How to Build a 1/32 Scale Old Crow P-51D
by John Greiner
I’ve
been wanting to build the 1/32 Hasegawa kit for quite some time but
for some
reason,
lacked the “inspiration” to do so! Well,
that was more than slightly
taken care
of after I
had the extreme pleasure of attending the 357th FG Reunion 2000 in San
Antonio,
TX!
Simply put,
it was an honor to meet, hang out with and somewhat get to
know men
that
I’ve read
about and held in extremely high esteem since childhood.
I’ve
had the
pleasure
of meeting
Bud a few times now, and it’s to him I dedicate this model.
I’m sure we all have seen plenty of “bio’s” on the P-51, so I’ll save
you from
that! So lets
get
started!
Building/Construction:
The Hasegawa 32nd scale P-51D kit has (from what I understand) been on
the market
for
quite some
time now. Upon opening the box,
you’ll see a kit with
engraved
panel lines
and rivet
detail. For my taste, some of the
panel lines are quite deep
and rivets
are more “dramatic” than needed, but overall, a model that’s for the most
part up
to
“today’s
standards”.
Akin to Hasegawa’s 1/48 scale P-51D kit, there is no option to have the
flaps
dropped, so
I opted for
a set of the Paragon resin flaps. Along
with a Verlinden
cockpit
detail set (part
# 787) and
True Details resin wheels, I was ready to tackle the beast!
Normally, I open with working on the cockpit, but seeing I had some
cutting to
do for the
flaps, I
started with the wings. Using a
razor saw attached to my
exacto
knife handle, an
easy
removal of upper and lower flaps from the kit wings was quickly
accomplished.
Upon dry
fitting the Paragon flaps, the first of MANY headaches
appeared!!
The
Paragon flaps are very nice, cream colored resin with ample detail.
However,
they are
a tad too
short. The inboard (fuselage end)
of the flaps “tuck under”
the upper
wing when
in the up position. This is what
exposes the length problem. Minor
cutting and
sculpting
of the
fuselage area where the flaps tuck inside is also required.
I
used some 5
thou.
Evergreen
sheet styrene to form the extension of the flap and filled
with
Squadron Green
Putty.
Once dry, the green putty was given an “overcoat” of CA to
prevent any
cracking.
Back
to the kit instructions and they begin with assembly of the
engine.
This is pretty
straight
forward and goes together without any problem.
Once finished
with the
engine, I
opened the
Verlinden cockpit and this is where most of my headaches
began!!
The Verlinden cockpit set is some of the most finely molded resin you’ll
find.
The detail
of the
parts is first rate and is easy to remove from the castings.
Construction
commenced
with
cutting the kit instrument panel “dashboard”.
Also, sanding the
inside of
the cockpit
area smooth
of kit items is required. With that
done, I began the
“futile”
assembly of the
left and
right sidewalls. Using both resin
and photo-etched brass
parts,
assembly was
pretty
easy, with one BIG exception. Verlinden
has a habit of being
VERY vague
with
the exact
placement of their parts. Lots of
“arrows” pointing in a
general
direction is not
my idea of
proper instructions for a DETAIL set. I’d
like to point out
that the
majority of
my problems
were with the cockpit sidewalls. One
glaring example is
that the
flare chute
in NO way
can possibly fit the way the instructions call for.
Placement
of the
sidewalls is
also very
vague and I think I ended up placing them a tad too far back,
which led
to some
problems
making the seat fit once I had to put it in!
I opted to
use the kit instrument panel. I
felt it was very adequate in
detail. I did however
cut the
lower middle part of the kit instrument panel and used the photo
etch
replacement.
Next
up were the radios. According to
the Squadron “P-51D Walk Around”
book (page
51), the
radios included in the Verlinden update set are the BC-457
transmitter
and
BC-453
receiver. I believe Bud’s
“Dog” was a D-10, so I’m not sure if
these are
the
correct
radios or not! The Squadron book
describes these radios being
used in
“early
D’s”.
Nonetheless, after painting flat black and some dry brushing of
flat
aluminum, they
look quite
acceptable to me!
Back to the kit instructions and from here on out, everything is fairly
straightforward.
Special
attention needs to be paid to the engine assembly.
There are no
mounting
“areas”
for the
engine. It just sorta sits
there!!!! I suggest applying glue
around the
bottom of the
exhaust
stacks and giving the engine a firm place to sit in that
fashion!
I drilled out the
exhaust
stacks for a more realistic look along with the oil cooler vents
as well.
Fuselage
sides glued
together, it was back to the Verlinden “experience”.....
I opted to use the kit oxygen hose rather than making one out of copper
wire.
Also, I
used my
pin-vise and drilled out the holes in the canopy brace, rather
than using
the thin,
out of
scale photo-etched part.
Next was the seatbelt/shoulder harness assembly.
These are comprised of
no less
than 24
separate
photo-etched pieces!!!!!!!! Quite
time consuming, but when
finished,
for my
money it
certainly looks pretty good!
As mentioned earlier, when the time came to put the seat into the
fuselage,
it was too
“fat”!!
Hence, some sanding of the trim wheel was in order.
I placed
the
sidewalls just a
tad too far
back, making the sanding necessary....:-(
Once
together, it was time to mask the cockpit shut and commence with
the outside
painting!
Painting and Decaling:
In preparation for a “natural metal” finish, I painted the anti-glare
panel
(olive drab) and
the rudder
(insignia red), prior to my NMF. I
decided to have a try
with SNJ
enamel
metallizer.
This is the one “sore spot” for modeling a natural metal
finish.
Whatever
“silver”
is used, be it enamel or acrylic, silver/natural metal finishes
tend to
show EVERY
blemish and
scratch on your kit. With that
prominently in mind, I used
a product
I’ve
come to
love for the “primer” to the SNJ.
Yes, ladies
and germs, it’s “Future” acrylic floor wax.
Once everything
was masked,
I
applied 2
thin to moderate coats of Future over the entire model. When
dry, the
Future
gives your
model a very smooth “canvas” for the application of your
silver/metallizer
paint.
The SNJ was then applied in two thin to moderate coats and
allowed to
dry for
approximately
36 hours.
It
was at this time that I also dipped the
canopy
clear parts in
future and
set them on a piece of wax paper to dry. The
Future makes
clear
plastic parts
appear as
glass!! *Note....when using SNJ, be
careful to NOT over spray
the
anti-glare
panel or
rudder paints onto the surfaces where the SNJ is to be
applied.
This happened to
me, and the
SNJ appeared a slightly different texture in the areas where
over spray
was, as
opposed to
the smooth surface of the Future. I
was able to buff the
“indifferent”
areas
out, but it
was a scare at first!!
Decals.......
Where do I
begin?? As many of you are aware,
there are NO 1/32 decals
of
“Old Crow”
on the
market today. WHY, I ask!!!
After some serious “brainstorming”
I came up
with
the idea of
taking the decal sheet from the 1/48 scale Hasegawa
“Glamorous
Glennis” kit,
which also
has Old Crow on it, and enlarging the sheet 150% via a color
copier.
Using a
clear decal
sheet, I then copied the enlarged decals onto the decal
sheet. Once that was
accomplished,
I shot a few coats of Microscale Decal Film over them to
“seal”.
I thought
I was all
set!!! Boy, I was wrong.
I’m
not sure what happened. Possibly, I
didn’t seal them with enough of
the
Microscale
Decal Film.
Whatever the reason, they didn’t work.
Fortunately, the
only things
“unique”
to Old Crow
are the words “Old Crow” (obviously!!), the fuselage codes,
ID/crew
plate
and tail
serial number.
After some
serious head scratching, I came up with the idea of tracing
the decals
and
making
templates. (I copied off a few
extra sheets, thankfully!).
After
some pretty time
consuming
template construction using plain ‘ol masking tape as the
medium and
a brand
new exacto
knife blade, I was ready to paint the fuselage codes and
lettering
on the cowl.
As you can see, I think they turned out pretty good.
Is it perfect?
Heck no!!!!
But in lieu
of NO 32nd
scale Old Crow markings, I’m very happy with how it turned
out!
Kit decals
were used
for the nose checkerboard (one of the kit options is “Butch
Baby” of
the
357th!),
insignia and parts of the serial number on the tail.
Other
number were
either hand painted or spares from my decal dungeon were
used!
Conclusion:
I’d like to state that because I had problems with the Verlinden cockpit
set
doesn’t mean I
don’t
recommend it! Just be VERY careful
with the placement of the
resin
sidewalls and
the various
components! As I previously
mentioned, the detail is top
notch, I
only wish
they’d
clear up the instructions! Also
recommended are the True Details
wheels.
Beautiful
tread pattern and they don’t give that terrible flat tire
look!
Weighted, yes. Flat,
no!
Decals? Well, we can only
wish, for now. Hasegawa now offers
this
same kit
boxed
with Chuck
Yeager’s “Glamorous Glen III”, so between the two kits, it’s
possible to
build
“Butch
Baby” and “Glamorous Glen III” using kit decals.
To build Old
Crow,
you’re
somewhat on
your own!
I’m
happy with the finished product and also hope this article will be
of some
assistance to
future
builders of this kit. With over 30
other P-51’s to model in
357th FG
markings,
let’s
keep the memory of the 357th alive!
One final “postscript”..... Merle
Olmsted informed me that NONE of the
P-51D’s
assigned to
the 357th ever used the wire antennae mounted from the front
of the
horizontal
stabilizer, through the canopy and attached to the back of
the armored
head
rest.
The radios used by the 357th did not require this.
As you can
see in the
pictures, I
had this
conversation with Merle AFTER I used “invisible” thread to
simulate
the wire!
As the
saying goes, “live and learn”!
Paints used:
PollyScale
Acrylics, Tamiya acrylics, SNJ Spray Enamel.
References:
Walk
Around, P-51D #7, Squadron/Signal Publications
P-51
Mustang “In Action”, #45, Squadron/Signal Publications
“The
Yoxford Boys” by Merle C. Olmsted, Aero Publishers, Inc.
“The
357th Over Europe” by Merle C. Olmsted, Specialty Press
“P-51
Mustang”, by Larry Davis, Squadron/Signal Publications
“P-51
Mustang Restored”, by Paul Coggan, Motorbooks International
“Mustang
Aces of the Eighth Air Force”, by Jerry Scutts, Osprey
Publishing
Personal
conversations with Merle C. Olmsted.
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