P-51D Mustang

by Phil Hastie

 Tamiya's 1/72 scale F-51D Mustang is available online from Squadron

This model is built straight from the box using the Tamiya 1/72 Scale F-51D kit with nose art decals from the Ventura P-51D RAAF/RNZAF sheet, roundels and numbers from Aussie Decals and the Aircraft Identification markings were painted on by hand.

The subject aircraft is depicted with a black diamond marking in “Mustangs of the RAAF and RNZAF” by Peter Anderson. I believe this is what Ventura based their decals on, but later research has shown it to be red in colour. A picture on page 29 of this book shows the diamond to be a different tonal value to the black serial number. Recently the newest P-51D warbird restoration in Australia has been painted with these markings but with the Squadron’s “FA” codes in front of the fuselage roundels.

The wing panel lines were filled, sanded and painted with Humbrol 56 Aluminium to give the look of the NACA wing that was fitted to the P-51D.

The fuselage was painted with Testor Model Masters Metallic Polished Aluminium and sealed with Johnson Super Stride (the Aussie equivalent of Future). Super Stride was also used as the gloss cote all through the painting process.

The silver colour scheme was referenced from the book “The Modeller’s Guide To The RAAF Mustang” by Gary Byk. This book is a great reference book for any P-51 modeller.

The Ventura decals started to crack on me during application due to their age and this is why I had to use the Aussie Decals for the serial numbers and roundels.

I discovered after making nice little strips of black decals for the aircraft identification markings and applying them that they should have been red not black, and I then had to carefully hand paint the red over top of the black decals.

The kit goes together really well with no major problems that I could find and the panel lines whilst needing to be filled for correct interpretation of the NACA wing are not to deep. I found the seatbelt decal whilst not 3D was still effective in this scale.

The kit also includes the correct blades to build a P-51K. This model is the best 1/72 scale kit around is reasonable value at around USD$14.00 in Australia
 

Model, Images and Text Copyright © 2002 by Phil Hastie
Page Created 11 August, 2002
Last Updated 04 June, 2007

Back to HyperScale Main Page

Back to Features Index