Salem Representative: P-51B Part 10

Here’s Kidd Hofer’s P-51B built from the old Monogram kit and built “wheels up” and put on a stand–just like in the old days.

I finally decided to take some bombs I had in spares box and attach them. The bombs in the kit were 250 lb. bombs and I wanted to show the larger bombs here. I attached them with Tombow Mono Multi glue (I wish they’d rename that stuff).

I made little sway braces out of tiny slivers of sheet plastic, cut with scissors and attached with super glue, Then I bent the ends of the sliver down to look like sway braces and used the Tombow glue to “simulate” the connection to the bomb.

The key thing here is to educate yourself a little on sway braces and learn what they do and how they work. Then, when you know what you’re looking at, you can replicate them. I’m not sure my version looks like “the real thing” at all. But it looks like something that might work in reality so I’m happy with it.

I added a red “dot” where the refueling receptacle would be located. To do this, I cut off the end of a toothpick and dunked the truncated toothpick into insignia red paint from MM Acryl. Then I used the toothpick like a stamp to “stamp” the color onto the surface of the model. Practice first.

I took a Prismacolor .005 black pen and drew in the dots on those little “intakes” on the nose of the aircraft, aft of the prop and below the exhaust. It was easy to do because if I screwed it up I could just spit on my finger and rub off the water-based ink.

Needless to say, this may not be waterproof. I’m not worried about it. If somebody picks up the model and smears the markings I’ll redo them.

There is a taxi or landing or whatever light in the leading edge of the port wing of a P-51. I drew in a “silver” spot with a silver Sharpie, then added a dot of flat white in the center to replicate the light.

The yellow circles on the nose of the bombs are done by applying dots at 12, 3, 6 and 9, equidistant from the fuse. Then put dots between the existing dots. Then put more dots between each of the existing dots. Then connect the dots, making a yellow circle. I wouldn’t worry about making it perfect unless you’re going to buy some high-end photo equipment, make a photo booth with a blue background and sign up for Hyperscale.

Otherwise, consider that these bombs were intended for one-time use and that use consisted of blowing them up. My analysis of wartime photos indicates that bomb-painting was not a high priority. It was sloppy.

I used a very ordinary pencil to draw in panel lines, and that .005 Prismacolor pen was used to “highlight” the engraved lines on the flight controls.

I used Tamiya flat black and a very small brush to make the various exhaust ports look “open.”

I really enjoyed making a “wheels up” model and I highly recommend it to anybody who’s suffering from what the French call Le Malaise Plastique.