P-51D 121 squadron ML-KNIL 1946

Erik Leijdens
Time to build another Dutch subject! This time a P-51D Mustang operating in the Dutch East Indies in 1946. Except for some wheels and decals it will be a OOB build, I think 😃

James C
Interesting 👀👍

Erik Leijdens
Welcome James 🙂. I intended to build this kit with minimum fuss but as always this is not gonna happen. Kees Kleijwegt informed me that the wings of the P-51 were puttied smooth in the factory to get a "laminar flow" surface. So some filling and sanding etc etc is required now. Also, I always thought P-51's were all bare metal but the wings were sprayed with a aluminium paint.

Ben M
Watching this.

wilky
Actually filling the seems has little to do with a laminar flow on an aircraft wing.
Laminar flow airfoils were originally developed to make an airplane fly faster. The laminar flow wing is usually thinner than the conventional airfoil, the leading edge is also more pointed, and its upper and lower surfaces are nearly symmetrical.

Ben M
In addition to the airfoil shape, the surface also has to be absolutely smooth for laminar flow to occur. Reference: aviation-history.com/theory/lam-flow.htm

Jan Peters
Following!🙂

Kyle DeHart
Excellent. Following along.

Nathan Dempsey
Following 👀

Another interesting subject.

wilky
Thanks for that Ben.
That's more than I ever knew about the subject

Erik Leijdens
Welcome mates and thanks for the additional info! I have puttied the panel lines in the mean time, after a coat of Alcad grey primer they are stil a little visible because of the sacking of the putty but I think that's ok. On pictures of real P-51s with puttied wings they are also a little visible.

Erik Leijdens
Added some rivets on the fuselage to make it more interesting. Took me 2 times on the left fuselage half, good practice.

Erik Leijdens
Decided to use the kit cockpit, considered a Aires one but this is a lot cheaper. And who will look in the pit after it's finished?? 😎

Jan Peters
👌🏻 the kit cockpit is looking fine from the box Erik.

Erik Leijdens
Thanks Jan 🙂

James C
Great job on the interior 👍

Erik Leijdens
In 1947 the ML-KNIL formed a PVA, Photo Verkenning Afdeling(Photo Observation Department). My Mustang, the shark toothed N3-615 was dedicated to this task and used a modified 75 gallon drop tank as reconnaissance pod inde the port wing. Luckily the Tamiya kit offers 2 75 gallon tanks so I started modifying one. A KNIL home made reconnaissance pod also served but this one is easier to create 😇.

Erik Leijdens
Added a grey primer to check for seams etc. Time to paint it black!

Thomas Bischoff
Great work … and I will remember to putty my Tamyia Mustang as well 👍

Erik Leijdens
Welcome and thanks Thomas!
Sprayed a couple of metal tints; aluminium on the fuselage, some magnesium around the exhaust and silver on the moving parts of the ailerons and rudder. The puttied wings will be sprayed with high speed silver, still waiting for that coming in the mail!

Mathieu
Wow Erik ! Very impressive work ! Your research and execution are perfect, thanks for the read on the recce pod also.

Murad ÖZER
perfection indeed.

Jan Peters
Looking better with each step.

Sergej I
shiny, following!

Treehugger
What is going on in photo 18? A layer of primer?

Erik Leijdens
Welcome mates and thanks for the nice words!
@Treehugger, yes it's a grey primer. Since I puttied the wings and added rivets on the fuselage I sprayed this primer to check for seams and imperfections. After this I made a couple of corrections and than sprayed a black base primer. Unfortunately I forget to make pictures of the black P-51 with a neutral background, only with a messy workbench as background..will add them anyway🙂.

Also I left a fingerprint on the rudder 😭...have to correct that!

Björn Svedberg
Lovely work Erik! 👍
NMF is always fun 😉

Erik Leijdens
Last minute update. Some guns from Master. Blast tubes added, guns will be added later

Erik Leijdens
Started to add some decals. The shark teeth look nice, have to make some corrections though but nothing serious.

Jan Peters
The decals look good, I see you managed to get them to conform to the airframe's shape after all 🙂
Will you paint the missing part of the shark mouth?

Erik Leijdens
Hi Jan yes the decals behaved fine, must admit I used flags from another decal sheet, DDisignia, as they react much better to Sol than the decals on the sheet used for the serials etc. Yes the mouth will be repaired, I am working on it now by the way 😄

Jim J
Looks wonderful, Eric. Well done so far.

Guy Rump
Looking great so far. 👍

Erik Leijdens
Thanks Jim and Guy!! OD section on the nose added, also a grey panel wash but it's barely visible.

Jorge Ferreira
Nice work. Love those gun barrels but it looks by the photos that this version don`t have guns.

Erik Leijdens
Hi Jorge, if you look at photo 14 you will indeed see closed gun openings. but that machine does not necessarily have to be the one I am building, after all you will not see a shark mouth or serial number. In photo 1 on the other hand you can see my chosen subject and also you can see that gun barrels are visible. But I think they are blast tubes only, without guns installed. This P-51 was primarily used for photo recce.

Gary Victory
Really nice progress Erik. Lovely work Sir.

Jan Peters
Looking good Eric 👍🏻
The washes do show, but are nice and subtle.

Jorge Ferreira
With or without guns I like it anyway. 👍

Erik Leijdens
Thanks mates 😊

Erik Leijdens
Nearing the finish line now, weathered it a bit with a dark dirt wash and Smoke paint

Jan Peters
It's looking better with every step Erik!

Erik Leijdens
Added pictures of the final result, always a pain to make decent pictures of NMF models. I just can't get them to look like the real model. Anyway, quite happy with it. On to a new Dutch subject now!

Curatorm
Exquisite model 🙂

Murad ÖZER
Drop dead gorgeous! 👍👍👍

Kyle DeHart
A lovely result.

Björn Svedberg
Really great looking plane! 👍

Jan Peters
Absolutely great job Erik 👍🏻👍🏻
What's your next dutch treat?

James C
Fabulous looking P-51 Erik. Well done! 👍

Guy Rump
Very nice P-51 👍

Erik Leijdens
Thanks for the nice comments!
@Jan, a TBM3W Avenger! The pregnant Avenger 😎

Rui S
Beautiful work 👍

Nathan Dempsey
Wow Erik, that is a wonderful result! The shark mouth looks awesome on the cover photo too.

Jan Peters
Looking forward to the Avenger 😎

Alberto
It looks fantastic. Great weathering, detailing and NMF!

Simon Nagorsnik
Woow! Awesome finish!!
You have mastered this project very well👌

Neuling
Top work and presentation!

Erik Leijdens
Thanks mates much appreciated 🫡

Ben M
Beautiful!

Thomas Bischoff
Gorgeous work 👍

Erik Leijdens
Mates, it appears I have mixed up the main landing gear doors, left and right on the wrong sides 🤪. It's fixed already, will post some new pictures soon.

Erik Leijdens
Have replaced the photos of the completed model with new ones, now with the landing gear doors in the right positions 😉

Neuling
👍

James C
I hadn't noticed the wheel bay doors until you mentioned it.
I made a similar mistake with an Su-15 build some years ago 😉
Anyway, a stunning build mate, and I've not seen one finished in that scheme before either. 👍

Yves
Very nice Mustang, congratulations.👍🏻👍🏻

Erik Leijdens
@James C, I also did not noticed it until I was informed by a fellow modeller 😄. Thanks for the nice words!

Harald Besold
Absolutely great result!