Capt. Arval J. Roberson’s P-51D Mustang “Passion Wagon”
I used the Tamiya P-51D mustang kit in 1/48 scale for this one. This started out to be a pain in the you know where build. I started out with Loon Models no cut conversion. It is 2 complete fuselage halves made out of resin and a separate rudder. The one I got had a lot of flash and didn't look real good, so I tried cutting the tail off of it and the kit fuselage to change them out but it wouldn't fit right so I put the kit away for a while and worked on other stuff...Then I found an Ultracast resin tail piece on Ebay...I got it and then went to work. I taped the fuselage halves together and cut the tail off..The Ultracast piece fit like a glove...I must have cut pretty straight because I didn't have to use much filler...of course using super Gel glue also helps...Rest of the kit was right out of the box. The decals were from an old Microscale sheet I got from a modeling friend of mine. They were kind of brittle but a little clearcoat and they worked great...I also have the B model Passion Wagon as you can see in the pics...It turned out to be a fun build...I really love the Tamiya Mustangs..They are a great kit...I have about 11 of them plus 2 old Monogram Mustangs...great airplane...
Nice display, Chris...with sharp, clear pics to boot. Good work.
thanks...I dont really think I do that great of a job, my wife says I'm my own worst critic
Chris, beautiful job. I like early P-51Ds in the not-often-seen olive drab and neutral gray. Question: would it not have been easier to just trim the dorsal fillet off the Tamiya kit to make a "dash 5" and go from there, or are there other external differences on the fuselage? Several years back I did a Tamiya kit into an earlier plane ("Lou IV", 361 FS) by cutting off the fillet and that was that. There is enough meat after the fillet is removed to not have any gaps or holes under where the fillet was. You might have saved yourself some extra effort (and money), but in any case, your end result is great.
I'm not too good at doing major surgery to kits...The cutting off of the tail was kinda beyond my skill level...but it turned out good...I have a B-17F that is actually a hybrid of the Revell F and Monogram G...a friend helped me cut off the nose and do the waste windows...