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REVELL 1/72 P-51 MUSTANG III
Reviewer: Kevin Ronayne
(kevin.ronayne@nuigalway.ie)
Kit Review
submitted:
January 2001
The North American P-51 Mustang is one of the most famous aircraft in history. With that in mind, I'll just skip the overview and go straight to the particulars of this version. The P-51B was the first Merlin-engined version of the Mustang, with the Packard-built Merlin engine provided the high-altitude performance which was so lacking in the earlier Allison-engined versions. The potential of the Merlin-engined configuration was such that a second production line had to be opened to meet demand. Thus, aircraft from the original factory in Inglewood, California were 'B' models; those from the new factory in Dallas, Texas were 'C' models. The RAF received substantial numbers from both factories, and applied the designation Mustang III to all B/C models. RAF Mustangs were fitted with the bulged Malcolm canopy, which gave much better visibility than the standard framed canopy. Some European USAAF machines were also fitted with the Malcolm hood.
Total production was 1,988 machines from Inglewood, and 1,750 from Dallas.
Many people assume that it was the bubble-top P-51D Mustang that defeated the Luftwaffe air defences in the spring of 1944, thus securing one of the great victories of World War II. Undoubtedly, this belief is due partly to the sheer number of P-51D's which are still flying today. To most people, a P-51D is the only Mustang that really matters. In reality, the critical fighting in December 1943 and early 1944 involved the B/C model - The D model did not enter service until the spring of 1944. Early in the B/C production run, a new fuel tank was added behind the pilot. Along with external drop tanks, this conferred the Mustang with the enormous range which was to prove so important. The tank was rarely filled to capacity, though, as it introduced directional instability - the pilot had to spend the first part of the outward journey just keeping the plane flying straight, until this new tank was empty!
In the opinion of some pilots, a Malcolm-hood P-51B/C was a better aircraft than the 'D'. However, the standard gun installation of the B/C was prone to jamming, due to the way in which the guns were mounted. This was only solved towards the end of the production run, and was not a problem for later versions. Although the standard armament of 4 x .5 in. machine guns seemed light compared to some other contemporary fighters, it was a suitable configuration for the fighter v. fighter scenario.
Although the Mustang is one of the most popular kit subjects imaginable, good kits of the B/C variant have been hard to come by in 1/72 scale, at least in this part of the world. This is now a thing of the past, with the release an Academy kit, and of the Revell kit in separate framed-canopy and Malcolm hood versions. Although the Revell kit is touted as a brand-new product, I believe that it is derived from a Tamiya 1/48 scale kit. I have examined the Tamiya kit at close quarters, and a huge amount of detailing and construction in the Revell kit is obviously inherited directly from the Tamiya product. This is no bad thing however, given Tamiya's reputation for accuracy and detail.
In keeping with Revell's pricing policy for 1/72 scale new-mold kits of popular WW II subjects, the kit is very cheap - only about 3 £STG. The box is a small single-piece affair, typical for Revell kits of small aircraft. The kit is moulded on two major and a couple of minor sprues, moulded in dark green plastic. There is a single-piece canopy/windscreen, and a port wing leading-edge light. Total pieces - just over 50. The leaflet is a 12-page loose-leaf booklet - standard issue for Revell kits of this size. I also have one of the framed-canopy kits, which differs only in the inclusion of different minor sprues, with extra exhaust stubs, and different stores - and, of course, a different canopy.
For the most part, this kit went together like a dream. The major component fits were excellent. The lower wings were moulded as a single-piece affair, which meant there was no guesswork in getting the wing dihedral correct. The distinctive under-fuselage radiator duct cover can be cemented in any position you want - open, closed or anywhere in between. To this end, the cockpit floor and a fuselage wall close off the interior of the duct. The undercarriage legs, covers, wheels and bays all looked very good. On reflection, though, it would be more realistic if the roof of the main undercarriage bays were moulded into the underside of the upper wing, as Revell have done in their new kit of the P-47M. Here, the standard practice of moulding the bay as part of the lower wing has been followed. At any rate, I built my model 'wheels up', just for a change.
The cockpit construction is a regular affair, with fuselage wall detailing included. The instrument panel is provided, with relief detail - no decal included. The seat has seatbelts moulded in place. Other items of interest include detailed and recessed fuel caps on the wings and fuselage - detail you don't often see in a kit of this scale.
The propeller construction is unusual, and is likely to become a feature of all new Revell kits. The spinner is broken into a front and back section. The back section is positioned onto the completed fuselage, over the appropriate pin. The retaining nut is then cemented into position. After that, the blades have to be separately attached to the spinner back-section. Finally, the front section of the spinner is cemented in place. You have a slight degree of leeway in how the blades are angled, and I would suggest you take the time and effort to get this exactly right. The end result is very realistic.
A choice of underwing stores are provided: bombs or drop-tanks. The drop tanks are of the compressed paper/plastic type, and are exceptionally well detailed. The bombs are probably 250-pounders, and come complete with nice fuses. Pylon holes have to be drilled for either set of stores, although I found that the pylons themselves were a bit tricky to fit flush to the wings.
As far as accuracy goes, the wing root leading-edge kink on the P-51B seems to be the one topic that gets people worked up. This kit has a kink of the same length as on the P-51D/K, but which is slightly shallower. This seems right to me, although I believe that other people have different ideas.
For the most part, any problems encountered during building were trivial - the canopy edges had to be trimmed ever so slightly to get it to fit properly. I felt that the division between the canopy, windscreen and other sections could have been better defined - it was guesswork to decide exactly where to paint the cockpit framing, and to what thickness. Also, the main cockpit sub-assembly wouldn't fit into place properly without some coaxing - although this is no real problem. These were minor issues, however. The main problem was more to do with accuracy than construction, and it concerned the exhaust stubs.
The exhaust stubs provided with this kit are a conundrum. Each set of stubs are provided as a single piece, designed to fit into a recess in the fuselage. To ensure the correct set of stubs are attached to each side - they are canted slightly downwards - alignment notches are positioned in different places on each side. So far, so good. The problem is with the length of the stubs themselves. They project outwards perpendicular to the fuselage, and then sweep backwards at about a 45-degree angle. The problem is that the first part of each stub is obviously far too long. Not only does the result look wrong for the subject in question, it does not compare with any other exhaust stub arrangement I've ever seen. To fix this, you can't just cut off the outer section of the exhaust. The solution was very messy: cut off each stub from the base piece, trim off part of the inner section of the stub, and glue back into place on the base. This worked, but it seemed a strange thing to have to do on such a high-quality kit. The USAAF kit also has these exhaust stubs, but it also has a second pair. These represent the more common type, featuring the slightly bulged cowling which appeared over the exhaust stubs. A dry-fit, and a comparison with other Mustang kits, and various references, confirmed that these are OK.
The kit comes with decals for two RAF machines, one a Polish squadron. Both use the standard RAF European fighter-bomber camouflage scheme - mid-grey + green over w a light-grey underside. I used standard Humbrol shades, rather the Revell colours mentioned. The two schemes differ in the only in layout of the camouflage pattern, and in the propeller spinner colour.
The decal sheet was of a very high quality, lacking only the really detailed stencilling which would be unreadable on a kit of this scale anyway. Obviously, a lot of the decals were common to both versions. The RAF roundels had the 'red' colour rendered in a shade of reddish-brown, which seems to be standard practice now. The fuselage and underwing roundels also had a separate red 'spot' decal - something else which is also commonplace. The white recognition bands near the wing roots are broken into three sections, ready for use on a wheels-down model. Propeller-spinner markings are provided and - a nice touch - a decal for the landing lights under the starboard wingtip.
© Kevin Ronayne 2007
All in all, I enjoyed building this kit, although the problem with the exhaust stubs was more than a bit irritating, not to mind baffling. Try as I might, I couldn't see anything wrong with what I was doing. Also, I would have like to seen separate pieces for the canopy, windshield and rear windows. I have another one of these in the vaults waiting to be built, plus one of the USAAF kits. I know the Academy kit is very highly regarded, but I'm waiting to get my hands on one myself for a definitive comparison.
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