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KP will release different versions of P-51D/K in 1/72. https://www.modelarovo.cz/kovozavody-prostejov-azmodel-co-noveho-v-roce-2024/ It seems that everyone wants a piece of the Mustang pie. I doubt I will get any KP Mustangs, this year or any year.

The D.500 was Dewoitine's first monoplane design to use a low wing rather than a parasol type. It entered service with the French Armee de l'Air in the summer of 1935, but was soon obsolete and only a few were still on charge in a training role by 1940. (In comparison, consider that the RAF started receiving production Hurricanes in 1937.) I wasn't looking for this kit, I happened to come across it on a well-known website and the box art sold it to me; the type looks pugnacious, elegant and fragile all at the same time. I needed to build one... The kit is from Kovozavody Prostejov (KP), released in 2020 along with similar kits for the D.501 and D.510. Don't be deceived by the very smart box art, in my view the kit should be treated as a short-run type. The fit of parts wasn't great, no locating pins are provided, the wheels don't fit within the 'spats', etc. Perseverance is needed! I had an issue with the undercarriage; test fitting the struts and 'wishbones' suggested that the latter were too short, so that the wheels would be inclined inwards instead of being vertical. Photos of the real thing also showed that the mounting points of the struts to the wing should be further outboard. After a lot of dilly-dallying I decided to try and scratch my own parts. I didn't have any scale drawings, so had to work from photos, and I can't honestly say if I got the ground clearance correct. The classic D.500 has an all-over silver finish, like RAF types of the 1930's, which is what I really wanted, but the scheme I favoured has green patches over the nose and green on the uppersides of the wings. Sources on the web state this was an early form of camouflage introduced after the Munich Crisis of 1938, or an attempt to reduce reflections from the sun. Either way, I thought the green spoilt the look so I finished my model in all-over silver. After all, before the green was added, it must have been silver, right? The improvements I tried to make were:- Filling in most of the panel lines on the fuselage and tail. I think this makes the model look much more realistic. My preferred method is gluing in lengths of stretched sprue which sand down easily when dry. Wings; I decided to leave the panel lines, but I sanded the wing surfaces down so they were less pronounced. There is a chord-wise fairing that covers the join of the outer wing panels (like the Hurricane and Defiant), I wrapped a strip of thin card around the wing and sanded it down as far as I dared. Undercarriage; scratch-built as mentioned earlier Cockpit; scratch-built seat from plastic sheet, detailed with homemade belts. I added a lip to the fuselage opening to represent the padded coaming. Windshield; kit part replaced by clear plastic sheet (not a very neat job, TBH). Propellor; the blades of the kit part, #23, have virtually no aerodynamic form at all, so I replaced them with blades from part #24 (a spinner-less prop for the D.501). Bits-and-bobs using plastic strip, brass etc; aileron, elevator and rudder actuators; foot step; pitot; venturi; fuel lines (under the fuselage); gun sights. Thanks for looking!

Hello all, here is the latest offering from the shed. This was a much better kit than the KP Mig 23 I made last year. Other than the cockpit area it all went together very well and I was fairly pleased with the result, my painting didn’t really do it justice though. It’s out of the box apart from the pitot which I made from brass because I snapped the plastic one, and I also put a Pavla seat in it. The plane depicted is from the 11th Fighter Regiment circa 1958 numbered 60 for a military parade. So here’s some pics. Its meant to have a wobbly number 60 Thanks for looking' Pete