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.

Zvezda new tool 1:72nd scale Bf 109 F-2 Friedrich (2)

..nicely detailed parts just snap together and/or plug in....no glue required ..and no gaps either. Is this the end of modelling as we know it ?  Shame the supercharger intake is solid and the pitot tube attached to the port wing simply won't survive the handling and painting stages. Once the lower wing insert is clipped on, construction proceeds with the cockpit. The various detailed parts - including a three-part pilot figure - just plug into the top of the wings and the fuselage halves then clip onto the wing around the cockpit....however the wings are just solid parts and there is no provision for deploying flaps/slats or ailerons at all... I think if building this again I would at least cut out the radiator flaps which are invariably down when the aircraft is on the ground ...but those are the only criticisms...

new tool 1:72nd Airfix P-51D Mustang- first one finished

This is " Lollipoop II " a 100 FS machine of the 332nd FG flown by Lt. Spurgeon Ellington out of Ramitelli, Italy in late 1944. Click on the images to get in close...

Difficult to go to far wrong with a nice new tool Mustang! Careful with the canopy though as it is definitely the weak point of the model in my opinion, that is, when you've finished wrestling with the wing fit. It is very easy to spoil the model by marking the clear part of the hood when you remove it from the sprue and it still looks rather thick when attached to the `solid’ canopy rail. In addition the windscreen on my model was very tight and hard to fit to the fuselage. It might be an idea to use a spare canopy out of the spares box if you have one, but the rest of the kit is great and the dropped flaps are excellent.  The drop tanks are the only other 'weak' point - they lack the very characteristic 'seam'. The decals are went on perfectly, although I didn't use the yellow bands or the red trim, preferring to mask and paint. I still have some small stencils to put on but otherwise this one is finished. Tamiya quality at half the price. Now to start on the 'starter set' of this kit with RAF markings for 112 Squadron complete with `sharks mouth’. 

Zvezda new tool 1:72 Bf 109 Friedrich

..retailing for £7.50 in the UK this is the neat new-tool Friedrich from Zvezda. Designed like their Yak-3 - which is an excellent little kit- to be a 'snap-together' easy build, parts seem to be well detailed.

From AaCee26 on britmodeller.com

"...I got mine yesterday. Excellent little kit! Very easy and quick to build. I compared it with the FineMolds kit and in my opinion Zvezda is even better! Look for example the cowling piano hinge! Worst pitfalls of the FM have been avoided (narrow oil tank after the prop and a little low fuselage on wing trailing edge) so the minor issues with Zvezda are easy to accept (a couple of panel lines missing on top of the wings, closed air intake). If only flaps have been dropped and there would be other sub-types available..."

photos by 'neurodancerus' via flickr' hot-links available to google bloggers

new tool Airfix P-51 D Mustang, Mustangs at Duxford flying Legends 2012

Some progress on the Airfix P-51 and to conclude this post some of my mate Nico's excellent pics from this year's Flying Legends (click on the pic for a larger view). Finally got the wings on after a fair bit of fettling;  in the end I had to shave the lower wing/fuselage join at both ends (front/back) of the lower wing part to get the lower wing on. I elected to assemble the wing in its entirety and fettled at the wing root, taking care to maintain the lower wing dihedral - perhaps next time I should do it differently and attach the lower wing first. At the last count I've built five or six Airfix new tool Spits and two new tool Emils but this was the most difficult wing assembly of the Airfix new tools for me. The fuselage and cockpit parts went together perfectly though. However I was so intent on getting the wings on I completely missed fitting part 11a inside the fuselage - the detailed radiator - so now I've got a 'see-through' Mustang! I'll put it down to ham-fistedness and do it differently next time..fabulous little kit (again) though despite one or two quality control issues again. 

One suggestion for the wing fit I've read courtesy Mikeyw on britmodeller;  " The only fit issue I've had with this kit is the wing/under engine joint. I put this down to the top of the wheel well interfering with the thickness of the wing fillet. It was a simple cure by whittling down the forward half of the wing fillet's thickness by about half. It's not much but it allows the roof of the wheel well to tuck in enough to allow the extension of the wing/engine rear to sit in place rather than have to be stretched, glued and clamped. My general comment to Airfix would be to please use a plastic that cures a LITTLE harder. I really love the seperate rudder and flaps. How about setting the standard Airfix and make all the control surfaces as seperate parts ! "

Airfix Spitfire F Mk 22 - new tool 1:72 scale - first one finished

Airfix 1:72 Spitfire F. 22 photographed with the Airfix PR.XIX. The Mk. 22 is more or less finished  -just one or two stencils from the impressively large decal sheet to add and perhaps the wingtip nav lights to add although they are too thin for my usual 'coloured plastic' technique. I've cut out the elevators and added a whip aerial. Overall a nice kit - and building this was a great way to learn more about this variant - and others ; for example the wings from the MK 22 cross-kitted with the XIX will produce an early Mk 21. On the Mk 22 the bubble canopy, re-designed wing, cannon armament and larger tail surfaces are immediately evident. Battle of Britain ace, and later Boscombe Down test pilot, Tom Neil, writing in Air Enthusiast 54 wasn't a fan; " in my opinion the Spitfires 22 and 24, plus the Spiteful, were the most beautiful aircraft ever designed; with their enormous spinners, tear-drop hoods, cutaway fuselages and enlarged tails they looked absolutely right. Unfortunately I found them less attractive to fly.." The prototype Mk. 22 PK312 was first flown on 21 March 1945 and was evaluated at Boscombe Down as a ground attack fighter. "PK 312 I grew to hate - every time I took off in it something seemed to happen  - an oil leak, a hydraulic problem, gun stoppage, the engine sounding like someone shaking a bag of nails..in my opinion the aircraft was the Pygmalion awfulest Spitfire ever built.."

new tool 1:72 Airfix P-51 D Mustang is here ! Progress on the Airfix Spitfire Mk 22 (2)

..great, one of my favourite types in a nice new tool at half the price of the Tamiya kit! Detailed cockpit, poseable flaps, tread detail on the tyres, superbly rendered wheel wells etc etc. No need to struggle ever again with the Italeri and Academy P-51 Ds in this scale, performing surgery on the wings, trying to get the windscreen to fit. ..ahh, the windscreen; probably the one area where the Airfix kit falls down a little since it is moulded separately to the front coaming and was damaged in this particular kit. Nonetheless I look forward to finishing my first one soon ! Here are some sprue shots and a little bit of progress on the cockpit - yep, that bottom shot below is an Airfix cockpit!

Italeri and Academy P-51Ds on this blog


http://falkeeinsmodel.blogspot.co.uk/2010/06/more-mustangs.html
http://falkeeinsmodel.blogspot.co.uk/2010/04/ray-littge-352nd-fg-miss-helen.html
http://falkeeinsmodel.blogspot.co.uk/2010/04/urban-drew-361st-fighter-group-detroit.html

..and some progress on the new tool Airfix Spitfire Mk 22, day 6. My first one will be a natural metal finish using the kit decals, making it possible to do much of the construction prior to painting. Over on the Airfix Tribute forum one modeller finished his, painted and decalled, in an afternoon and evening! Tricky areas; fitting the cockpit, getting the wings on, fitting the undercarriage, the legs being somewhat too big for the locating holes, while the tail wheel doesn't seem to have a locating hole. I've cut out the elevators, attached a fuse-wire whip aerial, drilled out the head armour support;