completed Monogram P-51D as "Grim Reaper"

[Ronnie Murray]

Thanks Matt, that makes sense.  I guess another thing is that as the war with Japan drew closer to the end there were not many fighters rising to meet the US swarms.  I used to think it was because we had beat them down.  It was later that I learned the Japanese had stock piled hundreds if not thousands of front line aircraft.  They were hidden in caves and other underground installations in anticipation of the US invasion.  Thank God that never took place.   Either way, I like some of the Pacific  schemes for P-51's but then again some of them are kind of bland.  It does seem like the ETO planes had the edge in variety.

[Matt C]

Very cool, that's a great chrome!

I built the Pacific theater Tamiya P-51, and from what I remember of my research, the Mustang was pretty late to the party. All three of the Tamiya schemes are, in fact, from 1945, along with all the schemes on the only other Pacific-theater decals I have. I bought a book (digitally, otherwise I'd let you borrow it) about the long-range Pacific P-51Ds that escorted B-29s out of the Iwo Jima area (so March '45-ish and later), and the earliest any of the three fighter groups upgraded to the P-51 was November of 1944, in Hawaii. There were also Mustangs in the CBI theater as well, and I recall reading (not sure where?) that some of the earlier versions were pretty successful there.

This is probably why there are fewer schemes, just a matter of how few FG/FS  operated the Pacific Mustangs and for only a short period.

[Ryan K]

Looking good Ronnie. Better yet yall got to work on it together.

[Ronnie Murray]

Last shot on this one.   I still have so many decal sets for P-51s and there are so many great paint schemes left to be done.  I recently got my hands on the Otaki P-51 and compared it to the Monogram.  I've never even see anyone build the Otaki / Arrii kit but It has some redeeming qualities and I look forward to building it.  I wonder why we don't see many paint schemes from the Pacific theatre when compared to the ones from the ETO.     My favorite part of modeling is completing the build and doing a decent job even if it's not on par with my best work.  We all have soooo many kits that may never be built if we don't get cranking.  I've had a good time with this one even it was a bit rushed...hey, it's done...just don't get too close.  If you guys get tired of your ol' Monogram or Otaki Mustangs and refuse to build them, I know where you can give them a good home.

[Ronnie Murray]

The bare metal color is the same ol' dependable Rustoleum Chrome, some can I've had lying around for about 20 years...I am not kidding.   Once it dries it looks a great deal like chrome but it is fickle stuff and you cannot touch it until weeks of curing.  It looks half decent on the shelf and I'm glag to see another finished model cut from the list of probables.   I have built the Tamiya P-51 and I know there are better kits out there but I like the Monogram P-51 pretty well.  It is cheap and builds up quickly plus once it's done it has the good lines of a Mustang.   

[Ronnie Murray]

After tons of sanding it finally turned out good enough for an all metal paint scheme.  Even I was surprised!  I found some aeromaster decals I'd had since 1997 for the Grim reaper so that became the choice.   They still worked well after all these years and I can rest my conscience that it was money well spent because I did use them.    This is a pretty catchy paint scheme but as we all know it's hard to find a paint scheme that doesn't look good on a Mustang.

[Ronnie Murray]

This is a model that Brandon started and it hit a snag.  His "experienced" model dad  spilled C/A all over the tail section and it looked ruined for good.  I told him that we would use this as an opportunity to exercise patience and see if we could bring it back to life.   (I absolutely hate to see any decent model kit go to waste and I've rescued a few from certain death).