Scale aviation modeller international

However, 19 and 20 are the same part

(the “long side” of the gear bay) but

for opposite wings! The same is true

for 13 and 14. It took some mixing

and matching for me to get the parts

right, and to match the contours

of the bay walls with those of the

wings. Once I figured it out, though,

the fit of the bays was passable.

One of the M.B.6’s more

prominent features is the very

Mustang-like underbody radiator

intake. Most of this is moulded into

the fuselage halves. However, there

is a small portion that has to be built

to go onto this. The reason is that the

intake has a cross-shaped splitter

in the middle of it, and this has to

be put into the intake extension,

and then the completed assembly

gets attached in place. There are

several problems with this, though.

First, the parts for the intake

extension aren’t very precise, and

getting them to fit together isn’t

easy. Also, the cross was hard to fit;

it was just ever-a-bit small that it

wanted to keep falling out. Second,

the fit of the intake extension isn’t

very good, and I worried about the

cross getting knocked out during

building and painting. Third, the

actual intake trunk doesn’t contain

any radiator detail, so that when you

look into it, you can see the inside of

the plane. To solve the second and

third issues, I decided to glue the

intake extension to a piece of thin

styrene, and then glue that entire

assembly onto the underbelly scoop.

This provides support for the cross

and blocks the view into the aircraft.

The tailplanes actually have

proper locating tabs, and they fit in

very nicely. The vertical fin, though,

does not. Getting it on, adjusted

properly, and sitting vertically is

another piece of work for the good

old “calibrated Mk. 1 eyeball”.

The rudder itself, too, has two

pieces. There’s the main vertical tail

with the bulk of the rudder attached,

and then there’s a small piece that

fits to the bottom. “Why?” you ask.

The answer is because there are

two rudder variants for the M.B.6;

one is conventional, and the other

is equipped with an arrestor hook.

Yes, you could, if you wanted, make

a naval variant of this plane!

The wing tanks fit together

quite well, but they don’t fit onto

the wings as nicely. Well, one did,

but there was an issue with the

other. The shape and size of the

cut-out on the inside of the tank

just didn’t match the wing, so there

was some sanding and carving

that had to be done. With a bit of

work it all fits together nicely.

The fuselage, however, did not

fit together nicely. There was a lot

of need for putty, then some more

putty. The seams weren’t a good

match, and there was significant

“V”ing near the centreline. By this,

I mean that the two halves tucked

in at the joint, so to make them

look right a lot of putty is needed

to build up the seam to the proper

curvature. For this, I used acetone-

thinned Tamiya grey putty.

Once this was sanded (after

several applications) I applied my

trademark coat of Model Master

Acrylic (MMA) Flat White. I find

this paint is excellent top-coat

filler. It dries hard, sands well,

doesn’t shrink and is chemically

neutral. It allows for very fine

feathering-in of putty, and gets

into small cracks easily.

For the larger gap between the

rudder and the fuselage on the

starboard side of the plane, I used

Perfect Plastic Putty, laid in place

with a wetted Tamiya Craft Swab.

This worked great, and no sanding

was needed at all! This is the first

time I’ve used Perfect Plastic Putty,

and I was very impressed. It’s not

great for large seam filling, since

it melts under wet/dry sanding (as

I found out later), but it is literally

perfect for application into areas

that are hard to reach and that

you won’t be sanding later.

The most disappointing, almost

amateurish, aspect of the kit was

the propeller moulding. The worst

offender was the front-most prop,

but both were very poorly formed,

and there were gigantic blocks of

plastic at the base of each blade.

They reminded me of resin pour

blocks! They had to be carefully

cut away and sanded down, so that

the blade-shape was maintained

from tip to spinner. The props are

relatively delicate, too, so this

required lots of time and patience.

I’ve seen much older kits (like Farpro

Japan kits from the 1960s) that have

better-moulded props than this!

PAINTING

The entire plane was primed with

Rustoleum grey primer from the

local hardware store. This is really

good primer, as it dries fast and is

quite hard. It’s also very dark grey,

so it hides all the putty and white

paint very well. I gave the kit a light

sanding and found a few more areas

that needed another dose of MMA

Flat White. Once this was done those

areas were re-primed and all was

in readiness for final painting.

I painted the gear bays in the

same RAF Interior Green as the

cockpit, and gave them a similar

Nuln Oil wash. I then used Silly

Putty to mask them off. At this

point, it was necessary to decide

on a particular scheme. I liked

all three of the ones on the box,

but I had another idea in mind.

The Dominican Republic air force

• the Fuerza Aérea de Republica
  Dominicana (FAD) – used the P-51D
  Mustang right up into the 1980s.
  By this point, they were clearly the
  last operational Mustangs in the
  world, and some were modified
  by Cavalier. One type of Cavalier
  Mustang (the Cavalier Mustang II)
  had tip tanks, similar to the M.B.6.

This got my wheels turning.

If the M.B.6 had been made,

there’s no reason that it couldn’t

have been purchased for post-war

use by those who otherwise used

the Mustang. In fact, the M.B.6

would likely have been more useful

than the Mustang to some of these

smaller air forces, since the second

seat and 20mm cannons would have

been a bigger asset on counter-

insurgency (COIN) operations than

one pilot and some .50 cals. While

I’ve not seen pictures of Dominican

Mustangs with tip tanks, I was sure

the extra fuel would not have gone

amiss. Therefore, I decided to paint

my M.B.6 up as if it had been used

by the FAD instead of the Mustang!

I was helped in this “whiffing

of a whiffed whif” by Airfix, and its

astoundingly nice 1/72 F-51D. This

beautiful kit comes, amazingly,

with FAD decals and underwing

ordnance. I opted to use the bombs

and their associated pylons to give

the M.B.6 some extra COIN bite.

To my horror, however, the

bombs from the Mustang were

gone! I then remembered my

brother had used them for his

Canadian Skyraider. So I dug

up some small bombs from the

excellent Italeri B-26 Counter

Invader kit and made sure they fit

on the pylons, which they did.

The Airfix paint plan for the

FAD plane shows a white underside.

Some photos I’ve seen make it look

light grey, while some profiles

make it look a bit darker than light

grey. I went with my favourite old

standby, MMA Light Ghost Grey. I

airbrushed the underside and once

it was dry I masked it with wavily-

cut Tamiya Tape. But I used a bit of

normal paper to mask the bulk of

the underbelly, no sense wasting

expensive tape if you don’t have to!

For the topside, I decided to use

MMA Dark Tan and Dark Green.

FAD camouflage is very strange,

and there are multiple different

patterns that can be used. I decided

to hard-mask it with Tamiya Tape,

60 • JULY 2018 • SCALE AVIATION MODELLER INTERNATIONAL

KIT REVIEWS

054-61-Reviews-0718.indd 60 11/06/2018 13:58