Heller 1/72 P-51 Mustang Starter Kit

HELLER 1:72 P-51 MUSTANG Starter Kit

Reviewer: Simon Skinner (rec.models.scale)
Kit Review submitted: July 2000

Heller Starter Kit 1/72 scale - North American Mustang
(unlabelled but a D)

Background

Obviously this beautiful machine needs no introduction. It was, reputedly, the best Allied fighter of WW11, with later variants packing a powerful 24 cylinder, 27 litre, liquid cooled Packard built R.R Merlin engine. If you have ever had the honour of hearing a Mustang fire up and subsequently fly..........it is a dream come true !

This model kit was actually bought for me as a Christmas present after I saw a Mustang fly at a display at RAAF Point Cook in Victoria, Australia. It was 15 years since I last worked on a model aircraft kit.....and here was the result

Instructions

Very basic fold out instructions reproduced in black, white, grey and fluorescent blue!

A simple background on the Mustang was included, but it was extremely basic and general.

The instructions were reasonably clear (even more so due to the relative simplicity of the kit), however certain instructions seemed a little confused and the drawings did not accurately reflect what needed to happen with the kit. Some components of the instruction illustrations were out of scale and therefore, difficult to interpret properly.

Construction

A couple of sprues of white injected moulded plastic. The plastic was fairly crisp (probably too much so) and was surprisingly, relatively free of flash. Injector pin markings were located in internal positions that wouldn’t affect the appearance of the kit.

Panel lines were finely engraved, however the body parts were covered with rivets that would to scale, be in the order of 6 inches high

Construction began with the cockpit. Very basic, with no side wall detail. There was a base, control stick and a seat without harnesses or detail. The instrument panel needed painting as no decal was provided. There was no pilot figure.

The instructions for the color scheme inside the cockpit were not clear. This kit was supplied with Heller acrylic paints and I was determined to build and paint with what had been supplied to see how it turned out. The only option was a dusty kharki green color with black for details

The cockpit interior was easy to attach inside the fuselage halves and subsequently allowed the fuselage to fit together quite nicely. The wings were formed from one lower piece with two upper sections to be attached. Although there were some fit problems, this wasn’t as bad as it first looked.

The wing attached nicely to the fuselage, with only small gaps around the wing roots, probably less than 0.75 mm. This was fixed with a small amount of filler, that seemed to adhere well and ultimately sanded to a seamless appearance.

The undercarriage was extremely simple in appearance, but this meant that it was easy to attach. I had trouble getting the struts to sit in the correct place to get that characteristic look of the Mustang when on the ground. Somehow the undercarriage just wouldn’t attach to enable the wheels to project forward. There was a slight projection, but not enough compared to the reference pictures I still had in my possession.

The biggest disappointment was that the wheel wells were open around the edge and you could see directly into the inner area of the wings. Of course.......I hadn’t painted inside the wings before attaching the upper and lower halves and this looked really bad. My attempts to paint in these areas was reasonably successful but incredibly difficult and timing consuming. This was an important learning curve for and something I didn’t remember encountering from my childhood kit productions.

The tear drop canopy was very clear, but by the same token, very thick. I had to sand away at the bottom edges to thin the canopy plastic, in order to prevent the canopy over hanging the fuselage. Although it still was wider than the body, my work made a difference and once painted it didn’t look the worst.

Options

The only option available (therefore is it really an option ???), was to fit underwing fuel drop tanks. These tanks had no transitionary attachments and practically need to be glued straight to the wing. This was very frustrating, in that it was impossible to keep then aligned vertically. They look barely OK on the finished model and the paint has covered the excessive amount of glue needed to keep them attached and in place.

Versions

Amazingly, only one version was available and even more amazingly, no information was presented on this version. There were decals for just one theatre and there was absolutely no description of this plane...where it served...who flew it.....its history etc. The model obviously needed to be finished with an unpainted metal appearance, as a silver acrylic paint was provided. The painting instructions provided in the kit were pretty poor.

Decals

The decal markings were probably just generic US and were obviously designed for people (or kids) who didn’t care about any realism. The decals went on well, but were very thin and I broke a US star insignia marking for the side fuselage. Oh well !!!

Overall Accuracy

I haven’t done any homework on this, but having seen a real P-51 recently, the kit looked pretty good. I understand that the wing shape can be a problem, but unfortunately I have no information to add to this debate.

Other

The acrylic paints provided with this Heller starter kit probably left a lot to be desired. As a kid, I only ever used Humbrol enamels and will go back to these when I build other kits. The paint applied well, but it was very thin and four coats went on the body to take away the white plastic appearance underneath. !!

Overall, given that this P-51 was the first kit I had built in 15 years (I am 31 now), it has come together pretty well for me. I am satisfied with the finished model and take great pride in looking at what I have created. I compared it to an old Airfix P-51 1/72 scale model I had kept from about 1982 and I must admit that my latest attempt was far superior to my earlier efforts. The new kit looked sharper and was definitely better finished. This I suppose, is due to the care taken as a adult when working on a project.

For dedicated enthusiast however, the model would be a real downer. The problems with the tooling of the kit would annoy other people and would probably prevent most people from pick one up. I would say it was an easy kit to build, but probably doesn’t give the appearance, accuracy or finish that the top modeller would strive for. However it was heaps of fun to build and has renewed an old flame within me.

For the beginner only (or someone who loves 1/72 Heller kits) !!!

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