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Kit
No: 1663 Decal options: 3 Comments: A welcome attempt at the Allison engined series, shame about the wrong wing! |
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Italeri
- 1/72 P-51 Mustang
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| While the P-51 has been a stable subject amongst kit manufacturers,
the only mainstream 1:72 model of early Allison engined version was the
old Frog effort from around 30 years back. Moulded in pale grey plastic, the kit features a new sprue with a revised fuselage as well as new seat, armoured headrest, wheels and radio shelf. The recessed panel lines, while a little short of the standards of Japanese or Korean kits, nonetheless look effective under a coat of primer. The canopy is moulded in one piece and lacks some framing, but the rear section does include a portion of fuselage though, enabling modellers to fair this in and then just paint up to the glass - a neat approach. Alternative parts are included for the wing cannons used by the RAF Mustang Mk.1's. The fit of parts is good, provided you take care with your prep work. The wing sprue is a straight repeat from the F-51D kit and as such you get some surplus cockpit and undercarriage parts. Alas, this is where the kit also comes unstuck - the early P-51 wing differed from the later 'D' version in having much narrower chord-width at the wing root, as well as some panel changes. To backdate this wing, you have to sand back the leading edge wing fillet as well as scribing in some new panel lines. It's not difficult, but some modellers may balk at this, asking why Italeri didn't do it in the first place. Decals cater for two aircraft - 'Mah Sweet' of the 154th Reconnaissance Squadron, USAAF in olive drab/neutral grey, and and RAF Mustang I of No.26 Squadron. The registration in my sample was good but the colours for the RAF roundels were too bright. The finished model captures the look of the early P-51 (other than the wing), though the curve of the nose to my eye looks a little too severe, but this too can be corrected with sanding. Overall, a mixed bag - on the plus side, it's nice to have a more modern kit of the early P-51 and the model does retail at their usual bargain-basement price and It's a shame though that Italeri either didn't do their homework or perhaps didn't have the budget to properly rework this kit. Either way, building this Mustang means more is required from the conscientious modeller other than just sticking the parts together. |
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