Scale-Master

I designed decal sheets for over a dozen Tuskegee "Red Tail" Mustangs, so it was only fitting to me to make the rear wing red with the yellow stripes commonly used on the aircraft wings. The stripes are from an old Scale-Master / Develotech McDonald's T-Bird sheet. I just cut off the black pinstripes. Colored trim tabs were common on the rudder, so I went with yellow end plates and some more custom decals tied to the theme. The taillights were sprayed TS-74 Clear Red before being sprayed with TS-71 Smoke for a blacked out effect. The Red Tail theme was carried onto the center panel too.

The wheels were done in a blue tinted silver shade. I made a few more custom decals too. One for the gas cap; I used the same design as on a P-51 filler. It needed an appropriate name and numbers to follow the theme. The 88 is from the Tuskegee P-51 Little Freddie, but I beefed it up a bit. The numerals are tied to the name of this project.

I painted the middle set of louvers the same green as the anti-glare panel. The outside hood louvers were done in another old Alclad exhaust shade to represent the exhaust pipes on the planes.

I made the invasion stripes using white and black Warbird/Scale-Master decal stripes from sheets SP002.

The insignias came from an old Testors/Scale-Master sheet. This era of planes did not have the red bars. I also Dullcoted the checkerboard nose.

Thanks guys! I airbrushed some AS-17 green on the rear emulating a scheme on some P-51s. (Yes, it is not exactly the right shade, but then this car is not the right airplane shape either.) I also sprayed an anti-glare panel on the center of the hood.

I drew up and printed some tailored checkerboard decals.

The suspension and drivetrain was done with other deviations from stock colors. I used mostly old original Alclad colors from the 70's. The brakes were done with Tamiya acrylic clear colors for an anodized look.

The front of the hood and the nose were shot with Tamiya LP-8 Yellow.

The chassis was painted Zinc Chromate as the internal panels of a P-51 would be. I mixed the color from old Testors and Tamiya enamels and did some mild shading.

I've played around with this idea of doing cars with warbird schemes before, and I've done it using a few different Hot Wheels over the years. I'm using a Tamiya GT-4 kit that I cannibalized for other projects so it's perfect for exploring this concept in a larger scale. I have a general idea of what I think it should look like. After tinkering with TS-17 and AS-12 silvers from the cans and not getting the look I wanted, I found mixing them together and airbrushing them made what I was looking for; a bright satin silver with mild flakes.

After missing the wire loom hold down, I thought it was prudent to machine the fuel line hardware for the carbs before moving forward. A dozen fittings later… I still have more to do and more parts to machine for this subassembly.

Thanks guys! I've machined and installed the carb mounting nuts, washers and bolts to the top sides as well as a few other hardware parts. The linkages are set up on the carbs too.

I got a little ahead of myself when I was adding the manifold bolts and forgot to install the wire loom hold-down bracket. (It protects the loom and the linkage from rubbing or hanging up.) I made it from annealed brass. I pulled two bolts and installed it under them. Now I'm back on track…

I textured and painted the intake manifold. It's one of the few 3D parts I grew that were not cast in resin for the model. I also installed the 12 bolts and washers I machined to mount it to the heads, and the 16 bolts for the carbs.

The bracket that is the hub of this setup was made from brass and machined resin stock. Aluminum hardware was machined to accept the stainless steel sheath for the throttle cable and to mount it to the manifold.

The carb linkages need to be made now. First I made the levers for the carbs. This pair does one bank and each is made of two pieces of brass. Soldering them was fun, but drilling the holes for the synchronizing screws was even more fun. The bellcrank was machined next.

The kit wiper was reworked with a steel pin in the arm to allow the blade section to be pivoted and aligned with the windshield. A thin strip of styrene was added to make the wiper blade; it was shaped to fit the windshield too. I made small bolt heads for the pivot point and to mount to the stem too…

Ahhh, you're making me want to build one of my 1/87th resin kits now Monty... Thanks all for the kind words in both threads pertaining to this one!

The rear spoiler has been painted too. Two pieces of sheet brass soldered together. Yes it has a clear Lexan section in the middle.

1/43rd scale resin kit.

The taillights are the same cloisonné style affair as the headlights, but the red tint had faded to a rose color. I over coated them with X-27 Clear Red to restore (or improve) their luster and depth.

The wipers are PE, and they get "origami'd" with a half dozen bends/folds into decent looking 3D parts. The one in the foreground is before bending it into form. Fine tuning is needed for each one during the actual installation to fit the windshield; after the wiper blades are painted on…

Despite all my test fitting during the early stages it took the better part of an hour to get the chassis and interior parts to fit all the way inside the body and the wheels to be in their proper places. But it was worth it… The vents have been shaded and the filler caps installed.

The (brass) winglets have been painted and the fasteners added. Now they go in the slowly but continually growing collection of ready to install subassemblies.