1/48 Tamiya F-51D Mustang

"Korean War" 

by Kevin Jongen

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Here is my model of Tamiya's F-51D Mustang. The aircraft "Buckeye Blitz IV" depicts an aircraft flown by Capt J.W Rogers of the 36th FBS, 8th FBW during the Korean War. The kit includes markings for 3 different aircraft used during the Korean War, one of which was chosen for this model.

This is a terrific kit by Tamiya that fits together very well with minimum filler used. What filler I did use was superglue so that it could be sanded and polished to a glass smooth surface in preparation for the Natural Metal Finish. The kit was built out of the box except for a few small additions and alterations. I drilled out the exhausts and machine guns, filed the bottom of the main wheels flat & added a stretched sprue antenna with 5 minute epoxy insulators. I also filed out the centre of the gunsight and replaced the clear part with folded acetate sheet. I added seat belts from Tamiya masking tape with 0.125mm copper wire buckles. The fins on all the rockets are molded too thick so they were filed off and replaced with 0.010" plastic card.

The only problems I encountered with the kit is the poor way that Tamiya have chosen to mold the canopy and windscreen. The sprue connects onto the canopy at very visible spots in the glazing and when you trim the canopy from the sprue with a knife or with a sprue cutter it creates stress fractures in the clear plastic which is impossible to fix. Tamiya have also provided a separate section for the lower part of the sliding canopy which is not a perfect fit and requires some major sanding, filling and polishing to get it to blend into the glazing. Since building this kit I did read a article by Randy Lutz which suggests cutting the canopy parts from the sprue with a hot knife, then sanding the remaining stub and polishing. I intend to build a few more of these Mustangs in WWII scheme in the future so I intend to try this technique next time.

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The model was polished to glass smooth finish with Tamiya rubbing/polishing compound, then washed and sprayed with Tamiya X-1 gloss black. This was allow to dry for a minimum of 2 days before applying some lightly misted coats of Alclad II aluminum. I have found in the past if you spray the Alclad too soon after the gloss black you get cracks in the Alclad a couple of days later. I haven't heard anybody else having this problem but its happened to me twice, so I am very wary of it now. A lot of the panels on the fuselage were masked and then sprayed with white aluminum and the panels around the exhaust were sprayed with Magnesium. All other painting & weathering was done with Tamiya acrylics. I used a dark grey/brown mix of Jo Sonja artist acrylics thinned with water and flow medium to highlight the panel lines & landing gear legs.

Apart from the canopy & windscreen problems, this is a great model of beautiful aircraft. I know there are small errors in shape in this kit but it sure looks like a Mustang to me !

Kevin

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Photos and text © by Kevin Jongen