Shocking but True Revealation!

[Gil]

The subject under consideration is Halinski's P-51 "Big Beautiful Doll". The nose formers where scanned and traced then positioned and skinned. Comparisons to photos of the real subject shocked me into the realization that Halinski seems to have taken more than a little "artistic license" in their design.

Of course I'm not complaining (of course I am) but I suffered under the delusion that Halinski is as close to scale as is available in the paper model universe. Finding this not to be the case is cause for some rethinking as regards using it as a base for an as yet unannounced project. Yes, the idea was not to have to design the entire model but to use all the "odd bits" in the design. Now this must be rethought (rejiggered?) . . . ,

I'm interested in other war stories on this subject including bogus 3 view drawings which are legion in the case of the P-51. Seems most of the draftsman kinda - sorta had to make a deadline . . . ,

Still Steamed . . . ,
+Gil

[B-Manic]

I have a sneaking suspicion I know what the project you have in mind is, and will be watching very closely.

[Bomarc]

Originally Posted by B-Manic

I have a sneaking suspicion I know what the project you have in mind is, and will be watching very closely.

Me too, but I was considering Halinski's later "Petie 3" for my project, as I think they redesigned it a tad, but perhaps not in the area that Gil mentions.

Originally Posted by Gil

I'm interested in other war stories on this subject including bogus 3 view drawings which are legion in the case of the P-51. Seems most of the draftsman kinda - sorta had to make a deadline . . .

Gil, if I understand correctly, are you looking for recommendations for "more better" P-51 drawings? I have a few I can make.

Mike

[Willja67]

Looking at some of the build pics of the Halinsky D model I never did like the nose particularly the induction intake it'll be interesting to see what you do with it. I never can get past the cover art since I always look at that intake and it looks wrong and ugly to me.

I really like the way the ModelArt P-51D nose looks. Despite some of it's other failings I like the model overall and having studied the airfoil I know the good Doctor used the right one. That's one thing I notice whenever I look at 3views of the mustang, half of them have it wrong.

[RyanShort]

How does the Kartonowy Arsenal P-51D BBD stack up against the Halinski version?

Ryan

[RyanShort]

Oh, Grrr... just looked at the back - it's the same. Frustrated. This is one of the few printed kits I actually have and was looking forward to making it someday when I had the patience. I have the Model Art kit as well, but not printed, but it sounds more and more like the one to use.

Ryan

[Gil]

Could be that something might come from this . . . ,

You can never have enough documentation and yes if you have accurate views I am interested (and thanks for the offer Mike).

The Halinski air intake is not to scale. Their aspect ratio is too low:

It should appear more like this:

This is a one dimension scale of the inlet from above which squishes the circular nature of the intake. In the real world the subject takes on a semi circle below the spinner. I spent several hours looking at Airliners.net to get this far (the intake lip seems to be made of cast aluminum by the way). I think I have the ModelArt in the pile somewhere which I'll take a look at.

The one saving grace from all this is I now have the basic construction layout required to obtain decent surface contours (97% of the time consumed in CAD design).

+Gil

[Gil]

Could be that something might come from this . . . ,

You can never have enough documentation and yes if you have accurate views I am interested (and thanks for the offer Mike).

The Halinski air intake is not to scale. Their aspect ratio is too low:

It should appear more like this:

This is a one dimension scale of the inlet from above which squishes the circular nature of the intake. In the real world the subject takes on a semi circle below the spinner. I spent several hours looking at Airliners.net to get this far (the intake lip seems to be made of cast aluminum by the way). I think I have the ModelArt in the pile somewhere which I'll take a look at.

The one saving grace from all this is I now have the basic construction layout required to obtain decent surface contours (97% of the time consumed in CAD design).

+Gil

[RyanShort]

You know, a lot of the plastic scale models out there have problems with that area, too! Not to mention the diecast stuff!

Ryan

[Bomarc]

Gil, this should help:





The factory dwg at the bottom called out for the "smile" to be cast in magnesium (don't know about the modern day replacement in the top two pics), and they tended to take on a different patina than the various aluminum panels around it. The magnesium would turn a sort of flat warm gray color.

PM me, let's talk.

Mike