Trumpeter 1/24 Scale P-51D Mustang - "Detroit Miss"

By Angus Hulme

I'd been really looking forward to building this kit for sometime, and despite the mixed reports seen all across cyberspace, I pressed ahead with my plans. Originally, I intended to build it with the engine exposed and detailed, but when I saw the gross and horrific inaccuracies that lay there, I thought "forget it, that's a nightmare".

The cockpit was relatively straightforward, and I only added a few little bits and pieces such as guitar string for oxygen hose, and some extra wire and brass rod. The main instrument panel was rebuilt using plastic card and to make the replacement bezels, I wrapped wire tightly around the correct sized drill bits, and cut the wire into circles.

The seatbelts and buckles were made for wine bottle foil, and I added a few small electrical wires onto the battery housing area behind the seat.

The floor of a P-51 is constructed from wood, and despite reading articles relating to how to simulate wood grain with paint alone, I thought I'd short-circuit that method by laying a floor of real wood. This was a thin strip of cedar pilfered from a cigar box, and despite my model now smelling like a tobacco plantation, it came out alright with a couple of coats of matt varnish.

The most time consuming part of this whole exercise was the making of the 0.50 cal ammo belts, which required the painstaking task of turning and shaping each individual round from 1mm copper wire, then inserting them into bootlace pins, which electricians apparently use to terminate loose ends of electrical wire. Each row of ammo then had to be lined up perfectly and joined together with wine bottle foil. I made a template out of a hair comb, so that each round of ammo would sit between the teeth of the comb, making the spacing equal and correct in my eyes. The ammo is somewhat over-scale but if I was a rivet counter, you wouldn't be seeing this article anyway!

the finished and painted ammo bay

The kit's machine gun barrels looked a bit clunky as well, so replaced them with muzzles that I fashioned out of aluminium tubing.

My first attempt at a metal finish was created with what I like to call a "mixed media" approach, which uses a combination of Bare Metal foil, Humbrol Metalcote, and Tamiya AS11 or 12 buffed with polishing powder. This strategy worked OK, but could benefit from more attention to my filling and sanding phase, as well as a more suitable undercoat. That's what is fun about each build I suppose...one knows where one can improve, right?!

© Angus Hulme 2006

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This article was published on Wednesday, July 20 2011; Last modified on Saturday, May 14 2016