Airfix 1/24 P-51D to P-51B Conversion "Sleepytime Gal" Part 1
By Rodney Williams
"Sleepytime Gal"
Converting a 1/24th P-51D Mustang to a P-51B: part 1
The entire story can be found printed in the IPMS/USA Journal. (Dates 1993-1995). I, nor the LSP editor has the time to redo the complete story from the original version.
This is a very short story in several segments showing how I converted a 1/24 scale P-51D into the early P-51B airframe. The only kit available 12 years ago was the one and only "Airfix!"
In other stories of mine I mention, {"Never Trust Art Drawings !!! }. The enclosed art drawing and photos of the real aircraft tell you why! The last photo in this group must have been taken after the war. It has a paint color change, and note how high the grass has grown over the steel tarmac. My client sent me these photos, and I think he got them from someone in England.
This photos shows the one piece bottom wing section with a brass & styrene wing spar. It was added to correct the warp in the plastic, and was attached with super glue.
This set of photos show the main gear doors, including the hand made brass fittings. If I had to do it again, all the hinges would have been made out of styrene stock.
My other 1/24th scale P51D "Dallas Doll" Mustang is on this site. I worked on both models at the same time. I estimate it took over 1,200+ hours to build in everything, including all the gear doors on both models. Look at the part on the penny, then look at it up in the wheel well. You can see it has some angles, where the rods attach too!
Making the "master" for the gears is another story as these photos show. At one time I offered several parts "for sale," for this 1/24 scale Mustang. I never received an order, so I gave and sold off all my masters back in 1999. The kit had rubber type tires, which looked OK! All I did was spruce up the tire rims.
This set of photos show the revisions I made to the kits drop tanks and pylons.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5
© Rodney Williams 2002
This article was published on Wednesday, July 20 2011; Last modified on Saturday, May 14 2016