Thanks, Hoss!
Calling this one done.
The HB is an 'Easy Assembly' kit as advertised: plusses include clean moldings and generally excellent fit, petite and mostly-accurate panel lines, and a sparkling-clear (albeit one-piece) canopy. What interior detail is supplied -- instrument panel, seat/armor and radio rack -- is acceptable for the scale, and can be painted up to a nice standard. External stores...at least for the Korean War boxing that I purchased...were limited to a pair of standard 75-gallon 'teardrop' droptanks, sans plumbing. A nice feature is the provision of nylon gussets for the prop and wheels, allowing them to be easily and cleanly added (or removed, if necessary) post-construction.
Biggest gaff in the kit is (are?) the reverse-molded shock scissors on the landing gear struts - they point toward the front, on struts that are 'keyed' so they can only be properly poised in one way. The lack of cockpit wall detail is presumably down to the 'Easy Assembly' ethos, but two omissions are just odd. The prominent movable radiator exhaust chute...visible in virtually every photo of P-51D's, just forward of the tail-wheel...is simply absent, just a solid smooth curved surface. The other omission is more niggling, but I think it's the only kit -- of any scale or complexity -- to miss it: there's no hint of underwing ejection chutes for the six wing machine guns. [To put this in weird perspective, they did a splendid job of molding the much-tinier pattern of open perforations on the breather plates on the nose...something few manufacturers have ever attempted to do!]
All these issues were addressed during or prior-to assembly...except the missing cartridge ejection chutes, which I'm ashamed to say I didn't actually notice until it came time to decal the wings! Having no desire to further-press my luck by breaking out drill and files at this late stage...a few more scraps of black decal stock were quickly applied, to cosmetically fill in for those errant chutes.
All in all, quite a respectable kit for all its 'Easy Assembly' limitations...and a fun and cost-effective way to help pad out one's collection (and use up some of the plethora of sets of unused Mustang decals which most of us seem to have!)
For you campers unfamiliar with the story of Clyde Bennet "Stonewall" East, it's a story well-worth becoming acquainted with: America's highest-ranking reconnaissance ace (and nearly the textbook definition of the 'quiet hero'), his military flying career spanned World War II, Korea (including the first combat missions to utilize air-refueling), overflights of Cuba in RF-101 Voodoos during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, and a crisis deployment (again with Voodoos) to Southeast Asia. East commanded the 20th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron at Shaw AFB before retiring from the Air Force as a Lt.Col. in 1965. His decorations included the Silver Star, DFC with 3 oak leaf clusters, and no less than 4 separate awards of the Air Medal...with a total of 36 oak leaf clusters. Following his retirement he spent 28 years as a military analyst with the Rand Corporation in numerous studies for the USAF and the Department of Defense. Following his second retirement, he served as a docent at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, where his decorations are now proudly displayed in that institution's 'National Heroes Gallery.' Lt.Col.Clyde B. East (USAF, Ret.) passed away in July 2014, at the age of 93.
Too young to join the US Army Air Corps when World War II broke out, he had hitchhiked north to enlist in the Royal Canadian Air Force, and trained on Tiger Moths and Harvards before earning his wings and commission in 1942. Posted to England, he flew interdiction and harassment missions over France, Belgium and Holland with the RCAF's 414 Squadron, before transferring to the USAAF's 9thAF/15th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron in 1944. There he first flew Spitfires, then moved on to both the C and D models of the F-6 reconnaissance version of the P-51 Mustang. In the run-up to the Normandy invasion, he flew frequent and dangerous deep-penetration reconnaissance missions over the Continent, which were so critical to assess troop concentrations and to target infrastructure vital to German forces. On D-Day itself East became the first American to shoot down an enemy aircraft, claiming his first air combat victory by downing an Fw190. He continued to fly sorties in support of Patton's drive across France, and stayed in action until the end of the European war. His 'personal best' of 3.5 victories in a single day was achieved on April 8, 1945, in the vicinity of Dresden; he claimed two Ju87s and a Siebel Si204 as solo efforts, and shared an He111 with his wingman. By VE Day he had flown nearly 400 combat hours, and was credited with 13 aerial victories.
