Rather ambitious project Mark, I am in the same mind set as you. I have accumulated quite a stash since the 90's. But have not really added much since the last couple of years. Building more now, funny that the Tamiya kits are considered old as well as the line of Hasegawa kits that were produced around the same time in 48th scale. I am mostly gathering some upgrades, decals now more than anything. I do love to get an some new Airfix kits though, they seem to be pretty good. Other than that I still love the "old" stuff still good and fun to build. Great approach to your Mustang project. Will watch as you progress.

All the major painting has been done on the 10 mustangs and things look to be moving quickly. However, getting the smaller details done bogs down the progress a bit. I find that adding brake lines, Fuel lines to the underwing tanks, And painting the filler caps all add to the appearance of the model by making it look less toylike. If you can see in the pictures, I took probably more time than is needed to add straps, clamps, couplers,tow loops and hydraulics to the gear on all the builds. I do not have a decal for the “KIDD” on the gear door of Kid Hoffers’ mount so I had to actually mask and paint it myself. I’m pretty happy with the result. Special thanks to John Ferdico for pointing out my need to do so with photographic evidence.

8 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Thank you John that is nice of you to say. I had mixed up some aluminum with some camo Gray added to use for the puttied wings but it was too dull and gray for my taste. So, since I don’t like to waste anything, i used it for the landing gear :-). I think the World War I guys would call the color silbergrau. I hope you weren’t talking about the real picture I posted!

Nice detail work Mark, what did you use for the fuel lines may I ask? I haven't been successful in trying to do them at all.

Well, it’s been slow going decaling the 10 mustangs. Many of the decal sheets were decades old kit decals or micro scale sheets. These were very fragile with a propensity to break up if handled too roughly… Or at all! However, Kudos to cardiograph decals which go on beautifully and look painted on. So far no major screwup‘s and decals are on six out of the 10. Once the decals are done there is still a lot to do of course but I see the light at the end of the tunnel. The first four pictures are of the 1/48 scale Tamiya, Hasegawa and ICM kits. The last photo is of the 1/72 scale Tamiya and Hasegawa kits. The only one built out of the box is the Tuskegee airmen mustang.

5 attached images. Click to enlarge.