1/48 Tamiya P-51D Mustang |
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Article by Greg Wise |
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'Angels' Playmate'
INTRODUCTION;
When my brother approached me on building a P-51D I thought no problem, I love P-51s but after researching the history of the pilot that flew the plane he wanted I wanted one too. I read articles about this guy before on how he was shot down and how he escaped but I never put the name and the plane together like I did until I saw the picture of a elderly man sitting in P-51 painted like the one he flew 50 years before.
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BACKGROUND;
The man was Lt. Bruce Carr, A true American Legend and nothing short of a Hero. I'm sure you know the story on how Lt. Carr had been shot down behind enemy lines after days of hide and seek with the Germans Lt. Carr approached a German airfield and was gonna give up but as fate would have it Lt. Carr watched as German mechanics finished work on a FW190 aircraft, that night Lt. Carr climbed into the 190 and tried to figure out what was what and get a little sleep then as the sun came up Lt. Carr fired that baby up and headed for Merry
ol' England. When it was time to land Lt. Carr had not figured out the landing gear operation, so he went in for a belly landing when the plane came to rest it was surrounded by GI's when the identity of the pilot was realized Lt. Carr's CO said to him "Carr where have you been".
CONSTRUCTION;
The Tamiya P-51D Mustang is with a doubt the best 1/48 kit, I have built lots of Mustangs and if the old Monogram had recessed panel lines it would come in second with Hasegawa. The only draw back in this kit is minor sink marks along the top leading edge inboard wings and poor alignment of the bottom scoop. I used Extra Tech buckles on the seatbelts, and drilled out the exhaust pipes with a No#11 blade point. I also dropped the elevators.
PAINTING & MARKINGS;
I always use Snj for a NMF and Testors Metalizer for a multipanel effect and Testors MM enamel paint for everything else. After I applied the decaling I washed the lines with super thin umber oils, then a spray of the same thin oils and let it dry a couple hours and wiped off the entire model with a clean rag (old t-shirt works great). Then I sprayed sealer on to tone down the overall shine. The Decals came from Aeromaster and went on fine but left a slight cloudiness that wouldn't clear up even after two days of drying time before any overcoating was done.
