Carrera Revell North American P-51D-15 Mustang (03838) 1/32 Carrera Revell

[Julien]

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

[treker_ed]

Great review and just in time! Have literally just picked one up from Bekra Models in Newton Abbot (well SWMBO did for me as a late Christmas present!) Have already built the early, so this will complement that quite nicely.

One thing about the decals, says on the sheet that they have been designed in association with Eduard! The coding hints at being printed by the other Italian decal printers that begins with a Z( but cannot for the life of me remember their full name 😟 Senior moment 😁)

Edited December 29, 2021 by treker_ed

[Mike]

18 minutes ago, treker_ed said:

The coding hints at being printed by the other Italian decal printers that begins with a Z( but cannot for the life of me remember their full name 😟 Senior moment 😁)

Zanetti - I couldn't remember either, so I have a sticker over my workbench.  Old age sucks, eh?

[treker_ed]

14 minutes ago, Mike said:

Zanetti - I couldn't remember either, so I have a sticker over my workbench.  Old age sucks, eh?

Speak for yourself..... I'm only 51🥴🥴😁😉🙏

[epozar]

Once in the past Revell used to make "The Millie P." all red
https://www.scalemates.com/kits/revell-h-619-p-51d-mustang--158272