Tamiya 1/32 P-51D Mustang by Jumpei Temma

Tamiya 1/32 scale
P-51D Mustang

by Jumpei Temma

North American P-51D Mustang

Tamiya's 1/32 scale P-51D Mustang is available online from Squadron

Introduction

Tamiya's 1/32 P-51 Mustang is a perfectly excellent kit. The only defect is that it's made of plastic.

So, I just had to cover it with a real metal skin.

Construction

0.3mm(0.012") aluminum sheet was annealed and formed on rubber sheet. Then it was trimmed and glued with epoxy glue. Aluminum sheet is pressed with urethane foam and scotch tape while gluing. Kit cowling parts are very thin. Thus, I made resin platforms for aluminum forming and gluing.

After aluminum gluing was finished, the surface was sanded and polished with #320 to #800 grit sand paper. Next, it was polished with Mr Raplos #6000 to #8000. Finally, it was polished with rubbing compound.

The landing gear of the kit is thin and fragile just like the thoroughbred, and in the long term, the kit gear will likely distort. To prevent this, I inserted a 1.0mm (0.04") brass rod through the center of the kit gear leg. Tires were exchanged with Barracuda Studio's cast resin parts.

As for the actual P-51's wing, rivets were filled with putty, then the silver lacquer was applied to improve the effect of laminar flow wing. So, I filled in kit rivets with Mr.Surfacer 500 with a small spatula (chisel). Then the main wing was painted with Mr. Color's "old" #8 silver and #46 clear.

Finally, all of aluminum was glued on the fuselage. Then the model was washed with soap and water to remove hand oil and then dried thoroughly. Clear Color Spray for Aluminum (I bought it at a do-it-yourself store) was airbrushed on the entire surface of the fuselage for a metal primer and clear coating.

Painting and Markings

I selected 355FS CO Major Robert W. Stephens's "KILLER!". The "KILLER!," is an Inglewood D-20-NA. The exhaust fairing, no rear view mirror, black band on the upper wing root and the checker on the wing leading edge can be confirmed. The photo can be seen at the web site "Baseball in Wartime - Robert W. Stephens".

The insignia, D-Day stripes, wing & tail black band, and nose checker are all painted. Other markings were custom made dry decals. I also illustrated Captain Bob Stephens's other aircraft, B-1-NA "KILLER".

Thumbnail panels:

Conclusion

My P-51 was completed anyway. It took almost ten months and I had a lot of trouble, especially with the upper cowl. However, after all the problems, the luster of "real metal" is incomparable. Also, I loved this simple and neat design of 355FS's Blue/White nose and spiced up with the wing checkers, they flatter the aluminum finish.

A detailed article on the following URL - http://www.geocities.jp/yoyuso/p51/p51e-1.html

Back to HyperScale Main Page