P-51A Mustang
‘Precious Metal II’

High Planes, 1/48 scale

Reviewed by Brad Fallen

Eduard's 1/48 spitfire Mk.IX Royal Class is available online from Squadron.com
 

“Precious Metal II”/N8082U is a replica, twin-seat North American P-51A Mustang that was built by Gerry Beck at his Tri-State Aviation facility in Wahpeton, North Dakota, and first flown in 2006.  Racing against other warbirds for the film “Thunder over Reno”, Beck’s P-51A was finished in the same natural metal/green livery as the Griffon-engined P-51D “Precious Metal” – one of its sparring partners in the movie.  A search on www.youtube.com will produce some excellent footage of the two P-51s flying against each other.

The flying career of “Precious Metal II” was tragically short.  Beck was landing the aircraft at the Experimental Aircraft Association Airventure show at Oshkosh, Wisconsin on 27 July 2007 when it clipped a P-51D that had touched down just ahead.  The P-51A rolled to starboard and crashed, fatally injuring Beck.  According to a National Transportation Safety Board report, “Precious Metal II” had a total flight time of just 127.5 hours at the time of the crash.

Beck’s wife, Cindy, has continued to run Tri-State Aviation following the accident, specializing in P-51 builds and restorations.  The latter includes the P-51A, which Cindy said during a 2011 radio interview was being restored to flying condition.

“Precious Metal II” was powered by an Allison V-1710-81 engine.  Both Beck and Cindy have referred to the aircraft as the “ultimate home-build”.  On his application for the P-51A’s Special Airworthiness Certificate, Beck described the project as a “built from scratch exact full scale replica of the North American P-51A Mustang. It is a 'Plans Built' aircraft built from the original production drawings acquired from the National Archives. The only exception would be the landing gear and a handful of original small components.” 

I think it is reasonable to say that, notwithstanding its inherent interest as a modelling subject, “Precious Metal II” was an unlikely candidate for recreation in kit form.  However, this is exactly what High Planes Models, a Singapore-based (previously Australian-based) company that markets a wide variety of kits and accessories, has done.  High Planes’ focus is on 1/72 and 1/48 aircraft and particularly warbird racers, with 10 racers available in 1/48 scale alone.   Many High Planes aircraft kits are in-house productions – either limited run injection moulded kits, or packages that combine in-house decals and accessories with another manufacturer’s plastic to create a completely different package. 

High Planes’ 1/48 “Precious Metal II” kit falls into the second category, being a combination of ICM plastic parts and High Planes resin parts and decals.

The kit is packaged in a mid-sized, sturdy top opening box that features dramatic art of “Precious Metal II” performing aerobatics above an airport runway. 

Inside the box, ICM’s P-51A sprues occupy most of the space.  ICM’s large range of 1/48 kits, which include Spitfire Mk.IX, Bf 109 F, LaGG-3, Hs 126 and P-51 families, will be familiar to most readers.  While ICM’s more recent LaGG-3 and Hs 126 kits have been generally well received, its earlier releases – including the P-51 kits – have had a mixed reputation in terms of quality control, buildability and in some cases accuracy.  Many modelers have also noted the similarity between ICM’s P-51 kits and earlier 1/48 kits of these subjects by Accurate Miniatures and Tamiya.

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The ICM parts in the High Planes kit are held on six sprues of white plastic and one sprue of clear plastic.  Many of the parts are not required, reflecting the fact that ICM’s P-51A includes sprues from both P-51B and P-51/Mustang IA kits.  Because the parts aren’t numbered on the sprues and the High Planes instructions don’t contain a sprue map, you will need to choose your parts carefully, cross-referencing them with the thankfully clearly set out assembly illustrations.  A selection of reference photos – and thankfully there are plenty of “Precious Metal II” on the internet – will also be invaluable during construction.

The white plastic parts are of reasonable quality, with good definition but also prominent flash and mould seam lines that will require careful clean-up.  Panel lines and other surface details are acceptable although a little soft.  There are no locating tabs on the main airframe components, although if parts are carefully aligned during construction this should not be a problem.  A test fit of the fuselage and wings revealed no major problems, although some fettling will be needed to achieve a smooth upper wing to fuselage transition.  The ICM parts are best summed up as typical of limited run Eastern European kits of about a decade ago – which is of course what they are.

The clear parts look good – not as transparent as those of current mainstream kits, but they should be very acceptable after a coat of Future.  There is no option provided for an open canopy, so if you want to display your model with one you’ll need to find a vacform replacement.

ICM’s mixing-and-matching of Allison- and Merlin-engined P-51 kit sprues has created some accuracy issues.  These include the kit’s P-51B wings that – with two fairings ahead of the ailerons on the upper surface of each wing – are not appropriate for an Allison-engined Mustang.  Fortunately the fairings are easily removed; less straightforward to remedy is the inaccurate carburetor scoop above the engine and immediately behind the propeller.  This scoop is long and narrow, reflecting the style installed on the P-51 and Mustang IA rather than the later P-51A, which had a scoop of similar length but much thicker, and slightly bulged at the front end.  Photos confirm that “Precious Metal II” was fitted with this latter style, not the narrow scoop that is provided on the kit parts.  An easy, but expensive, way of addressing this issue would be to substitute Accurate Miniatures P-51A fuselage halves for the ICM parts; otherwise you’ll need to modify the kit parts, or ignore the issue.

Cockpit detail is modest, but the essentials are present and provide a solid basis for anyone wanting to add further detail.  “Precious Metal II” was, of course, a twin-seat aircraft, with the second seat tucked in behind the pilot where the radio equipment would be located in a military aircraft.  This is where High Planes’ resin parts are used, in the form of an extended cockpit floor, new rear bulkhead, and two nicely detailed seats. 

The instructions are clear on where these new parts need to go, but I’d recommend using reference photos to assist here.  While some minor surgery is required on the fuselage halves to install the parts, the end result will be a very different looking Mustang cockpit.  The resin parts are cleanly cast with no air bubbles or imperfections, and are attached to reasonably stout casting blocks.

The instructions are contained in a four-page A4 booklet.  The front page includes a short history of “Precious Metal II”, and a useful reference table that matches the colour call-outs in the instructions with equivalent paint colours from Gunze, Humbrol, Model Master, Revell, Tamiya, Extracolor and Alclad.  The middle pages provide a step-by-step assembly guide in the form of clearly marked exploded drawings, while the final page is a painting and marking guide.

Markings

Markings are provided for “Precious Metal II” as it was finished at the time of the Oshkosh accident in 2007, with a natural metal fuselage, willow green wings, light grey rudder, and grey carburetor scoop, wingtips, forward wing roots and rear fuselage panel.  Four view drawings are provided to assist with painting and decal placement, although (once again) reference photos will assist greatly, particularly in highlighting the tonal differences between fuselage panels.

The small decal sheet reflects the fact that “Precious Metal II” didn’t carry many markings – its name, race number, civil aviation registration code, and sponsorship logos.  The decals are crisply printed, and appear to accurately match the markings of the real aircraft.  There is a large amount of carrier film around most of the decals, which you might want to trim off to minimise the chances of silvering.  

This is a well-produced kit of an interesting aircraft.  It’s not perfect; the ICM plastic parts are inaccurate in some areas, although not fatally so.  Nor is it a kit for beginners:  it is a limited run-style offering for modelers with a specific interest in warbird racers.  Within these parameters, however, High Planes has created an attractive package that is an excellent (and the only commercially available) starting point for modelling “Precious Metal II” in 1/48 scale. *

Highly recommended for experienced modelers.

* High Planes has also released a 1/72 kit of “Precious Metal II” (http://www.hpmhobbies.com/high-planes-p-51a-mustang-precious-metal-ii-racer-kit-kit-1-72/).

References:

References

Hyperscale’s Plane Talking Forum – many thanks to Chad Veich and Colin Ford for responding to my post asking for information on “Precious Metal II”.

WarBird Radio.com interview with Cindy Beck and Tri-State Aviation staff, 30 June 2011: 
http://www.warbirdradio.com/2011/06/tristate-aviations-cindy-beck-the-warbird-rescue-hour-thursday-8pm-eastern/

www.mustangsmustangs.com (http://www.mustangsmustangs.com/p-51/p51survivors/pages/43-BeckA.shtml)

Bert Kinzey, P-51 Mustang in Detail and Scale:  Part 1 – Prototype through P-51C (Squadron Signal Publications, 1996).

Thanks to Eduard for the sample and for the images.

Review Text Copyright © 2013 by Brad Fallen
Page Created 20 August, 2013
Last updated 20 August, 2013

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