Building the Revell 1/72 North American P-51D Mustang "Cookie"

Returning to scale modelling in style

- building the Revell 1/72 North American P-51D "Cookie" -

Introduction

Revell 1/72 P-51 D Mustang "Cookie"

     After about 10 years of a hiatus from scale modeling, I decided that it was time to return to the hobby.

    I looked around on the web to find a simple kit to relearn some of the skills I've lost during my long leave of absence. Little did I know that I chose the worst possible kit for this task. Now, hear me out. Before I took my hiatus, I did build a number of Revell kits, which were quite good. They were fun to build and paint. Not amazing mind you, this is Revell we're talking about, but they were OK. So, I said to myself "surely this is going to be a cakewalk". The paint scheme was simple the aircraft didn't look too complicated. So I ordered the kit. I must preface this by saying that I did not know about scalemates.com. At least not yet. Had I known the age of this dinosaur I would have steered well clear of it. But alas, I didn't. So suffer with me as I slowly work my way through this joke of a kit. Joke's on me I guess as I built another one of these not long after. More on that in a future post.

The contents of the box

Contents of the box

    The box contains the exactly what you'd expect, a set of instructions, a decal sheet, and the oh so important sprues. So far so good. Nothing out of the ordinary yet. Yet.

Building and painting instructions for the kit

    The instruction booklet, or I guess in this case instruction leaflet, is printed on an A3 sheet of paper and it looks quick and cheerful. Whilst it is a bit annoying that the painting guide is back & white, this kit was released in 2010. It wasn't until around the mid to late 2010s that Revell started printing their instructions in full color. Besides, I was quite familiar with this, given that I did build other kits from that era. I was familiar with these style of instructions.

Stencils and marking for our P-51D

    The decal sheet is small and manageable, and printed to a decent quality. My photography on the other hand is rather questionable here. We live and we learn I guess.

The sprues

    The bag of sprues contains four sprues of this faux-metallic gray plastic and one clear part seen in the upper left corner which was just floating around in the bag. A great way top insure that the clear parts get all sorts of scratched up. I was rather fortunate though.

    Keen observers among you might also note that there's a fair amount of flash. Although not as much as you'd expect for a model of this vintage. Make sure to rad all the way to the end if you want to learn the true age of the kit. No cheating, mmkay? I'll know. 😉.

    Another detail you might be able to observe is that the details are of the raised variety. Not the best. Even more so since the details are really soft, easy to sand them off into oblivion. Just FYI, I did not have either a riveting tool or a scribing tool at this particular in time, so any erased details, are gone forever.

The canopy

    Despite the canopy being thrown haphazardly into the bag with the other sprues it looks surprisingly scratch free. Although there is a bit of flash around the edges. But over all, it's in good shape. And as you can see by the photo above, it does it's job at, well, being transparent. Not to mention, the framework is surprisingly crisp which should make masking really easy.

External fuel tanks

    Onto the external fuel tanks then. And here we start to see quite a bit of flash. As luck would have it most of it is on the sprue itself not the tanks. But at least there are no sink marks, or ejector pin marks so that's nice.

Horizontal stabilizer, propeller, cockpit floor

    Next we have the horizontal stabilizer, cockpit floor and the propeller. The propeller. Just look at the state of that. It's flash central. It will be extremely difficult to clean and make it look acceptable. And as you'll no doubt see, that was something I pretty much failed to do. Not because I couldn't but because I felt like the kit was asking for far more attention than it deserved.

Upper and lower main wings.

    

    Next are the wings. But don't let the lack of flash fool you. They have their own set of horrors hidden. There are also a few sink marks which I failed to address. It is what it is.

Main sprue (or so I call it 😅)

    

    Here we have the two fuselage halves as well as other bits and bobs like exhausts, tail wheel, main landing gear, propeller shaft, vertical stabilizer, gear bay doors, instrument panel, seat and the pilot. We'll take a look at him shortly. For the most part flash is minimal, but the shapes of some of these parts is off. Unfortunately, I didn't have the tools necessary to address these problems nor was I inclined to do so. Again, this was my first kit after a very long break, I was hopping for a simple build.

closeup of pilot and main landing gear

    A closer look at the pilot, then. And it doesn't look good. Not only is it filled to the brim with flash but the two halves of the molds were misaligned when they injected the plastic. Not a pleasant defect to deal with. Even less so, in my particular case.

Prep and build

All the washing in the world could not save this wreck.😭

    I started by giving the entire kit a good wash in soapy water. Not because it was particularly greasy. I just wanted to wash it of all of it's sins that will soon emerge. 😆

prepping the work surface

    Next I set up my mobile work area. It's small. Really small. But at the time I have not yet finished setting up my more permanent workbench. And what you see here, is pretty much all I had at the time. Note the suspicious absence of a bottle of thinners. That's because I didn't really think at the time it was important. But this kit will teach me otherwise. In the past I painted with Revell's enamel range and they worked well even without thinners. At least for hand painting. But these are acrylics. And let's just say I have a love hate relationship with them. More about that in a future article.

always dry fit, you will thank yourself later

    First step was to dry fit the cockpit interior to see how well, if at all, they fit. Ans so far so good. I also removed most of the flash by this point. That's why it looks cleaner than on the sprue. And it looks like our little American pilot here is wearing clothes that are perhaps a few sizes too big. At least the pants and the boots are.

flash and fitment issues abound

    Dry fitting the two fuselage halves together we see that there is an excessive amount of flash in the left fuselage half (right side as we look at this photo). And also, the fuselage halves don't quite fit together properly. There's a really nasty seam that will need to be filled in with putty. (But I will forget to do because of course I will).

painted figure

    Fast forward a bit and the pilot is all painted up. I used NATO Olive for the overalls, Leather Brown for the boots, gloves, harnesses and aviator cap, and matt black for the goggles and oxygen mask. In hindsight I probably should have used gloss black or a metallic color for the goggles but alas.

the details are crude and chunky for the scale

    Next I painted the instrument panel matt black. I probably could have picked out the gunsight with silver but I didn't bother.

pilot's seat, crude and chunky

    The seat was also painted in matt black with the headrest picked out in aluminum.

interior cockpit area painted

    Next I painted the inside of the cockpit area with Olive Brown and picked out some of the details with mat black. Not like most of this will be visible once the two halves are joined. I also painted the floor with Olive brown. I should have used Cockpit Green, but I didn't have any on hand. I could have ordered a pot but I didn't want to wait. I just wanted to get on with the build.

the inside details are once again quite crude and chunky

left interior half closeup

    Taking a closer look at the cockpit interior. The details are rather chunky and feel out of scale, but again most of this won't be visible in the finished product so it doesn't matter much. There are also some ugly ejector pin marks. Thankfully they won't be visible either.

main cockpit painted and glued together

    With the cockpit floor, seat, instrument panel and pilot painted, it was time to glue it all together. It doesn't look fantastic. But with a kit of this vintage there's not much that could be done aside from scratch-building the entire thing.

most of the aircraft assembled

    With the wings and fuselage finally joined together we cans see some gaps the size of the Grand Canyon at the wing roots. That will have to be addressed. I never used putty before, but this was as good a time as any to try it out.

filler

...filler

and more filler

    After using enough filler to last for a lifetime it was time to start sanding and smooth everything out to the best of my abilities (and patience). Note the poor alignment of the fuselage halves. It looks horrible. But at this point I had just about enough with this kit. So I didn't bother. Also note the massive sink marks aft of the pilot's seat. Another thing I decided not to fix.

masking the canopy

    Once I spent quite some time sanding, I went on and masked off the canopy. It's not the cleanest masking job. But it will work better than expected. I them moved on to glue it in place onto the model using Revell Contacta Clear to prevent any fogging.

aircraft primed and ready to paint

    With the canopy now in place, I primed the aircraft using Revell Light Gray Primer and now it's ready for the first coats of paint. For this project, I hand painted everything as I still haven't bought myself an airbrush.

    

radiator intake grill and exhausts painted

main landing gear wheels painted

propeller masked off and painted

external fuel tanks one painted the other primed

    Next I went on to paint some of the small parts like the radiator grill, exhaust pipes, wheels, propeller and fuel tanks. For the tanks I wanted to try something out. And so, one of the tanks was painted aluminum whilst the other was primed and would then also be painted aluminum.

antiglare applied and rudder painted

    Next I painted the top part of the aircraft with antiglare paint. In this case Olive Brown. It looks a bit shiny at the moment, but I will later dull it down with matt varnish. I also painted the rudder yellow as per the instructions.

more painting and some masking

    Next, I masked off the antiglare, then painted part of the wing black, and the lower half of the aft section of the fuselage. This will be the basis to the invasion stripes. *Fun fact: Having the invasion stripes on the lower half of the fuselage, places this aircraft about 6 months after the invasion of Normandy. Prior to that the stripes would wrap around the entirety of the fuselage*

green nose is green 😅

more masking

    I next painted "Cookie's" iconic green nose. I also masked off the black areas in preparation for the basecoat. The green nose was masked off as well.

gloss black basecoat applied

    Next, I applied a layer of gloss black coat. In theory, this should help the metallic aluminum that will be applied on top to pop, and look more metallic. In practice, because I was 1 hand painting and 2 not thinning my paints, this base layer will turn out to be a bit of a waste. You live and you learn.

final coat of paint on

masks coming off one by one

    As expected, the metallic paint is rather dull. But that's purely my fault and how I approached this project. If I would have used thinners, I'm sure I could have achieved a better result. Let that be a lesson to all reading this article. Always, always thin your paints. And, yes, those are boardgames holding up my work surface. 😅

Finished Build Part I

    

    We now fast forward to the finished product. Not because I'm too ashamed of my work but because I simply forgot to take anymore photos. This was my first "real" attempt at weathering and it shows, it's quite dodgy and ugly. It is what it is. The decal work on the other hand is my worst ever. It's most noticeable on the tail section where nothing is aligned. But this is a me issue. Not anything to do with the kit itself. Revell Decals are typically decent. The blame here is squarely on me.

    To be honest. I was glad I was done with this. It asked more from me than I was willing or even able to give. Coming back to the hobby after a decade long break is like starting all over. It was for me, at least.

    Normally, this is where I would end this article. And I was thinking a lot about this as I was writing this. In the end I decided it didn't make much sense to cover the same kit in two separate articles. Because, what do you do when you've just built the worst kit you've ever laid your eyes on? Build another one, of course 😂😅😕

    Why? Because as I was building this I ordered my very first airbrush and another copy of this kit. I thought it would be a good candidate to learn how to airbrush.

    I will spare you the pain of going through the entire build. But I will highlight things that I did differently and the pains of airbrushing. In my infinite wisdom, I decided to buy one of the cheapest unbranded airbrush I could find. And that will come to bite me in the behind in a later build. More on that in a future article. For now, enter P-51D Mustang "Cookie" part II.

P-51D Mustang "Cookie" part II

    

"workbench update"

    Before we dive into my second build of The P-51D Mustang a quick update on the "workbench". I've purchased a few more supplies, more paints and for the very fist time paints that are not from Revell. As you'll see throughout this part two, I will develop a love hate relationship with these paints. I also bought a bottle of thinners. Whilst I could get away with not thinning paints whilst hand painting, although not recommended. Airbrushing demands thinners and I wasn't going to take any chances.

    And in the bottom right corner is my shiny new airbrush along with the tiny compressor next to it. That's more or less it so on with the build then.

painting the cockpit

    I first painted the cockpit area and pilot. This time I actually took the time to make it look decent. Although as you'll see later it was all for naught. But I used a combination, of Olive green for the floor, rear bulkhead and area around the instrument panel. Leather Brown was used for the seat, boots, gloves and cap, aluminum was used for the central beam on the cockpit floor, goggles and tubing fur the oxygen mask. Matte Black was used for the oxygen mask, instrument panel and head rest. Khaki Brown was used for the pilot's overalls, and Light Olive Drab for the collar and harness.

cockpit interior assembled

    Fast forward and I've glued together the cockpit components and pilot. And honestly, I think it looks a lot better than the first time around. At least in my opinion. Let me know your thoughts in the comments bellow.

aircraft ready for priming

    Another fast forward and the model is ready to be primed. Note that I didn't use any filler this time around. I just couldn't bother. And this will become a theme of sorts throughout this second build.

priming done

external tanks

top side of the model

rudder painted and masked off

propeller primed, tips painted and masked off

    Given that this was the first time I've used an airbrush the primer came out really good. I was happy. There are a few mistakes here and there. Sometimes I held the airbrush too close and the paint started to pool. But overall I was happy. But things are about to change.

basecoat applied

bits and bobs painted

fuel tanks painted

    Applying the basecoat was a nightmare. Whilst I do like the result. I had to deep clean my airbrush about three or four times. No matter how I thinned the paint, it would eventually turn into jelly (and not the kind you'd want to spread on your toast) and clog up the airbrush. And this is something I'm struggling with to this very day. Despite Revell claiming that their paints are airbrush ready. I just can't get them to behave. But that's for another story.

finished painting the model

tail is wonky but I couldn't be bothered to fix it

worst invasion stripes ever

side-by-side comparison

another comparison

    After a few more airbrush cleaning sessions, I was finally able to coat the entire model. And despite the hiccups, I think we can all agree that the result is a lot better than on my hand painted model. It's even more obvious in the side-by-side comparisons. Now, admittedly the stripes, especially on the right hand side are terrible and I could have fixed them but I didn't bother. The main aim of this second build was to learn to use an airbrush. Not to build a competition level model.

    

finished model

rear view

front view

external tank closeup

tail section

left - airbrushed model, right hand painted model

left - airbrushed model, right hand painted model

left - airbrushed model, right hand painted model

"Cookie"

    And with that, it's done. It was painful. From the poor quality of the kit. To all the struggles I had with airbrushing the second model I almost felt like dropping the hobby again, for good. This was not the level of challenge I wanted after my long hiatus. But I slogged through. And I feel like I'm, even if ever so slightly, a better modeler for pushing through these two builds.

Conclusion

    The tone in this article has taken a downward spiral. I know. Even though a few years have passed since I built these. As I was looking through the photos and writing this article the memories came back in droves. My disappointment with the quality of the kit. My struggles with trying to get Revell's paints to behave.

    As mentioned early in this post, this kit was released back in 2010. To my knowledge, Revell have released a brand new tooling for the P-51D just a few years prior. And that's what I expected to find. A mid 2000s tooling. But that wasn't the case. This is a re-box of a much, much older tooling. How old you ask? Well, I'll tell you. This is a re-box of the 1963 Airyda/Monogram tooling (this is not mentioned anywhere on the box, because why would they...). And it shows. From the poor fitment, massive gaps, questionable shapes, and oh so much more. I don't understand why Revell chose to do this but they did.

    I hate beating a dead horse. But for all of Revell's occasional sparks of brilliance, and there are quite a few. I have models in my current stash and models I built in the past that have their merits. Re-boxing a model as old as this and making no mention of it. In my opinion is a bad decision. Whilst I soldiered through this. But for someone who has never built a single model in their life and picked up this kit as their first project would most definitely be put off by the hobby. And that's a big no-no in my book.

Final thoughts

    Whilst I'm sure a more seasoned and skilled modeler, would have been able to turn this into a show piece. Or at least something close to it. That was not what I was looking for. As mentioned so many times throughout this article. I was looking for a simple build to get me back into the hobby. Unfortunately it almost turned me away. Almost.

    So, do I recommend this kit? If you are a seasoned veteran, you like a challenge and love torturing yourself, by all means, go ahead. However, if you are an absolute beginner, I would steer way clear of this. And if you just so happen to already have it. Put it aside, do some research, find out what others say would be a beginner friendly build and start from there. Build up a portfolio and once you feel confident you can come back to this kit.

    As for me. I'm going to turn both of these models into my paint mules. In my eyes that's are their really good for. Thankfully I do have a Tamyia P-51D and I'm certain that will be a much more pleasant build.

    I know this article has been going on for probably far longer than it needed to. The tone has turned more negative, for which I do apologize. I felt like I had to get this stone off my chest. I promise I will try to be more cheerful in future posts.

    If you liked this article, consider subscribing so you get notified of future posts. And leave your thoughts down in the comments bellow. Stay tunned as next time I will be revisiting an old friend. Till then. Have a nice day and happy modeling everyone. Cheers!