new tool 1:72 nd Airfix Spitfire Mk. Vc build review (2) -finished

 

Shark-mouthed Spitfire Mk. Vc MX*P (ER180) of the 307th FS/31st FG, La Senia, Algeria, November 1942. In Dennis Kucera's 'In a Now Forgotten Sky', there is a photo of MX-P with Capt Arthur P. Holloway Jr of the 307th FS standing on the wing of this machine. 

According to Tony O'Toole's notes prepared when building the 48th Revell kit, it appears that this machine may still have had an RAF roundel on the lower surfaces...

first look in the box new-tool KP Mustang P-51 B/C and early P-51s in 1:72nd scale and the trouble with wing kinks

First look at the new-tool KP P-51 B/C Mustang in the box.

As a general rule most 72nd scale early P-51s are pretty inaccurate and a bit of a minefield. The Hasagawa kit - although probably the best looking model in this scale - had a number of errors; a cowling that flattened out over the exhausts, a P-51 D wing and a very shallow wheel well. Academy, although beautifully moulded, features an overly long windscreen which makes the canopy a little short along with the shallow style wheel well. Revell P-51 B/Cs apparently look good overall but the kit is let down by a very narrow seat and very poorly moulded clear parts and again a shallow wheel well. I am told that both the Academy and Revell wings are still not correct for a P-51 B/C. I haven't actually built the Revell kit yet but here is my Academy B/C (alongside the new-tool Airfix D in 72nd). I have a few of these in the stash and aside from the canopy which doesn't appear to fit too well, they are a decent kit..

The biggest problem on most 72nd scale P-51 B-Cs is the wing 'kink' but after comparing with the drawing below, the new KP kit looks to have this reproduced this area well. The problem on other kits seems to occur because the 'kink' on the P-51 D starts both further forward on the fuselage and further outboard on the wing than the earlier versions. Hasegawa put the start of the l/e kink at the right place on the wing, but too far forward (P-51 D place) on the fuselage; Revell did exactly the opposite, getting the fuselage location correct, but using the -51D wing starting point. Academy got the kink shape right, but by basically copying the Hasegawa kit fuselage, made the wing too broad.

drawing below by Martin 'Occa'

more from the KP kit - the 112 Sqd 'sharkmouth' option looks great...

Airfix North American P-51 Mustang Mk.IV Gift set - GA-S 112 Sqd - second finish of the month!

 Just finished this one which is good as I've managed to snap the nozzle in my airbrush when trying to extract it for cleaning - won't do that again in a hurry! As before, the weak point of this brilliant little kit is the sliding canopy hood as a two part assembly comprising of a `solid’ plastic framework and a clear glazing bubble. Same applies to the windscreen - because of this extreme care must be taken when removing the clear parts from the sprue as any mistakes cannot be hidden later and the joint between the parts is very toy like. 

   


 After two coats of Dark Green disruptive camouflage the model had a couple of coats Klear applied ready to receive the decals. Unfortunately the decals provided by Airfix for GA-S have a few errors. The roundels for the fuselage and lower wings are good and were used, along with the sharks mouth and fin stripes. The kit decals include red and blue B Type roundels for the upper wing surfaces which should in fact be the late war C Type with the narrow white ring - these were sourced from the Italeri P-51 kit. The code letters for GA-S appear to be white which is correct, but the serial number KH774 is missing from the sheet altogether. Also missing is the small crocodile insignia which was applied to the left fin area of Mustangs painted by 159 MU, but this could be sourced from the decal sheet of the old Airfix Mustang kit. Note the so-called 'firewall' paint job on this 112 Sqd Mustang. An oil wash brings out some of the nice panel line detail, especially on the resin louvred intake from Freightdog which can be seen nicely in the view below. Also worth mentioning that Freightdog do corrected decals for this machine as well now, which I should really think about investing in as I have no manufacturers decal on my resin Aeroproducts 'uncuffed' prop....you can click on the images to get in a little closer if you've a mind to..cheers, thanks for looking  and see you soon..

RAF Mustang IV Airfix Gift set with Freightdog Models update set

Unlike the older previous Airfix Mustang kit, which included optional propeller parts to allow a P-51D or P-51K  kit to be built from the box plus a variety of underwing stores including bombs or drop tanks, the new-tool is rather lacking in this respect since all you get in the box is the Hamilton Standard propeller of the P-51 D version plus one set of drop tanks which lack their distinctive 'seam'. Unfortunately this means that the RAF option (a  P-51 K or Mk IVa) featured in the Gift set boxing does not have the 'uncuffed' Aeroproducts propeller nor the distinctive louvered intakes which were fitted to the side of the engine cowlings on many RAF Mustangs. The aircraft featured on the decal sheet of the gift boxing is the well known KH774 GA-S from 112 Squadron. Fortunately Freightdog models have produced a neat little update set which includes a new prop and lower 'louvered' engine cowl..

Here I've made a start on the kit by cutting away the lower cowl - very straightforward since you simply follow the panel lines and the resin insert drops into place. Note that the kit decal sheet provides no serial while the codes are depicted as grey when they should be white. On the painting instructions the propeller spinner is shown to be black when it should either be the wartime red or the post war colour adopted by the unit which was thought to be light blue.

new-tool Airfix Bf 110 C/D in 72nd scale

'M8+AP' Hptm. Heinz Nacke (12 vics) 6./ZG 76, Greece, May 1941

The Airfix Bf 110 was one of the early new-tools from the 'new-look' Airfix. (I'm editing this in 2021 - some eleven years after I built it!) It's not a bad kit - but its not brilliant either and certainly does not compete with the the Eduard 72nd Bf 110. Here I've finished it in that nice ZG 76 scheme with lots of yellow. Decals are odds n' sods from Italeri/Techmod although I did use the Airfix 'sharkmouth' and crosses - albeit not very successfully as it required a lot of touching up! There is a lot of kit in the box but not much guidance in the instructions on possible loads etc. In the end I put almost everything on it apart from the smaller drop tanks which have gone to the Fujimi 110 I'm just finishing. This is a much better kit than that one - apart from the panel lines and the canopy perhaps. One or two detail bits missed off (in this Airfix kit) which I've added, such as aileron balances, fuselage antenna. Not happy with my 'sprue' aerial wires - too thick and not taut enough. These have subsequently been modified - there was only one wire to the port fin though IIRC