Spinner
The spinner has an “empty” back and not knowing for sure how snug a fit this will be to the fuselage, I opt for filling in the rear with plasticard, just in case.
Once dry, the excess card is trimmed away with a knife, and then sanded down flush. The spinner has a panel line which needs to be re-scribed. For this I will use my favourite Pactra tape as a scribing guide.
Underside detail
In between the main intake and radiator outlet is the oil radiator outlet door and chute. This photo of a real P-51 shows the area in question quite clearly.
Of course, Dragon’s effort to reproduce this area is fairly average and I now decided to see if I can improve on it. The first thing to go is the ramp and this is easily removed with a sharp blade.
Some Evergreen plasticard is used to box in the sides of the outlet ramp. The bottom of the ramp is a bit trickier due to the curved shape. I used some “French Curves” drawing templates as a cutting guide to get the right shape for the ramp floor.
The ramp construction is complete with some minor work to be done to the door sides. This is a great improvement over the kit and worth the extra effort.
Wing-to-fuselage join
Before commencing the scribing work on the wing, I checked (and corrected) the fit of the fuselage to wing join. Several braces were used within the fuselage to spread it to meet up with the wings to minimise the gap.