North American
P-51B Mustang

by Greg Wise

Tamiya's 1/48 scale P-51B Mustang is available online from Squadron.com

If you already know me, I know what your going to say: "Man, this guy is ate up by Mustangs".

Well maybe that's true!

The North American P-51B Mustang was the first production built Mustang to feature the Packard built Rolls Royce Merlin powerplant. It was slightly faster than the later D model but there were pros and cons associated with each version that the Mustang.

This bird was one of two similarly-named P-51s commonly assigned to Capt Rogers, a seven-victory ace with the 353rd, and the highest-ranking Mustang ace surviving today.

This aircraft is a rare P-51B-7-NA, with a extra 75 gallon fuel tank in fuselage and was one of the first 769 delivered in olive drab and grey. Modifications were made in the field that included the installation of a Malcom hood and Sutton harness along with the factory paint being striped off and a striking combination of squadron colors and ETO D-Day strips. 

Other pilots also flew this particular aircraft, such as Capt Ken Dahlberg (SHELLELAGH) who scored some of his kills in it.

This is Tamiya's beautiful kit. Minor modifications were made to the cockpit and canopy but the model was otherwise built pretty much straight out of the box.

The fit was good but Tamiya would be well advised to include a opened Malcolm hood. This would expose a well detail kit cockpit that I think is just as good as an after market replacement (at least the ones I have seen).

Testors Model Masters enamels were used for all the colors. A combination of SnJ and Testors metalizers was used for the Natural Metal Finish.

Future was applied to the canopy and the Decals are Super Scale 48-590. They went on great and setteled down with a little Micro-Sol.

A light wash of umber colored oils to pick out the lines finished off my Mustang.

I would like to thank Chuck and the gang at Stallion 51 for the subjects they would to see in 1/48. Here's another for their display case!

References included 'Mustang Aces of the Ninth & Fifteenth Air Forces & the RAF' by Jerry Scutts Osprey Aviation.

Model, Text and Images Copyright © 2000 by Greg Wise
Page Created 22 April, 2001
Last Updated 04 June, 2007

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