Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Important news regarding 1/32 P-51 Cockpit sidewall set

BR32012 P-51 Mustang Cockpit Sidewall set.


Hi Guys.


It has come to my attention in the last few days that the installation instructions for the above mentioned BarracudaCast set are missing an important assembly note.


The kit cockpit floor needs to be slightly modified to fit to the new resin starboard sidewall properly. Without the modification, the fuselage sidewalls will be spread too wide, leading to problems when installing the wings.


The above image shows the extent of the modification to the kit floor.

The modification is quite simple and can be done with side cutters and a sanding stick in about 3-5 minutes. Just test fit the sidewall as you go, when the ribs on the sidewall meet with the bottom of the slots in the floor, you are done. You might want to slightly bevel the edge by scraping with a hobby knife to impart a slight radius to the top edge. Easy peasy.

The rest of the installation then follows the installation instructions for the Barracuda sidewalls and then back to Tamiya's kit instructions.

This view shows the modification complete and the two parts assembled.

What to do if you already have the fuselage assembled

If you have already past this point, do not panic. With some careful work, you can fix the resultant fit problem. Carefully mask off and cut along the line shown in the figure below. This may take a few minutes. Work carefully and slowly. When you get close to cutting through, you may wish to switch to a hobby knife and carefully score repeatedly until you just break through. Carefully break free the purple section and gently carve away any excess plastic until the ribs on the sidewall fit all the way into the slots on the kit floor.


You can download the complete instructions, including the addendum on the Barracuda Studios website. The link can be found on the P-51 Cockpit Sidewall product page, near the bottom of the page.


We pride ourselves on producing parts that fit, and we hope that this correction will allow anyone who has already assembled the fuselage to get the build back on track so that you can enjoy the superb engineering of Tamiya's gorgeous P-51D Mustang. For those of you who haven't started yet... what are you waiting for?

Happy modelling!  Roy




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