The
storied war bird P-51D, became famous by amongst other things, (other than its
incredible performance of course!), by the variety of nose art that her pilots
used to paint on her. One of which is precisely this one, the famous Big
Beautiful Doll, piloted by Colonel John Landers.
I
will not delve here into what he achieved while flying this plane, plenty has
been said about that already, and I do not want to "add a new stripe to the
tiger" (he, he, he, he).
The
kit came to me as a gift from my mom. I fell in love as soon as I saw it, it
looked nice and the detail looked accurate (bear in mind that at the time I was
a novice modeler, I still am, but have improved considerably). I should mention
that this is only the second kit I have built in my life.
Construction
I
followed the kit instructions and began construction by making the cockpit. The
kit was built OOB, no detail added. Again, this is only my second kit.
The
interior was painted zinc chromate green, the cables and details were
highlighted with silver color. The floor is painted to look like wood, so I used
wine color. The details were painted individually to simulate individual planks.
Then it was all sealed with a gloss coat.
I
allowed it to cure and then applied a wash made of Tempera and methanol. I got a
very good result out of it so have been using this mix since. Then a flat coat
was applied.
Model
Master paints were used.
The
Rolls-Royce motor is molded separately, so I built it as the next step. I built
it OOB as well, which I now regret
since
there was so much more detail I could have added to it to make it into a piece
of jewelry. Anyway, lesson learned: NEVER DO THINGS WITHOUT THINKING ABOUT WHAT
YOU CAN ACHIEVE WITH THEM TOMORROW.
Once
the motor was completed, it was painted silver color, and then was finished
following the same technique as I used for the cockpit.
Here
are the steps: base color, gloss coat, wash made of Tempera and methanol, flat
or gloss coat, depending on the finish you want.
I
used a semi flat coat for my motor, since it should be shinny, but not too much.
I
placed the motor and cockpit into the fuselage halves and glued it using Model
Master acrylic cement. you might think I am being paid to promote MM products,
but NOOOOOOOOO. In my country we only get 2 brands of paint, Tamiya and guess
what? Model Master (which is the cheaper of them both, ha, ha, ha, ha).
I
glued the wings next. The fit is pretty good and I almost did not use putty.
Then I glued the stabilizers and the constructions was done.
Painting
This
was the fun part, the checker board squares in the nose. Actually this was the
hardest part of the build. My friends said there were special decals for them,
but I decided to do it my self.
So
I hand painted those squares.
First
I applied a coat of flat white, allowed it to dry. Then I cut lengths of masking
tape, and proceeded to place them on the nose one by one. Once this was
done I used a hobby knife and cut out squares out of them. This way I made my
mask for the checker board squares.
So
far so good, but ... when I removed the masking tape it lifted the paint beneath
it, making it looked like a really really badly used plane. I mean, not even a
Corsair would have taken that much abuse! So, once this was ruined, I had to
start all over again.
I
washed down the kit to remove all paint, I tried all techniques, I was so
desperate. Don't ask how I did it because I do not remember what worked, but
finally all paint was removed.
Once
it was all cleaned up, I applied a new base coat of flat white. However, this
time (and remember: "The donkey only kicks once"); I sealed it with a
gloss coat. Then I removed as much adhesive from the masking tape as I could. I
then continued as planned, applied long strips of scotch tape to the kit, then
cut squares with my hobby knife. This time I crossed my fingers, carefully
removed the tape for the spaces that should be painted black ... and ˇEureka!,
the paint did not come off. It was such a clean job that I decided to go ahead
and apply the black paint. Then I applied the red stripes. All this with the
same MM paints. You can see the results here.
The
Lansing gear wells were painted zinc chromate green, the cables in silver and
red, and I applied my wash and finishing procedure out lined earlier (same as
the cockpit and motor).
I
masked the wheel wells, the moons, cockpit, and nose art with masking tape and
applied the silver color. After the paint dried, I sealed it with a gloss
coat. Some place I read about a wash technique which consisted of black paint
and turpentine. This was the worst mistake of my nascent modeling life. I
applied this wash and the silver paint came right off. And so, I had to start
all over again.
Lesson learned: NEVER TRY A NEW
EXPERIMENT
ON
A NEW KIT.
I
painted the kit silver again and did not repeat the same mistake. I allowed the
paint to cure real well, then I gave it a gloss coat and it looked all nice and
new again.
Transfers
The
decals were a whole other story. I was real exited about how my model was coming
along, I thought it looked great! In a flash of enthusiasm I spilled paint
thinner over the decals and they melted. And so I was in deep trouble.
I
decided to go for the easiest solution: make the plane markings with my air
bush. So I made the masks for the insignia then I applied a white back ground,
and filled it in with blue.
And so, after placing the surviving
decals on their respective spots, I was finally done with the kit.
The
final step was to give it a wash of methanol and black Tempera, sealed it all
off with a flat coat or a gloss coat, depending on the section of the kit.
Final
Thoughts.
This
was only my second model, and truly I learned more than I thought I would.
1. Be patient, and do no skip steps. This is basic in this hobby and in all areas
of life in fact.
2. Do things thinking of the future (remember the motor).
3. Do not experiment with new formulas on something really important.
Apart
from the philosophical teachings from this subject, I should mention I had a lot
of fun with this project, since each step I took I did something else wrong and
I was made to be more creative to solve the problem.
I
should say that to my novice eyes, the Fujimi kit is pretty good, and has
everything where it would be.
About me.
I
was bon in
Lima
, Perú, am 27 years old, I work as an Industrial Engineer. Currently I combine
work with this hobby (I hope my boss does not read this article, or else he will
give me more work to do, ha, ha, ha). I always wanted to make some models, but
due to an infinite amount of reasons I never did. I started pretty late with
this, almost a year, during whish I had quite a bit of fun.
Am
currently working on a F4U-1A, it is almost finished and I hope that it can be
featured in ARC at some point.
Greetings,
Antonio
“Kalium” Yánac Z.
Editor note: special thanks to "Said
" for translating this article from Spanish into English
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