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Early P-51D 1/72 - best option?


John

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1 hour ago, VMA131Marine said:

IIRC early issues of the Academy P-51D kit were powered by the very rare 14 cylinder Merlin; it had 7 exhaust stacks per side.

That one was a different creature altogether from the one they put out now.  The "14 cylinder Merlin, which had the D-5 tail, was a new tool in 1988.  The current one, which except for the correct number of exhaust ports, came out in 1993 as a new tool.  The earlier one, to me at least, was a better overall kit, especially now that it is much easier to fix the exhaust port problem with aftermarket resin parts, which were not around in the late 80s.

Later,

Dave

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While we are dumping on the old and inaccurate we should bear in mind the original Airfix kit from 1958.  Bagged, boxed and re-boxed many times, it was filletless and remarkably free of accuracy. 

 

It was however a step ahead of the retrograde 1963 Revell effort.

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6 hours ago, e8n2 said:

That one was a different creature altogether from the one they put out now.  The "14 cylinder Merlin, which had the D-5 tail, was a new tool in 1988.  The current one, which except for the correct number of exhaust ports, came out in 1993 as a new tool.

This is the box art for the 1993 release; how many individual exhaust stacks do you see?

 

197037-11185-59-720.jpg

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9 hours ago, VMA131Marine said:

IIRC early issues of the Academy P-51D kit were powered by the very rare 14 cylinder Merlin; it had 7 exhaust stacks per side.

Yep- I've still got one! The very rare V-1785! We don' need no steenkin' boost increase; we just add more cylinders! As the hot rodders say, "There's no replacement for displacement!"

Mike

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4 hours ago, 72modeler said:

As the hot rodders say, "There's no replacement for displacement!"

When i used to own drag cars many years ago we used the saying “No excuse’s for Cubic inches”. My team partner and I owned 5 Pontiac trans-am’s my 1974 super pro stock that did 1/4 miles in 7 seconds. His 1977 stock with 14 miles on the odometer all 14 miles were done on 1/4 mile drag-strips. Then we had an 84, 88, and 89 all stock cars used for street grudge match races. My 89 Formula beat quite a few Corvettes, and shocked more than a few people when doing so. 

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On February 21, 2020 at 9:56 AM, Wince said:

The old heller p-51 d had an optional fillet but I’m remembering a kit I built 27 years ago that wasn’t that great....

I believe that to be correct as I have a spare P-51 tail fin fillet which will not fit any of the P-51B or Cs I've done. 

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17 hours ago, VMA131Marine said:

This is the box art for the 1993 release; how many individual exhaust stacks do you see?

 

197037-11185-59-720.jpg

Here is the link to this particular kit at Scalemates where it is listed as a new tool:

 

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/academy-2132-north-american-p-51d-mustang--197037

 

Scroll down and open up the pdf file for the instructions.  You will see that it is a very different creature than the original 1988 kit.  You will notice that the fin fillet panel is molded in the fuselage and not a two piece addition as it was on the 1988 release.  You will also notice that the flaps are separate pieces and not molded in the up position as they are on the 1988 release.  All the box top painting for the 1993 new tool proves is that they were still sloppy with the facts on the exhaust and show a model of the P-51D that CAN NOT be built from the kit inside without surgery to remove the fin fillet.  They just updated the basic aircraft picture for the new decals provided.  Refer to the instructions for the 1988 new tool kit at number 14 above on page 1, or at this link here:

 

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/academy-minicraft-1662-p-51d-mustang-north-american-wwii-fighter--135386

 

Later,

Dave

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The best thing you can say about that kit is it was a LOT more accurate than the first Revell one. It looked like it was designed by someone who had actually seen a Mustang, whereas the Revell one was done by someone who'd only had one described to them, a bit like those medieval scribes having a wild stab at an elephant or giraffe. 

pojavuik7ahpxz6lvr15.jpg

4130ea2a1dfc3ca08130856b810b65ba.jpg

 

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3 hours ago, Work In Progress said:

a bit like those medieval scribes having a wild stab at an elephant or giraffe. 

Weren't they the same descendants of the mold makers for Mach 2 kits? I'm just sayin'!

Mike

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Just to beat the old horse a bit further, one feature of the original Airfix kit was the accurate and unusual very sharp trailing edge on the tailplanes.  Progress is uneven in these things and trailing edges became something of a cause celebre in later years with other kits, not without good reason.  

 

Now I'm beginning to wonder about the angle of incidence on it . . .

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6 hours ago, Work In Progress said:

You youngsters don;t have long enough memories. Or perhaps time has healed the wounds... 1958-1973, RIP

 

170926-10000-pristine.jpg

Wanna see a photo of the Mustang Airfix used for this kit? Scroll down the attached link to see the original A9-A!

Mike

 

http://abmc.nomadmobileguides.com/Normandy.php?page=narrative&id=cont-968

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  • 2 years later...
On 2/21/2020 at 12:11 AM, e8n2 said:

The original Academy offering of the P-51D of nearly 30 years ago was a D-5 with no fillet and included a two piece affair that you would add to the tail if you wanted a later block D model.  However, in an inexcusable, but now an easily corrected mistake, they had only 5 exhaust pipes on each side of the engine.  No resin correction parts in the early 90s.  It has since been replaced with the current, but still a bit long in the tooth version which has the correct number of exhaust pipes per side, but has the tail fillet panel.

Later,

Dave

Actually, Dave; I think it was seven exhsust stacks on each side- that’s what my kit had!

Mike

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1 minute ago, 72modeler said:

Actually, Dave; I think it was seven exhsust stacks on each side- that’s what my kit had!

Mike

Yup, the seldom seen 14 cylinder Packard-Merlin (V-1760) 😛

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