1/72 Airfix P-51D Mustang

Having been a fan of WW2 fighters and bombers, I made a mental list of kits that I would want to build for my collection. My initial intention was to build only famous aircraft and as for fighters, I built a Spitfire and a Hurricane. Naturally my collection wouldn't be complete without a P-51 Mustang. I did have a Bf 109 and a FW 190 in my kit stash but gave up building the Bf 109E-4 by Airfix as it was a terrible kit and the FW190A by Academy still isn't completed yet.

I completed this kit a few days ago and it's actually been quite a few months since I bought it. I've kinda lost interest in building aircraft kits and thinking of switching to 1/48 armor kits, at least for the time being. I still have a few uncompleted aircraft kits in my stash and haven't decided when I'm going to finish building them... sometime soon hopefully. 

This kit was released by Airfix by 2012 with new tools and it's a pretty good quality kit with almost no flash and the parts fit well. This is my first try at painting an aircraft in silver and with my current skill level, it seems I still have a long way to go as the outcome wasn't too satisfactory.

Here's the building process with explanation for each step :

I forgot to take photos while building the cockpit. Nonetheless, it's painted and weathered. 

A panel line on the right wing has a small production defect in it. Some putty, sanding and rescribing should easily fix the problem.

Basic build of the kit completed.

A close up few of the finished cockpit.

A close up view of the pilot. The Red Tails were piloted by African Americans so I tried giving him a  darker complexion... doesn't look too convincing.

Model is primed with IPP's 1200 Gray Surfacer.

Having said this is my first try at silver fuselage painting, the only silver paint I have on my shelf is a chrome silver paint by Mr.Metal Color and I did a bit of research before using it. 

Apparently, it's a very difficult paint to deal with even with careful preparation and priming. When a masking tape is applied on the paint later, the paint tends to peel right off even if it's completely dry. I decided to give it a go anyhow and painted the base coat black to give it a better shine (I read this somewhere).

The chrome silver has been painted, buffed with a piece of fine cloth and a clear coat of Mr.Color 46 (clear) airbrushed on top. 

I decided not to use the yellow decals provided and the fuselage was masked off for other colors to be painted. The red sections were painted with a coat of Mr.Color 14 (RLM 23 red) and then Mr.Color 3 (red) on top.

Painting process completed. For some reason, the shine on the silver sections of the fuselage completely died out after applying a clear coat. I have no clue as to the reason for this and this is why I wasn't too satisfied with the outcome. Luckily, the silver didn't peel off too much despite negative reviews about the paint.

Decals applied. I skipped some of the super tiny decals as decalling is one of the tasks I certainly DO NOT enjoy about aircraft modelling.

Here are photos of the finished model. Weathered, cockpit in the open position and drop tanks attached.