It seems the Mustang named "LOU IV" was photographed on July 26th,1944 in a series of pictures that were taken that day with 3 other Mustangs roughly 78 years ago. Sadly none of these "Bottisham 4" P-51's would survive the war. Neither would two of the pilots flying them that day...
Ironically, I have been thinking about these two models a lot lately... but I don't know if it's because subconsciously I knew that "LOU IV" was lost on a mission, killing the pilot (and Group CO, Colonel Thomas J.J. Christian Jr.) almost exactly 78 years ago... to the day on August 12, 1944.
or was it from a PM I received here about a week or so ago from Stephen ? @stephen-w-towle
Today I made a LOT of good progress on these two Mustangs. Please follow along as I explain.
I started out by spraying the radiator housing, drop tanks, various fuselage doors. landing gear, wing rack, prop hubs, controls surfaces, etc. in an aluminum color.
The parts looked pretty decent after the paint dried. I started buffing some stuff, and so far I am pleased with the results.
The radiator housing also incorporates the tail wheel housing.
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1. ZC Yellow
2. ZC Green on the interior
These parts had been previously painted using Zinc Chromate Yellow, and a Home Brewed shade of Zinc Chromate Green I concocted a while back.
This assembly fits snuggly into the fuselage. I was able to simply press fit it in place, and no glue was needed. Here you can see the fuselage halves for both Mustangs.
The fuselage halves were then glued together, trapping the radiator and tail wheel housings in place.
The radiator housing has some very nice details cast into the parts. Here you can see what I'm talking about. These details will be brought out even more with a light wash of black or grimy brown.
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1. Pay attention here when joining the wings.
I installed the carburetor air intake next. This part fit very nicely, only requiring a little amount of filler later.
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1. This area has to tuck in behind the wing.
2. A little filler was needed here.
On a roll, I threw caution to the wind and glued the wings in place on both Mustangs. The fit here is very good, but it can be tricky. The fit will come out perfect providing the area where the flaps meet the fuselage is correct. There is a small "step" here, and it will make an audible "click" once it's in place properly.
The leading edge of the wings will also fit tightly in place, but you must make sure the wings are tucked in under the front lower part of the fuselage. I accidentally broke part of the fuselage when I assembled it, so be careful here.
One more thing... Don't forget to install the joystick like I did. If you do you have two choices. You can pull the wing off providing the glue has not set up yet... or... you can trim off the control rod on the part of the assembly that goes under the seat. It will not be seen later if you do.
Don't ask, don't tell 😉
Here are the Mustangs with the wings joined to the fuselage.
There are a few areas that I needed to add some LQS.
They were located under the fuselage, by the radiator housing.
On top of the rear spine on the fuselage...just after the sliding canopy slot.
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1. This area has to tuck in behind the wing.
2. A little filler was needed here.
and a little drop of filler was brushed on the side of the carburetor intake.
On the full sized Mustang, the carburetor air intake is made from a solid piece of aluminum. as shown here in these pictures I took during the annual "Open House" at the restoration shop.
This shows how it is bolted to the frame.
This photo shows a larger portion of the nose on a 1 to 1 scale Mustang, prior to installing the RR Merlin... I have a lot of Mustang pictures that I have taken throughout the years. If you need anything don't hesitate to ask.
Going back to the filler: I had to add some under the nose on both Mustangs.
The upper seam on the nose also required a little. This could be due to my building habits and not a fault of the kit. I would like to hear from others to see what they may have encountered here.
Anyhow, this sums up today's progress on these two magnificent Mustangs.
Please stay tuned for another "regular "installment. I will be working on these two now until I get them done.
Thank you Stephen @stephen-w-towle
for the encouragement to get going on these two again. Your message was exactly what I needed.
I hope to have them both done very soon, so I can post "Cripes A Mighty" on Christmas Day, as a tribute to Major Preddy who lost his life on this very day back in 1944.
Take care, and as always,
comments are encouraged. 🙂
