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Russ King
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P-51D Short Fuse Sallee

November 14, 2023 · in Uncategorized · · 24 · 555

Richard E. Turner. 356th FS, 354th FG. Profipack .
Built out of the box aside from Draw decals.
Paint.
Vallejo metals: aluminum, duraluminium, and steel over Mr Color gloss black Ueno.
Tamiya lacquer silver for wing surfaces.
Tamiya olive drab anti glare.
Tamiya rubber black and white primer for invasion stripes.
Lots of masking and unmasking for stripes, various panels, anti glare and blue band.

Kit went together well for the most part. No real fit issues. Some nice photoetch, most of which you can't see after all is done.

I used the Draw decals set. After the fact I realized that the decal set is made from a reference photo of a restored civilian version of Short Fuse Sallee. Serial number used on the restored aircraft is actually for a later version called just "Short Fuse" after "Sallee" was dropped. Decal already in place by then.
Turner had 3 WW II P-51s.
51-B s/n 43-12434 Short Fuse Sallee
51-D s/n 44-13561 Short Fuse Sallee (the one I should've used)
51-D s/n 44-15622 Short Fuse

Reader reactions:
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14 additional images. Click to enlarge.


24 responses

  1. Very well done, I like it.

  2. Beautiful pony, Russ @rfking
    The NMF turned out perfectly with the various shades.

  3. Fantastic result, Ross! No big deal fore the serial number.

  4. 🙂 ... Greetings ... 🙂 :
    Very elegant Mustang model Russ.
    Good and clean work on the NMF finish, including the various shades
    as well as the weathering.

  5. FYI He wrote a book "Mustang Pilot". I remember it being quite good. I still have my copy.

    Regardless, nice model.

  6. Excellent Mustang, Russ. Great paintwork.

  7. Mustang Sally is a great song and this is a great Mustang.

  8. Really great looking mustang!

  9. Nice work. I'm sure Richard (he used to show up at Planes of Fame in the 80s and early 90s) would like this.

    FWIW, I have tried both lacquer-base black and water-base black for a primer for NMF and my experience is that using Tamiya X-18 semi-gloss black thinned 50-50 with Tamiya acrylic thinner and misted on is the only way to get to an assured "mirror finish" which is crucial, particularly with Vallejo metal paints. For some reason (and I have found the same thing with other colors) doing a lacquer-base acrylic doesn't get there. Not a complaint about this very nice model, just passing on experience. Vallejo is thin enough it shows everything it's on top of.

  10. That's a fine looking Mustang!

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