P-51K Mustang 'Mrs Bonnie', 348th FG 1945

[Alan P]

Hi all, 

 

I should call this 'Quarantine Queen' as it's the first of several builds I'll be finishing while on enforced leave 😉

 

This is by some distance the most colourful aircraft I've modelled. When I first saw the scheme I thought it was a whiff 😀

It was built for the Mustang Single Type Group Build, which you really should check out especially if you like the lines of this beautiful aircraft. 

 

The kit is the incredibly cheap Revell 1/32 P-51D which represents an early P-51D-5 without the tail fillet. Mine cost under £30 which is simply amazing value for what you get. 

To convert it to the later P-51K, I added a resin correction set from eBay which replaced the nose cowling, tail fillet and rudder, ailerons, stabiliser, elevators and wing flaps. This cost just $15 so I could afford not to use all of it! I also added Barracuda wheels, Squadron vacform Dallas canopy and Lifelike Decals. All together it cost about half the Tamiya kit price.

The real Mrs Bonnie was a Dallas-built P-51K but at some point was retrofitted with the Hamilton Standard propeller, so the kit one was used.

Paint was all lacquers: MRP for the interior and stripes, Alclad for the natural metal, and Gunze Mr Metal Color for the wings. The red was Zero Paints lacquer. 

The HF radio antenna was EZ-Line and the canopy was drilled to admit the line.

 

Here's the real Mrs Bonnie which was the mount of the 348 FG deputy wing commander Lt Col Bill Dunham.

Finally, here's the build thread if you want some tips on how to build /convert the Revell kit into a later Mustang. 

Thanks for looking, and don't forget to check out the Mustang STGB (linked above!) 

 

All the best and stay well, 

Alan 

[F-32]

Lovely build and a great scheme, I don't think I've seen that one before

[Alan P]

1 hour ago, F-32 said:

Lovely build and a great scheme, I don't think I've seen that one before

Thanks, I hadn't seen it before either. Then I found out Tamiya released it as their box art version when the P-51K came out 😂

[Rod bettencourt]

Alan, as usual beautiful work! Thanks for sharing.

 

Rod

[Unfinished project]

Fantastic Mustang nice and unusual scheme 👏👏👏

[JasonC]

Great Mustang Alan, a really eye catching scheme. Look forward to the rest of your quarantine builds!

 

J.

[binbrook87]

Lovely. Great job 👍 Really tempted to do this kit.. seen it on the shelf many times and thought hmmm? 

[RMCS]

Brilliant 

[jeaton01]

Well done.  The canopy looks well formed, both of mine have distortion.

[Vinnie]

Nicely done, Alan. Very impressive.

[Vulcanicity]

Lovely 'stang! Brilliant colour scheme and NMF in particular, and a very neat conversion job Intrigued by the two colours of national insignia- is this representing fading?

[Alan P]

3 hours ago, jeaton01 said:

Well done.  The canopy looks well formed, both of mine have distortion.

Thanks, sorry you've had some duff products...usually I've found the Squadron vac canopies to be very well-formed. This one was designed for the Hasegawa kit and it is a fair bit wider than the Revell. 

25 minutes ago, Vinnie said:

Nicely done, Alan. Very impressive.

Thanks Vinnie 👍

12 hours ago, binbrook87 said:

Lovely. Great job 👍 Really tempted to do this kit.. seen it on the shelf many times and thought hmmm? 

2 minutes ago, Vulcanicity said:

Lovely 'stang! Brilliant colour scheme and NMF in particular, and a very neat conversion job Intrigued by the two colours of national insignia- is this representing fading?

Thank you gents...I highly recommend the kit even without the corrections, it's a very nice product with an excellent cockpit and at this price it's a superb choice. Regarding the insignia, the fuselage star was painted in a lighter blue on several aircraft in this sqn, maybe a local flavour to go with the gaudy paint job! 

 

Thanks very much again for looking and your very welcome comments 👍