F-51D California ANG - Tamiya 1/72

Clement
Hi guys,

Here is my latest completion, the venerable and enjoyable Tamiya P/F-51D in postwar markings.

The kit is a joy to build and did wonders at regenerating my mojo which was in the drain.

I only used the tail markings from the Blackbird sheet, the main marking were unfortunately overscaled. The national insignia's and the fuselage "ANG" are from Caracal CD72054. The fuselage "CALIF" was cobbled together from Italeri's T-33 sheet. The wing codes were painted using a stencil cut with a Silhouette cutter.

Primer, paint, varnish inventory below:

Primer Aqueous white surfacer 1000 with a few drops of black to turn grey
H2 Black gloss to prep for the metallic paint

A-stand White Aluminium A.MIG-2305 for the main color
Paneling with Mr Color SM206 and SM204
H13 over XF-3 for the red
50/50 XF-69 & H2 for the antiglare panel and propeller
X-19 for the Exhaust stain
Panel lines highlighted using ABT510 - Starship filth

GX112 clear varnish
MRP-126 satin varnish to finish with

I'm really happy with the way this build turned out. If you ever find yourself in a rut, grab a Tamiya kit, it helps 🙂

Thanks for reading this far, have a great day!

gorby
Beautiful!

Neuling
Yes! I like the finish!

Sergej I
Top result! 👍

Patrick Hagelstein
Hey Clement, guess what, the P-51D is sitting next to my P-47D to switch between projects as glue and paint are drying. Nice to see your take at that awesome kit. The Eduard one is in the mail, so I'm curious for that experience as well.

Robert Podkoński
Beautiful indeed!

Clement
Thank you guys! Appreciated 🙂

@Patrick, I'm sure you're going to have a blast. It's such a great little kit.

Moreno Baruffini
What a clear build and a perfect NMF! Really inspiring for me! Well done 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

Thomas Kolb
That is an astonishingly clean build and flawless paintjob!

Zbynek Honzik
👏👏👏

Clement
Thank you all, I'm really glad you like it

Pietro De Angelis
Beautiful!

Marius
I missed this one. Truly flawless finish. It's indeed a joy to work with a kit that goes together this well.

Łukasz Gliński
Very neat build indeed 👍

Kesa Tiho
Very nice and clean finish, ive been eyeing this kit for a while now and considering youve built it. Is it worth buying?

S M
Pretty clean build!👍👍👍

Guy Rump
Very nice build! 👍

Clement
Thank you all, it's highly appreciated.

@Kesa Tiho: I think the recent Eduard P-51D has superseded the Tamiya kit but it still holds up well.
I have a spare kit + canopy masks available in Tallinn if you are interested.

S M
Tallinn reminded me that if you are interested there is a scale model event next weekend on the other side of the Soome laht in Helsinki. It is two day event from 28.9.-29.9. but you could bring your models just for the Saturday. Model registration happens here: pienoismallit.net/ta..ailma/ennakkotiedot/ (you need to use google translate, but you don't need to register to the website)

Kesa Tiho
I never thought id find another fellow Estonian on scalemates, i would be interested. If you could DM me like how much you want for it, etc i would appreciate it

Kesa Tiho
@S M really wish i had the time and money to go, sounds like a blast