PolarBear asked if we'd begun, and coincidentally tonight is the night I chose to quit looking at the parts and commence. I did do a little on the engine over the weekend, but I figure once you butcher a perfectly good kit, there's no turning back. I feel confident the hardest part is over now.

that's an ambitious start!

I'll be a few weeks behind due to the cast on my left hand, though i am actually getting enough mobility to do light modelling again, so perhaps I can start on the cockpit soon...

Wow! Looks like your off to a great start, 18Bravo. How big is that!!! :-)

Vance wrote:

light modelling? As supposed to heavy duty modelling?

Cheers!

light modelling as in anything where i don't have to turn my wrist while holding something - which makes gluing large components (fuselage and wing halves for example) together really tricky! assembling little things is doable now though, but painting them is tricky - and the cast is really good at breaking things off of whatever bit I'm trying to hold in that hand.

The rudder is over 3 inches (75mm) tall. It's both a blessing and a curse. Nice large pieces for my aging eyes, but then there's also no excuse for missing detail, as even the smallest ones should be doable.

As for the rest of the build, we know AAA took this plane out, but I'm at a loss as to how the damage was so extensive on the rudder, and relatively light everywhere else. Maybe they didn't find the wreck for a few years?
At any rate, I've only got to do a little more light damage that can be seen in the photographs. From what I've read, the Mustang was very susceptible to ground fire due to the radiator location, so I'll go with that scenario being the cause.