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Hello, all! I was wondering if anyone happens to know the width of black bands used on Pacific P-51Ds in 1/48 scale? I’m starting a 1/48 Mustang and I have the decal sheet (AeroMaster 48-012) already. Profiles of the aircraft show the thick black bands, two for the fuselage and three for each wing, but unfortunately the measurements for the markings aren’t given. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Now that the Tamiya jeep is nearly done - just have to spray a matte coat and add the windshields - I'm turning my attention to the Revell 1/48 P-51D. This is a release of the old Monogram kit that was originally released in 1977 and that I built in the early 80s. I'm pretty sure there was limited paint involved - just build it and decal it! I picked this kit up at a local hardware store that actually has a small stock of Revell kits and Testors paints. I'm planning on doing the Robert Welch scheme which I find more interesting than BBD - plus the checker cowling decals are a bit beyond my skillset right now. All interior parts were primed with Mr. Surfacer 1000 and then given a coat of green chromate (4:1 ratio of Tamiya XF4:XF5). I was going to airbrush the instrument panel today but it's too cold in my garage where I do my airbrushing - even with a space heater on the bench the paint wasn't flowing well through my Paasche H.

Hi, When Eduard announced their P-51 in 72nd I immediately knew that I had to build one. I love those baby Ponies and up till now I had a great experience with Tamiya (D version) and Arma Hobby (B/C version) kits. I bought a dual pack and decided to do a quick build before trying something more elaborate. The kit is ok, as expected from Eduard. Well designed with lots of details. Maybe even with too many (mostly rivets) but the build was a very pleasant experience. The real disappointment comes with additional 3D parts (all from Eduard). I used here a few of them including: Whole cockpit (barely visible here) External fuel tanks Wheel bay Wheels Undercarriage legs Some of them are printed with all those layers visible which are really difficult to remove without destroying all the fine details they provide. I guess I liked those previous resin parts more. Ok, enough whining. Here it goes, P-51D-5, serial no. 44-13761 flown by Capt. Jack Ilfrey. Please enjoy and comment at will. Cheers and Happy Easter, Marcin

As I am sure you are all aware, a number of the BM community members have for some time been contributing some fine model builds to the 453rd Bomb Group Museum at Old Buckenham. Some of the models are complete and live in the museum now, and a number are still under construction, as WIP's on here. The models came courtesy of the curator James Clarey. The BM team as I recall it consists of @CedB, @giemme, @general melchett, @Fritag, @The Spadgent, @Ex-FAAWAFU, @tomprobert, @woody37, @Tcoat, @Stew Dapple and @rob85 . Massive apologies if I have missed anyone! I got to join the team last year courtesy Ced and Giorgio, and of course, this all started way back in 2019 (I believe) when Ced hosted our three American (but Brits at heart) colleagues @Navy Bird, @Procopius and @Cookenbacher, for Telford SMW 2019. I had the chance to visit Jim last September during a short break we took in Suffolk/Norfolk. Jim's hospitality is legendary I'm sure, and on arrival we enjoyed a hearty full english breakfast. Apart from watching some light aircraft flying in the summer sun, we obvs got to see the fine museum there, but were also treated to an incredible behind the scenes view of the artefacts Jim had collected over the years representing the USAAF's time in East Anglia during WWII. My wife often refers to me as a "lucky chap" and indeed on that day I came away with a couple of models to build for the museum. Jim also lent me one of his many volumes to assist in the selection of a subject for the B-17, more of which will feature in a later museum build. Much time has passed since I brought these home, and much dialogue with Jim eventually got us settled on the subject for the P-51. Jim's original spec was "A green nosed mustang from East Wretham please". As I looked into this, over time I came to realise there were many decals available for representative aircraft from all three Squadrons of the 359th Fighter Group that were based in East Wretham during the later part of WWII. Aero Master alone have produced no less than 6 different sets, each with around 3 representative aircraft, all with the distinctive green nose. I managed to obtain these two sets, before we determined the actual aircraft for this build. Being a P-51 fan, with a few built in 1/72 and a few more in the stash, I'll likely build another Green nosed example for my own collection. I eventually managed to pin down an example flown from the 370th FS flown by Lt. John W. Lamont, with the help of the 359th FB page. It seems that Lamont enlisted in his hometown of Seattle, WA, on 25 September 1942, and joined the 370th Fighter Squadron on 17 August 1944. He flew 66 combat missions, completing his tour of duty with the 359th Fighter Group on 21 July 1945. A picture of the young Lamont: And the only picture I have found so far of "CisCo" So, onto the build........ There has been some (Cue wild laughter from the gathered masses) delay in starting this build for a number of reasons, one major modelling distraction being a commision build of a 1/35 AFV for the MOD, via the Tank Museum. This build is coming to a close over the coming week, and will indeed be handed over to the MOD at the end of May. .......... phew! There is also some peer pressure from Steve and Giorgio ......... something to do with standing "the first few rounds" in September when some more of the other builds will be presented to Jim, at the museum. We'll just have to see about that ........... !!! So the usual pictures to get us started............ The kit, you all know it I'm sure, and indeed will recall the fine museum build of this very aircraft by Giorgio last year. A very fine model for it's time. The usual sprue shots: Some aftermarket etch in the form of Eduard's set no. 49216. And the aftermarket decals from Aero Master, set 48-653 chosen in the end, aircraft number 3 at the bottom: To offer a flavour of these 359th Fighter Group "Green nosed" Mustangs during their time at East Wretham, here are some statistics taken courtesy of the 359th Facebook page. "During its 17 months of operation, members of the 359th Fighter Group, comprised of the 368th Fighter Squadron, the 369th Fighter Squadron, and the 370th Fighter Squadron, excelled at escort missions and at the very hazardous jobs of “killing” trains and destroying aircraft on the ground. There were 13,455 sorties flown by the pilots of the 359th. In addition to guarding the “heavies” they shot down 241 enemy aircraft, with an additional 33 probables and 69 damaged. Another 122 were destroyed on the ground plus 107 damaged. Almost 500 locomotives and 1,400 railway cars were destroyed or damaged. Other ground attacks supported troop movements and targeted infrastructure. To do all of this 1,000,000 rounds of .50 calibre ammunition was expended along with nearly 900 bombs of varying poundage. The Fighter Group lost 121 pilots." So this will be my tribute to those 121 lost airmen, and to all those who served during those challenging times. I hope to start construction in the next week or so and I may look into additional aftermarket detail sets in the meantime. If anyone has any recommendations for further detail sets, speak up chaps! Lastly, thanks for following. Terry

Thanks "hawkeye" Tbolt (link) ! Is Eduard to release soon a new tool (?) 1/72nd North American P-51D kit? Let's have a look at page 52 of this month Eduard Info Vol.20 May 2021. Source: https://www.eduard.com/out/media/InfoEduard/archive/2021/info-eduard-2021-05-enrr.pdf V.P.

Hi My recently completed P-51D from Airfix. Flown by 1st Lt. Spurgeon N. Ellington, Tuskegee Airmen 100th fighter squadron, Italy, Dec 1944. You can read more about this particular aircraft and Mr. Ellington here - https://northcarolinaroom.wordpress.com/2014/06/19/lollipoop-ii-a-saga/ I used Mr. Hobby 8 silver which I think ended up looking better than Tamiya one however I'm still in search of a better silver metallic. Has to be acrylic water based though. I also decided to go very light on weathering considering previous experience with Gloster Meteor I also think it looks better clean.

Hey all, This models been a shelf queen for a few years now. I was never really happy with the final paint job and thus it languished unloved for a few years. However, I recently got the gumption to get it down, dust it off and finish it. I had painted the model using Tamiya Lacquers for the metallics. The varnish I used then went a bit funny and dried really, really matte. So, unless it had flown through a sandstorm for a year it didn't quite achieve the look I wanted, hence why it was set aside as it killed off my modelling mojo. Though now I decided to re-varnish it with Mr. Color which brought the sheen back a bit, albeit still not quite what I was looking for. Hence, I used the aircraft as a bit of a weathering experiment to beat it up a bit, as a number of Kodachrome pics from the era showed 359th aircraft took a battering with regular maintenance, escort and groundpounding duties. The decals are from CAM Decals and this is their set 48-117 'Thoroughbred Mustangs' So whilst the juxtaposition is that this one ended up being less of a thoroughbred model and a bit more of a runt, I'm still relatively happy that I at least reduced the shelf of doom by one finished model and she should still sit nicely on my shelf with my other USAAF subjects. Thanks for looking, Sam Again, thanks for looking, Sam

Had this one for a while, and thought I would run it up so I could practice an NMF before tackling a more serious build, the Hasegawa Ki-61 (which I have failed to take many pictures of, so no WiP there). Only AM additions are belts and some QuickBoost radio boxes, though tbh you could add some wires to the kit versions and they would look pretty much as good So bear with me on this one...as with all kits there are two basic elements to the manufacture, the design and the mould-making. On the former, Revell have done, I think a fine job; the designer (Radu Brinzan?) has done some really clever stuff with the internals to ensure a good level of detail with no ambiguity in the fit, and each section locks into the other with no simple butt joins to spoil things with their sloppy fit. So Revell played a blinder in the first half. Where it goes wrong is with the mould itself. I would be fairly sure that Revell contract out the mould-making, and my advice - find another company. The similarities with Airfix of a couple of years ago here are notable, nice design but slightly rough moulds coupled with soft plastic result in a slightly disappointing build given the initial promise of the parts. Recently, Airfix have taken steps to resolve this - I don't know if they have changed their mould-maker (though they definitely did for the 1/24th Spit as the moulds were done in the UK not India) but the plastic in recent kits is definitely harder resulting in crisper detail. And this is where Revell have their problem: the detail has been designed in, but comes out rather soft, and there are prominent mould lines everywhere, and some small amounts of flash. Joining edges can be a bit rough and need a light pass just to improve the fit, indeed every part needs a bit of fettle, and after a while this becomes a bit wearing, not to mention the amount of plastic dust and scrapings being generated. Some examples: - soft detail and mould seams on the side consoles (I have already scraped the seams off the tops of the knobs in this photo) - seams on the gear legs - soft detail on the pedals and steps inside the frames - and after clean-up This is not say everything does not go together well - it does, it paints up nicely, and Revell have provided plenty of decals for the cockpit to spice things up (albeit they are a bit bright); as mentioned I only added belts and the radio boxes, and the odd wiring loom. Pleased with the wood effect I must say. Now the instrument panel; I did buy the Eduard LOOK panel, but the white elements were really not well printed and the whole thing did not look good as a result, so I used the kit part with decal, and after a fair amount of setting solution and careful touching up it looked OK - better than the LOOK panel anyway. Then it's on to construction - no impossibly major issues here just some fettling. I did opt to add the tail sections to their respective fuselage halves to try and reduce the step that is apparent here, but it will need some sanding out. There is also a step between the intake lips and the main cowling, and the red glazing putty comes into it own here. Some shims reduce the step for the cowing underside I opted to paint the framing in the wheel well i zinc chromate as per some references And I decided to commit fully and do some rivetting (not on the wings you will be pleased to hear) I do think rivets add something to a model, even if you then choose not to highlight them too much in the painting and weathering; just compare the unrivetted and rivetted fuselage sides to see how it is brought to life Yes the wash (so I could see where I had done) does help, but when there are a few layers of silver on there it will look less blank than would otherwise be the case. Now the wings and the tail feathers are on it is ready for priming; I will be likely doing the box art scheme Lou IV, or maybe Jolie Helene if I can pick up some decals. I am afraid I do not subscribe to the "blue camo" theory arising from the famous colour picture, rather as a former printer I see an old Kodachrome transparency where the dyes have deteriorated unevenly. Classically in older transparencies certain dyes will deteriorate ahead of others, usually greens followed by reds; as any colour in the picture comprises more than one dye, the remaining colour then dominates. I think what we are looking at is a bronze green, possibly a dark green, in which the green dyes have faded leaving a more blue appearance. Hence also the olive drab doesn't really look right, and the landscape below is blue not green, the yellows are a bit washed out, and even the red of the nose art is a bit dull. So I will be doing a bronze green/olive drab mix on the upper fuselage, and dark green/olive drab on the wings/tailplanes.

I need to find some motivation to continue work on my F-84, but still have plenty of time for that. So I figured I’ll start my thread here in the meantime. I have plenty of planned subjects to choose from, including a couple for my yet to be built Wisconsin Aces collection, but I’m going to do a 361st bird for this GB. Specifically, Jasper Joker II flown by Lt. Donald Vulgamore. I’ll be building my first Eduard kit and using Aeromaster decals. And of course using an excellent Schiffer Military History book for reference.

I'm quite excited to start this! Here's a box shot - I'll be building Eduard's 1/48 P-51D, in markings of an aircraft flown by Lt James Hickey, out of Martlesham Heath. My late father was RAF groundcrew, and based at Martlesham until it became an American base in 1943, when he was transferred to work on Wellington bombers at Chipping Warden. So, a family connection, albeit a slightly tenuous one!

Detail and Quality: The kit features finely molded parts with good fit and minimal flash. The cockpit is well-detailed, including sidewall details and a nicely molded seat. Construction: The kit is designed to be straightforward to build, with clear instructions and well-thought-out parts placement. The plastic is a bit soft, making it easier to fix blemishes. Optional Parts: There are several optional parts for different versions and weapons loads, adding to the versatility of the kit. Overall, it’s a well-regarded kit that offers a good balance of detail and ease of assembly, making it suitable for both novice and experienced modelers. Sorry, my camera seems to take a very harsh photo,

I decided to double down with a second build. It will be another 1/48 Eduard kit, this time being a fillet-less D-5 version. I’ve had this kit in the stash for a couple years with the intent of doing Richard Peterson’s “Hurry Home Honey” because I really really like the dark green over NMF scheme the 357th FG had on its early Ds. While researching the plane the other day on the LittleFriendsUK site, I came across a different plane from the same squadron with a pilot from my home state of Wisconsin. Always one to want to learn about the pilots from my state, I soon found out the pilot, Col Irwin Dregne, was an ace and was the last CO of the Yoxford Boys. His plane carried the same camo as Peterson’s and since Bullseye Decals’ excellent Yoxford Boy series has markings for it, I decided I’m going to build Dregne’s plane (just had to purchase the decals since it was on a separate sheet from HHH). It carries two names: Bobby Jeanne for his wife and daughter, and then Ah-Fung-Goo II which apparently was a name chosen by Dregne’s crew chief.

I built this one as part of the Mustang GB. Here's the WIP... It's marked as a 458th/506th FG airframe belonging to 2Lt. Robert Harvey and was lost on the 1 June 1945 VLR mission to Osaka when 24 pilots were lost when they ran into bad weather. I built this one out of the box except for the markings; the aircraft number and name (there's no photo of the aircraft so the name's style is my own) were painted, The national markings were Tamiya decals in place of the Eduard ones. I'm not a huge fan of Eduard's decals though I was able to make them work for the most part. The NMF is buffing Metalizer and I was very happy with how it turned out, one of my better NMF's. One thing I'd change on a do-over is the ammo/gun covers on the wings; they're not supposed to be unpainted though there is usually a bit of contrast between their finish and the rest of the wing's. Overall, the kit itself is a nice one and I found it a real pleasure to work with. Thanks for looking, cheers.

This is the Tamiya 1/48 P-51D Mustang, marked as John C. Meyer's "Petie 2nd". Typical of Tamiya, easy assembly and a nice fit. The only weak points are the wheel well not going back to the spar, and a prop that is too wide and tapered at the cuff (easy to correct). I used an Ultracast seat, and the sliding canopy is a spare from an Airfix kit (suitably reshaped). Wheel well was opened to the aft spar, brake lines added, and the radio, battery and drop tanks wired, and plumbed. Decals are the kits (works well with VERY hot water), and the paints are all Tamiya acrylic. Thanks for looking, Colin

Tower, this is Theplasticsurgeon, requesting a flyby. . . Rejoining the circuit with this Mustang kit, bought in 2020 for £8.99. To build like this, modified as a two-seater. Instructions, strangely blank, not saying anything about the Mustang's history or performance. Parts. Familiar - as this is my 5th build of this P-51D kit. And scheme, with superb decals.

The P-47M I have started same days ago still needs time for the paint to harden. So I'm starting a new model, after my accident at home I have a lot of time for myself. The old Hasegawa model from 1992 has been with me for a long time. I simply can't dispose of old models and prefer to build these for the second row. This kit has been deprecated for Germany, but no problem for a model builder. I created the swastikas on the fuselage myself on clear decals.

With the restoration of NZ2423 to airworthiness having got to an exciting stage, I figured it was time to work on my scale model of it. It'll comprise the Airfix 1:72 P-51D Mustang and a Ventura decals sheet. The end goal will be to meet with it and pose my model with it at Warbirds over Wanaka 2024. This model will depict NZ2423 when it was in service with No.2 Territorial Air Force (Wellington) Squadron, stationed at RNZAF Ohakea from July 1954 to October 1955. P.S This is my first time posting on this forum and attaching photos here, so I hope this all goes well

The first Swedish Mustang is a P-51B-7 du 354th FG interned on 13 may 1944. He is followed by another one in august, then by two D-5 this same month. These aircraft arrives at a time where Swedish AF is struggling to get some high performances fighters, and the government is in the process to make a deal US and/or UK authorities on the tune of fighters for internees, as there are more than 1000 Allied Airmen stranded in Sweden An agreement is finaly reached for a number of P-47, that would be designated J26, but in march 1945, last minute change for Mustangs for 50 ex-USAAF machines (4 already « delivered »!), bound to equip Flottilj 16 (F16) at Uppsala, deliveries starting from 10 april. They will still be J26. In 1946, 90 more are bought from USAAF, plus a further 30 for spare parts the next year. The last Sweedish Mustang will leave active service with the air force in 1954. 93 will be sold to Israel, Republican Dominique and Nicaragua. So here's my interpretation of Swedish J26 serial 26031 (ex-USAAF 44-72220), from Flottilj (escadre) F16, 2. Division (Escadron, casserole bleue) at Uppsala, The aircraft must have suffered an accident in june 47, as it was then used as a ground instruction airframe. It was one of only three J26 painted in camo. Tamiya kit looks good to me, very simple and easy to build. No difficulties, I had some, but they're of my own make . A quick note about the decals : The instruction sheet show clearly roundels in six positions, standard with J26 and other Swedish fighhters at the time. BUT... Xtradecal gives you only four ! By chance, a friend of mine stepped in, and gave me the last two I needed. Thanks Stéphane ! Hope you'll like it. And if by the way you've gott a better understanding of Swedish AF than me (not difficult at all!), feel free to add or correct.

Hi everyone, Well I never thought this day would come. I bought this kit in London in 2007, started it a few years later, pushed it through at least three KUTA.... All in all a rather abysmal performance. Not a shake and bake kit, for me anyway, despite the lineage. Hence the repetitive loss of mojo. But anyway, all this is now in the past. Although,,, this morning things almost turned to a Titanic re-enactment when I took the kit outside for a few photos. Six Vervet monkeys rushed towards my petrified P-51D, thinking it was something tasty. I had my hands full trying to chase them without smashing the model all by myself. All in all, it was a peaceful and relaxed photo shoot! I even forgot taking a photo of the port side, with all the victories' score board. Anyway, here are a few photos of this fantastic plane. Here you are. All in all I am happy with the result, and damn pleased to have finished it. I will use the Old Crow decals, also present in the Tamiya box, on my Academy P-51D, as it is another emblematic paint scheme. Thanks for watching and keep having fun! JR

The music in this case is provided by a Packard Merlin engine in a P-51. I will be using ICM’s 1/48 P-51D to build a Mustang flown by the Swiss Airforce. Whilst researching the subject I came across this website which I will be using for my references. https://swissmustangs.ch Markings came from a aftermarket sheet from LF Models

Hi everyone, This is another model I am ashamed to still see on the shelf of so-called doom. Like the Etendard IV M of my other KUTA thread, it is very close to completion. A few photos to prove I sometimes tell the truth: Funny enough, and at the risk of repeating myself, I must be the only modeler in the known universe who did not find this kit a shake'n bake. Thanks for watching. JR

Hi there, Last one out of the production line. Ok, yes, I've yet to add two wing tanks, and one last stencil... I did have a lot of fun with this one, but yet I managed to make a lot of errors and had my share of bad luck, don't worry! So, I'm not 100% happy with the result. 70% maybe? Still, I like it, and hope you will Weathering much too strong for this scale, to be more specific for the exhausts and the guns, antenna wire much more 1/32 than 1/72, bad fi tof the black upper antenna (Gonio?), etc... Also, bad luck with PMA decals. Everything went well with the stylized sun on six positions, but I had three different sets of numbers and stencils wrecked before the one that decided to stay in place! This specific F-51 is part of a group of aircraft that were paid by different donators, 067 (F-51067; 44-74956) being paid for by Taipei City(City name is written under the pit. Any comments welcome, do not hesitate to tell me what you think, whatever it is.

Hello all; Here's my take on Lou IV. I've detailed a lot of the thought and decision-making process in the WIP thread, which can be found here; In short though, I based my decision on using blue paint on three main arguments; Dana Bell's - @Dana Bell - review of the remaining original transparency showing what he reports as blue on Lou IV. I assume Dana can tell the difference between blue and green 🙂 Michael Bowyer's contemporary notes of his observations that some 361st Mustangs had blue paint on them - this establishes that blue was used; assuming Michael could tell the difference between blue and green 🙂 Why not? Clearly using bright colours wasn't an issue, the nose was bright yellow! I came to the belief that something I called the "go-faster stripe" effect came into play and that these young men painted their airplanes in a way that made them look cool. Certainly the USAAF encouraged the moral boosting effect of nose art and other decoration, so why not blue? Anyway on the the pics; And some pics to illustrate the tonal quality compared to the black and white images; And lastly, just for fun... If you have the patience for it, there's even more detail available below. Comments welcome, critique welcome too. Cheers; Mark.

Hello all, This build was another GB with my dad which was completed a few weeks ago. Both kits are Tamiya 1/72, Captain Weaver's mustang was done by my dad, and "Tallahassee lassie" was done by myself. The models were painted with Mr Color Super Metallic 2 Super Fine Silver and Super Iron and Mr Color H8 Silver, NO PRIMER was used. The only AM products that were used are PE for the interiors and antennas. Hope you enjoy! "Tallahassee lassie" : Captain Chuck Weaver's mustang: Some pics of both mustangs together:

North American P-51D-15 Mustang (03838) 1/32 Carrera Revell The P-51D was developed by the North American Aviation company as a possible fighter for Great Britain, but due to the poor performance of the original Allinson engine it wasn’t all that good, especially at high altitude. Luckily they decided to try strapping a Rolls-Royce Merlin engine to the airframe and it brought out the best of its design, which included the energy efficient laminar flow wing that gave it the potential to escort Allied bombers all the way to Berlin with the addition of drop-tanks and a lean mixture when not in combat. It was flown in this guise as the Mustang III in British service, and as the P-51B/C in US service, then as the P-51D with the bubble canopy and cut-down aft fuselage, with an additional fin-fillet added later to improve stability that had been reduced by the new shape and fuel tank location. In British service it was known as the Mustang Mk.IV, and the same variant made at the Dallas factory with hollow AeroProducts props that was designated P-51K in US service was known as the Mk.IVa in RAF service to differentiate. Sadly, the hollow prop was prone to vibration thanks to some inferior quality control at the factory, so was often swapped out in the field. The P-51D is the Mustang that most people think of when they hear the name, unless they’re more of a petrol head or a bit horsey. The Kit Here Revell have re-boxed their own new tool kit from 2017 this time with parts for the later Mustangs. The frankly lacking openend box holds a good deal of plastic. As well as the wings there are nine sprues of grey plastic and three clear sprues. There are three full canopies provided, two labelled as "Spares", which probably goes back to the problems with the canopy on earlier kits. These look to have no issues though. The rest of the tooling is upto Revell's usual high standards. Construction starts in the cockpit with the instrument panel. The lower part differs if you have an aircraft armed with rockets or not. Instruments are provided as decals. Next up the seat back with head armour goes onto the cockpit floor in front of the tanks after attaching to its frame. The rack for the radio equipment then goes on top of the tanks, followed by the equipment. The main part of the seat then goes in. Revell provide a normal seat and a more bucket type of seat. There is no mention made of which one to use for which deal option, the modeller will need to do their own research on this. The left an right interior sidewalls are then built up from various components. These go together around the floor/tank assembly with the rudder pedals and instrument panel going in at the front. To the rear top of this is added the canopy rail; and to the front the engine firewall. Next up the lower radiator assembly is made up, this part also indulges the tail wheel bay. The individual fuselage sides now attach to the relevant tail parts. They need to be added in this order as now when the two fuselage halves go together the cockpit and intake sections need to go in at this point. At the front dont forget to install the exhaust stubs as well (there is no engine in the kit). Am mounting paste for the prop with lower intake then goes on the front. Now we move to constructing the wings. The upper and lower wings are both a single part. The wheel bays and wing spar need to be assembled and placed between the wings. The appropriate holes for wing tanks, Bombs and or rockets need to be drilled out first. Once the wings are together the control column for the cockpit is fitted as the top of the wing is the floor of the cockpit. The fuselage can now be mated to the wings and the intake lip for the main intake made up and added. The control flaps for the intake are added and at the front of the wing a plate is added between the wing and fuselage sections. If you are making your model wheels up then a section of closed door can be added in. Next up the tail surfaces are added, for the rudder and control surfaces all these are separate. Following this the ailerons and flaps for the main wing are built up and added on. The flaps can be raised or lowered as needed. Moving back to the cockpit the front screen is added with the instrument coaming and gunsight being fitted in. The font scree contains a part of the fuselage to allow a good faired in fit. The main canopy gains its internal fixtures before being fitted. Moving on to the undercarriage the tail wheel and strut are built up first and added in. For the main gear doors they must be cut from the one section which provides for the closed bay doors. The main wheels are two part, these are fitted to the legs and into the model along with the gear doors. At the front the prop is made up and fitted. For the weapons 8 rockets, tow bombs; and a choice of two different types of drop tank are provided to be used as needed. The last items to be fitted are the aerial, pitot tube, and navigation lights. Decals The large sheet provides decals for two options; 44-14985 "The Mille G" Flown by Maj Giller, 343rd FS, 55th FG, Wormingford, England 1944 (This aircraft still flies today) 44-15459 "American Beauty / Lovely Lila" 308th FS, 15th FG, Italy 1944 Conclusion This is a great looking kit from Revell and its good to see the later mark now kitted. Revell model kits are available from all good toy and model retailers. For further information visit or