Academy 1/72 P-51B Mustang

It's not a P-51B, it's a straight P-51, or at best, a P-51A (or an F-6) with the Allison engine.

If you want to do an open pit, you may wish to look a the P-51B kit, which does provide optional parts to display the canopy open.

The Academy P-51s are nice little kits, with the exception of the D model, which is a re-pop of something truly ancient - Frog, perhaps.

The "North Africa" kit is indeed an Allison-engined Mustang. I haven't seen one, but I have the C model and a B in progress right now. They both provide an open canopy option, as well as a Malcom Hood. I can't speak to the other kit, though. In my experience, building them with the canopy open is the way to go - the parts for the closed canopy don't fit well.

Kev

Calvin, I have built this kit and the cockpit is pretty decent for the scale.  The Canopy does cme with a seperate windscreen so you could possibly modify to be open if you wanted to.  All in all in was a great build with the usual comments on the kit decals.  Thick and hard to get snuggled down.  Also the wing stripes were not quite long enough so they required a little bit of paint to finish it off.  HTH!

C,

Check this out - FSM has a review of an Academy P-51B. I don;t know if it's the same issue - but it says that it comes with an optional closed or open canopy.  Plus it'll give you other info about the kit.

http://www.finescale.com/fsm/default.aspx?c=a&id=137

I built Academy's C version.  Compared to the Hasegawa D and a Revell of Germany B that I've built, I thought it was the best of the bunch.  Very nice detail all over the surface, in the wheel wells and in the cockpit. 

I might have overdone it a bit on the weathering - it was an experiment.

Chris

Calvin,

I've yet to build the Academy A which the North Africa kit is, but their B/C builds up very nicely.  Almost as nice as the Tamiya D model.

Dave,

Nice work, may have to add this to the list of candidates for the Weekend GB.

Chris,

Nice work on the C.

Dave & Chris great little birds! I've searched everywhere around here locally, the market is pretty much dominated by cheap Revell kits and a very poor showing of 1/72 scale. One shop had a pretty good selection of 1/72 WWI birds but I remained true to my mission and kept the pocket book in my pocket, I will be ordering tonight.

Ordered!! Picked up an Academy 1/72 Messerschmitt Bf109G to build along side it. Can't wait! Thanks for all of the help everyone! Looking forward to posting a build.

Edit:: oh yea I ended up getting the B version, if I like it enough my next will be the C version and I'll pick up an axis plane along with it, cant have bedroom dogfights with just allied planes right?

Jimbot,

Judging by your signature it looks like you are a master of the 1/72nd scale, mind if I ask which 1/72 you have enjoyed the most, and which you thought it have the most detail?

MIflyer wrote:

The Academy P-51s are nice little kits, with the exception of the D model, which is a re-pop of something truly ancient - Frog, perhaps.

The early Academy-Minicraft P-51D kit was poorly done. It had a reasonably accurate outline but details were soft and it had some serious errors; the most notable being the seven exhaust stubs each side!

The current P-51D is not the same kit. It is a huge improvement and very well done with usual Academy quality & detail for the scale. It isn't quite as good as the Tamiya kit but at less than half the price, it offers excellent value for money.

Geomodeller wrote:

MIflyer wrote: The Academy P-51s are nice little kits, with the exception of the D model, which is a re-pop of something truly ancient - Frog, perhaps. The early Academy-Minicraft P-51D kit was poorly done. It had a reasonably accurate outline but details were soft and it had some serious errors; the most notable being the seven exhaust stubs each side! The current P-51D is not the same kit. It is a huge improvement and very well done with usual Academy quality & detail for the scale. It isn't quite as good as the Tamiya kit but at less than half the price, it offers excellent value for money.

Thanks for that info, I didn't realize the kit had been updated. The only version I've seen is the older one - the elusive V-14 powered 'Stang.

Kev