Tamiya's 1/48 Mustang is great. Let's make it better.

1. SCRATCHBUILDING | Replacing the
Blast Tubes on a 1/48 Tamiya P-51D Mustang
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2. Tamiya’s 1/48 P-51D Mustang is a great kit that literally falls together
and can be found for pretty cheap these days. Overall, the detail’s quite
good, but the kit’s blast tubes are absolute crap.
CRAP
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3. Let’s fix that.
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4. Step 1: Cut & Drill
After taping the wings
together, cut off the kit’s
sorry excuses for blast
tubes.
Then drill out the gun
fairings. You may want to
use a pin or old airbrush
needle to punch a small
starter hole.
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5. Step 2: Outer Tubes
Cut 6 lengths of brass tubing. I
used Albion Alloys 1.0mm/
0.8mm inner/outer diameter
tubing.
Test to make sure the tubing
slides in place. Drill your holes
out slightly if necessary, and
remember, it’s always easier to
start small and make the hole
bigger.
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6. Step 3: Lock and Load
Once the outer tube is test-
fitted, go ahead and glue the
wings together. Then cut four
lengths of slightly smaller
tubing. I used Albion’s slide-fit
0.8mm outer/0.6mm inner
tubing.
Glue the inner tubing into the
outer, then the whole thing into
the wing. Note that the inner
blast tube does not have a
protruding barrel and thus does
not need the .08mm tubing.
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7. That’s all there is to it! A quick fix
to sprue up one of the few areas
where Tamiya’s 1/48 P-51 leaves
something to be desired!
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