Mustang "Thunderbird" racer, modified Academy 1/72nd scale + Draw Decals and other bits

Speedy Gonzales* is a Mexican immigrant that made Warner Bros earn millions. Like the vast majority of immigrants, he tirelessly worked for his US boss contributing to the economy and society (in this case with laughters). His “superpower” was… well… as his name indicates: speed, the very same racers need to win.

*See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speedy_Gonzales_(film) 

As racers are very attractive subjects, I dedicated, along the years, many of my modeling efforts to them, scratchbuilding and building kits of dozens of them. Here are some samples:

All of the kits needed modifications (slighter or deeper) to more accurately represent their counterparts. I have used old kits and new kits in these endeavors. 

I have both the Academy and Arma kits of the P-51C to convert to N5528N, flown to a Bendix win by Joe de Bona and later flown by Jackie Cochran. I also have aftermarket decals, prop and photo-etched parts will be used. The Arma kit is far superior in every aspect, but the Academy kit is much easier to build, so most likely I will be using the latter for the sake of speed and spiritual peace.

Of all the conversions I made for racers this is perhaps one of the simplest, involving just the aftermarket decals, a new prop and easily-scratched minor details (like the ADF antenna). I also got masks and a P.E. set from which I will only use a few parts:

Academy solved the problem of the different versions separating the tail as a module. Mos parts are removed from the sprues, the military bits left aside:

Many surface details will need to be filled, as this racer had a very smooth skin. Features related to mil. equipment (chutes, gun openings, load hanging supports, etc.) have to be deleted. Exhausts will also need tweaking. 

Chutes, ordinance supports, nav lights, formation lights, are all being deleted:

 This is done using panel lines as borders when possible:

I must confess that I am not a fan of photo-etched parts. Most of them are small, fiddly to detach and clean up, very easy to lose, there are hardly ever spares for those small bits in the fret, and the folding of the parts requires more dexterity and patience than I can muster. In many cases they can't even be appreciated in the assembled model, especially in closed cockpits. I will be using as mentioned just a few, the simpler-to-deal-with ones. For some of these P.E. parts the existing fuselage relief (which by the way is not bad at all) needs removal:

The exhausts in the racer were shrouded. I tackled this detail with a quarter round styrene stick, tapered at the ends (dry-run):

Once the openings are filled, next is deleting the guns and light on the LE. But before a further thinning of the TE from inside with a cabinet scraper:

 

 

 To be continued...