This one came to me from friend Jack in Florida after, I suspect, he got frustrated with it and put it aside. It was in a box of stuff he gave me after a visit, so I brought it home, tossed it onto the to-do pile and promptly forgot all about it. A few weeks ago I was looking for something else and knocked it off the shelf onto the floor, which broke the two verticals off. I had just finished another kit and was looking for something else to do, so I picked it up off the floor and got to it.

There were a bunch of parts missing, and the right wing had a beautiful warp in it. I glued the fins back on and away I went. Props were among the AWOL pieces, so after some rummaging, a pair of 1/48 P-51 props fit the TLAR (that looks about right) requirement.

This is a resin kit, so everything has to be glued with CA. There were bubbles an holes everywhere, and there was part of a cockpit.

First step was to shoot a coat of automotive primer, which only proved how rough the model was. Then the fill and sand sessions began...

The canopy came from a Model Craft 1/48 F-82 kit. It was about the right size and shape, and I had vac replacements, so after a little cutting and grinding, I got it to fit well enough to keep me happy. Fortunately, the clear nose cone was with the model, so I won't have to try to find one of those.

Cockpit parts came from the junk box.

Five fill and sand sessions later, I'm to what you see here. Main gear struts are on the model, but the nose strut was missing, so another raid to the junk box was in order. This was too short, so a little piece of aluminum tube will take care of that. Main wheels will also come from a pair of donor 1/48 P-51s. The gear doors are scratchbuilt, still need to finish those out. I got the warp out of the wing with a few sessions with and boiling water. That was a nail biter, as there is a very fine line between just right and "oh s--t!" There is no way this will be in an NMF finish as the prototypes were, so this will be a what if. I'm still trying to determine what that will be, but I'm leaning toward an ADC gray with some colorful markings.

Here's the real one:

And a cool article on the 1/4 scale RC model that was built for the movie, "The Aviator".

https://www.aviatorxf11.com/history

Wow, great job, my friend @jetmex!
Nothing better than seeing already started and stalled "difficult" kits to regenerate and get finished!
Love the looks so far, it will be a great whatiffer.
Looking forward to it!

Off to paint today, not as smooth as I would have hoped. I thought I had cleaned everything pretty well until the white paint on the tail did all sorts of weird things as it dried. I had to clean it all off and start over again. It looks ok, still a little rough around the edges, but I hope I can cover all the goofs with the final overall color, which will be ADC gray. The aim here is to make the airplane look like it might have while in service in the early to mid 50s, with inspiration taken from the colorful markings used by Air Force fighter squadrons of the time.

1 attached image. Click to enlarge.

Looks great so far, my friend @jetmex!
For sure the final gray will look nice and smooth!

Such things happen, my friend @jetmex! Luckily, nothing is irreparable, only needing its time (apart from graphic language 🙂 ).
Looking great!

Frustration levels get quite high when that happens, Jaime @jetmex
Good you didn't use it as a frisbee, after some extra work it will look great again.

From the picture she is a winner, Jaime @jetmex
Looking forward to the decals being added.

@jetmex - if that’s lipstick on pig, you sure chose the right “color”. Looks great. Always wondered if Anigrand kits were worth tackling as they have so many interesting subjects.. I’m still on the fence based on your build report here.