Next I tackled the topside black areas on the wings and the nose.
Thankfully this part of the painting process was trouble-free.
I then went in and painted the exhausts by handpainting with Game Color Gunmetal.
Prop planes are great in that there are relatively few fiddly bits to deal with although the invasion stripes on the landing gear doors did present some masking challenges.
The figure of ‘Maverick’ is 3D-printed and is an homage to an alternate (and IMO better) Top Gun: Maverick poster.
The result is one of my better attempts at this mysterious skill called ‘figure painting’.
Maverick is now ready to fly his US ARMY AIR FORCE P-51 even though he’s a US NAVY puke. Tsk tsk…
As you can see, the black stripes do not quite reach far up enough to the wings on the roundel. I could leave it alone but knowing me, I couldn’t.
So I carefully masked around the roundel with paper, masking tape and Post-Its and had another go at the black stripes.
WIth the main problem done, the other decals went on without issue.
There are 3 identification lights under the port wing and these were each given a drop of transparent red, blue and yellow paints.
The masking around the canopy was then removed. Looks fine!
The landing gear was then installed using sprue glue and given a day to cure upside down.
She’s now ready to fly Maverick and Penny around. Well… just imagine the cockpit sits two.
Maverick will really only fit in one location on the P-51 but I think it looks great.
From this angle, the P-51 is a surprisingly big aircraft. In any case, I now have another of Maverick’s aircraft in my collection. I believe there are only 3 more: the Darkstar, Dagger 1 and that lone F-14A he stole and had 2 more kills in.
Build Log
Pt.1 – Construction | Pt.2 – Painting & Finishing | Pt.3 – Painting & Finishing
