F-6H Mustang, the forgotten PR aircraft.....

PR19_Kit · August 22, 2011, 03:01:16 PM

No matter how hard you look, you'll not fnd a mention of the F-6H Mustang anywhere (except here....)

For some reason the aircraft has been expunged from the history books and everywhere else, but in some ways it is unique amongst Mustang variants as it was the only one to be built with a pressure cabin, and also the only unarmed operational Mustang. Put into production in a tearing hurry in the second half of 1944, and pre-dating its fighter cousin, the P-51H, by some months, only 12 of the F-6H variant came to Europe. Equipping the 15th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron of the 10th Photo Recon Group of the 9th Air Force the F-6H carried out what later became known as 'overflights' over Eastern Germany, Czechoslavkia, Hungary, Poland, and it is even rumoured that some flew as far as targets in Soviet Russia.

As this aircraft has been so sadly ignored I've decided to remedy that and I've started to build one in 1/72, starting with the M news (who?) P-51H kit, and using a weird conversion set from Obscureco (obtained for me my philp

) I'll be putting it together over the next few weeks. It's quite a simple kit, very few parts, but it's made from a soft grey plastic that needs to be treated like a vacform, requiring the joint faces to be sanded down in like fashion. Naturally I'll need to extend the wings

as the F-6H variant had a longer span than the P-51H to give it an exceptional high altitude performance, plus the Obscureco bits will need to be added but that's fairly simple. I may open up the radiator outlets but it's the theme of the aircraft that's important to me, not super detailing it.

I've had to deeply research the markings of course, as it's so badly covered, but I think I've found a reasonably accurate scheme to use.

PR19_Kit · August 22, 2011, 03:11:58 PM

Ha, it seems I have an 'assistant' on the F-6H project!

No sooner had I posted the previous pic than my cat came in, sniffed at the Obscurco bits and lay down on top of them!

kitnut617 · August 22, 2011, 03:21:54 PM

I've got a couple of MNews kits myself Kit,

But I can't wait to see how this one turns out ---

philp · August 23, 2011, 06:51:47 AM

Glad I could help on the bits.

Will be watching.

Captain Canada · August 23, 2011, 07:32:17 AM

Hahaha....cats !

Looks like an interesting build !

sideshowbob9 · August 23, 2011, 08:21:56 AM

Love your assistant! Looking forward to this.

Rheged · August 23, 2011, 08:28:56 AM

Quote from: sideshowbob9 on August 23, 2011, 08:21:56 AM
Love your assistant! Looking forward to this.

Me too! one of these days, this gentleman is going to build a clipped wing X-15 or similar, just to confuse us!

PR19_Kit · August 23, 2011, 02:11:42 PM

Latest progress on the F-6H.

Added the 3'6" wing estensions on each side and PSR'd the port side. The tips are the original sawn-off ones, cut down to match the new narrow tip chord. Also painted the cockpit bits and installed them in the fuselage.

Started to build the prop, but M News' idea of a prop falls far short of mine! Faced with hours of sanding, glueing and PSRing and probably STILL not ending up with a decent prop I hauled out the Academy P-51B that donated its under fuselage belly intake for my MB8 Marlin and used its prop instead. It's a veritable jewel beside the M News offering.

And yes, I do know that P-51Hs used cuff-less props, unlike the P-51B, but this is an F-6H and they DID have cuffed props...........

I also sorted out the decal artwork, the blue white chequers and the 5M H codes are real 15th TFS, but the rest was in my head.

PR19_Kit · August 24, 2011, 03:22:55 PM

It occurs to me that this should probably be in 'Current and Completed Porjects' rather than here, sorry. $:-\$

Could a passing mod move it to the correct place please?

PR19_Kit · August 24, 2011, 04:27:43 PM

More progress today, the wings are pretty well sorted, oodles of PSR on the extended tips of course, and I've filled all the gun ports and link chutes, plus added the gun-bay fuel tank pump fairings too. They'll be filed and sanded to a more tapered shape later. The fuselage halves are together, and what a pain that was! One side of the fuselage is about 1.5 mm longer than the other and no amount of filling will get it to look right. I decided to the keep the front half correct and do the required filing etc at the rudder post. I managed to tart up the cockpit a bit, but there's a socking great gap just forward of the windscreen.

Don't you just LOVE these low production kits?

Pablo1965 · August 24, 2011, 04:57:13 PM

this is going well.

Taiidantomcat · August 24, 2011, 06:01:00 PM

Gap or not I think the worst of it is behind you. Great work on those wings

The Wooksta! · August 25, 2011, 04:22:17 AM

Best of luck. Not for nothing were Model News kits dubbed Bad News. I have this one and their Spitfire FXII and the latter is unbuildable crap, but nowhere near quite as bad as the Merlin one...

PR19_Kit · August 25, 2011, 07:03:25 AM

Quote from: The Wooksta! on August 25, 2011, 04:22:17 AM
Best of luck. Not for nothing were Model News kits dubbed Bad News. I have this one and their Spitfire FXII and the latter is unbuildable crap, but nowhere near quite as bad as the Merlin one...

Hehe, is ANYTHING, 'as bad as the Merlin one'?

AFAIK the M News P-51H is the only injection one around, I've never seen another one, but I do have a vacform fuselage conversion for one, which is very nice. The M News model has superbly fine panel lines, which is a pity as a lot of them get covered up with the amount of PSR work involved.

The Wooksta! · August 25, 2011, 07:21:13 AM

Quote from: PR19_Kit on August 25, 2011, 07:03:25 AM
Hehe, is ANYTHING, 'as bad as the Merlin one'?

The Final Touch/Kitbits Seafire FR47 is, if anything, worse. I also present for the prosecution the Merlin TSR2 and the Lotnia Spitfire IX UTi. On the subject of the latter, I found a French (I think) modelling forum where some gadgy has converted the Airfix IXc to the UTI. Very nice job.