Pure art: 1/10 scale LEGOP-51 D Mustang

Remember the LEGO Phantom and the Tomcat? From the same creator that brought you those insanely accurate creations comes the Mustang!

Crash_cramer needs no introduction, neither his creations. One thing is for sure and is the fact that they do not fail to amaze even the most purist of the scale modelers around.

The following lines are an extract of his Flickr album description.

"Here is my 1/10 scale LEGO P-51 D Mustang. It has been a very long (about 2 years) and sometimes frustrating road to completion but finally it is just about ready for public consumption...

It is 98cm long with a wingspan of 113cm. It has functioning control surfaces and a sliding canopy plus scale internal details like a Packard Merlin engine, fuel tank, oxygen tanks, radiator and detailed cockpit.

The model was designed to be as scale as possible both internally and externally including the internal fuselage structure itself. The fuselage strength is achieved through a combination of a technic frame and 8x16 tiles for the skin which provide the rigidity. The Technic frame was made out of lime green to replicate the zinc chromate primer often used for internal structures on US WW2 aircraft.

The use of a bespoke canopy and windshield will no doubt divide opinion but due to the construction and aesthetic issues posed by the bubble canopy I decided to use a vac-formed one. I incorporated some Lego fittings to both parts so that they attach by stud joins.

For the chrome, all studded pieces were purchased from Bricklink sellers. All non studded bricks were chromed by me with sticky backed chrome vinyl material. Each Lego piece was individually covered. It took months and a lot of scalpel blades but was the only affordable way I could chrome the finished model entirely. There are a handful of painted pieces, the wheel hubs and the exhausts due to original part color constraints.

I re-created the markings using vinyl and dry rub transfers (for the kill markings I swapped out swastikas for crosses). The paint scheme depicts one of the planes flown by Claiborne Kinnard Jr. whilst Officer Commander of the 355th Fighter Group in early 1945. The display base is supposed to look a bit like PSP, Pierced Steel Planking (or Marsden Matting), used heavily at UK airbases during WW2.

There are still a few small bits I’d like to do like detailing the engine bay so I will update photos as and when complete. I have also got some WIP shots that I will upload in the near future.

Thanks for looking!"

More pictures below!