Hello,
This is that one kit I bought when it first came out (I believe 2011 or so) and it has been sitting there on the shelf intimidating me ever since. I figured it was way too expensive to screw up, so it just sat there and scoffed at me for about 6 or so years. I essentially want to improve my modeling skills to where I could do it some justice. Well, now that I have two of Tamiya's 1/32 Corsairs under my belt, which I think turned out fairly decent, I figured it's time to face my fears and dive in. I haven't been this excited about a build in quite a while. Please join me.
Aside from this dilema, I was also waiting for the right markings, inspiration if you will, as I wanted to do the kit justice. I recently watched a documentary on 352 FG ace George Preddy Jr. who scored 26.83 kills, to include 6 Bf 109's that he destroyed on August 6, 1944. It was then settled, I had to build one of his Cripes-A-Mighty mounts. Fortunately my search for his decals was short when I found the Eagle Cals book (EC#100) which discusses each of his Mustangs in depth and provides decals for them. It was expensive but well worth it.
Now I needed to decide which C-A-M. That was a no-brainer. I picked C-A-M the 3rd, #4413321, in which Preddy scored most of his kills, to include the 6 109s in August of 1944. At one point this plane had full invasion stripes, which I find appealing too. I'll have to decide on the full stripes or partial. Here's another interesting fact regarding this particular airframe. After Preddy was done with it, when he went stateside for awhile, it was still used in combat up until April of 1945 and subsequently renamed twice. As a result, it ended up being the highest scoring P-51 in the whole war!
So one dives in. They have you start with the engine, but since mine will be closed up, I skipped to the cockpit. Like the Corsair, the cockpit is a sight to behold. Resin would be comical. Tamiya provides various pieces for early and late models. Since I was building an early D, I tried to stick with the early parts, most notably the seat. I never knew the D had two different seats. I painted the cockpit much pretty exactly like my last P-51 (Airfix), to include the chipping fluid on the floor to simulate the worn black floor which revealed the wood underneath. I didn't like the kit supplied thick metal seatbelts, so I added some Eduard seatbelts which in this scale are quite detailed. They were a pain to assemble but worth it. I added some battery wires too.
Sidewall detail is stunning too....here's the starboard.
Here's Port...
All together?
The instrument panel is nice too. You get a decal that goes behind the clear piece which goes in the panel from behind to silmulate glass dial. Dare I say the glass is a tad thick which makes the dials sort of tough to see. It still looks ok once assembled under the gunsight and coaming, but it could have been better. Next time I'll fire Airscale decals over the top of each glass dial.
A test fit in the fuselage. So far it fits nice.
I'll be building the engine next. I do wish they would design these so this step wasn't necessary if you wanted it closed up. It just seemed like unecessary work...oh well.