1/144 USAAF P-51N Nightfighter and B-26B Patrol Bomber

[Cliffy B]

Alright I'm in!!!!

Requisite box shots


Right side up shot of both.


Check out the custom made USN style APS-4 radar pod under the right wing!


The P-51 is all glued, puttied up, and awaiting its first coat of primer later tonight.  The FJ-3 is just dry fitted at the moment but its ready for glue.  The P-51 kit has no interior to speak of and although the landing gear was fairly decent for the scale, I opted to model it gear up as it will be in flight.  The canopy will painted black or a light blue, not sure yet, probably black.  I don't have any figures so displaying them in flight without any pilots just looks weird    Besides the canopy is so darn thick you wouldn't see the little guy anyway even after several dips in future.  This P-51 will be a test build for a 1/72 Tamiya F-51D I have in the stash.

Here's the profiles for each.





If I get ambitious I might forgo the Fury and whip up a B-26 in the same scale like this one


Which one do you think I should do, Fury or Marauder?


EDIT: Alright well the bug bit me and the B-26 is all rubber banded up right now while the glue dries    The Fury will head back to its burner for awhile yet again unless time permits.  Both will be in flight with the canopies painted blue or black.  I'm thinking black as it will blend with the camo colors better.  Pictures tomorrow.  Now to find a 1/144 Type XXI U-Boat....

[Taiidantomcat]

Looking forward to this!

[ChernayaAkula]

This's gonna be so cool! And in 1/144, no less!

[Cliffy B]

Alrighty, I spent some time today fabricating some additional parts for my Mustang and I glued the fuselage and puttied the wings up and worked on the engines for the B-26.

After some measuring back and forth between some 1/72 kits and plans I discovered that the shell ejection ports for the Mustang's .50 cals are too big for them but they are perfect for 20mm CANNONS!!!!!!!  A quick pass over the front of the wing with the sanding stick, a little dot of superglue and some rod stock, wait 10 secs and viola, 6 .50 cals turn into 4 20mm cannons!  Muahahahahahaha    Figured the 20mms would help the Mustang deal with the new German jets a little better and would also help out in the anti-shipping role while it escorts the patrol bombers.  The ejection ports are sadly covered up by the drop tanks and only visible from low angles.  I'll try and get a photo of that area later.  I also scratch built some drop tanks the same way I built the little radar pod; round stock and a sanding stick.

Aren't those cannons just awesome?  Heck yes they are!!!





Here's the B-26 so far.  I built another APS-4 radar pod for it.  Each wing was 2 pieces that went together rather snugly but still left a gap which is filled in with white putty right now.  I glued on the closed gear doors which left no gaps what so ever!  These 2 are definitely 2 of Minicraft's better 1/144 kits.

Mods so far:  I sanded off the .50 cal barrels sticking out of the fuselage gun packs and will replace with round stock.  The kit had uber thick barrels on there that scaled out to close to 40mm!  I also added 2 strips in front (the white panels).  The one closest to the gun packs is a blast panel like on the B-25s, meant to protect the skin of the aircraft from the muzzle blasts of the .50s.  The one further forward is "applique armor" that later model B-26Bs received, meant to improve pilot protection against flak bursts.  Both strips were made out of 0.010" strip stock glued on and then sanded to almost nothing.  They still probably look out of scale but they're shear coolness outweighs that  



I also tried a novel way to detail the engines.  As they come in the kit, the area where you'd see the cylinders is just an empty panel that they want you to paint black.  Well, I found one build of this kit online which inspired me to detail them.  He took a scaled down photo of the engine front, printed it on paper, and cut to fit.  The effect is very nice!  I did the same thing, scanned a photo, messed with it in Photoshop, printed, and viola!  A very quick and effective method to spruce up a piston engine cowling in 1/144.  Yeah I know I forgot a close up of the actual part with the paper in it....tomorrow!


I printed several in case I messed up since its only on regular copy paper.  A sharp blade proved them unnecessary for this project at least  

So there you have it!  I'll whip up a back story closer to the deadline.  These two should get some primer sometime tomorrow I think and by Thursday at the latest.  I decided to do the canopies in gunmetal since I'll be using black anti-glare panels.  Black canopies would blend too much and Blue would stick out too much I think.  We'll see how that works.

More later!

Any questions, comments, etc... are appreciated as always.

-Mike

[frank2056]

I love that P-51! The 20mm cannons and the radar pod look great. Trumpeter hired the Matchbook mad trencher for the F-86; good thing you're applying camo, because it'll reduce the depth of the panel lines. I have that kit and it doesn't look all that great in aluminum. The B-26 is such a fun little kit to put together; few (if any) fit problems.

[Captain Canada]

Wow...great job on all three ! I'd go with the early version of the Fury since it looks more Sabre-ish. Thanks for the tip on the small radials...great idea !

[Weaver]

Smooth move on the radials!

I like the idea of a Mustang with cannon: it would go well next to a Typhoon with 8 x .50cal......

[Cliffy B]

Alright, finally its time for a status update!  The Mustang is solely in need of its squadron color bands painted and then its off to the decal shed    The B-26 however still hasn't even made it to primer    The PSR began to get REALLY annoying on this on as I assembled the last of the pieces.


First the B-26.  Right now its wings are drying one at a time.  Then the engines get to go on.  After I putty the small gaps they'll leave I'll be able to hit it with primer sometime tomorrow.  Kinda doubt this one will get finished in time but who knows?

I replaced all of the .50cal barrels with 0.5mm Evergreen rod stock cut to about 5mm lengths.  I still need to check on the orientation of the nose as it looks like the fixed .50cal should be on the Co-pilot's side yet the instructions say the Pilot's side...  Google will reveal all  



God these engines had some poor fit problems.....  Notice all of the white putty along the air intakes?   


One thing I am proud of is the job I did on the props for each plane.  I hit them with black and then dry brushed the edges with Testor's Aluminum and the tips with yellow.  I think they look rather worn don't you?



Onto the Mustang.  I think she looks rather awesome but that's just me    Opinions?

Stage one, Light Gray lowers and RAF Extra Dark Sea Gray uppers.



I figured since supplies would be rather hard to come by in the beginning of the Greenland Campaign that the Allies would have to take what they could get.  Hence the natural aluminum drop tanks and white APS-4 radar pod as the mechanics have yet to find time to re-paint them.  I plan on dry brushing aluminum on both planes and further weathering with some watercolor washes after the decals go on.  I figured these birds would worked VERY hard in the beginning until they secure the sea lanes and allow the supplies to get flowing again.


Here she is after the addition of the Flat Sea Blue disruptive camo and the Flat Black anti-glare panel.  All that remains is the wingtip, spinner, and tail bands exclusive to the squadron and then its decal time!  I've chosen for my scenario that the 15th FG will be the sole Mustangs on Greenland with radar capability/training.  Two of the three squadrons will be dedicated nighttime escorts for the bombers and one will be dedicated day time escorts for the patrol bombers in the sea lanes.  The Germans provide all three with plenty of action!  I chose the 45th FS for daytime duty while the 47th and 78th FS's take care of the nighttime missions.  Green ID bands will soon adorn my little 45th FS Mustang  








Since we have until 3AM EST I will be able to finish up the Mustang and will concentrate solely on her and return to the B-26 if time permits.  I'll finish up the painting of the Mustang and the puttying of the B-26 tonight leaving tomorrow for decals and more paint.  I think I'll be taking this one to the wire!  I'm excited, are you?

[ChernayaAkula]

My, that's purrty!

[Cliffy B]

The Mustang is DONE!!!!!!!!  

Here's some shots of her in her colorful glory.  I tried some weathering with dry brushed Testor's Aluminum and a silver colored pencil after I applied the decals.  I don't think it looks half bad especially since its my first attempt at weathering.  I was going for a heavily used aircraft that flies from a coastal base and conducts missions over water.  Its hard to tell from these photos but I painted the canopy with Insignia Blue.  In real life it contrasts with the camo colors well but remains subtle.  I'll use the same color for the B-26 in a few days.

Without further ado, I present the P-51N Mustang of the 45th NFS, 15th NFG based on Greenland in 1946.











Update on the status of the B-26B, currently she has her coat of Light Gray lowers and ED Sea Gray uppers and that's as far as I will get with her for this GB.  I shall finish her up this coming week.





Backstory:

Following the fall of Japan in 1946 the 15th FG was transferred back to the states and were quickly trained in the art of night fighting while their P-51D-20s were modified into new P-51Ns complete with a USN style APS-4 radar in a pod under the starboard wing as well as six zero length rocket launcher stubs under each wing.  The birds also received a fresh coat of camouflage akin to the Atlantic Theater and borrowed from the USN.  Atlantic Scheme III consisted of USN Light Gray lowers with FAA Extra Dark Sea Gray uppers with USN Flat Sea Blue applied in a disruptive pattern over the Sea Gray.  Squadrons flying strictly night missions substituted the Light Gray for Glossy Black.

The 15th FG became the 15th Night Fighter Group and were hurriedly rushed to Iceland arriving only days before the German attack.  They began wreaking havoc on the Kreigsmarine and Luftwaffe attackers but were slowly and methodically whittled down and overwhelmed along with the rest of the Allied forces who had just finished evacuating the British Isles a bare 6 months before.  The Allies just didn't have the resources to properly defend Iceland after the heavy loses sustained in England.  Iceland was evacuated as well after surviving the German siege for two months.  The Allies fell back to Greenland and North America and dug in for the next round of the war.  The 15th barely made it out alive with their aircraft making a non-stop flight to Greenland where they would remain for the following year.  

The group split their aircraft between dedicated day and night squadrons.  The 45th FS drew day duty while the 47th and 78th drew nights.  All squadrons flew CAP for the Isle as well as escort missions for the USN PBJs flying ASW and anti-shipping missions.  These flights proved vital in preventing the U-Boats from choking the Isle off from the supply convoys.  The shear amount of enemy attacks called for around the clock missions.  To the casual observer you'd think the planes never landed.  The Mustangs, Mitchells, and PV-2 Harpoons handled the in-shore missions while the P-61 Black Widows escorted the longer ranged PB4Y Privateers and PBY Catalinas.  They soon found out that their radar pods were just as useful in the daytime as during the night and quickly worked out search tactics to surprise the radar-less German aircraft.  After some more field mods the radars in the fighters were able to perform surface searches as well.  Combined with a patrol bomber mother ship the ASW teams quickly racked up an impressive amount of kills against the vaunted U-Boats securing the supply lines to Greenland for the duration.

So there you have it, enjoy gents!  

Any comments, questions, ideas, etc... are appreciated as always.

-Mike

[Green Dragon]

Love the camo, I'll have to steal that!(and the B-26 engine pic idea too!) 

Paul Harrison

[Taiidantomcat]

Cool Mustang! 

[Cliffy B]

Gentlemen, may I please point you to my thread over in the current projects section for future updates on these projects.

http://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php/topic,29247.0.html

The B-26 is ready for decals!!!!