P-51C Beguine

Halberd Models, 1/48 scale

Reviewed by John Meyer

5 September 1949: The 1949 National Air Races were a three-day event held at the Cleveland Municipal Airport, southwest of Cleveland, Ohio, over the three-day Labor Day holiday weekend, 3–5 September 1949. The day’s major event was the Thompson Trophy Race. This was a 15-lap race around a 7-turn,  15-mile course (225 statute miles/362 kilometers), marked by a tall pylon at the airport, and barrage balloons at the other turns. Since 1946, the competitors flew military fighter aircraft, some of which had been heavily modified from their original configurations. One of the air racers was William Paul (“Bill”) Odom, flying a radically-modified North American Aviation P-51C Mustang, which was owned by the world-famous aviatrix, Jacqueline (“Jackie”) Cochran.

During 1948–1949, Mustang 42-103757 was radically modified as an Unlimited Class air racer. The lower portion of the P-51’s fuselage was removed and faired over. The radiator and engine oil coolers were relocated to the wingtips pods. According to one source, the cooling pods were made from modified FJ-1 Fury fuel tanks. The  former owner, J.D. Reed had named the racer “Beguine” after Cole Porter’s “Begin the Beguine.” The music from the song was painted along the Mustang’s fuselage, along with the race number 7.

At the start of the race, Odom quickly took the lead. On the second lap, as Beguine approached Pylon 4, it rolled upside down and crashed into a house near the airport killing Odom and two people on the ground; a tragic end for both pilot and aircraft. 

Text edited from “This Day in Aviation.”

https://www.thisdayinaviation.com/5-september-1949/

The model is made entirely of resin by Halberd Models, a company known for making quality conversions and kits of rare or esoteric aircraft. The model was built straight from the box with the exception of 3-D printed cockpit decals from Quinta Studio. The Quinta decals are beautifully printed and are for a stock military Mustang. Who knows what the cockpit of Beguine really looked like…  My goal was make the cockpit sufficiently busy without a lot of work and the Quinta set did the trick. The decals were held in place with a little white glue (Elmer’s).

The fit of the major components was quite nice and cyanoacrylate glue (Bob Smith Industries) was used throughout the build. Filler wasn’t needed except on the fuselage seam, which was filled with Tamiya White Putty.

Color and Markings

The model was painted AK Real Colors British Racing Green (RC847) diluted to 25% paint with 70% Mr. Color Thinner and 5% Mr. Retarder. The paint was applied at Xpsi first as a dry coat followed shortly by a wet coat. An H-S Evolution fitted with a 0.28mm tip was used. (Please verify airbrush and tip size—Thanks!!).

When the Racing Green had dried, a coat of AK Gloss diluted to 30% in Mr. Color Thinner was applied. This was allowed to dry two days in preparation for the decals.  

The Halberd kit decals were printed in a gold tone. That said, all the pictures I could find of Beguine made it look like the markings were yellow. Instead of the kit decals a sheet produced by Draw Decals (48s-P51-101) was used. The Draw Decals are printed in a bright yellow and just water was used for application; no decal solvents. Once dry, the decals were over-shot with a coat of AK Gloss (30% in Mr. Color Leveling Thinner).

https://www.drawdecal.com/product/p-51c-beguine/

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Thumbnail panels:

The propellor and spinner were shot with AK Black Base (AK471) followed by AK Polished Aluminum (AK481). The chin intake and landing gear struts were painted with just AK Polished Aluminum.

Well, that’s about it. I really enjoyed building this kit. It is amazing to me that a small Ukrainian company like Halberd would produce such a quality model of a relatively rare aircraft that flew in the 1949 Thompson Trophy Race. Thanks, Halberd!

For more on this review visit ModelPaintSolutions.com

Review Text and Images Copyright © 2025 by John Meyer / Model Paint Solutions
Page Created 1 August, 2025
Last updated 2 August, 2025

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