@airbum - what I meant is, the "old ICM kit" isn't actually that bad, being a knock off of the only close-to-good P-51B/C kit.

@fiveten, @gblair, @holzhamer, @johnb @adrianstarling, @tom-bebout, @klavs1972, @jimh and @mvtb, after a long wait, work continues on the Eduard P-51.

Masked

As this has to be kept under wraps here at home some unreported progress has been made

I did paint the fuselage with some new-to-me AK aluminum paint, and I have to say it was a rather positive experience. Sadly I did not get to take any pictures of it before masking for the ident stripes.

Once again the circlecutter came out as I needed to make a mask that fitted the star’n bar.

With the masks on I have to find time to get it painted without she-that-must-be-obeyed will notice it.

next up masks will be comin’ off and the details will be added – tune in to check if I am able to get pictures taken before the big day!

Fantastic progress, my friend @airbum! What a surprise it will be!

Not good!

Not good at all – the tape sticks like. . .

I discovered I had let out the black stripe on the tail, and started removing the tape to enable some re-masking before black paint was added.

HORROR! the glue from the tape sticked to the silver paint more than to the paper.

And so on to the black after masking the white areas

It was really hard to pull the masks off

Well, it is going to take a few days to get all that glue off without damaging the black/white as these paints do react to the IPA. Check in later as undercarriage and decals are next!

Awesome stripes, Erik (@airbum). The leftover glue is worrisome. I seem to have problems with the tape pulling up the clear gloss layer that I put on for the decals, and that is also really hard to fix. Good luck removing the glue.

Good luck with the repair, Erik @airbum ! If the metal coat was not acrylic, I would think isopropyl alcohol or even water and dish soap could safely remove the glue marks without damaging the finish. Novus Plastic Polish or Clean and Shine also works for me to get glue residue off of parts coated with Tamiya Clear. You have done so much great work so far, you wouldn't want to have to back up too much now (although stripping and redoing the exterior would not be too much of a disaster). I had a "disaster' with my 32nd scale Tempest which I will post soon to give others hope. Hours of careful work on the resin intake were annihilated when superglue leaked from the inside all over the front of the intake screen and wrecked it permanently. I almost chucked the whole model in frustration but I am glad I didn't. After three weeks of careful glue removal, scratch-building a new screen and smoothing out scratch marks from damage control I restored it to its pre-disaster state. Challenges like this have helped me to expand my repertoire of repair techniques and cache of materials, not to mention learning how to be meditative about these things.

Almost done and looking great, my friend @airbum!

It looks like the alcohol worked well, Erik (@airbum). I have found I can usually get away with using alcohol on painted surfaces as long as it is 70% or less. I also have 90% alcohol that I use to clean my airbrush. I only made the mistake once of using 90% on something painted, the result was something not painted when I was done. Getting very close to the end on this one.