Since the fin fillet was gone, my remaining options were few. I now needed to find a photo of an early ‘D’ with not too much NMF showing and only hard-edged masking. Shouldn’t be too tough. Luckily, the terrific Osprey book Mustang Aces of the 8^th Air Force has a great side view of Pete Peterson’s 357^th FG mount "Hurry Home Honey" that fit the bill perfectly. One hurdle down. Now, does anyone make these markings? After much searching across continents and over oceans, I found the markings practically in my back yard in a hobby shop in Columbus, Ohio, where I was living at the time. The now-defunct RepliScale made a series of sheets entitled "The Yoxford Boys," one of which includes the very markings I needed. Two hurdles down and looking good! By this point, I was a newlywed working a consulting job that required 12-15 hours on site each day. Needless to say, modeling time was scarce. It took more than two years to get the kit painted again. This time around I used SNJ for the metal since it could be masked over. A couple of the panels are shaded with slightly tinted SNJ for some visual variety. The OD upper surfaces are Aeromaster enamels as are all of the white invasion stripes. Panel shading of the OD was accomplished by spraying a lightened shade of OD to the aft and outer edges of the panel lines, masked with a Post-It Note. I masked and painted the yellow nose band with Aeromaster enamels in anticipation of translucent decals. Black invasion stripes are Tamiya acrylics and the wheel wells are Gunze interior green.

By the time I got around to decals, Squadron/Signal had published the book 357^th Fighter Group by James Roeder. The book includes a good profile of Peterson’s "Hurry Home Honey" and there was also a great close-up photo of this plane’s nose section with the nose art. I compared the photo, the caption, and the profile to the RepliScale markings and became clinically depressed when I saw how inaccurate the decals were. The nose art script was not only black when it needed to be red, but the lettering style was completely fictitious.

The fuselage codes were about 20% too wide and the sheet did not include the crew stenciling. A co-worker, Dean Hawkins, helped me create the correct nose art using Adobe PhotoShop on an image based on the correct style from the Roeder documentation. The image turned out better than I had hoped, albeit just a bit short in length.

 Let’s see if the penlight police catch it. Thanks go to several folks who helped me slay this dragon, specifically Al Superczynski who steered me in the right direction regarding vector graphics software. I made the crew data stenciling on the computer while the fuselage codes came from either the spares box or from clear decal paper painted black and cut out. The red and yellow checkerboard nose band decal complied with neither my considerable will nor a gallon of Micro Sol, so I sprayed some clear decal paper red, then measured, cut out, and applied each square one by one. Since I had already painted the yellow band, this worked out quite well. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this method to others, but I ended up with a nose band that I like and colors that matched perfectly with the red and yellow painted spinner. Stars and bars came from SuperScale spares, but the ones on the fuselage were translucent, so these were doubled-up. General stencils are from the Aeromaster P-51 Stencil sheet. When the dust had settled, the only markings used from the RepliScale sheet were the inaccurate kill markings, the incorrect aircraft data stencil, and the tail number.

Future and Pactra Clear Flat provided the decal under- and overcoats respectively. Weathering was kept subtle as the available pictures of this particular plane showed a relatively clean machine. No exhaust staining was evident, so I left it off. Panel lines were highlighted with artist oils and a small bit of Tamiya Clear Smoke was used for gun blast residue. I depicted chipped paint on the edges of the gun bay doors and around the fuel filler caps with a silver PrismaColor pencil. Keeping with my general rule of "less is more," this wear and tear was kept to a minimum.

Details-

Once all of the color was applied, final assembly began. The stick, seat, and gunsight reflector were installed in the cockpit. The brass landing gear, resin wheels, and gear doors were attached, taking care to set the correct alignment on the gear struts from all angles. Terrific Replicast exhaust units were sprayed with some tinted SNJ, washed and drybrushed a bit, then attached with CA. Wing racks and drop tanks were added along with plumbing lines. Fine brass tubing replaced the molded on gun barrels. (Building tip: don’t install them with CA or they will lock up in the wrong position. Believe me.) I used a canopy hood from the Hasegawa Mustang so as to avoid dealing with the notorious sprue blemish and canopy thickness of the Tamiya part. I added guide brackets to the inside forward edge on each side of the frame but once installed, they’re pretty tough to see. A quick dunk in Future for a great shine and the canopy was done. Flaps and the prop were permanently attached. The rear view mirror was made from styrene rod shaped to look about right, painted black, then dressed up with a disc of Bare Metal Foil and attached to the windscreen. Position lights were made by adding a touch of clear red or clear green Tamiya acrylic paint to a spot of five-minute epoxy, waiting until the epoxy just starts to stiffen up, then touching a dot of it to the correct position on the respective wing tip with a toothpick. I would definitely recommend this method to others who might consider it, but just be advised that the paint lengthens the epoxy hardening time by several minutes. The final detail was the antenna line, which is invisible thread painted silver. This was carefully attached to the fin and pilot headrest with CA after threading it through a #80 hole drilled in the canopy.

No one will ever rightly accuse me of building too fast. I started this kit in December ’95 and completed it in November 2000. So much for a kit that practically builds itself! To be fair, the kit spent much of those five years either stuffed in a box on the closet shelf or lying neglected and gathering dust on the workbench. Graduate school, a wedding, two career changes, and three moves within that time span can take their toll on available model building time. But all that aside, I ended up with a Mustang that I’m proud of and that looks pretty sharp on the display shelf. I had a blast upgrading the kit and overcoming the challenges of the color scheme and markings. My only regrets are not being more careful with the fit of the TD cockpit sidewalls and not dropping the elevator. Other than that, I’m real tickled with the outcome. Much of the satisfaction I get from this hobby comes from clearing tough hurdles and acquiring new modeling skills. With that in mind, this project was totally satisfying.