Over a year ago my friend John Ferdico told me that the Airfix and Meng P-51 kits coming to market would make the Tamiya offering obsolete. Looking at my stash I found that I had 8 mustangs in 1/48 scale and 2 in 1/72. They were mostly Tamiya/ICM with a couple Hasegawa in the mix. I decided I would try to prove John wrong while at the same time cleaning out some of my stash. I set out on a one man group build of 10 mustangs.

I pulled out all my resin wheels, engines, cockpit sets and flying surfaces and divided them up between the builds except for the OOB build of a Tuskegee mount. The major errors of the kits were addresses including the main spar, the radiator outlet, front windscreen, step on flaps, etc. Of course brake land fuel lines were added and most wings puttied smooth.

A move to San Diego slowed down the builds but I am now back up and running. Unfortunately I only have iPhone pictures of the progress. Why build one model when you can build ten at 10 times the price? :-).

18 attached images. Click to enlarge.

You’re gonna finish all ten of those before I finish either the Airfix or the Meng! They look fantastic, keep the updates coming.

You are exactly right. Loading up the air brush to paint one interior is a pain in the horses behind so I like to strive for efficiency. I’ve never built 10 of the same airplane at once but I usually have multiple projects going on at the same time. This time once everything is buttoned up I decided to paint the colorful nose and tails BEFORE painting the natural metal finishes. I did this for two reasons, one to avoid paint build up at the masking edge, and two because I didn’t have enough Aclad for all of them!

Here are some additional photos after the Alclad and model master metallizers have been applied:

6 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Don't know how you keep them all sorted, but a phenomenal project! Looking forward to seeing the line-up once they're all done. I think I have 18 Phantoms in my stash, and I've toyed with building 2-4 of them at a time, but don't think I could take on 10!

Thank you for your comments. You are all correct, building 10 models at the same time seems like quite an undertaking but it really isn’t. I keep all the parts in the original kit boxes and whatever I’m working on any particular session goes in to a foam meat tray labeled for each build. When I am painting things like the spinners or the propeller blades I label them with a piece of tape.

If I could do it all over again, the one thing I would change is painting the natural metal 1st. That is how I’ve done things in the past but I decided to try things a little different here for reasons I discussed previously. Also helps with weathering because you can sand the paint down to the natural metal for a nice worn paint effect.

Although I still don’t have a real camera, I took a few better pictures with my iPhone which I will post below. They are all pretty much ready for a gloss coat followed by decaling. It is both my favorite and least favorite part. Favorite because it really makes them all come alive. Least favorite because I am always apt to ruin a decal or three trying to adjust it or burnish it down. Or, worst of all, if the old decals I’ve been saving in my stash crumble in water! Then I am forced to beg for or buy new once as the model is already painted for the desired aircraft. Happy modeling guys. Coments and suggestions are always appreciated. I am still learning and love to try new ways of doing things.

Mark

9 attached images. Click to enlarge.

This is like a production line during WW2, the thing that gets me is the quality of each aircraft that you are building, detail and paintwork is outstanding. amazing work.

The Tamiya kit is a fine model. As is the Hasegawa kit. I don't get the passe' attitude about these two kits. Granted the Hasegawa kit has incredibly shallow wheel wells but how often do you stare at the bottom of your builds, you know? Kudos for building these excellent Mustangs, Mark!

Lee, it's always the "Latest, greatest" with folks. Gotta have the latest one. Then, that falls behind in its turn when the next new one comes out. Henry Adams' "endless steeplechase after nothing." How stashes are built! Ask me how I know...