Tourist

The Arma P-51Bs are little gems and your builds are out of this world! Beautiful Mustangs!

Astounding! Your builds are out of this world, a pleasure to follow.

What Dana means is that the aluminum parts weren't painted, they were actual aluminum with no finish. The RAF used to paint their Mustang's wheel bays (at least on the early Allisons) with an aluminum lacquer but that's about it. WWII USAAF Mustang had unpainted wheel bays which means natural aluminum with some primer applied to some parts according to the finish specs in order to limit corrosion. The later production blocks had more primed parts but still no painted wheel bays. A few photos show painted bays (one actually showing aluminum lacquer) but these were exceptions seen on individual planes. Post war the wheel bays were sometimes painted during reparations or overhauls.

Nice work on your build! A few days ago someone asked me about the finish in the wheel wells for the P-51D-10, since it's the same as the P-51D-5 here's what I answered: "P-51D-10-NAs like all the earlier production blocks had less anti corrosion protection than later blocks. - Main wheel wells. Based on photos I have seen the main spar had a coat of YZC, the "roof" was left aluminum with YZC stringers, the front spar was also left aluminum with only the most inner part (through which the coolant lines pass) finished in YZC. The ribs were left aluminum. Various braces on the YZC finished parts were finished with tinted (green) ZC. The separation wall between the wells was YZC with the small vertical braces being green ZC. - Engine. The bearers were interior green. The firewall could be interior green or YZC, the oil tank was YZC or left aluminum, the header tank was YZC or aluminum. The frame onto which the cowlings attach were left bare metal. -Tail wheel bay. Like the main wheel wells it was mostly left bare aluminum, the various braces were YZC. Feel free to play with these, there was no exact recipe and details changed all the time as long as the basic principles of (minimal) anti corrosion were followed."

Radios were the same on P-51D/Ks and Mk.IVs. Only the harness was different and in some cases the louvered carb air intake doors and/or the gunsights. All the NAA built P-51D/Ks had a fuselage fuel cell. Only the CAC built Mk.20s (CA-17) had, originally, no fuselage fuel cells in order to accommodate the SCR-695 IFF set. I do not know how long this lasted (time to reread Southern Cross Mustangs) but pictures show that the CA-17s eventually got the fuselage fuel tanks. NAA and CAC quickly realized that it was possible to move the battery behind the engine, clearing the room for the IFF receiver, behind the radio, on top of the fuel tank.

Superb build and finish! 👍

I saw that this thread was mentioned on another forum. It seems like a good time to update some of my previous comments: - The DFF was not added during production on P-51D-5-NA 44-13902 but appeared with the P-51D-10-NA block and was retrofitted to some D-5s. The straight DFF did not first start with the D-20 block but very late during the D-15 (and K-15) blocks, possibly the last 5 or 10 aircraft for each. - The armor plate was indeed mounted 2 1/4 inches lower before the P-51D-20 but the headrest cushion was not placed higher as I mentioned in 2011, the whole thing moved higher not allowing for the canopy to be fully opened. No decals on the front of the armor plate (on each sides of the seat) for the early, lower armor plate. On the early P-51D-5-NAs (possibly the first 250 ships) the top part of the armor plate was shorter allowing the cushion mounting plates to protrude on top, this gave the whole thing a rounder look. - While both seats were interchangeable and randomly installed, the Shick-Johnson seat seems to have first appeared during the P-51D-15-NA production and was probably the most common seat on the last blocks (D-25 and 30s). For those specifically interested in the P-51D-5 check the following thread out, it should give you pretty much all the info you need: https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/hyperscale/eduards-p-51d-5-with-fin-filet-what-differences-ar-t506831.html

No pics here! 😥

Merci pour le lien Olivier. J'ai passé un trés bel été a St. Raphael, il y a bien longtemps... Je suis un expat depuis 26 ans, NY puis Chicago.

Bravo Olivier! C'est un superbe montage, mené avec tenacité, virtuosité et modestie (un joli mélange). Tu mérites bien de profiter de l'été a St Raphael...

In my opinion the Vector set is the best option.

Thank you Laurent and John, that's what I meant.

Trés beau travail Olivier. If I may as well:

I'm sure it will look fine with the belts on. BTW I was the one who wrote the bit about the wheel wells finish you posted on LSP.

Hi Matt, great start on your build! To be clear, the 2 stage curve variation is just a theory of mine and needs to be verified. There are very few period pictures showing the seat pan so I also look at surviving Mustangs and restorations (which are not always good sources for historical accuracy).

Bonjour Laurent, your original post on the SIG was indeed what made me aware of the need for a curved seat bucket on P-51D's. I also thought the cockpit photos showed 43-12102 because of the gunsight but on the 2nd picture I think I see what looks like P-51D gun ports. If correct that would mean a lot more modifications than what was done to 43-12102, leaving 42-106539 or 540 as the best possibility. I agree about the SJ seat starting during the D-15 production, it is visible on captain Roscoe Brown's "Bunny" (44-15569) and a few others.

Hi John, it's been a while. Very interesting stuff as always. I would disagree with you on one point though; I believe the front of the WMA seat pan was curved with the very first P-51D-5. The evolution of the cockpit between P-51B's and P-51D's slightly altered the distance between the control column and the seat which is what prompted a curved seat pan. A straight pan would likely prevent the stick from moving freely in a P-51D. Photos seem to a show at first a relatively faint curve on WMA seats which became more accentuated in later blocks. I think the photos you posted show a P-51B cockpit modified as a P-51D, look at the unpainted non standard parts above the longeron, the dual SCR-274 and SCR-522 controls, the P-51B bomb release handle, the odd gunsight etc... This is not a P-51D-5 but a prototype, that is why in my opinion the seat pan is still straight. I originally thought it was 43-12102 but it could also be 42-106539 or '540. I've seen SJ seats on photos as early a the P-51D-15NA.

It looks great. The picture with wheel/engine combo is not a CAD but an actual photo.

Thank you Seawinder for posting some of my previous comments about the wheel wells finish but new information has come up since I wrote them. From the very beginning Mustangs wheel wells were a mix of Yellow Zinc Chromate, tinted/Green ZC, Interior Green, Dull Dark Green and unfinished (Aluminum) parts. From Allison Mustangs to F-82's the evidence (factory and field pictures, finish specs, T.O.'s, footage etc...) shows that Mustangs didn't usually get a single unified color finish in the wheel wells. I do not include Commonwealth Allisons in this list as it seems the RAF repainted the wells in silver, Colin Ford or others can probably tell us more. Throughout the Mustang production the main spar was finished with YZC or IG, the ribs could also be YZC or left unpainted, the separation wall between the two wells was often IG or unpainted, the wing skin forming the ceiling were YZC or unpainted, the stringers were often YZC, some small bracket were GZC or DDG etc... Basically it is not simple, all of this evolved and these colors could "move around" between the various parts of the wells. As long as minimum anti-corrosion guidelines were (somewhat) followed it didn't matter much what color went were, it seems to have been a matter of production convenience. It is important to note that as production advanced so would the amount of protective colors in the wheel wells, a P-51D-5 had a lot more unfinished parts than a P-51D-30. To complicate things even more the wells were finished asymmetrically starting (possibly) with the P-51D-20NA. In conclusion, a single unified color finish in the wells is mostly a post war thing though it is possible that the last block(s) of Dallas built P-51D's had a full coat of YZC in the wells. Also, one or two period pictures seem to show a full silver finish in a P-51K-5, did some of these earlier blocks receive this finish? Was this specific aircraft repainted for some reason? Clearly some questions remain unanswered but that the gist of the current thinking on Mustang wheel wells. The cockpit was of course painted IG as indicated by Tamiya.

No, the Tamiya kit is better in every way. The two kits are not even in the same league. You can build a very accurate Tamiya P-51D out of the box, the Z-M kit will require extra work and the result won't come close. Don't let guys like Benolkin spread the false impression that the two kits are equal, or, as he believes, that the Z-M kit is better.

With all due respect, Mr. Benolkin doesn't know anything about Mustangs. Here's what I wrote on Hyperscale on this subject: "The bottom line is simple; The Tamiya kit is better in every important way: - It is more accurate in shape and details. - It offers unique options allowing the modeler to build different production blocks, thus making it historically more accurate. - The molding is just better and the fit is great. - In the US it can be purchased for cheaper than the Z-M kit. The Zoukei-Mura kit is a good Mustang kit, it's just way, way, way behind the Tamiya kit, their research just doesn't compare. It will also require some corrections in and out. In the end, the best thing about the Z-M kit isn't the much talked about internal details, they are inaccurate, it is simply that it looks good when buttoned up. That's why I ordered one (no more after that). Beyond that it's a matter of taste."

Lovely work, I'm looking forward to more pictures. I'm sorry I wasn't notified of your last PM (unlike the previous ones), here's what you were looking for: It is easier for me if you ask questions on the boards.

This should help:

I received my Tamiya 1/32 P-51D mustang kit a few days ago. Here are some thoughts after spending "An Evening with the Kit"! Once more Tamiya has produced a very well designed and engineered kit. I think I'll start with the obvious conclusion and then expand a little on the things they missed for those interested. As could be expected after their great Zero and Spitfire kits they came up with the best Mustang kit in any scale. The kit is fairly complex, extremely detailed and more importantly truly capture the essence of the P-51D. The shape compares really well to pictures and Charles Neely's drawings and passes the eyeball test under any angle with flying colors. Tamiya offers three canopies, a Dallas (part P1), a -2 (part M1) and a-6 (partN1), it is an almost impossible part to measure properly but after comparing them to drawings and pictures I am confident they look the part, including the different cross sections. All the kit's parts are very well molded with sharp and well detailed features and the surface detail is exceptionally fine and restrained. If you hold a part just in front of you the rivets will only be visible if you happen to catch the light properly, this greatly contributes to the scale effect, so do the thin trailing edges of the control surfaces. Based on previous Tamiya kits and the first comments from those who already started building it, the fit is (unsurprisingly) excellent. Tamiya went further with this Mustang kit than any other injection kit manufacturer before (themselves included) in trying to represent the evolution of the P-51D through its six generations with many extra parts for different options. The complete list of options has been published many times and can be seen on the Tamiya website. In theory this one box should allow you to build any P-51D (D-5 through D-30) built in Inglewood or Dallas. In theory only, as a few things are missing or have been missed, thankfully it is nothing that diminishes the extraordinary quality of this kit but some modelers may want to know what to look for. With the ambition of "boxing" six production blocks spread over two factories and the hundreds of small or big changes this represents in one package it is not surprising that Tamiya missed some things. Most are small details having to do with the evolution of the P-51D during its production, others are some odd or poor choices by Tamiya and finally a few things have been omitted. This is NOT an exhaustive list of things to correct, it would be a full time job to list all the changes seen on the different blocks and how they compare to the kit. I will not list all the kit's wrong or missing switches or other small errors that only a few guys on the planet know about, just the most visible details that make the difference in my opinion. I will start by mentioning the two biggest misses I see in this kit, the representation of the Dzus fasteners and the lack of "early" dorsal fin fillet. The Dzus fasteners on Mustangs are flush, this is not open to interpretation it is an easily verifiable fact yet for some reason Tamiya decided to raise the fasteners in a way that is quite visible depending on the lighting. This bothered me on the test shots as I could see them, they look wrong and will be a pain to correct with a beading tool on the very thin cowling parts, wrong move Tamiya. Some will mention that the same thing was done on the Spitfire kits, to which I reply: I don't care, I'm reviewing the Mustang and two wrongs don't make a right... When the Dorsal Fin Fillet (DFF) was added during production of the P-51D-5 (44-13902) it was originally curved as opposed to the straight one seen later (and in the Tamiya kit). The curved DFF (referred to as swayback DFF) stayed throughout production until the P-51D-15 (included) which means that a lot of "famous" WWII Mustangs that modelers will want to build should have it instead of the late DFF offered by Tamiya. As a side note the small square panels for the APS-13 antennas on the tail section w/DFF should only be there for aircraft 44-72127 and subsequent as well as earlier blocks retrofitted with the APS-13. Another poor feature are the rubber tires, they look fairly good but have a nasty seam line in the middle that will be a pain to get rid of. We also need to see more tread patterns for Mustang wheels, the diamond pattern wasn't the only one and the block and hexagonal / oval patterns were extremely common and can be identified on many pictures. In my opinion a separate piece for the swayback DFF do be added to the D-5 tail section of the kit and resin tires (diamond, block and oval) are the most sorely needed aftermarket parts for this kit, everything else is secondary. Tamiya's many options for the kit sometimes make it look like a toy rather than a model and can present their own set of problems. For example if you want to add plumbing in the wheel wells how then are you supposed to remove the center rib with the clamshell doors in order to replace them with the closed doors for the In Flight configuration? I didn't take too close a look at the engine since it's not my thing but if it's anything like the Spitfire you will need to choose between the open or closed position for the cowlings as the fit might not be good enough for a lot of "on and off" action. Another thing to consider is that the cowlings are not a realistic representation of the real things when off. Nice photo-etched parts are included in the box (I really like the shoulder harness option for seated pilot) but Tamiya makes odd choices, for example we find parts that will be use in future boxings to details the M10 triple-tube rocket launchers and even a Tiny Tim rocket which basically were almost never used on Mustangs! On the other hand the PE parts do not include the canopy rails that are quite visible on an open cockpit or gun and ammo doors details such as the gun door handles in the open position or the characteristic "teeth" of the ammo doors used to lock them in position. Speaking of Gun bay doors, the beautifully molded interior details are only good for the late P-51D's, earlier ones looked different and even though we get two sets of doors, they all are the later model. A gun bead sight to be mounted on the firewall for the earlier blocks using the N-9 gunsight as well as the extra manual ring sight would have also been nice. Other missing parts include clear separate pieces for the tail light and the battery sump bottle, locking hooks for the wheels (maybe as PE parts) and a dust boot for the tailwheel. This new kit like all those that came before suffers from an identity crisis, even with all the optional parts it is obvious that Tamiya studied a P-51D-30 and that's pretty much what you get in the box except for the missing square tipped Hamilton Standard propeller and the fact that the BC-966 (parts D51 & D52) IFF transceiver is not to be used on most WWII Mustangs. Without those what you actually get is closer to a P-51D-25. Either way you get an easy out of the box late P-51D, for any earlier block you will have to do some extra work. For the record, the BC-966 mentioned above is the main component of the SCR-695 IFF set that was installed at the factory on P-51D-30's (that's why it's in the box) or as a field mod on a few earlier blocks such as some of the P-51D-20's and 25's deployed on Iwo Jima (also on many P-51B/C's and some Allison Mustangs but that's another story). Contrary to what the kit's instructions say the inertia switch (part D53 behind the headrest) should not be used, it is a part of the SCR-695 IFF set and unless you build a Mustang that used it this part just like parts D51 and D52 should be left out. Another feature that only belongs to late P-51D's are the underwing attachment points for HVAR rocket pylons, they should not be on any aircraft before 44-72227 (they come with the pilot's switch-box part D48) . In the same manner the underwing attachment points for the drop tank fuel lines were different on earlier blocks than what is presented here (under parts A9 & A10). Surprisingly no plumbing for the drop tanks is included. Other differences between early and later models include: - The gun camera opening on the port wing root was round up to the P-51D-15 block when it became square like the one seen in the kit. - The canopy opening handle was square (instead of elongated) on early P-51D's, that would include all the -2 and some of the -6 canopies, check your references. The square handle was only on the port side but the later elongated one represented in the kit was on both sides. In the cockpit: - The armor plate was mounted 2 1/4 inches lower before the P-51D-20, as a result the headrest cushion was placed higher. - The WMA seat included in the kit is nicely shaped but a few visible details are missing on the back plate. Speaking of the kit's seats, based on the instructions it seems that Tamiya would have you put the Shick-Johnson (D32+D38+D39) seat on early P-51D's and the WArren McArthur seat (D19+D21) on later ones. In fact while the WMA seat was the already the main seat on P-51B's and continued to be so on P-51D's regardless of production block, the SJ was randomly installed throughout the P-51D production, checking pictures is the only way to know which seat was on a specific aircraft. - Although not very visible the rear cockpit could have been more detailed with a dynamotor for the radio behind the armor plate, liners for the fuel cell, and wooden blocks to keep it from bulging. - The radio itself lacks detail and is shown front to back in the instructions, the smaller jack should be in the back, it is wired to the antenna mast. - It looks like a part is missing from the right side wall (D55) just below the oxygen regulator, that's the compartment for the gunsight spare bulbs, I am also surprised to see that no cockpit lights are included. - Finally, I wish the instrument panel was offered as a PE parts since the instruments look way too deep in the panel when using the kit's parts. The real thing is fairly flat. A few other inaccuracies need to be corrected there but these are small details. Finally, there several ejection pin marks throughout the kit, they are discreet but a few of them will need to be erased and the instruction's color guidelines should be taken with a grain of salt. some modelers have already pointed out that based on what's in the box we can expect future releases to include; Korean war F-51D's, F-6D's, P-51K's (Mk.IVA?) and possibly Iwo Jima based VLR Mustang. I agree with their conclusions. Tamiya's new P-51D is a truly magnificent kit and I really hope a P-51B/C is in the cards. Kits have become pricey in the past few years but this one is as good as you're likely to get for your money and should be available at lower prices in the coming months and years (I'm sure it'll be around for a long long time). Zoukei-Mura has announced their own 1/32 P-51D kit, I'm not a big fan of companies who issue expensive kits looking like they were molded by Monogram thirty years ago and who would have you spend another hundred bucks on extras just so you have all the available details for the kit but I'll wish them luck. Who knows, maybe we'll be pleasantly surprised! Now, if only Hasegawa would release a 1/32 P-51H...

The Airfix kit is the best of the 1/24 P-51Ds. It shows its age but the overall shape is pretty good (much better than Trumpeter's) and you can tell that the guys at Airfix actually looked at a P-51D (not the feeling I get from the Trumpeter kit). Still there are a lot of issues with it and a lot of work will be required to get an "accurate" Mustang. The Bandai kit is the worst of the three.