My 400 Series P-51

[recumbentrider]

This is my first rubber-powered balsa build in a very long time. I found the 400 series P-51 and P-40 kits at a giveaway price at a Hobby Lobby store several months ago, and I knew I had to buy them both. This P-51 was covered with the silkspan in the kit, and was sprayed with some Krylon artist fixative and some silver Design Master paint. The olive-drab anti-glare panel was tissue painted with Tamiya acrylic paint cut to size, and applied with a glue stick to the model. The black bands on the wings and tail were cut from domestic black tissue and applied with a glue stick. The 'decals' were ink-jet printed onto some vellum, carefully cut out, and applied to the model with spray adhesive. (I found mention of that technique on other modeling sites, and I think I heard it mentioned on this one as well.) After I applied the decals, I sprayed on a coat of Krylon crystal clear sating acrylic finish. Without rubber and without balancing ballast, the model weighs 86g. It is definitely not perfect, but I am still very pleased with how it came out. I hope within the next two weeks or so, I will get a chance to see if it will fly!

[recumbentrider]

Here are a couple of more views of the model. My model has the markings of 'Sad Sack', a P-51 flown by Major Merle J. Gilbertson. Major Gilbertson flew over 100 missions over Europe during the Second World War, and had six air-to-air victories. After the war, he stayed in the air force and learned to fly jets. Sadly, he was killed in 1950 when his F-84 jet crashed due to mechanical failure. He was only 30 years old.

[Brenda]

That looks really good. Reminds me of a Comet kit I did years ago. Didn't look as good as yours but was fun to build.

[zoomie]

Museum-quality build, very impressive detail...two thumbs up!

I take it you're going to add a bit of dihedral before you begin your trimming flights?


zoomie

[Bill Gaylord]

Per plan it has plenty of dihedral for stable FF. If I had to take it over, I would have removed some with my r/c version.

[zoomie]

Dihedral looked scale to me, but could just be a camera optical illusion...or aging eyeballs...or both?

Whatever the case, it's still a heckuva nice model.


zoomie

[recumbentrider]

Thank you Brenda, Zoomie, and Bill for your generous praise and feedback. I am pleased with how this ship came out, but I have to admit that the photographs do not show the sags and wrinkles in the covering very well. Not that I am going to complain about that. I think that it is the markings that really make this plane look as good as it does. I was very pleased with how easy it was to print the markings onto vellum, and that they look so good on the plane.

Despite what the photos look like, I put in the amount of dihedral that was called out on the plans. I guess this does not show up in the photos, but I do appreciate Zoomie's comment just the same.

[zoomie]

A nice thing about larger scale models is the high level of detail tends to divert the viewers eye away from minor sags, wrinkles etc. I didn't notice the small flaws until you mentioned it, and even then had to really look carefully for them.

I haven't been a fan of the bubbletop 'D' Mustangs but your model looks so good that I might have a change of heart .


zoomie

[woundedbear]

I think you did a really good job on your P-51, and the fact that you researched your project. Well its good that people are doing things like that, its good to know who Major Gilbertson was and the things he did during his life time.

[davidchoate]

I Love Youre DecAls ,m,and paint. Very nice.

[recumbentrider]

I think you did a really good job on your P-51, and the fact that you researched your project. Well its good that people are doing things like that, its good to know who Major Gilbertson was and the things he did during his life time.

Thank you, woundedbear. I did a search for P-51D markings on Google, and in the resulting images, found several sets of markings. I have to admit that my only reason for picking the 'Sad Sack' markings was that I simply liked the look of them. It was only after my airplane was finished that I decided to do some online searches to find out who flew the P-51 that I modeled. When I read about Major Gilbertson, I almost cried.

The wonderful thing about scale airplane modeling is that it gives us all a chance to hold a piece of history in our hands, and experience the thrill of seeing these extraordinary machines in the air. In my case, it even helped me connect to a brave man that I have never met. Thanks to this project, I and everyone who sees this knows who Major Gilbertson is.

[recumbentrider]

I Love Youre DecAls ,m,and paint. Very nice.

Thank you, David. The Design Master spray paint that I used does work well (scigs30 used to excellent effect on his 500 series Stuka build), but be warned that it does have an odor that has some similarity to dope, so you should use it with good ventilation.

Printing decals on an inkjet printer onto vellum works well also, and requires no special printer settings to do. I believe it was discussed somewhere on this forum, but also here: http://www.hippocketaeronautics.com/hpa_forum/index.php?topic=12431. I was pretty sure that the decals supplied in my kit would not adhere to the silkspan covering very well, so I had to find an alternative. I will definitely use vellum decals again.

[dirk gently]

Oh,that says "Sad Sack". Looking at the pictures, I thought it said "Bad Back", which wouldn't make much sense, unless the Mustang pilot seat were very uncomfortable.

[Mitch]

Very nice build. Is 86 grams your trimmed AUW? My P-51 I built 2 years ago weighed just about 100 grams. It flew nicely in my park with Guillow 7 inch prop and rubber. When changing to 9 inch and adjusting the rubber I had a devastating crash at WESTFAC IV. My new improved P-51 weighed 80 grams AUW and was doing well in test flights, but with full power I had a thrust bearing problem.

If you fly with just the 7 inch prop I expect you can adjust your flights with the rudder. If you decide to go larger, you will notice more torque effect.

In any event... GOOD LUCK in FLYING... again VERY NICE!

Mitch

[recumbentrider]

Very nice build. Is 86 grams your trimmed AUW? My P-51 I built 2 years ago weighed just about 100 grams.

The 86 grams is without rubber and balance weight. It will definitely weigh more than 100 grams when those are in place.