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Frog, 1/72, P-51A


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Here's another trip down memory lane. This kit dates from 1970. For those not familiar with FROG, they were making wooden model aircraft kits as far back as the 1930's and were one of the first to transition to all plastic kits. The name, FROG, stands for "Flies Right Off the Ground", as most of their early rubber band powered models did. I had to do a little research as I knew  little about this a/c. It had an Allison engine instead of the later Merlin and came with two 20mm cannons, although the British models exchanged these for four 50 cal. mgs. From what I read, it was not intended to be a fighter-bomber, rather as a pure fighter, so the hard points under the wings for ordnance were removed. HOWEVER, obviously, Frog intended the kit's parts to suffice for both versions, so they compromised, using the mg wings, but including rather clunky bomb racks under the wings. So, thinking it looked cooler with ordnance under the wings and since it is a British a/c, I ground off the kit's bomb racks and substituted ones from a Blenheim kit. In addition, even though the racks were there the kit did not come with bombs, so I pirated two from the same Blenheim kit. The rest is OOTB with the exception of the decals. The ones in the example I got were too far gone to salvage, so I used ones from the spares box. The invasion stripes are painted on. I don't know how accurate the outline and/or dimensions are, but it looks like a P-51A to me. 

 

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Nicely done. I built one of them around 1974. I seem to recall that the canopy was a poor fit. More recently I had a go at the Academy P-51A - which was rather nice.

 

The Allison engined Mustangs were good aeroplanes, provided they stayed below about 15,000 feet.

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A lovely build of a version of the Mustang that blew my mind as a twelve-year-old when I discovered that it was a British aircraft by origin and not powered by a Merlin.  In turn, I found the FROG kit to be a delight.

 

I am intrigued by the orange leading edge stripes.  Were they an Army Cooperation Command thing?

 

Cheers,

 

Neil

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5 hours ago, neilfergylee said:

I am intrigued by the orange leading edge stripes.  Were they an Army Cooperation Command thing?

Thanks For asking I was kind of wondering the same thing ? If so then I need to really build one as it makes for a distinctive look. 

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A lovely build there, takes me back. Did you find the canopy was short moulded arh the rear? I had several at the time as it was considered a good Mustang for the time and as you have shown still is. I might enquire whether the undercarriage legs are reversed , it looks like it to me.

 

Keith

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The kit says the markings are for an a/c from No. 2 Squadron in 1944. As to the orange on the wings, that's a poser. There are no instructions on what colors are what, rather you just have a color picture to go by, thus, you are at the mercy of the printer's inks. I have seen photos where these look more yellow than orange, but I was going by the kit illustrations, which are definitely orange. 

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14 hours ago, neilfergylee said:

I am intrigued by the orange leading edge stripes.  Were they an Army Cooperation Command thing?

No.  Yellow leading edges were introduced when day fighter camouflage changed from Dark Green and Dark Earth to Dark Green and Oceab Grey (or Mixed Grey) as a quick identification measure in head-on attacks.  As such they should neither overlap, nor be overlapped by, the national markings.

 

3 hours ago, Britman said:

I might enquire whether the undercarriage legs are reversed , it looks like it to me.

Having spent a lot of last evening working on a pair of (rather nice) Airf8x 1/48th Mustangs I can confirm that the wheels are outboard of the bottom of the leg with the torque links pointing aft.

Edited by stever219
Missed a bit.
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12 hours ago, Britman said:

I might enquire whether the undercarriage legs are reversed , it looks like it to me.

 

8 hours ago, stever219 said:

I can confirm that the wheels are outboard of the bottom of the leg with the torque links pointing aft.

The same mistake I made with a Revell P-51B, the first model I made when I came back to this hobby about 15 years ago. I think I had a Hurricane in mind. :( 

SUC30107_zps0e78f139

Not obvious in the only photo I have of it. What is obvious is the poor choice of Humbrol 30 for the dark green. The leading edge stripes were Hu 24 Trainer yellow, the photo has made them look rather orangey. No matter on its faults, I'm preserving it for posterity, my youngest, now 19 & I worked on it together. :)

Steve. 

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11 hours ago, stevehnz said:

 

The same mistake I made with a Revell P-51B, the first model I made when I came back to this hobby about 15 years ago. I think I had a Hurricane in mind. :( 

SUC30107_zps0e78f139

Not obvious in the only photo I have of it. What is obvious is the poor choice of Humbrol 30 for the dark green. The leading edge stripes were Hu 24 Trainer yellow, the photo has made them look rather orangey. No matter on its faults, I'm preserving it for posterity, my youngest, now 19 & I worked on it together. :)

Steve. 

I can't disagree with you about Humbrol 30 for RAF Dark Green; why they still insist on recommending its use when they produce reasonable alternatives (116 & 163) is beyond me.🥴🙄.

Not to be outdone I've also dropped the "reversed legs" clanger on a now long gone Airfix 1/72th P-51D.  With so many of us committing this "sin" us there scope for a "wrong way round" Grope Build?🤪🙄

Like you I've often used 24 for leading edge stripes, but I've also used 153(?) for a bit of variety and the current weapon of choice is a 40-odd year old tin of the now discontinued (WHY?!?!???) 169 which gives a lovely rich, slightly orange hue and looks rather good on one of my Airfix RAF Sea Kings.

Edited by stever219
Memory leak
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