DONE @p.4: 1:72 Reims Aviation MH.352 "Bastang II", Rhodesian Air Force, 1972

[Dizzyfugu]

Well, it's early and there's nothing visual to post yet, but work has already started and Tophe's Mustang creations seem to find much popularity among this GB? My first entry has been inspired by an idea from 2016 - the "Bastang", actually a mono-fuselage P-82, powered by a pair of Bastan turboprops on the wings:



Original post here: https://www.whatifmodellers.com/index.php?topic=4461.msg737504#msg737504

However, that would be too simple...  I considered this build, based on a standard P-51, but then thought "well, instead of just adding two engines to the wings, let's make a serious change." The result will be the "Bastang II" - again a Mustang with two Bastan-like engines, but with a tricycle landing gear, a bigger cockpit for a crew of two or three, and maybe other things. This concept was also influenced by the real world French call for an "Overseas support aircraft" in 1954, which resulted in a lot of ideas and prototypes, but eventually led to the procurement of T-28s and A-1s in 1960. The Bastang II will be a derivative from this competition, sold elsewhere in the world (tbd).

This will be a messy one! 

[Tophe]

Good! Thanks to enrich still further the Mustang family!

[Dizzyfugu]

Yes, and this build will add another twist to it! I am curious how much Mustang-ness will actually remain! 

[Tophe]

We will see, yes.
When it is finished, please add a profile photograph to ease my drawing (to add in my colourless collection).

[Dizzyfugu]

I'll try to, even though taking pics from the side is not easy, due to perspective distortions (fish eye effect). But that's earmarked. 

[Dizzyfugu]

Progress is slow, since tons of PSR is involved. It's like building a P-51, but almost no part of the kit ends up where it's supposed to be, and there are exotic extras to be grafted onto the model. These include 1:144 engines for/from a Tu-95(!) or a canopy part from an 1:72 Buccaneer. The wings were extended (Kit will most probably like to hear that  ) and will receive tip tanks, and they have to be move backwards. A new nose with a front wheel well has to be scratched and the windshield has also been moved forward in order to make space for the bigger cockpit (I hope for 3 seats) and give the pilot a better field of view. And I am still not certain what eventually will come out...!  At the moment the thing appears to me like a crossbreed between an Grumman F7F and a Shorts Tucano! 

I am also still uncertain about the operator. I want a small country and at the moment Guatemala, Uruguay, Ceylon and (Southern) Rhodesia are some favorites.


1:72 Reims Aviation MH.352 "Bastang II" (Whif/modified Italeri P-51D) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:72 Reims Aviation MH.352 "Bastang II" (Whif/modified Italeri P-51D) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:72 Reims Aviation MH.352 "Bastang II" (Whif/modified Italeri P-51D) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:72 Reims Aviation MH.352 "Bastang II" (Whif/modified Italeri P-51D) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

[Tophe]

What you say seems to mean this will be a very distant derivative of the Mustang family… This is creative, nice!

[PR19_Kit]

The wings were extended (Kit will most probably like to hear that  ) and will receive tip tanks

Yeeeeeaaaaaaaah! 

[Dizzyfugu]

What you say seems to mean this will be a very distant derivative of the Mustang family… This is creative, nice!

Yes, it's a Mustang - but not as we know it...

[kitbasher]

So if a P/F-82 had two engines and so has this, is this more correctly a twin-engined F-51H?

[Tophe]

Uh, the P-82 is much longer than the P-51H, it was just for marketing reasons that the P-82 was pretended to be a twin-P-51H ("buy it: no risk!").
Ahem, but I don't want to say: this is not a P-51 with 2 engines instead of 1, so this is a P-82 with 2 engines, falling outside of this group, no… According to me, there was somewhere a project of half-P82 with single-fuselage single engine, not built. And here, this is a what-if version of this one with 2 lateral engines instead of 1 central. Does this sound OK? 

[PR19_Kit]

… According to me, there was somewhere a project of half-P82 with single-fuselage single engine, not built.

At least one model like this has been built, it appears on the UK SIG stand at shows sometimes.

[Dizzyfugu]

Marriage of wings and fuselage this morning. Looks odd, but seems to work. The nose has also been sculpted from scratch, with a well for the front wheel and lost of lead hidden inside.


1:72 Reims Aviation MH.352 "Bastang II" (Whif/modified Italeri P-51D) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:72 Reims Aviation MH.352 "Bastang II" (Whif/modified Italeri P-51D) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr


Work on the enlarged cockpit also made progress: I found a leftover piece from a Matchbox Buccaneer canopy that almost perfectly matches the P-51 windshield. I order to make place for the longer canopy, the windshield was moved forward by 5mm, and I have to create a rear fairing for the higher canopy - now the whole affair reminds of the P-51B/Cs' spine?


1:72 Reims Aviation MH.352 "Bastang II" (Whif/modified Italeri P-51D) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:72 Reims Aviation MH.352 "Bastang II" (Whif/modified Italeri P-51D) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:72 Reims Aviation MH.352 "Bastang II" (Whif/modified Italeri P-51D) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr


I also start to favor a late Rhodesian livery from the Seventies, with a rather simple wraparound scheme in Dark Green/Dark Earth and all-brown(!) undersides:

[Dizzyfugu]

Not much progress here due to a busy and then sick weekend. However, wings and engine nacelles are in place and any remaining hull gap has been filled, even though there is still a lot of PSR coming along.

Looks like an aircraft, though. 

[Tophe]

I wish you recovery and good health. This coming model is very interesting but there is no hurry...