Its getting there slowly. Thanks for the comments everyone.

Im working on the last few bits and pieces and then it'll be time to close the fusalage up finally.

:)

Big day today...

A few last minute photos.........








And the fusalage is closed together at last!






And about time too!

Looking great mate, very nice work indeed.

Really good to see you getting some bench time as well!

Cheers, D

You never disappoint us when you have a up-date Nigel






Terri

Nigel,
the cockpit really looks quite nice in the closed up fuselage.
Joel

Looking really good Nige

So is this going to be finished for Telford?

Thank you

Fingers crossed I will be off work every Monday for the next six months or so and spending a hour or two of that day at the bench is part of the plan, so hopefully I'll be able to add some more regular updates.

Mal, of course it'll be done for Telford,, I'm just not going to commit to a particular year

Nice going Nige!

And a man after my own heart with that statement! (I've still got a Halifax boxed-up somewhere ready to make Mal eat his shorts one day... (admittedly, we probably will all be in our wheelchairs by then!))

All the best

Rowan

Any year is fine Nige, there is probably an anniversary for the P-51 coming up in a few years




Coffins more like Rowan

Hi Mal

True enough. Of course, the sad thing is that, even after all these years, we still don't have a mainstream kit of the Halifax in 1:48...

All the best

Rowan

True But maybe HKM will do it in 1/32!

I think I'm probably due an update on this
So, after working away each weekend since May I have a modicum of free time coming up although the Christmas rush will soon be upon me.
Anyway, this weekend I have finally managed to get a bit of bench time in as I've had an enforced free weekend and have made some progress on this beautiful kit.
Both tail wheel assemblies are done ( retracted and deployed), and I've also got the undercarriage bay together.
They still need dry brushing and some washs applying but its progress nontheless and it feels good to actually be getting a bit of bench time.




Nige

Glad you're back and getting some bench time. Looking good.

I'll be following closely, as I got this kit a couple months back.

Best kit I have ever built.

I hate how bare the oob wheel wells look.

obviously I couldn't take it.

Great progress, looking very good. The Tamiya P-51 is a great kit, does it have panel lines on the wing?

Hi,

Stunning Job!!

Pascal

It's really nice to see any update. Last one was way back in May. It's a great kit as my brother has built 3 of them to date.
Joel

With the small amount of time available to me Matt if I was to go ahead and detail to that extent I would end up spending about a years worth of modelling time on a wheel well. Looks great, and maybe when I have more time to devote to a project I'll do one to that extent.
For now though, I'm just grateful for any time I get to spend at the bench at all.
I fitted the wheel well to the lower wing section, and decided the best way to make sure it was seated 100% correctly would be to dry fit the upper wings around it while the glue cured.
A great excuse to see what shes going to look like with the wings fitted anyway. As expected with this level of Tamiya kit, the fit is perfect.





Next subassembly on the agenda,(stages 36 and 37) is the machine gun bays. Because of the sprue layout(duplicate sprues), you end up with two spare Brownings which will come in very handy for detailing a 1:32 diorama if required.
Main colours on and ready for finishing.



Exquisite detail from Tamiya yet again.
I'm really hoping they take advantage of having already tooled the P+W 2800 for the Corsair kits that 1:32 P-47s are on the horizon

Great progress Nigel,a stunning and highly detailed build.It is very tempting to get a Tamiya Mustang for me as well.

Well, by my reckoning. If you've put £1 a week into a piggy bank since I started posting this build blog you should have enough saved to buy one of these Mustangs already, and I haven't even got the wings on yet

Well,, I got the wings on.
Made a start on the undercarriage assemblies and even got around to dry fitting the prop together.
It's starting to look like a Mustang!





Happy Christmas

Looking good, Nige, almost time for some paint I've about given up on trying to get a mask set of the checkers produced for Big Beautiful Doll; not being able to achieve that is what has stopped my starting this kit! I do need to build one though so I reckon that I will choose a different scheme and crack on after seeing this again

Merry Christmas mate

Nigel,
Slow but steady progress for sure. looking forward to finally seeing the 'Stang with some paint on it.
Joel

I managed to get a little more done over the past few days.
Mainly mucking around with the cowling panels and made a start on the undercarriage.

Slowly getting towards the painting stages.





Before finally deciding on the paint scheme I wanted to make sure the red/white checkerboard on the rudder was doable.
As luck would have it, 5mm squares work out just right.The problem is cutting them square and lining them up, as they tend to start getting a bit wonky.
A test spray of a couple of rows showed that it's quite doable though, but I think I might be cheating slightly and making a call to my favourite mask maker in order to make life much easier

Nige

Slow but steady progress Nige, nice to see the 'stang with wings and legs. It won't be long now