P-51 K…..The building!

This model depicts the bird flown by Leonard K. " Kit "  CARSON, from the 357th FG at the end of the WW II.

"Kit" was the top ace of the group with 18.5 aerial victories and 3.5 by strafing….a guy that the German pilots didn't want to have in their " six"…..  

The model and the "extras"…

While going through my kit stash in my room….I found this Tamiya box of the P-51 D….don't ask me why I stopped on this box….after another "search" in the other "resin" boxes, where I store all the kits and detail sets; I found several items made for this kit !

Black Box cockpit, bought at the Dallas  Nats for 5 $ in a bag…….. K-14 from Cutting Edge Verlinden detail set for the engine and gun bay. 4 different decal sheets about the P-51………don't ask me why……

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References

• The P-51 Walkaround from SQUADRON.

• Aero detail n° 13.

• 357 th Fighter group from SQUADRON.

• P-51 In Action from SQUADRON.

• All the pics found through the net…

Building the engine:

I first started with the engine from Verlinden; cleaning the resin parts and assembling went along very easily. 

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The second thing was to cut the front of the fuselage and test fit all the resin parts…..that's where the thing started turning  bad!  The kit was made to fit the HASEGAWA kit …..nothing overwhelming but the rear part of the engine mount, with the firewall didn't fit! 

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The second problem was that part of the resin was really bad…can see through at one place and the resin was damaged in another place…I decide to rebuild that rear part so it could fit well the plastic fuselage. 

I also added all the wires to the engine, not a very simple thing ….I couldn't say that it is 100% accruate…but it is close…..and looks good when done.  Maybe I didn't devote enough time on it….you are the judge.

The parts were made using plasticard, different wires, vinyl tapes, plastic tubes….following all the reference pics available.  

Then the paint job of the engine and engine mount began…..as I couldn't say if the P-51 D engines were somewhat dirty or not…I prefer to make mine look good.  I think that the guys  who were working on those birds took very care of them….so I made it clean, just some highlight with a drybrush of light grey; aluminium. 

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Last problem….the front cowling…same as the placement of the engine!!! Very difficult to place…have to remove lots of resin material and glue the nose cone on it, to help for centering all the parts ! 

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The cockpit

Same cleaning job for the resin parts, also cleaned the plastic fuselage inside to accept the parts. After looking at what it gives…I decide to add some little things in plastic in different places. 

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Those concerning the cockpit lights, some wires, the mount of the seat. I didn't use the resin radio from the kit, just detailed the plastic one. I also cut the end of the rear place of the cockpit, back at the radio.  The paint job was as usual, first I applied different coats of green / yellow  chromate from Testors, a little drybrushing with yellow and white on every edge. I added SMOKE from Tamiya on each line and corner and then painted the bottom of the fuselage.

To simulate the wood material, I first painted the piece in sand from Humbrol, when dry, I applied a generous amount of oil paint; Raw Umber; and after 15 minutes I wiped off the excess with a dry flat brush, cleaning the brush each time, when you finally got the desired good texture, then let it dry for several hours.  Patrick IPMS BELGIUM ANS MODELISME

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