Tamiya P-51D, 'Petie 2nd', John C. Meyer.
This is the Tamiya 1/48 P-51D Mustang, marked as John C. Meyer's "Petie 2nd".
Typical of Tamiya, easy assembly and a nice fit. The only weak points are the wheel well not going back to the spar, and a prop that is too wide and tapered at the cuff (easy to correct).
I used an Ultracast seat, and the sliding canopy is a spare from an Airfix kit (suitably reshaped).
Wheel well was opened to the aft spar, brake lines added, and the radio, battery and drop tanks wired, and plumbed.
Decals are the kits (works well with VERY hot water), and the paints are all Tamiya acrylic.
Thanks for looking,
Colin
Sweet, always loved these markings
Beautiful Mustang!
Very nice work on this and a superb result. Your paintwork is great.
Interestingly enough, I discovered a couple years ago while researching "Clean Sweep" that all of us have gotten Meyers' P-51s wrong. "Petie 2nd" was the airplane in which he scored the least. That score that every model company has always put on their P-51D kits is the score that belonged on his final Mustang, "Petie 3rd," which he flew from late November 1944 to mid January when he had the car accident that took him out of action. There was no information about "Petie 3rd" until the late 1990s when the only photo ever taken of it (and a poor one at that, though it shows this scoreboard) was found in a desk drawer of his crew chief following his death.
The one cool thing about modeling is, no matter how "well-known" a subject is, no matter how "done to death," there will always be something new to learn.
1 attached image. Click to enlarge.
Thanks! It's interesting how he changed the arrangement of the victory marks on Petie 3!
for future reference
2 attached images. Click to enlarge.
Superb stang!
Very nice. Didn’t know you could achieve such nice metallic finish with Tamiya.
Thanks! It's Tamiya 'Titanium Silver' (best representation of aluminum IMHO) very fine grain, thinned heavily with X-20 lacquer thinner, and applied over bare plastic in several light layers. When dry, it's almost bullet proof.
Excellent Mustang, Colin!
A superb result, Colin @tail-dragon
The metallic finish turned out beautifully.
Beautiful finish. I like bullet proof. Will have to look up Titanium Silver. Out of curiosity, why did you use the Airfix canopy? And what color of blue did you use? It looks very good.
I had to use an Airfix canopy on the accompanying ICM kit, and found that I could thin the canopy and airframe to the point that the canopy rear sat down correctly on the fuselage. (most kits have the canopy rear well above the fuselage, which is wrong). So, as I had another spare, I used it on the Tamiya.
The blue is Tamiya flat blue mixed with light grey to match.
Well done, Colin!
@tail-dragon Great pony. Really clean work.
Nice one Colin! I think I'll give Tamya's titanium silver a try some day, looks very good. I am always struggling with Tamiya decals, because they are very thick. What is it that very hot water makes them work better?
Erik
I have read that the thickness in Tamiya decals is partially the adhesive, hot water removes more, softens them, and releases them quicker. I still use Microsol on them (usually multiple times) but at least they don't explode on contact with water!
what a nice clean build, and I love the airfix canopy...never thought of mixing and matching. the Tamiya canopy is my only gripe about this kit. Well done. It seems the 352nd did a lot of "hand me downing"...Petie 2nd later became Sweet Face with Sheldon Heyer. Petie 3rd was handed off to James Woods and became 'Ricky'. Cripes a Mighty went through a series of pilots and names as well. I remember seeing somewhere, decals for Meyer's B model Lambie as well. Both Meyer's and Preddy's B models would be fun to do...especially with the new Eduards. Again, great build, one of the best looking in the ETO
5 attached images. Click to enlarge.
Looks fantastic Colin!
Great NMF!