Korean War F-51D 1/48th scale by Tamiya

[centaur567]

Hopefully I'll get this done by Christmas seeing that it was last year's gift to me and I don't want to hear "you haven't finished the ones you got last Christmas".
So here goes it. Just some early painting and assembly started. Found a better looking pilot figure with a bone dome. Wanted the choice of an in flight or on the ground display. Gary S.

 

[Heavens Eagle]

 

[centaur567]

The cockpit is painted and the pilot has just the basic colors. He will get a dark wash and height lights with oils later. Gary S.

 

[moon puppy]

 

[centaur567]

Night before last the fuselage was glued together and yesterday the wing was attached. Later on other parts were added along with the horizontal stabs. Then it was placed in a vertical position to keep the horizontal stabs from drooping. Gary S.

 

[moon puppy]

Then it was placed in a vertical position to keep the horizontal stabs from drooping.

Dang, good idea. I always have that stab drooping issue. (Doc says it's part of getting old )

Looks good Gary!

 

[centaur567]

I used to keep it up all night, now it takes all night to get it up.

 

[centaur567]

The tips are painted yellow along with the spinner and under wing tanks used for napalm which removed paint when over filled. The exhaust stacks were drilled out and glued on. The canopy was masked off and attached as well. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and I'll get the tips masked off and get a coat of gloss black on.
Gary S.

 

[RichB]

If you are feeling brave, you may want to add the igniters. One was installed in the filler cap and second was installed on the aft left side with a support bracket tack welded to the outside of the tank. The igniters had safety wires run back to the pylon that activated the igniter when the tank was released.

Early in the war there was a shortage of igniters and the weapons personnel devised a uniuque solution. They only installed the aft igniter and a standard filler cap was used on the nose. It was left slightly loose to allow the napalm to ooze out and coat the nose. The wing guns were armed with tracers. On the attack run, the pilot would fire his guns and the tracers would usually ignite the napalm. If that failed or the airflow blew the flames out, the pilot would make a second run firing his guns into the impact area of the napalm tank. Needless to say flying with flaming tanks under thier wings was not a favourite tactic of the pilots.

The picture below is the configuration used for a long range mission, often used when flying from Japan for strike missions around the Pusan Perimeter early in the war. A 150 gal fuel tank on one wing and a napalm tank on the other.

Cheers,
RichB