black, then chipped away at the colour to reveal the wood effect below.

Now it was then time to join the fuselage up, and as always from Tamiya, the engineering of the kit meant there were very few seam lines to sand. The engine and cockpit are one complete assembly, and it all had to be aligned within the fuselage sides before gluing together. One thing to note at this stage - if you do add any extra detailing to the engine make sure the engine framework fits snugly around it as if there are any bulges then the frame is not correctly aligned and you will have issues later with the upper cowling. The rudder and elevators are held in place with metal hinges, and once in place do not detach easily.

The instructions have you adding the wings at this stage but I made the decision not to attach them until much later in the build. The panel detail on the wings is beautiful, but most P-51Ds left the North American factories with the wings puttied and painted silver. This was known as a laminar flow wing, and increased the top speed of the aircraft. So I made the painful decision to fill in all the panel detail, with the exception of the plates underneath covering the fuel tanks. For this I used a liberal coat of Mr Dissolved Putty, which was sanded back flush using wet and dry once it had hardened. I really wanted to achieve a perfect metal finish, and purchased the newly released AK Interactive Xtreme Metal colours. These paints are a new formulation - once sprayed on they give a finish very similar to Alclad,

but do not give off the same fumes during application. These are designed to be used straight from the bottle, with no thinning required for airbrushing.

For the base I used Tamiya X-1 thinned with Mr Color self-levelling thinner, after which the wings were painted in ‘Duraluminium’. I used ‘Chrome’ for the unpainted flaps and the reinforced plates on the bottom of the wing. The fuselage was also undercoated in Tamiya X-1 before giving it a coat of ‘Airframe Aluminium’. To emphasise the rivet lines I went over them in ‘Chrome’. The fit between the fuselage and wing was absolutely perfect with no filler needed whatsoever. For the propeller, I like to paint the blades silver first. I then give them a coat of AK Interactive ‘Chipping Fluid’ followed by XF-69 NATO black as a base coat, before adding XF52 to the mix, and fading the paint from the leading edge back. This is then weathered using the Lifecolor Black Set in a stippling effect using a sponge. I then take a cocktail stick and chip away at the leading edge, before sealing it with Johnson’s Klear ready for decaling. The propeller boss was given a coat of ‘Aluminium’, then a wash with my homemade black.

For decalling I use the Micro Set/Sol system to get the decals to snuggle down, in conjunction with a hairdryer to speed up this process - but you do this entirely at your own risk, and the Superscale decals I used here conformed perfectly, although I had to cut the ‘barber’s pole’ on the nose and one on the stars and bars on the wing over the gun bays. Another coat of Klear was then applied over the entire aircraft. This is an absolutely vital stage as the new AK Interactive paints wipe off during weathering process if thinner is applied onto them. I tried not to go overboard on the weathering, however, remembering I was modelling an aircraft as it would have appeared in October I used Tamiya Weathering Pigments and restrained AK Interactive washes. The gun staining was a fine spray of Tamiya XF-64, darkened down with a touch of black before spraying the inside of the stains. I recreated dirt on the wing walk areas using Vallejo acrylics stippled on using a barely damp sponge, followed by a light dusting of MIG Productions Mud pigment. The fuel spills on the drop tanks were AK Interactive ‘Fuel Stains’. I replaced the kit’s vinyl tyres with Barracuda resin items, and when setting the aircraft on its wheels, I found the tail wheel leg quite weak and flexing under its own weight.

From start to finish this project took four months to complete. There are certainly things I could do differently in future but all in all I am satisfied with the way this has turned out. Tamiya have overengineered this kit to a degree, but is certainly worth the effort in getting it all together.