This is the “8th Air Force” edition of Airfix’s new-tool Mustang kit, featuring markings for one of the famous “Blue-Nosed Bastards of Bodney.” Structurally it’s the same kit I built in 2014 and 2018. No luck with the joystick this time, and the radio mast is scratch built as always. I used SAC whitemetal landing gear as a matter of course.
I used Model Master Acryl Interior Green for the first time,
and sprayed a shade to represent the plywood cockpit floor as well, something
of a first for a detail seen so little (I generally do the canopy closed.) The
“Bodney blue” was straight Tamiya XF-8, glossed with Microscale clear, maybe a
touch too dark, but fairly close – closer than the Humbrol “French Blue” which
is recommended in the plans.
I used the same graphite weathering technique as last time
to vary the panel shades of the natural metal finish. It may not be perfect but
it’s not bad and it’s certainly quick – an hour’s gentle masking and brushing
with powdered 6B lead and the job was done. It also avoids the possibility of
firmer masking pulling up previous paint or of anything going wrong with a
second application of paint, if varying the metallic with a mixed shade.
The canopy was masked from scratch using Tamiya tape and
Gunze fluid, which worked brilliantly on the main hood but on the windscreen it
pulled the paint off the narrow struts. I rectified this by making strip decal
with clear film – spraying interior green, then blue, then clear, and cutting
fine strips with my Chopper II guillotine.
Speaking of the windscreen, the part does not fit as snugly
as it might – you can have it tight into the lower curve on one side or the
other but not both unless using a hot glue to make it grab before you release
the seating pressure – but that will craze the plastic. I used white glue as a
gap-filler on the left, which was not terribly successful.
It’s been observed that the drop-tanks in this kit are not
very good, certainly they lack the prominent median ridge of the real thing,
and I left them off this build, though I might transplant the better-detailed
tanks from an Academy bird, if practical.
I love how the finished model feels “busy” to the eye.
Consider the left fuselage side – the basic metallic, selectively darkened with
graphite, then overlaid with clear, accented panel lines and the decals, all
pulled together with final clear – there’s a lot going on to catch the eye in a
very small space. The same goes for the wings – technically they should be a
uniform aluminium shade and the panel lines should be filled and smoothed, as
they were on the original, but it would make for an awfully plain display. This
is where artistic license gets in the way of historical accuracy.
This kit was assembled before the end of 2018 but I knew there
was no way I could get it finished in time to include it in last year’s tally.
Painting was a fairly straight forward process but included one or two
backtracks, all of which cost time. I have three more of this edition, plus a
couple of other editions of the kit, and look forward to adding to my Mustang
line-up in future.
Cheers, Mike Adamson
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