Eduard P-51D, 1/48. 'Big Beautiful Doll'
Hello all, been a minute! I was lurking on imodeler as I normally do and I realised I never posted this pony I painted up last year. Life has largely gotten in the way of modeling (turns out learning to fix 1/1 scale planes takes time and effort, who would've thunk that?) so this was one of a grand total of 3 I managed to finish off last year.
Won't be writing a big in depth history and review as I normally like to since, to be quite honest, I can't remember much of the build. Besides, everyone and their mother seems to have built the Eduard Mustang at this point so I was definitely late to the party. Needless to say, the kit went together very well.
It's very nicely detailed, no hiccups with fit, and the only issues I had were of my own doing by managing to lose a fault significant part in moving around, luckily I managed to find a cheap kit for sale opened but unbuilt which became a doner. So I guess I have whole other Mustang (minus a radiator scoop) to build in the future.
Speaking of which, if you haven't yet picked up the Eduard kit then I'd highly recommend it. This one came from the Limited Edition Mighty Eighth kit and came with a whole plethora of markings (enough for two kits minimum).
For the build I went for a very rarely modeled scheme, the 'Big Beautiful Doll'. Obviously I'm joking, this scheme is very commonly seen on both models and flying P-51s and for good reason as it definitely looks very striking. This particular aircraft also matches a previous P-47 I've done, both of which served in the 78th Fighter Group based at my local nerd spot of Duxford.
In the real world Col. Landers used this as a personal mount, achieving 4.5 kills in the Mustang adding towards his total of 14.5 through the war. This aircraft can be seen in quite a few photos, but depending on the time (and whether Landers was in or commanding the 55th, 357th or 78th FG at the time) the scheme for the aircraft can be quite different, and the letter codes change too. One thing stays the same and that is the name of this Mustang.
Anyways that's enough for the pony, hope you enjoy the photos. After this I started another Corsair (shocking, I know) and it took me a mere 9 months to finish that to an honestly somewhat mediocre standard. I'll post pictures of that when I build up it's opposition, but I put that aside as I work very slowly on something slightly more modern and out of my comfort zone of old warbirds. Happy modeling to you all in whatever you're building!
Very nice, Harvey
Very nice Mustang, a solid build and paintwork @scalerambush, well done!
Did you used the kit decals for the nose checkers? I ended up resorting to masking in one of the box options because the decals weren’t conforming well and it affected the whole thing.
I ended up going completely out of box with this one. Funnily enough I found the decals went on really well for the checkers, just quite time consuming. There were a couple of rips and a tad of misalignment on the upper side but that was fixed with the brush pretty quickly
Fantastic job! Which paints did you use for the metal finish?
I used MRP paints for this, I can't remember exactly if it was White Aluminum or Super Silver. I also chucked in a couple of other MRP metallic paints for variation. For the wings I painted them in those metallic colours and then sprayed a very diluted filter of light grey to give them have the painted finish Mustangs had applied to the wings
Very well done! Jug too!
Great job on a beautiful build. OBTW, I went to High School with John Landers' daughter...
Great floorboard scuffing, Harvey. The rest is excellent, too.
Congratulations!
Excellent Mustang, Harvey!
Congratulations!
Excellent work. Those large decals scare me but you inspire me to try.
Thank you! Honestly I they went on quite nicely, I'm sure there's a mask set out there if you wanted to try that though
Great looking pony. Thanks for sharing.
That's an impressive Mustang, Harvey @scalerambush
Excellent paintwork and attention to the detail of the interior.
Which 1:1 scale aircraft are you working on.
Thank you!
I'm on F-35 now, just slightly different to a prop warbird
Very nice build, congratulations!
(And yours remind me that I never posted mine here 😀 )
Spectacular Harvey. The build and the photos.
Looks spectacular! The checkboard came out excellent - hard to do, whether decals or paint!
Really nicely done on this one, thanks for sharing.
Rod
Well done, Harvey!
That is a real beauty - well done!