JKim
Senior Master Sergeant
My next project is going to be a Mustang. The first Mustang I've ever tried. It's a great aircraft, obviously, but I was never a personal fan of those stilleto straight edges and metallic finishes. Coldly efficient was how it appeared to me. Personally, I was more drawn toward the evocative curvature of Spitfires, Messerschmitts and Zeros.
But I have to admit to getting chills down my spine when that scene in Empire of the Sun introduced the "P-51, Cadillac of the Skies!" The coolest sequence featuring a WW2 fighter that I can think of. "HORSEPOWER!!!!!!"
So I will pay homage to the Cadillac of the Skies. This is being built as a birthday gift for a friend. He's not a WW2 buff but he knows most of the American fighters of the war and his favorite is the Mustang. But instead of the definitive D version, I'm going to do a Malcolm-hooded P-51B.
Tamiya offers two versions of this aircraft in 1/48 scale, one packaged as a P-51B and the other as a British Mustang III. I believe that they are identical kits except for the decals so I simply chose the Mustang III kit as a starting point because it was 70 cents cheaper than the P-51B on Ebay.
I was originally planning to keep it as close to OOB as possible but it's impossible for me to resist those aftermarket goodies. So I'm going to address the most often criticized feature of the Tamiya kit with the resin wheel well set from Vector. I also picked up resin seats from Ultracast, which takes care of the missing seat harnesses. Finally, I got the Eduard canopy masks for the P-51B, mostly for those pesky small fuselage cut-out windows... I think I can manage the Malcolm hood without Eduard's help.
The Vector wheel wells are impressively detailed but it looks like it'll be a pain to paint properly since most of it cast as a single piece. I'm not familiar with the Mustang so I'll have to do some research on this one with regards to wheel well and cockpit colors.
The Ultracast resin seats come in pairs. The harnesses are molded onto the seat. With careful painting I'm hoping that these can be made to look a bit more realistic than the stiff P.E. harnesses that I normally use.
The Tamiya kit isn't overly elaborate. Only two grey sprues and one clear. The molding is circa 1994 and is no longer state-of-the-art. Still very good though.
Another issue with the Tamiya kit is that it depicts the cockpit floor as a curved surface, presumably the top of the wing. But the real P-51B had a flat floor above the wing surface. I doubt that you can see this curvature, especially if one leaves the canopy shut but it looks to be an easy fix.
The instrument panel features molded bezels but no instrument details within. That means I'm forced to use the decal, which didn't look too impressive at first glance.
Two types of exhaust pipes are offered, shrouded and unshrouded. I haven't decided on a particular aircraft yet so we'll have to see what type of exhaust I'll be using. The ends will need to be hollowed out... no slide molding in 1994!
Just to confirm that I bought the right type of seat. Looks like a match.
The other sprue holds the wings. I know that the wing surfaces of the Mustang were often puttied so I'll have to think about filling in some panel lines.
I'll also have to do some surgery on the inside surface of the bottom wing so that the resin wheel well will fit. Fun, fun, fun!
The wheels and tires look ok to me. Hopefully the tread pattern is aligned along the mold seam.
The clear parts feature the two main canopy types. There are two version of the birdcage, open and closed but only a closed version of the Malcolm hood. I'm a canopy-closed kind of guy so this should be ok. The canopy is clear but on thick side and has a fair bit of distortion.
The decal sheet looks to be typical Tamiya... flat finished and on the thick side. I'll be going aftermarket for the aircraft markings. I want to avoid using any of these Tamiya decals so hopefully the AM decals will have stencils too.
The instrument panel decal isn't very convincing but might look ok if I punch out the dials. I'll have a peek at my spares to see if I can cobble together better instruments.
But I have to admit to getting chills down my spine when that scene in Empire of the Sun introduced the "P-51, Cadillac of the Skies!" The coolest sequence featuring a WW2 fighter that I can think of. "HORSEPOWER!!!!!!"
So I will pay homage to the Cadillac of the Skies. This is being built as a birthday gift for a friend. He's not a WW2 buff but he knows most of the American fighters of the war and his favorite is the Mustang. But instead of the definitive D version, I'm going to do a Malcolm-hooded P-51B.
Tamiya offers two versions of this aircraft in 1/48 scale, one packaged as a P-51B and the other as a British Mustang III. I believe that they are identical kits except for the decals so I simply chose the Mustang III kit as a starting point because it was 70 cents cheaper than the P-51B on Ebay.
I was originally planning to keep it as close to OOB as possible but it's impossible for me to resist those aftermarket goodies. So I'm going to address the most often criticized feature of the Tamiya kit with the resin wheel well set from Vector. I also picked up resin seats from Ultracast, which takes care of the missing seat harnesses. Finally, I got the Eduard canopy masks for the P-51B, mostly for those pesky small fuselage cut-out windows... I think I can manage the Malcolm hood without Eduard's help.
The Vector wheel wells are impressively detailed but it looks like it'll be a pain to paint properly since most of it cast as a single piece. I'm not familiar with the Mustang so I'll have to do some research on this one with regards to wheel well and cockpit colors.
The Ultracast resin seats come in pairs. The harnesses are molded onto the seat. With careful painting I'm hoping that these can be made to look a bit more realistic than the stiff P.E. harnesses that I normally use.
The Tamiya kit isn't overly elaborate. Only two grey sprues and one clear. The molding is circa 1994 and is no longer state-of-the-art. Still very good though.
Another issue with the Tamiya kit is that it depicts the cockpit floor as a curved surface, presumably the top of the wing. But the real P-51B had a flat floor above the wing surface. I doubt that you can see this curvature, especially if one leaves the canopy shut but it looks to be an easy fix.
The instrument panel features molded bezels but no instrument details within. That means I'm forced to use the decal, which didn't look too impressive at first glance.
Two types of exhaust pipes are offered, shrouded and unshrouded. I haven't decided on a particular aircraft yet so we'll have to see what type of exhaust I'll be using. The ends will need to be hollowed out... no slide molding in 1994!
Just to confirm that I bought the right type of seat. Looks like a match.
The other sprue holds the wings. I know that the wing surfaces of the Mustang were often puttied so I'll have to think about filling in some panel lines.
I'll also have to do some surgery on the inside surface of the bottom wing so that the resin wheel well will fit. Fun, fun, fun!
The wheels and tires look ok to me. Hopefully the tread pattern is aligned along the mold seam.
The clear parts feature the two main canopy types. There are two version of the birdcage, open and closed but only a closed version of the Malcolm hood. I'm a canopy-closed kind of guy so this should be ok. The canopy is clear but on thick side and has a fair bit of distortion.
The decal sheet looks to be typical Tamiya... flat finished and on the thick side. I'll be going aftermarket for the aircraft markings. I want to avoid using any of these Tamiya decals so hopefully the AM decals will have stencils too.
The instrument panel decal isn't very convincing but might look ok if I punch out the dials. I'll have a peek at my spares to see if I can cobble together better instruments.
