thorfinn Posted October 9, 2020 Share Posted October 9, 2020 Finding myself with a generous supply of P-51 Mustang decal sets at hand, I picked up a brace of Hobbyboss's relatively-inexpensive 1/48 'Easy Assembly' P-51D kits, to check them out and to thin the stash a bit. I've built a half-dozen or so of their 1/72 versions -- perfectly workable for the most part, if one doesn't mind the 'molded hole'-style cockpits -- and was curious to see how their larger-scale offerings compared. Overall, I was quite chuffed: pluses include clean moldings and generally excellent fit, petite and mostly-accurate panel lines, and a sparkling-clear (albeit single-piece) canopy. What interior detail is supplied -- instrument panel, stick, seat/armor and radio rack (but no sidewall detail whatsoever) -- is quite nice for the 'economy' end of the scale, and can be painted up to a nice standard. External stores...at least for the Korean War boxing that I purchased...were limited to a pair of standard 75-gallon 'teardrop' droptanks, sans plumbing. A nice feature is the provision of nylon gussets for the prop and wheels, allowing them to be easily and cleanly added (or removed, if necessary) post-construction. There's one pretty obvious gaff in the kit: the shock scissors on the landing gear struts are molded on the wrong side of the struts, pointing toward the front. (And the struts themselves are 'keyed' with their forward angle built-in...so they can't simply be 'flipped' to correct the issue.) The lack of cockpit wall detail is presumably down to the 'Easy Assembly' ethos, but two other omissions are just odd. The prominent movable radiator exhaust chute...visible in virtually every photo of P-51D's, just forward of the tail-wheel...is simply absent, just a solid smooth curved surface. The other omission is more niggling, but I think it's the only kit -- of any scale or complexity -- to miss it: there's no hint of underwing ejection chutes for the six wing machine guns. [To put this in weird perspective, they did a splendid job of molding the much-tinier pattern of open perforations on the breather plates on the nose...something few manufacturers have ever attempted to do!] All these issues were fairly-easily sorted during or prior-to assembly. I had an old Eduard color 'Zoom' set on hand, which nicely-supplied most of the missing cockpit detail. I carefully sheared the 'scissors' from the struts and reversed them, adding soft-wire brake lines at the same time. (I'm ashamed to say I didn't actually notice the missing cartridge ejection chutes until it came time to decal the wings. Having no desire at that late stage to insult my carefully-applied natural metal finish...a few more scraps of black decal stock were quickly applied, to cosmetically fill in for those errant chutes. Among my various decals, I had a nice Mike Grant sheet which included markings for the F-6D photo-reconnaissance version of the Mustang, so I decided to do a mini 'conversion.' I scratch-built the three fuselage camera ports from scrap bits and tubing, added an intervalometer control to the cockpit floor, and scribed the type's distinctive camera-access hatch on the stbd. side of the aft fuselage. I used a mix of paints and decal shades for the natural metal -- mainly AK Xtreme Duraluminum -- and good old Tamiya 'Chrome' for the silver-lacquered wing surfaces. I supplemented the Mike Grant decals with home-printed ones for missing stencils and a few minor corrections. Markings are those of Capt. Clyde B. East of the US 9th Air Force's 15th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron. East -- who'd been too young to qualify for the USAAF pilot program -- had hitchhiked north to enlist in the Royal Canadian Air Force, training on Tiger Moths and Harvards before earning his wings in 1942. He flew an adventurous tour of interdiction and harassment missions over France, Belgium and Holland with the RCAF's 414 Fighter Reconnaissance Squadron, before transferring to the US 9th AF in 1944. There he first flew Spitfires, then moved on to both the C and D models of the F-6 reconnaissance version of the P-51 Mustang. He ended the war having amassed nearly 400 combat hours, and was credited with 13 aerial victories. Hope you enjoy the photos! 40 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevej60 Posted October 9, 2020 Share Posted October 9, 2020 Excellent work and a beautiful finish too! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Epeeman Posted October 9, 2020 Share Posted October 9, 2020 Great detailing work resulting in a stunning Mustang Regards Dave 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAT69 Posted October 9, 2020 Share Posted October 9, 2020 Truly very well done! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Dyck Posted October 10, 2020 Share Posted October 10, 2020 Hi, it looks amazing! That’s ace! And very nice photography too! Andy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VolkerR. Posted October 10, 2020 Share Posted October 10, 2020 Brilliant. Great attention to detail. Volker 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phildagreek Posted October 10, 2020 Share Posted October 10, 2020 That’s very sharp! I’ve never seen a photo recce Mustang before, Good effort! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vinnie Posted October 10, 2020 Share Posted October 10, 2020 Some very nice detailing there. Well done. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spitfire31 Posted October 10, 2020 Share Posted October 10, 2020 Interesting sub type – I have a penchant for PR recce machines and I haven't seen this particular model before. Excellent, exacting work! Kind regards, Joachim 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempestwulf Posted October 12, 2020 Share Posted October 12, 2020 Very cool. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheyJammedKenny! Posted October 12, 2020 Share Posted October 12, 2020 Wow! Impressive results on this model. I had no idea that PR Mustangs had special wing markings to help the pilots align their side-looking cameras! Thanks so much for sharing. Speaking of 9th AF: I worked at HQ 9th AF 25 years ago, and the Historian's office had a model collection then, but I regret to say I never visited the collection to see what he had in the case! He (the Historian) had a penchant for taking a smoke break on the loading dock, and if you asked him how his job was going, he'd quip: "history sucks." Very funny, but not a typical historian response, I'm happy to say. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbadbadge Posted October 12, 2020 Share Posted October 12, 2020 Oh wow that's a beauty, what great work to convert and bring it up to scratch. Fantastic. Chris 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlaStix Posted October 13, 2020 Share Posted October 13, 2020 Wow that's impressive!! Great looking model and fantastic attention to detail! Kind regards, Stix 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thorfinn Posted October 13, 2020 Author Share Posted October 13, 2020 Thanks to all for your comments and encouragement! For what it's worth, I forgot to mention in my thumbnail review of the Hobbyboss kit that the flaps are in fact molded solid with the wing. I had to cut them apart, fill the 'cutouts' on the inboard edges (that fit against the fuselage underside), and then re-position them. It just seems to look a little more 'natural' that way! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-32 Posted October 14, 2020 Share Posted October 14, 2020 Very very nicely done, that really looks the part 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhantomLover Posted October 14, 2020 Share Posted October 14, 2020 That looks really nice, especially like the very clean natural metal paintjob! (and the fact that it's a Mustang) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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