P-51C Mustang Firewall - Oil Tank Mounts and Brackets

I could title this blog "More Fun with Soda Can Aluminum" but I'm getting the sense that this title would apply to many blogs in this project. I'm finding it to be a very good medium to work with and a good scale metal. Mathmatically speaking if the real Mustang used 1/16" inch aluminum then in 1/32 scale it would be .0019" thick. Soda can is .003" thick and well if you can see the .001" difference then I'll eat my next soda can. The aluminum is strong, yet you can cut it with a razor, X-Acto knife, scissors, and can scribe it easily as well. It can be smoothed and shaped with fine sandpaper and doesn't have much spring back when bent. Granted, if you bend it too many times it will snap. It can be drilled even with small drill bits without damaging the bits. And the best thing about it is it is free and plentiful, if you drink a lot of soda :)

So now let's get onto it. The Mustant oil tank is held on with two metal straps (see previous blog). These straps are secured to the firewall with a variety of mounts and brackets, which is what this blog will be about. I'll take it piece by piece.

 I'm not sure what this piece is for, but it sits by itself over the oil tank mounted to the firewall. It was a simple rounded triangular shape with a bent flange. Reference photos provided the shape and size.

The oil tank straps are fastened to the firewall with this bracket. It is made from a thin strip of aluminum. I cut one end into a point, drilled the hole in the middle with a .015" carbide bit, bend the shape, drilled the second hole, cut it to length, and then rounded down all the corners.


This bracket attaches the strap to the mount in the previous photo. This annoying little beauty was made from an aluminum strip cut as wide as the piece is long. Again reference photos were used to get this length. The piece of bend over the edge of a .040" plastic sheet and then cut and sanded to shape. The holes were drilled last so they would line up right.


This second annoying little booger is mounted low on the firewall. It actually holds two supports arms that are mounted to the bottom of the oil tank. It was made using a similar method as the bracket above, only this one had the added bonus of being angled. Hopefully it is visible in the photo, but the vertical flanges don't protrude straight out. They point towards the top of the firewall. It took a couple of tries to get the angle and shape right. Luckily the usability of soda can aluminum made this a little less of a headache.


This next part is the mount of the oil tank where the supported arms mentioned above will attach. Ironically this flat piece proved the most difficult simply because of the curved cut necessary. Its much to small to just take a pair of scissors and cut it out and you have to get it to match the curve of the bottom of the oil tank. To make this easier, I filed and sanded a piece of thin plastic to match the oil tank contour to act as a template. Then I laid it over my metal and scribed it with the sharp point of my dividers. With a nice groove carved into it, you can now cut it the rest of the way with an X-Acto knife and clean it up with fine sandpaper.


These are the finished mounts cut to shape with the holes drilled.

Here are all the detail pieces for the firewall laid out around a dime for size reference. All made from soda can aluminum. My only tools were simple hand tools and a little creativity.


Next up - a little destruction of the original kit pieces to make room for the new improved details and some painting. This is, hopefully, where I'll start to see all the hard work pay off.