Completed Review - Tamiya F-51D Mustang, built as a late WW2 P-51D, (60754) - Part 2

Scale: 1:72, RRP - £12.99

I'm going to cut to the chase with this review. Since the beginning of this blog I've been trying to reach a level of building that I'm happy with, and from that point continue to improve. The Airfix A6M2b Zero came close, but this build was the one where I finally reached my goal.

For those of you joining part way through this build I elected to backdate the Korean War F-51D to a late Second World War P-51D, one flown by the late Charles Weaver of the 357th Fighter Group, named "Passion Wagon." The reason for this was I had bought this kit second hand and some (but not all as it happens) of the decals had perished.

In an earlier post I alluded to my belief that sometimes it's worth paying more because you get a better kit and this kit proved to be a prime example. The fit is near perfect, even when I replaced the cockpit with a resin one and had to cut and use original parts alongside it. There's just a touch more class about a Tamiya kit, reflected throughout the whole product. Detailed instructions, poly-caps for the propellers (and a spare set for the alternative propeller) are just some of the things that come to mind.

In addition to this the decal options were varied and although the main reason for me backdating this model to a late WW2 P-51D was a set of perished decals I still found myself able to use some of the originals (not bad for a 10+ years old perished set)! I should add that I was fairly impressed with the Kitsworld decals but I'll follow this post with another about them.

The only additions I felt it was necessary to add were a small bit of clear plastic to the gun-sight and a few leftover photo-etch parts from my Academy P-51B build. The photo-etch seatbelts included in the CMK set I consider a must compared to the decal ones included in the kit, but this kit does pre-date such additions. I'll add wires and the rear view mirror at a later date as I'm planning on mounting this model in a case at some point in the future and those parts are a bit delicate.

So onto the photos:

The only part of my build that I'm dissatisfied with is my filing just in front of the wind-shield (somewhat more noticeable in the photos above than it is to the naked eye). If I can eliminate such mistakes from my future builds I'll be more than happy. But for now I'm hoping this build is the one that leads me onto better things.

Overall Build Score: 4.5 out of 5, for a kit that's more than 10 years old this is still a class above the rest. A perfectly reasonable price for such a clean fitting, precision kit that you'll find a pleasure to build.

WIP - Academy's P-51B Mustang & Tamiya's F-51D Mustang

Carrying on from where I left off I realise that my Christmas Mustangs project is rapidly becoming an Easter Mustangs project.

So here's some work in progress shots, both kits are painted and ready for decals. Since getting my new airbrush I've managed to actually paint the white stripes on the wings of the Tamiya model while the Academy one was painted with my old airbrush.

Academy's P-51B

Academy's P-51B

Tamiya's F-51D (as a P-51D)

Tamiya's F-51D (as a P-51D)

Actually; I couldn't resist starting on the decals for the Tamiya kit before writing this post...

Build Review - Tamiya's F-51D Mustang (built as a late WW2 P-51D) - Part 1

It's been a while since I last looked at my Christmas Mustang project. The Academy P-51B Mustang, Old Crow, (kit #1667 or #12464) is now at a stage where's it's been painted and is ready for the decals to be applied. However before I do that I thought I'd get the Tamiya kit that I'd planned on building to the same stage.

You may remember I planned on converting the F-51D to a late Second World War P-51D, one flown by Charles Weaver of the 357th Fighter Group, named "Passion Wagon".

As previously mentioned I was to replace the kit decals (which had perished) with a set from Kits-World (set #2049) and the cockpit with a resin set from CMK (#7172).

So to start with I had to build the cockpit. The set from CMK provided a nice cockpit but as there were no side walls (unlike a lot of the resins sets from Aires) I didn't initially feel it offered much more than the part it was replacing. However where it came into it's own was the highly detailed seat, the photo-etch parts and the instrument panel. These did eventually make enough of a difference to convince me that this set was worth buying.


The resin parts fitted well, but I did need to remove the rear wall from the original cockpit piece as a rear wall wasn't included. I found the best way to do this was to glue the resin cockpit to one of the sides, let it set and then added the plastic rear wall and then finally the radiator. Each time I also dry fitted the other side of the aircraft to ensure that when I finally put them together they did indeed fit!

It should be noted I've since removed the seat to make masking the cockpit that bit easier

So initial thoughts are the main difference between this kit and the Academy kit was that there weren't any of the frustrating fit issues that you get with the Academy kit. The Tamiya kit appears to have been made with that slight bit of extra precision. Of course you are going to pay more for this but I'm slowly coming round to thinking that the extra cost is worth it for less hassle when assembling.