P-51B model error

[oboe]

I'm working on a skin for the P-51B and noticed my invasion stripes weren't lining up correctly with the gun barrel ports in the leading edge of the wing, when it dawned on me - our '51B has the wrong pair of wing guns deleted from the P-51D wing.   The '51B has the outer pair of wing guns in each wing, when it should instead have the inner pair.

The wing tank/bomb hardpoint should be well outside the gun barrels, but instead it sort of sits under the wing between them.   

I don't recall if anyone brought this up way back when the '51B came out; but maybe by calling attention to it again, this error can be fixed whenever the P-51s are re-modelled.

[Vraciu]

Yeah, you have to do some goofy things to line up the stripes.  It still doesn't work 100%.   Offset the strip on top board from the leading edge aft about seven or maybe ten pixels.  You use a variation of this for the bottom.

I will post some screenshots. 

Another bug is you can see the wing on the opposite side when looking through the fuselage/glareshield junction. 

[Guppy35]

51B wing was not identical to the D wing at the wing root and elsewhere.  The gun bays would not line up regardless I don't believe.

[Vraciu]

Yeah, you have to do some goofy things to line up the stripes.  It still doesn't work 100%.   Offset the stripe on top inboard one pixel-- from the leading edge aft about seven or maybe ten pixels.  You use a variation of this for the bottom.

I will post some screenshots. 

Another bug is you can see the wing on the opposite side when looking through the fuselage/glareshield junction.

Fixed.

[drgondog]

51B wing was not identical to the D wing at the wing root and elsewhere.  The gun bays would not line up regardless I don't believe.

The wing structure of B was Exactly the same as the D save the LE extension and Root Chord.  The P-51B/C positioned two 50's between landing gear and bomb rack. The P-51D/K had the same two 50's between bomb rack and gear plus one just outboard of the bomb rack.

Same airfoil, same span, same Mean Aero Chord, etc - no change required to mount the guns vertically instead of angled. The same wing that mounted 2xHispano II 20mm in the Mustang IA/P-51 went to A-36 (mod for bomb rack and replace 20mm w/50 cal), P-51A (same as A-36, but no dive brake), P-51B/C (same as A), P-51D/K (same as Mustang I, IA, P-51, A-36 and P-51A/B/C except for adding one more 50 cal and greater ammo capacity). Landing lights and pitot tube and aileron mods differed but airfoil, span, rib locations, spar location, flaps - remained the same. The new LE introduced a secondary spar as well as landing gear uplock and door changes but did not change the wing.
 

[oboe]

The wing structure of B was Exactly the same as the D save the LE extension and Root Chord.  The P-51B/C positioned two 50's between landing gear and bomb rack. The P-51D/K had the same two 50's between bomb rack and gear plus one just outboard of the bomb rack.

Here's an image showing the discrepancy:


If the line drawings are accurate, it looks like there was greater spacing between the guns in the '51B's gun bay.  The D has 3 guns fit into the same size bay, resulting in closer spacing between the barrels.  I think HTC simply deleted the inboard guns to create the 4 gun B from the D's wing.

I also recall the orientation of the guns were changed, to address some belt feed problem caused by G forces when manuevering?

[Vraciu]

It's one of several P-51B model quirks.   The top cowling line makes an S turn by the windscreen.   

There are some other problems with it like the left wing root fairing--the vertical line moves a pixel aft then forward again.   

You can see through the fuselage by the canopy frame.   

The horizontal stab fairing distorts near the rudder.   

The wing root has a glossy silver/white section at the leading edge that you can't tame.

The wing leading edge shines no matter what paint or specularity you use.

The invasion stripes won't wrap around in a straight line no matter how hard you try.   All you can do is camouflage it with a fading gray line. 

Still, I enjoyed working on it.   Learned a lot. 

[oboe]

Yes that S turn is wild - I tried counteracting it, but it turns into a real mess.  Best left alone, that one.

The scale of the horizontal stabs is different than the scale of the wings and fuselage.  A 1 px rivet is larger on the stab than it is on the wing or fuselage.  It's much worse on the P-38's tail though.

[Guppy35]

The wing structure of B was Exactly the same as the D save the LE extension and Root Chord.  The P-51B/C positioned two 50's between landing gear and bomb rack. The P-51D/K had the same two 50's between bomb rack and gear plus one just outboard of the bomb rack.

Same airfoil, same span, same Mean Aero Chord, etc - no change required to mount the guns vertically instead of angled. The same wing that mounted 2xHispano II 20mm in the Mustang IA/P-51 went to A-36 (mod for bomb rack and replace 20mm w/50 cal), P-51A (same as A-36, but no dive brake), P-51B/C (same as A), P-51D/K (same as Mustang I, IA, P-51, A-36 and P-51A/B/C except for adding one more 50 cal and greater ammo capacity). Landing lights and pitot tube and aileron mods differed but airfoil, span, rib locations, spar location, flaps - remained the same. The new LE introduced a secondary spar as well as landing gear uplock and door changes but did not change the wing.

Referring to the shape.

[drgondog]

The plan view shape was different for the strake, different due to the Root Chord increase sweeping from Root to Sta 61.