Tamiya 1:48 N.A. P-51D Kit #61040 (1995)
C'moooooon, it's Tamiya. I did add two mirrors and sway braces from the spares box and P.E.harnesses. The decals are from Lifelike 48-048 Pt. 4, green stripes included, 30+ of them. The deal instructions offer plenty of references and I'm told they do a very good job with markings and colours. One issue I have though are the green colours. Lifelike say that they were probably painted with RAF green but I have never seen a green this colour. Now, they may be right and the decal printers got it wrong but I think this green is similar to greens seen on the nose of other P-51's such as the 370th FS or bomber markings. The instructions are vague in how to place the decals, ie. two have to line up perfectly around the left upper wing star and bar. I started from the wing roots to get all the green to line up with the black stripe and then from the wing tip and worked in. Though the decals take a bit of punishment, I did manage to rip one of the wing decals into a few pieces. Lifelike provides a long green bar the same colour as the stripes so it was just a matter of measuring and lining up. You can tell where the two decals over-lap. There was one decal I ripped and I could get the replacement right so I mixed Tamiya Dark Green and Light Green, kept testing it on the green bar until I couldn't see the difference and then touched up. All paint was done with Vallejo Metal, Tamiya for the invasion stripes, glare panel and red stripe on the glare panel. I'm not happy with the rudder colour but I'll live with it This aircraft was flown by Lt. Col. Claiborne Kinnard CO of the 4th Fighter Group with 25 victories, 6 in "Man 'O War" The stripes didn't last very long though as it attracted too much attention from enemy and friendly aircraft
Interesting scheme ! Looks great
Brian
Thank you
Very sharp work. I've wanted to do this scheme for a long time. I also have the Lifelike decal and agree the green doesn't look right. When I do mine I'll probably paint the stripes on.
Thanks. I briefly thought about painting but I didn't feel I could pull off the tail section. I just started the second option, Gentile's stateside tour aircraft
Great scheme you chose, George @blackadder. We can always count on you to come up with something out of the ordinary!
Thank you Eric
Great NMF, and a very attractive finish overall. I bought a tin of Humbrol British dark green once that was very close to the Lifelike green stripes.
Thank you. Good to know about the green
Great chosen scheme and beautifully built, George @blackadder57
Thanks John
Well done, George. I like the scheme.
Thank you Gary
Very cool George, always liked the look of the Man o' War.
I'm tracking down '72nd scale decals, but looks like I'll need to spray the green.
Thank you other George @georgeswork Here's a link to some photos if you don't already have them
https://www.americanairmuseum.com/archive/aircraft/44-14292
Very nice, George. The green you chose looks good relative to the photo. Man-o-War is one striking-looking airplane.
Thank you Colin
Love it! I'm always looking for usual schemes, and this definitely fits the bill! Well done.