P-51C Mustang Engine Ignition Harness

So there was a slight change from the last post, but if you read the introduction to this project, you know I said I would admit my mistakes. Well this wasn't really a mistake, more of a "oops that won't work" thing, which happens in projects like this. You have to be prepared to have these moments. Nothing is perfect the first time. That's how you learn.

So for the ignition harness wires, I first tried to take metallic string and coat them in super glue so the strands would stay together, but this made the string too stiff and it was a pain to try to glue in place. I wanted them to be stiff, but not that stiff. So I scrapped that idea, cut off all those pieces of string and went in another direction. Instead of coating the entire string with super glue, I coated only the tip to keep the strands together. Then I glued the tip of the string in place on the engine, coated a small portion of the string in glue in the area where I would be cutting it, let it dry, cut the string to length with a set of nail clippers, and then carefully glued the end to the harness.

The uncoated string bends more easily and looks more like the real thing. You don't want to have any sharp bends or obvious straight areas in these wires or it will look really fake and weird.

Half way done. I'd say it looks pretty good for being plastic and string

P-51C Mustang Engine Ignition Harness and Oil and Fuel Lines

Finally after having way too much time away from my Mustang I could finally get back into it. So I left off working on the ignition harness. The wires on the real Merlin were silver braided cables which is odd to scale down. At first I tried using elastic, strangely enough, from an old pair of underwear. Just a side note: Sometimes as a scratchbuilder you have to explore some pretty strange options to find materials. The elastic didn't have the right pattern and once it was painted it become too stiff and the paint cracked off. So scratch that idea. I found a roll of metallic thread buried away in my work bench, but it had a slight problem. Once I cut it, the three strands that made up the thread separated. To fix this, I coated the thread in CA to bond the strands and could then cut some pieces that would stay together. Now, the pattern on this thread isn't quite the same as the real Merlin, but it is quite similar. And the natural color of the thread means it doesn't have to be painted.

I'll install the harness soon, but for now here are a few more pictures of the the oil and fuel lines going into place. Before you start a task like this, let me assure you that it is indeed a tremendous pain in the stabilizer, but well worth the effort. If you didn't read my last post, the lines are made from two sizes of Ook hanging wire available at any hardware store and for just a couple of bucks. The really big line in the picture below is made from a jumbo paper clip.

The little nubs representing the fitting on the ends of the lines, as seen below, were created with a blob of JB weld that, once hardened, was sanded flat on two sides. Silver Testors paint matches the natural aluminum color of the wire, which makes it great for hiding any mistakes or glue that may have leaked out of the joints.