Wings of Intent: P-51C Tom Mayson's Mustang racer conversion - 1/72nd scale Academy kit + Draw Decals

(Image from the SDASM photostream)

The completed models is here:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2023/12/tom-maysons-1947-mustang-racer.html

This model is being built in parallel with two other Mustangs:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2023/11/mustang-n13y-anson-johnson-racer-1949.html

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2023/12/a-36-apache-p-51a-mustang-racer.html

Many racing and civil conversions have been presented in this blog. More recently, an involving one on a Mustang, then one that just need a few changes/additions (Corsair), and now one that is among the easiest. No major surgery required, only the deletion of military-related features. For this model the Academy kit was used -easy and quick to build- which is fair enough. The fit is not bad, but is not excellent; still, much better than scores of other kits I have built. But there are other newer kits out there that pack more detail and in general have a higher level of accuracy. Nonetheless, having the kit in the stash already, and confident that it would render a credible model, here it is Tom Mayson’s Bendix 1947 racer, which placed 6^th. The Draw Decals sheet is used, with these personal notes:

a) I believe the antiglare panel on top of the nose stops sort of the spinner, in a pointy angle -this is seen in a very large number of Mustang photos- and not as described in the instructions “touching” it with a blunt end.

b) Looking at photos, my assumption is that the elevators were also painted red, like the rudder. This I think is barely visible in one color photo that shows and edge with a smidgen or red, and can also be deduced from some B&W ones. This would make sense as it matches the scheme of the painted wings and rudder.

The only minor surgery -in this particular Academy kit case- is adding the angled fin fillet. Other kits already come with that option, and even the Academy P-51C comes with it, it’s just I had the kit on the stash, as explained.

The only addition is an RDF under the belly air intake, easily sourced from the spares bin or home-made.

For those so inclined, there are some aftermarket sets for this kit. I bought a couple, but desisted, thinking that most of the improvement is hardly visible or noticeable, plus the P.E. sets have obscure instructions for some of the subassemblies. Poor/confusing/small instructions I find are one of the banes of the hobby. What I did use is the Eduard “kabuki” paper mask set. Another little mod was to add a blanking piece to avoid the see-through effect of the old Academy kit as a piece of styrene with a metal mess painted black.

As mentioned, for this conversion you can use more updated kits, but I love to see an old dog perform new tricks. I have built the Arma, Airfix and Academy Mustangs, more than once, and the Arma kit is of course the more detailed, but for the same token requiring a much longer building time, a sharp eye and a steady hand. Still, I enjoy working on the old birds from time to time; with a bit of TLC they turn out just fine.

A good wash:

Preparing several "football" RDF antennas to chose from:

Details to remove:

In progress:

Exaggerated sketch of the wing moldings. For a better fit, the trailing edge angle needs sanding from inside:

Areas to be carefully and evenly scraped and sanded:

Some airbrushing:

Then kit has a bit of a see-through effect, so a radiator is fabricated to be placed inside the belly conduit:

After some detailing of the interior, the fuselage is assembled. More surface detail is deleted:

The fin fillet, absent in this particular boxing of the Academy kit (the one I happened to have) is fabricated. The aft windows are deleted as per original plane:

Now on (hopefully) the last miles before a successful landing:

Preparing the line-up:

First coat of primer:

A coat of gloss white as a base for the red and yellow:

Modelers know that is better to paint darker colors on lighter ones, but sometimes the masking is easier doing the opposite, although surely not preferable. In this case I wanted to know if I could paint the red on the yellow (the model at that stage was all gloss white as a base), and started to "practice" the masking of the future yellow. I got carried away but realized that it could be done...once I have masked the white completely. So I applied the red, and now have to mask it to apply the yellow. As the late Jim Schubert used to say "modelers are their worst own enemies".