Tamiya's 1/48 scale
P-51B Mustang

by Brian Geiger

Tamiya's 1/48 scale P-51B Mustang is available online from Squadron.com

Taking into account the time factor, the 357th AFG was the highest scoring group in the 8th Air Force. 

With such notable Aces as Chuck Yeager and C.E. “Bud” Anderson, our IPMS Boise chapter decided to do a group build featuring a variety of 357th mounts.  I chose to model a P-51B “Geronimo” flown by Capt. John F. Pugh.

Tamiya’s 1/48 scale P-51B Mustang, kit no. 61042, is a fine example of a well-engineered “Shake N Bake” kit.  It fell together with very little filler.

The cockpit is stock with instrument detail and placards brush painted.  I cut the seat harnesses out of the decal sheet, including the paper backing, and glued them into place.  Looking back, lead foil would have looked better.  I didn’t put enough folds in the paper and they turned out to be more visible than I expected. 

I filled the panel lines on the wings, except for the gun panels, with Mr. Surfacer to mimic the epoxy used on the laminar wing of the actual aircraft.

The cuffs on the prop blades seemed to be too pronounced so I filed them down a bit.  I also drilled out the exhaust stacks.  A small dorsal antenna was added from stretched sprue.

I used Testors Model Master and Humbrol enamels. 

The metal parts were painted with Alclad II.

I painted the tips of the machine guns red as the crews placed red tape over the business end to signify that they were loaded. 

The decals were cobbled together from multiple sources.  Most came from an out of production Aeromaster set.  Checkerboard squares don’t always line up for me.  Is it just me?  After destroying a couple of checkerboard nose decals, I finally had luck with one from Accurate Miniatures.

I gave the panel lines a wash of raw and burnt sienna artists oils thinned with Turpenoid.  The tires were dusted with Mig Productions European Dust pigments.

Photography

Pictures were taken using both a Nikon Coolpix 4500 and a Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT.  They were cropped, sized, & sharpened using Corel Paint Shop Pro 9. 

Tamiya’s kit builds up pretty quickly.  The most time consuming part seemed to be masking off the invasion stripes.

Our group build got a lot of participation with about 20 finished planes in the collection.  We used some of them for a display when the local air museum (www.warhawkairmuseum.org) hosted an event with Triple Ace, C.E. “Bud” Anderson.  He wanted to know how many “Old Crows” we had and seemed pleased with our two examples.

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Model and Text Copyright © 2010 by Brian Geiger
Page Created 20 September, 2010
Last Updated 20 September, 2010

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