P-51 Tuskegee Airmen "INA the Macon belle"

[airdave]

Here we go with my latest "test" build.

I know there are a lot of Mustang fans here,
and I have always been interested in the Tuskegee Airmen
and their planes (most notably, their Mustangs!).



So this is a 1/33 scale build.
"INA the Macon Belle" is one of the few, if not the only,
Tuskegee Mustang left flying today
(apart from the recent Tuskegee Airmen P-51 project)

This is also my first attempt at a "butt joint" fuselage.
I have only done one previous aircraft build using internal formers.
So, it will be a bit of challenge for me...please bear with me!

The original kit is a 1/48 scale...but I am already finding some parts a little small for my building skills and taste (at 1/33) so I don't think I would try it at 1/48.

I started with four pages of parts (up from the original two pages)



after cutting out most of the skin pieces,
I test folded the wing sections...and checked the positioning of the added machine gun ports and wing lights.

I cut out all the internal components and glued them
to some thicker card with spray glue.



As I said...this "butt joint" fuselage idea is very new to me
and I'm actually a little lost.
There are no actual assembly instructions with this kit
just a component diagram detailing almost every part position.
It leaves me with a fair bit of guesswork, but I am just following the numbers and assembling in sequential order (for most parts).

Starting by assembling each fuselage section.



My printer was a little low on ink, and few areas seem to get a little washed out
(like the black on top of the engine cowling)
...I touched it up with some dark gray art marker and added some ink
to the edges of the fuselage sections just in case there are gaps during assembly.

[airdave]

I got most of the fuselage sections assembled with
a skin surround and a front and rear former.

The rear cockpit section has a slightly different set up with the formers.
Hopefully these photos will show how the components went together.



one former is folded and fitted inside.
then the lower, horizontal piece goes in.



and then the vertical front former goes in.
(shown here from the rear)



I found that the former to the rear, for the next section,
needed to be adapted.
Maybe the former size was a little off?...but i found
that by cutting the one former and attaching it in two pieces
solved the fit problem.



and then this photo shows the final assembly
of these two sections and their formers.



more to come!....

[cMags]

Looking good Dave! What kit is this, and is it another one of your repaints? I'm building up to my first butt-join fuselage model and I plan on it also being a P-51D. I have a free kit I found once upon a time of an Old Crow mustang at 1:50 scale. I've been looking forward to trying my hand at it since watching some of the great aviation builds on this forum.

Ah here it is - still there and still free from www.kartonmodelle.eu:

NA P-51D Mustang "Old Crow"

[lancer525]

Old Crow...

Flown by (if my memory serves me) Maj. Clarence "Bud" Anderson. Wingman to the legendary Maj. Charles. E. Yeager. I've actually seen that aircraft. While it isn't the exact original, it is a war-time era Mustang, that Anderson had meticulously repainted to match his plane. He's a MUCH nicer guy than Yeager is.

[Don Boose]

Good build so far, Dave. Looks like we will learn a lot from your experience here.

I'm very glad to see one of the Tuskegee Airmen aircraft being modeled.

Don

[airdave]

yes, this is a repaint of one of Marek's P-51 Mustangs!

I have been thinking about the "The Tuskegee Airmen" for quite a while.
The new "Tuskegee Airmen project" plane is a beautiful plane representing
a great group of Pilots...but I decided I wanted to do one of the original planes
and when I found the "INA" (which is now owned by Kermit Weeks)
i thought it was the perfect choice.

Once I finish this test build, it will be available at ecardmodels.com.

[airdave]

I started test fitting the fuselage sections together...



Last plane I did, had joining strips and formers fitted inside after two sections were attached together.
Butt joints like this use two matching formers to join two sections.
Its a little tricky getting the two matching formers cut exactly the same.
And if they aren't exactly the same shape, then the sections don't line up very well.

After some fiddling about, I got all the sections together the best I could.
I'm not happy with all the joins but I'll chalk it up to inexperience.
As you can see in the photos, I am also messing around with a few other parts.



Overall the fuselage looks okay from the side...I'm quite happy with the repaint. Everything lines up nicely and looks good.
Other than my printer issues and a little bit of colour washout
the markings are clear and colourful.



I'm still twisting and stretching trying to get the best fit I can...but I obviously have a lot to learn about these "butt joints".
So I apologize for the poor assembly in this case.
I've got to give credit to some of the more experienced builders out there
because I have seen other builders get these things so perfect!
Oh well...hopefully with practice...

[3Turner]

Wow, looks good!

Question, I've been seeing more often people poking 2 holes in the formers. What purpose does that serve? Is it to turn the formers for alignment easily?

[airdave]

Holes in formers...

last plane I did, I cut out the large centerline hole
so I could poke through from the back side when
installing the next former.

on this plane I used a hand hole punch (paper punch)
to punch one smaller hole that a pencil would fit through.

but...two holes allowed me to grab and hold the former
with pliers or heavy tweezers
and man-handle it into place!

so thats why I ended up putting two holes in each former

[3Turner]

Ah, okay....thanks for the info Dave. Though, you really shouldn't "man-handle" a lady like that. The P-51 requires a delicate touch. LOL!