P-51C Mustang Firewall and Oil Tank - Construction Part 1

Well its been a busy week so I haven't had much time to work on my model, but I did manage to get some things done and had a few headaches along the way. On top of that, I was bidding on my next few projects on eBay, two 30 year old kits: Star Wars X-wing and Shuttle Tydirium. The X-wing I built when I was a kid, but now I need to do it justice and the Shuttle Tydirium my dad built and it sat in the garage taunting me my entire life. Time to get my hands on one!! Should be some fun projects.

Anyway, on to the Mustang...

Before I could add any of my scratch built details, I had to remove the kits molded details, if they can even be called that. I clipped them off with wire cutters, filed them flat, and then used fine sandpaper to smooth the surfaces.

Do the same for the oil tank, but leave the molded-on straps. Digging out the strap clamps was fun. I used an X-Acto and sharp tipped file to get it all out. Everything else was fairly straightforward.

With the oil tank cleaned up, it was airbrushed with Model Master Acryl Yellow Chromate. This was my first time airbrushing with this type of paint. When I painted the oil tank, I didn't use any thinner since I had read online that this paint can be airbrushed without it. The tank came out ok, but not as good as I would have hoped. I thinned the paint when I painted the firewall and it came out much better.

To attach the metal straps, I scratched the paint off the molded straps and drilled a little divot, because I left a little bit of an extension in the simulated bolt that holds the strap together.

The straps were bent to shape as close as possible before gluing. This made life a little easier. They were glued down with super glue.

I did the same for the firewall details. Standard old super glue is the best thing I found to attack aluminum to plastic. Scuff the mating surfaces first and clear away any paint and it should hold fine. I wouldn't use it for any load bearing joint, but these are just light details.

Already things are looking much better than the molded details. Everything else was just glued in place. I took two videos to show the pieces. Please excuse the occasional blurriness. They were taken in a hurry with my phone.

Hopefully with a Christmas break from school I'll be able to get more done...

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.