P-51D Mustang by CDW - FINISHED - Dragon - 1:32 Scale

[CDW]

Nearly 20 years ago, I bought the newly released 1:32 Dragon P-51D Mustang kit. Almost immediately after receiving it, I promptly started building and painting the interior assemblies, then for reasons I cannot recall, boxed it all up and set it aside for other projects instead. As I looked through my storage items for a model swap-meet I attended a week ago, I ran across my old kit and decided to go ahead now to finish it. There are internal details that can be exposed by cutting away panels, I plan to finish the model all buttoned up. 

 

The photos reflect where I am with the kit today after dusting it off and touching up a few things here and there. This will be a "quickie".

[ccoyle]

Hmm . . . card publishers and plastic kit manufacturers seem to have an affinity for the same subjects.

 

[CDW]

36 minutes ago, ccoyle said:

Hmm . . . card publishers and plastic kit manufacturers seem to have an affinity for the same subjects.

 

I read that after WW2 ended, this particular aircraft was shipped back to the USA, where it served with various air national guard units. In 1957, it was sold as surplus for $775.00. 😐

It remains in flying condition all the way up to the current day. Amazing.

[CDW]

My granddaughter brought me this gift tonight. 

[ccoyle]

I don't build "cars model", but If my granddaughter bought me something like that, you bet I'd find a place to prominently display it!

[CDW]

But I do find lots of cars to model. And tanks, planes, ships, etc. 😀

[Dave_E]

The P-51 was my all time favorite war bird as a kid. I’ll watch. 🍿🥤

[Canute]

I'm in too.  It's my wife's fave, too. Me, I'm a Spitfire fan. Although I like Jugs and Corsairs, too. 😁

[Egilman]

A Silverbird.... A legend in it's own time.... Probably the greatest single engine, propeller driven fighter plane ever built...

 

Of course I'm down for this one, wouldn't miss it....

[CDW]

On 3/4/2024 at 10:27 PM, Dave_E said:

The P-51 was my all time favorite war bird as a kid. I’ll watch. 🍿🥤

 

4 hours ago, Canute said:

I'm in too.  It's my wife's fave, too. Me, I'm a Spitfire fan. Although I like Jugs and Corsairs, too. 😁

 

3 hours ago, Egilman said:

A Silverbird.... A legend in it's own time.... Probably the greatest single engine, propeller driven fighter plane ever built...

 

Of course I'm down for this one, wouldn't miss it....

Glad you're all aboard. 

I've been plugging away on the model the past few days but have neglected taking photos in favor of getting a little further along before I bore everyone with non-motivational construction photos. 

Right now, it looks like the wing to fuselage fit might be a little dicey. To get a good silver finish, a good fit will be essential as we all know is the case with shiny metal finishes.

[CDW]

Not sure when I'll get around to the tasks, but I have the 1:32 Tamiya, Zoukei Mura, Trumpeter, and new Revell P-51D kits all in the queue. It will be interesting (to me) to see how they compare with each other. 

[CDW]

With the fuselage halves glued together, a dry-fit of the lower wing to fuselage reveals a problematic join. It’s going to require some relief between the wheel wells and the fuselage to get a proper fit. Even then, the way the forward part of the wing joins the fuselage seems peculiar.

[Danstream]

Following, also for me, the P-51 is one of the coolest of WWII. It seems that the LG bay is too high, isn't the wing a tad too forward?

Good luck,

Dan

[CDW]

4 hours ago, Danstream said:

Following, also for me, the P-51 is one of the coolest of WWII. It seems that the LG bay is too high, isn't the wing a tad too forward?

Good luck,

Dan

Yes indeed, the landing gear bay is too high. A Dragon models design flaw among several others I've found in the kit. To correct the LG bay, I cut approximately 2.5mm from the height of it then glued the top of the bay back on. This gave me the clearance I needed for the fit. As far as whether the wing sits too far forward, I cannot say. I have not taken any detailed measurements and scaled it to the actual P-51 airframe. If it was/is off a bit, I will just live with it. 

 

The photoetch set included with the model is rather useless. Much of it doesn't fit and must be trimmed and filed to make it fit. The cockpit detail is weak as well as are other features which are designed to be displayed open if the modeler so chooses. The panel lines and rivet detail is too heavy as well. In my opinion, buying lots of aftermarket parts to upgrade this model would be a waste of time and money. If one intended to build a highly detailed 1:32 P-51, the kit of my choice to use as a base model for that would be the Tamiya kit, hands down. This Dragon kit certainly has its flaws, but I think it might finish up looking decent as a shelf model.

 

My first clue that this model might have flaws was when I only found one build video of it on YouTube. Flory Models did a four-part video series of the kit a few years ago. At the 2 minutes 20 second mark of this video, Flory briefly described his encounter with the wing/wheel bay/fuselage fit by stating that he used some "high powered" clamps to squeeze and force the wing into position to join to the fuselage. Not sure why he chose that method instead of cutting down the height of the LG bay. 

 

 

[Danstream]

Thanks for your explanations. Probably the kit design is flawed and the best action was what you did, i.e. lowering the LG bay. My comment about the position of the wing was aimed at trying to gain some fraction of mm by shifting the lower wing piece aft where the cut out of the fuselage offer more space (I had the impression from the pictures that this was possible). I am not assuming that the wing sits obviously too forward.

Good luck again,

Dan

[CDW]

I've wrestled the wing to the fuselage using tape and clamps to bind it as best I could while the glue sets up to dry. Plenty of gaps to fill in and smooth out before any painting can be done. 

I have several choices I can make to finish the bird. Whether I do it in NMF or camouflage will depend on how well I can make the joints look when it's all said and done. My preference is a NMF, but won't hesitate to do it in camo if the joints are not up to par. I used my own version of "high powered clamps" to close the final gap between the leading edge/wing root join of the wing and fuselage.

 

Here in Florida, Spring cleaning is the order of the day/s. I dread this time of year for all the clean-up that's required. Most of my time is occupied in that endeavor so modeling time is hard to come by until it all (spring cleaning) gets done. 

[Canute]

Like Norm said, you can't have too many clamps. I've used those metal clamps with the wire bails, along with the spring-powered clothespins. Did you take anything off the wheelwells?

 

Not quite spring here. The plants are blooming, but it was 35F this morning. 🥶

[CDW]

9 minutes ago, Canute said:

Like Norm said, you can't have too many clamps. I've used those metal clamps with the wire bails, along with the spring-powered clothespins. Did you take anything off the wheelwells?

 

Not quite spring here. The plants are blooming, but it was 35F this morning. 🥶

Shortened the wheel well height by about 2mm by cutting away plastic. No way that wing could have fit without doing that.

 

A ton of leaves and Oak tree bloom. Raked and bagged about 40 of the 42 gallon contractor bags from the front yard alone. There will be close to that much in the back yard, yet to be done. The leaves and bloom have almost finished dropping now. One more pass will be required in a couple of weeks from now. We also spread a ton of new mulch in the front yard flower beds. The joys of home ownership. 😀

[Canute]

That's why I live in the woods, on the side of a ridge. Mulch the front of the house. Although I do have a year long battle with kudzu.

[king derelict]

Yup, I was at Home Depot this weekend buying mulch, fertiliser and new plants for the rabbits to eat.

Alan

[gsdpic]

4 hours ago, CDW said:

Raked and bagged about 40 of the 42 gallon contractor bags from the front yard alone.

Wow!  I get tired of raking and bagging when I am on about bag number 5!  At least I have fewer leaves after last year's ice storm took a huge chunk out of my nicest live oak

 

The mustang is looking good.  Looks like you are overcoming the challenges presented by the kit.

[yvesvidal]

2 hours ago, king derelict said:

Yup, I was at Home Depot this weekend buying mulch, fertiliser and new plants for the rabbits to eat.

Alan

It is important to give them some good stuff. They are so cute..... By the way, the Mustang is great too, but no so cute 🙂

 

Yves

Edited March 11 by yvesvidal

[CDW]

3 hours ago, gsdpic said:

Wow!  I get tired of raking and bagging when I am on about bag number 5!  At least I have fewer leaves after last year's ice storm took a huge chunk out of my nicest live oak

 

The mustang is looking good.  Looks like you are overcoming the challenges presented by the kit.

 

3 hours ago, yvesvidal said:

It is important to give them some good stuff. They are so cute..... By the way, the Mustang is great too, but no so cute 🙂

 

Yves

 

As I work through this model, it's all coming clearer to me as to why I stopped building it so many years ago. It had a very bad reputation with other modelers who tried to build it and they talked about it. As years have gone by, I'm not nearly so particular and fussy about everything being just right. Just build it and make a reasonable effort to overcome the short comings. It will never be a show winner, but it will make a reasonable replica of a famous aircraft and that's what I want on my shelf. To be able to show the grandkids and tell them about the men that flew the aircraft.

 

One of the choices I have for decals is for Bud Anderson's "Old Crow". I just watched him narrate a video where he told the story about flying a winter mission and realizing his olive-green camo was too easy to see from above against the snow-covered terrain below. On his return from the mission, he mentioned to his ground crew that the aircraft would be much more difficult for enemies above to see if it were NMF rather than green. The next time he suited up for a mission, his crew stood there with their hands bloody, having just finished stripping and polishing the aircraft to NMF. They had worked all night to do it. He showed nothing less than love, honor and respect for his ground crew. Made me have a very good feeling to hear that story from such an accomplished pilot/ace.

[CDW]

 

[Egilman]

Yep the Vaunted Mustang....

 

The equal of any airplane in the sky below 18,000ft but she really showed her props above 20,000..... Nothing could outrun her or out maneuver her in the high sky... It took a jet propelled aircraft (Me262) to finally surpass her capabilities...

 

After the war was over the USAF retired all other fighter aircraft in favor of her.... She wasn't downgraded until the F-80 Shooting Star was accepted into service....

 

She is still to this day the hottest propeller driven aircraft in the sky... (and a damn fine looking girl to boot)

Edited March 12 by Egilman

[ccoyle]

11 hours ago, Egilman said:

She is still to this day the hottest propeller driven aircraft in the sky

 

Depends on how one defines "hottest". The Mustang might win the award for best-looking, but there are still Hawker Sea Furies flying today, and the production Fury was 20 mph faster than the P-51D. (For what it's worth, I think nearly all piston-engined, propeller-driven fighters are beautiful.)

[CDW]

Actually, I think the fastest piston driven fighter of WW2 was the German DO 335 Arrow. 

[ccoyle]

1 minute ago, CDW said:

Actually, I think the fastest piston driven fighter of WW2 was the German DO 335 Arrow. 

 

But the original quote said "still to this day," so I was limiting the search of my memory to aircraft that still had flying examples. The De Havilland Hornet was pretty lickety-darn fast, too, but there are no air-worthy examples at present.

[realworkingsailor]

 

Ed Nash did a great video on piston engined fighters. More than anything (agree with him or not), there’s a lot of caution needed when looking at an airplane’s alleged top speed:

 

 

Andy

[CDW]

Thanks for sharing that video Andy. I really enjoyed watching it.