North American RAF Mustang III Tamiya 1/48

Come to think of it, I made a few Mustang fighters on 1/144, but this is my first time on 1/48. I wanted to make it with the US forces. But since I’ve been piling up this box for a long time, I’ll try to assemble it. It might be practice because I want to make 1/32 of Tamiya someday. But if I say someday, I’ll get older and older. It isn’t easy because of the balance with stacking.

First, before assembling the cockpit, I think it’s decided to use an airbrush with an interior paint color.

The decal on the cockpit panel was a bit stiff. A lot of Mark Softer was used, and it fitted well and was easy to attach. This time, I did not press it with a cotton swab and did not touch it. I dried it naturally and then coated it with a matt clear.

Some kits have seat belts molded, but this kit didn’t have such a thing. I glued the third-party seatbelt parts.

The parts of the Tamiya kit have been good for a long time, so I did not have many gaps. Assembly accuracy is excellent and safe.
(2021/10/11)

There is no hole in the exhaust pipe, so it will look more realistic if you make it small holes.

When I put a cover on the radiator, I could hardly see it, but I painted it silver. I think the instruction manual says to paint with flat aluminum.

Canopy masking is in progress. The part that looks like a clip is a small semicircle, so it’s a little complicated.

I didn’t do any additional work recently, but I was interested in it, so I tried to install a brake pipe by following the example. What color should I paint?

Assembly is complete. I’m going to paint after installing all the landing gears.
(2021/10/15)

Black and white gradation base painting. I packed tissues inside the landing gear to use for masking, but there seem to be many parts that need to be repainted.

First, I painted the underside of the aircraft and then masked it. I think I will make the boundary between the color of the lower surface and the upper surface clear and finish camouflage by slightly blurring the boundary.
(2021/11/05)

I finished the moving work a little, so I started making models again after a long time. For the time being, I painted RAF Mustang camouflage which seems to be nearly completed. It is a special color from Creos. In the previous special set of Creos, many colors could not be bought one by one, other than three colors at once, but now most of the paints can be bought separately in Creos, so I appreciate it. I purchased Mr. Color C361 dark green and C362 ocean gray this time and painted the camouflage. I used the C335 medium gray underside, but I bought the C363 medium gray one day. I don’t know how different the color is from the one I used this time.

Attaching the decal was more difficult than I expected. I wonder if this is the decal that Tamiya outsources to the Scale Master. It may have been piled for too long and became dry and cracked, making it difficult to paste neatly. I thought it would be wasteful to buy a new decal with an old kit, so I tried to stick this decal. It didn’t fit on the surface without using GSR Decal Strong Softener. I don’t know how much I can recover later; however, I think it’s almost finished. Oh, there was still some paint on the details.
(2021/11/15)

The yellow band decal for identifying allies became miserable. I don’t know if I can do anything but paint. It is a relief that it is not a complicated shape.

The famous Mustang fighter plane of the US military became famous after the improvement of the Royal Air Force. The performance has been greatly improved by replacing it with a British Rolls-Royce Marine engine.

This is a typical camouflage pattern of the RAF fighter active in European air battles.

The decal was not in good condition, so I carefully coated it to make it half-glossy. It was okay to perform some washing work.

I opened the exhaust of the engine, so it became pretty realistic.

This plane is equipped with bombs: 500-pound bombs, one on each side.

For the landing gear compartment, paint the body interior color, paint the lever black, and lightly wash. It’s a part that I can’t see at all.

I managed to picture the seat belt through the canopy, but the cockpit panel was tricky.

The marking is the 315th Polish Flying Squadron, and the aircraft number is FB387. A unit in the RAF consisted of Polish airmen who had escaped from Poland, which Germany and the Soviet Union had occupied.

In the middle of the process, I started moving my house, and for a moment, I thought about scraping everything being assembled and building a new kit. Well, it’s a pity to throw it away for a stupid reason, so I’m glad I could finish it anyway. RAF camouflage paint is cool.
(2021/11/21)