This P-51D Mustang is ready to take on the Luftwaffe

I have come to admire mrutek for his models of some of the lesser-known aircraft of the Second World War, such as the A-20 Havoc and the Yakovlev Yak-1, but he has now turned his attention to a rather more famous aircraft: the P-51D Mustang. The P-51D combined a license-produced Merlin engine (famous for its use in the British Spitfire) with an airframe that could carry enough fuel to fly all the way from England to Berlin, escorting bombers. Nonetheless, the aircraft was sufficiently fast and agile to take on the best the Luftwaffe could throw at it. The P-51D was the first Mustang version with a bubble canopy, that offered excellent visibility to its pilot, and is an aviation classic.

Mustang_1

The model carries very attractive markings similar to those of the USAAF’s 361st Fighter Group on D-Day, with its yellow nose and invasion stripes. It’s not all perfect, though. For instance, I think the nose is a bit too long and should curve upward more at the bottom (I have purposely chosen a picture where this isn’t obvious). I also think that the distance between the leading edge of the wing and the front of the canopy should be a bit bigger. I know that building WW2 fighters isn’t easy, however, and overall this is an instantaneously recognisable model with some very nifty techniques.

7 comments on “This P-51D Mustang is ready to take on the Luftwaffe

  1. MaxFragg

    it really is a nice model, and at first i though, he would have cut the canopy, but the solution is really nice.
    What got me even more was, reading the text, and wondering, who the author “ralph” is, because the text shows such a perfectionism, that there were only very view people who could that make such comments, but now that I know, that you are the Mad physicist I wonder no more ;-)

  2. Ralph Post author

    ^Thank you. I am terribly fussy when it comes to aircraft. It isn’t always a good thing, because being focused on bits that I don’t like may cause me to not blog some good models that are undoubtedly interesting and attractive to our readers.

  3. Lego Junkie

    Honestly, I’d prefer to read about a model that has been judged to be top of the class, and selected as such. Rather than a model that is attractive to some of the readers, but has major faults and is blogged regardless just to fill the status quo.

    So keep up the nitpicking Ralph!

  4. Ralph Post author

    ^It is difficult to define what the top of the class is though. Building a scale model always involves compromises and just because the compromises chosen by this builder aren’t the ones I would make, doesn’t mean this isn’t an excellent model. In fact, one of the reasons why I generally don’t build WW2 fighters like this, with an inline engine, is because it involves having to make choices I don’t like.

  5. Josh

    I agree with Ralph. Selecting “top of the class” is really hard because defining “top” is quite subjective. I think this is a very nicely done P-51 and I encouraged Ralph to blog it even though he had reservations. I think there is value in looking at a really good build and having an expert in that genre talk about the pros and cons.

    I am not a builder of “realism” so I there are issues that I don’t often think about, such as the compromises to which Ralph refers. I like to learn about the choices builders of other genres have to do. I’m glad Ralph posted this and I’m glad he also pointed how he and the builder differ as to how they do what they do.

  6. Lego Junkie

    Looking back, top of the class isn’t really the optimal word choice in this instance. That makes what I said sound really elitist, which wasn’t my intention at all.

    I’m just a sucker for a well built model, regardless of how realistic/accurate it is.
    ;)

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