New E-flite P-51D 1.5

[davegee]

Can i ask what type of primer you use... and does it react to any edges.. or the foam?. looks like u have primed almost all and u dont mess around

Hi f4u Aussie: The primer I am trying on this project is Krylon Fusion All-in-One Painter Primer in Matte Glacier Gray color. The number on it is 2757. So far, so good. Most of the parts on the Hun Hunter project are new, with the exception of the center wing section which has been around for over two years and getting a lot of flying. There is a bit of gatoring from the past, but the Krylon primer seemed to cover it fairly well, as well as you can do for foam. I did use some thin bondo in spots where there were divots or scratches due to using and transporting the plane in the truck to and from the field over the years.

Overall, I am impressed with it for use on foam. It hasn't had any reaction to the foam and I think will be a good base for painting, which I'll probably do over the Independence Day celebrations here in the USA. I sent in a request to Callie for decals for this plane, and should be getting them underway fairly soon, after the holiday.

I'll let you know how it goes after I have applied the paint coats which will be Tamiya RAF Dark Green in rattle cans. The silver paint over the entire fuse and underneath the outer wing panels will be Rustoleum metallic aluminum color, also from a rattle can.

Stay tuned!

davegee

[Grossman56]

As an alternative, Krylon also makes a foam primer which I have used on planes such as the Tigercat with great success. Either way, your good to go.

Grossman56

[davegee]

As an alternative, Krylon also makes a foam primer which I have used on planes such as the Tigercat with great success. Either way, your good to go.

Grossman56

Dan, do they have that foam primer at Ace?

Dave

[Grossman56]

Not that I've seen, got it off Amazon, got smart this time and bought two cans.
Grey or white

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=krylon+foam+primer&crid=1A1C720B4UGJM&sprefix=Krylon+Foam+Primer%2Caps%2C172&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_1_18

Grossman56

[davegee]

Not that I've seen, got it off Amazon, got smart this time and bought two cans.
Grey or white

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=krylon+foam+primer&crid=1A1C720B4UGJM&sprefix=Krylon+Foam+Primer%2Caps%2C172&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_1_18

Grossman56

Thanks, Dan. I am going to order a can today and see how it goes!

Cheers

Dave

[davegee]

Here are a few photos I took this afternoon as I worked on sanding and priming. This is the "grunt work" of pulling off stickers, patching rough areas, sanding, priming, Rinse and repeat. I'm taping off the bottom of the fuse and wings to preserve the invasion stripes, although I will probably repaint them, anyway.

One item I like to add on my P-51s is the round flare gun port where supposedly a pilot could shoot his Very pistol outside this small tube on the left side of the cockpit. I don't think it was used for that very often, but probably much more popular using to flick cigarette ashes or smoke from cigarettes out of the cockpit during missions. I used a small brass tube that I had lying around, cut it to length, and glued it into the fuse. It will have a small square cover over it to complete the look.

In time, I will paint the entire airplane aluminum silver, and then add the camo RAF Dark Green to the top surfaces of the fuse, wings, and horizontal tail. I don't believe Lt. Brown did much if any bombing missions, although he was shot down attacking a ground target. Another pilot tried to help him by landing next to where he was, but for some reason they couldn't try to escape in the good airplane. So, they made a dash for it and eventually had to surrender to the Germans, where they remained until the end of the war.

Continuing on with the "grunt work" of sanding, priming, etc. Things are slowly shaping up, though. I have all the major components of the plane at least started, and some are further along than that. I have the fuselage primed and painted now in aluminum silver color. The horizontal tail is painted RAF Dark Green on top, silver on the bottom, and a white recognition band on the top and black on the silver surfaces below.

I'm capturing this plane as it looked in later summer 1944. By then, orders had been given to remove the invasion stripes on the TOPs of the planes. This was done as air superiority had been established in northern France, and invasion stripes on the tops of the planes would easily be discovered by any Germans flying above them. It was an instant recognizer that it was an American or Allied plane if the markings weren't removed. This was done by painting over the top surfaces with whatever was available like Olive Drab paint. In some cases, ground crews used gasoline to totally remove the invasion stripes.

Invasion stripes still had merit for a little while longer to hopefully keep friendly fire from shooting them down as they passed overhead and invasion stripes on the bottoms of the wing and fuselage were visible. In a few months, orders were cut to remove ALL of the invasion stripes from all the airplanes in the field.

I won't be able to do too much more with the fuse until I get the markings from Callie that I just ordered yesterday. I'll need the markings in place first as the top of the fuse has a wavy RAF Dark Green camo pattern that goes from the nose to the tail, and works itself around the markings on the fuse. I can work on the cockpit and finish the wings while I wait for Callie's shipment. My wife was recruited to repaint the crappy pilot figure that comes with the kit. We can improve it, and I'll add some scale wiring to his helmet for realism but that will be about it. I did order two Flightline Spitfire canopies that I'll only use the rearview mirrors on my plane. HUN HUNTER had Spitfire rearview mirrors installed on both leading edges of the windscreen.

I'll attach a few pics, nothing much at this stage. However, I have a pic of the completed flare port on the left side of the fuse. It was made mostly for allowing the pilot to shoot out a flare with his Very pistol if needed (e.g., wounded and returning to base, etc.) but most pilots probably used them to knock off the ashes of their cigarettes while flying. The semi-circular item above and to the right of the flare port I cut out a piece of plastic to fit over a molded depression to give it more of a look of a spring-loaded hand hold cover that pushes in as you put your hand through it to more easily get into the cockpit, I would guess.

More pics as I proceed with the redo.

Cheers and Happy Independence Day celebrations all through next Tuesday!

Davegee

[Grossman56]

Looking good Dave. I'm surprise that nothing was ever written about the job of painting invasion stripes on EVERY allied airplane just before D Day. I believe the white was what we call 'white wash' over here, I recall reading years ago that the material used was literally unavailable in Britain as the military had used it all.
(Note in Band of Brothers as they're loading up and Winters is helping his men to their feet that the C47's stripes are literally hand painted on, no straight lines there, very authentic.)
This might help clear up my memory:
"85,000 gallons of paint (not distemper) were specially ordered for the "distinctive markings," and the likeliest material is the same "paint, semi-permanent (D.T.D.441,)"
Now, what this person seems to be referencing to is the black paint as he goes on to say that it was the same paint used in 1940 when the RAF had the port wing painted black. Distemper (that's the word I was looking for) could have been used for the white.
At any rate, the massive effort put forward by the ground crews in both applying and then removing these stripes is incredible, well done guys!

Grossman56

[davegee]

Looking good Dave. I'm surprise that nothing was ever written about the job of painting invasion stripes on EVERY allied airplane just before D Day. I believe the white was what we call 'white wash' over here, I recall reading years ago that the material used was literally unavailable in Britain as the military had used it all.
(Note in Band of Brothers as they're loading up and Winters is helping his men to their feet that the C47's stripes are literally hand painted on, no straight lines there, very authentic.)
This might help clear up my memory:
"85,000 gallons of paint (not distemper) were specially ordered for the "distinctive markings," and the likeliest material is the same "paint, semi-permanent (D.T.D.441,)"
Now, what this person seems to be referencing to is the black paint as he goes on to say that it was the same paint used in 1940 when the RAF had the port wing painted black. Distemper (that's the word I was looking for) could have been used for the white.
At any rate, the massive effort put forward by the ground crews in both applying and then removing these stripes is incredible, well done guys!

Grossman56

Hi Dan: Yeah, I did read that a decision was made at the highest levels that fighters and transport aircraft, gliders and powered aircraft like C-47s would have the invasion stripes but they exempted 4-engine heavy bombers as the Germans didn't have any in theater, plus they'd be flying at higher altitudes and not really a factor for mis-identificaton.

Diue to such short notice, about 48 hours or less for painting all these planes, certainly some of them got the hand brush and roller treatment with pretty sloppy lines, as you have mentioned. Conversely, some of the fighter groups, especially the elite ones like the 56th 4th, and 78th units had done a much better job with the markings using compressors, masking tape and paper to mask off proper stripes and I've seen some really good jobs on some of these planes. For some of these ground crews, there wasn't anything they couldn't or wouldn't do for their pilots if they could.

It was an amazing time, to be sure!

Davegee

[davegee]

I did some work on the cockpit and pilot today for the new E Flite P-51D that I got recently. Most of the work is done and the next step is to glue the canopy on. I didn't take the time to do a full scale interior on it; it wasn't really a cockpit where I could do that as it was so far off scale-wise. I'd have to scrap this one and do a new cockpit from scratch. But at least I did do a few scale details like a gunsight of the type used prior to the K-14A gunsights that were installed on later models. Also, did some scale communications helmet wiring for the pilot and improved where I could the looks of the pilot from the OEM version of it. My wife spent some time repainting it to something at least a little more workable. Also, redid the oxygen system removing the idiotic oxygen tube that hugs his lower chin and throat. Took the dremel tool to remove all that stuff.

Did add some shoulder straps and a couple of other minor things. I think it looks better than when it came in the shop.

Cheers

Davegee

[f4u ausie]

Looks waaaay better than this the standard smuck pilot he has done 70 sorties now...

[davegee]

Looks waaaay better than this the standard smuck pilot he has done 70 sorties now...

Wow! Great flyin', f4u aussie! There is definitely a high skill level associated with getting any of these airplanes to survive 70 or more successful flights. Keep up the great work!!👍👍👍

davegee

[SanExup]

f4u ausie He's an ace 6 or 7 times over!

[davegee]

I'm doing some work on the Hun Hunter from Texas E Flite airplane as I await Callie's vinyl transfers to complete the model in the new livery. For the fuselage, I pretty much need to have the markings in place as the camo pattern on the top of the fuse cuts pretty close to the tops of the markings, which I'll have to tape around, probably much like what they did 80 years ago with the real airplane.

The pilot of this airplane, Captain Henry Brown, was the top ace in the 355th Fighter Group based out of England. Unfortunately, in October 1944, he was hit while strafing a ground target along with the CO of the unit. He had to make a forced landing in a field, but was unhurt. The commander who was with him tried to land so he could pick Brown up and they could both shoehorn into the cockpit to get back to base. This had been done several times before by other pilots from other units, as incredible as it sounds. The commander's plane got stuck in the mud though, so he couldn't try his plan. Yet a Third pilot, a fairly new one, decided he would land and give his plane to the other two or whoever wanted to fly it out of there, and he would get captured and become a POW by the Germans. Indeed, he got stuck, too, so they all sprinted for the trees but were eventually captured and remained POWs until the end of the war.

Every pilot made mods to his airplane to try to get the most out of performance or visibility seeing the enemy. Brown had two Spitfire rear view mirrors mounted on the top frame of the windscreen on the left and right corners. I've tried to recreate that here by buying a couple of Flightline Spitfire canopies and cutting the mirrors to fit this plane.

I'll attach some pics of work I did today. I played around with some paper stars and bars for figuring out how I'll place everything on the airplane once Callie's markings come next week. I also did some experiments with different shades of silver to try and show some different looks with the various types of aluminum skin that they used to build these airplanes. Still working on that.

Davegee

[SanExup]

We all want to see you fly the Shuttle!

Great work and thanks for sharing. Seeing the mirrors, I'm curious what you think.of this variant?

[davegee]

We all want to see you fly the Shuttle!

Great work and thanks for sharing. Seeing the mirrors, I'm curious what you think.of this variant?

Totally cool B model with the Malcolm hood! Same squadron (354th) in the 355th FG as my airplane/pilot and the same time of year, summer of 1944 as you can see that most of the invasion stripes have been painted over with OD paint on the upper wings. This would make for a beautiful project! There were still a lot of B models flying during this time, and the early model Ds that didn't have a fairing for the front of the vertical stabilizer for stability went to the top pilots in the units. But it wasn't long before most of the pilots were flying D models.

Elbee and I are both fans of the B models with Malcolm Hoods. I just finished a plastic model of one in 1/32 scale for the NASM in RAF colors and flown by a famous Polish triple ace who was also the squadron leader. The Brits called these "Mustang IIIs" and our D models "Mustang IVs"

PS: I suppose that shuttle could find the ground if it could get up in the air, but it would probably land with a resounding SPLAT!!!. It weighs close to 100 pounds. Probably safer staying with foamies to fly!

Cheers

Davegee

[davegee]

I did some work on the cockpit and pilot today for the new E Flite P-51D that I got recently. Most of the work is done and the next step is to glue the canopy on. I didn't take the time to do a full scale interior on it; it wasn't really a cockpit where I could do that as it was so far off scale-wise. I'd have to scrap this one and do a new cockpit from scratch. But at least I did do a few scale details like a gunsight of the type used prior to the K-14A gunsights that were installed on later models. Also, did some scale communications helmet wiring for the pilot and improved where I could the looks of the pilot from the OEM version of it. My wife spent some time repainting it to something at least a little more workable. Also, redid the oxygen system removing the idiotic oxygen tube that hugs his lower chin and throat. Took the dremel tool to remove all that stuff.

Did add some shoulder straps and a couple of other minor things. I think it looks better than when it came in the shop.

Cheers

Davegee

I got the markings vinyl transfers from Callie yesterday and have been busy working on finishing Hun Hunter from Texas. I got it pretty much completed now, and will post a few pics in my shop that I just took. This airframe has 4 flights on it before I started working on this redo from the LOU IV paint scheme to Hun Hunter. Last flight I had before I got busy on this changeover it flew great. I'll take it out to the field in the next few days for a few flights and more pics. I think it came out pretty well.

Cheers

Davegee

[f4u ausie]

Do love some of the european theartre liverys... not as familiar with all of them( getting better) as u guys,, i think u said they r spitfire mirrors .... he was definatly keen on seeing bhind... was it a squad thing or just him,, as always looking awsome daveegee my p51 has 70 odd flights. And could do with a change..Have always liked the red tails(love the history part of that) we will see when im finished th al37 qantas

[davegee]

Do love some of the european theartre liverys... not as familiar with all of them( getting better) as u guys,, i think u said they r spitfire mirrors .... he was definatly keen on seeing bhind... was it a squad thing or just him,, as always looking awsome daveegee my p51 has 70 odd flights. And could do with a change..Have always liked the red tails(love the history part of that) we will see when im finished th al37 qantas

Usually if someone was going to get you, they snuck up from behind. Many pilots never knew what hit them before it was all over. The bubbletops really helped out with visibility, but many pilots still wanted rear view mirrors to help them "check their 6." In this case, the pilot liked the idea of having Two Spitfire mirrors for best visibility behind him. It was personal preference.

I wasn't planning on doing this airplane at all, I think I mentioned in a previous thread that my venerable LOU IV had apparently come to the end of the road flying wise, as it was totally messed up, electrically. I tried several times to find the source of the problems, but it wasn't until I had actually bought a replacement LOU IV that I (and friend Dan Grossman) discovered what the problem was with my old one. I was able to bring it back up to operational status, and now with the new plane, I decided to paint it up in the colors of Henry "Baby" Brown's Hun Hunter from Texas.

I chose this scheme for three reasons:
1) A good friend of mine after completing 31 combat missions in a B-24 unit, volunteered to fly P-51Ds with the Scouting Forces, attached to the 355th Fighter Group. As luck would have it, Henry Brown had just been shot down and taken prisoner by the Germans prior to my friend Bill's arrival with the Scouts. He was given the same markings WR*Z, although he never met Brown until years after the war was over and didn't know he was given the same markings on his plane.

2) Henry Brown and my late mother who just passed away at age 100, shared the same birthday January 25, 1923. Henry passed away some years ago at age 85. I thought that was a remarkable coincidence.

3) Henry Brown led an extraordinary career in the air force, eventually in a command position flying F-111s during the Viet Nam war before retiring as a Colonel. He was the top scoring pilot with the 355th Fighter Group, even though he got shot down and captured in October 1944. He had 14.5 kills and as many again in aircraft destroyed on the ground during low level strafing raids. As it turns out, Henry got shot up by a German anti-aircraft battery on one such mission. He made a forced landing but was eventually captured and made a POW until the end of the war. I thought it was good to honor such an extraordinary pilot and officer for the US AAF and USAF.

Doing a plane in the Tuskegee Airmen colors would be a neat and different choice for another P-51. I had the good fortune of meeting a few of those brave pilots before they passed away some time ago.