Hi All,
I recently acquired the Heller 1/24th scale P-51D. I assume it is a reissue of the Airfix kit. I wanted to backdate it to a “B” model. What do you guys think? Any advice is very welcome as this would be a major undertaking. Cheers
First of all: AWESOME IDEA!
I have a 1:24 mustang too, so I will be watching.
I hope you keep us updated on this thread.
I figure you will need to:
- Scratch-build new instrument panel, seat, other details
- Rebuild the canopy enclosure & rear deck behind canopy
- Re-shape the wing fillet, and reduce the machine gun count to 2 on each wing.
- Panel-line rescribing, wings and fuselage.
If you do the Malcolm canopy, you will probably have to vacuform
the dome somehow, but if you do the bird-cage canopy, you might
be able to use clear styrene sheeting for all windows, since they
don’t really curve in more than one direction. Well… the 11 o’clock
and 1 o’clock side windows do a little bit.
Good luck!
Why on god’s green earth would you want to do that[:O]??
IL2, Which Stang do you have? I don’t think I will do the Malcolm Hood due to the problems involved. I luck out in one sense though. I found Rodney William’s article on Large Scale Planes. He did what I want to do. This will take a lot of work so any ideas you can contribute will be greatly appreciated. To the other modeler who asked why I would do that, my answer is simple: because it is different.
Pretty sure it is made by MPC. It looks like and older kit.
It has lots of moving parts that actually look pretty good!
Got Link?
The P51b is much nicer than the D in my opinion. Good luck with it.
This will be a long term project…almost as long as those that are building the Dragon P-51[;)]
That is a real beauty.
Thanks for the link
I only know of 3 companies that have made tooling for 1/24 scale aircraft. (At least in injection molded, mass marketed kits.) The three are: Airfix, Bandai, and Trumpeter. Airfix had a deal with MPC for a while in the 70s and early 80s. MPC’s kits were just repackaging of Airfix kits. At one point, MPC’s parent company General Mills bought Airfix, though sold it only a couple of years later.
Until recently, Airfix and Heller were both owned by Humbrol. Humbrol went belly up last summer and a UK model train company bought up Airfix and will continue to issue Airfix kits. I don’t know what happened to Heller. Heller was doing most of the molding for Airfix kits in recent years. That’s why most Airfix kits said “Made in France”.
The origianl Airfix 1/24 scale kits from the 70s are/were: Spitfire Mk I, Me-109E, Harrier Mk I, Ju-87B Stuka, Fw-190A, P-51D, Hurricane Mk I. In the 90s they released two Harrier mod kits, a Sea Harrier and a later model Harrier land based fighter. They also released a Spitfire Mk V. Just before the company folded they released a P-51K. I may be missing a kit. I seem to recall at least one more than that.
Bandai never sold or swapped molds with anybody. They do a short run of their 1/24 scale kits every 5 years or so. Bandai’s line consists of: A6M5 Zero, N1K2-J George, P-51D, and Me-109E. Even though the Me-109E and P-51D over lapped the Airfix line, they were different kits. The Airfix kits had more detail.
The latecomer is Trumpeter, who again added duplication by releasing a P-51D and a Spitfire Mk V. The P-51D uses more modern molds, but the lines of the Airfix kit are more accurate. The Airfix Spitfire requires you do some surgery to the old Mk I to convert it to the Mk V, but it at least doesn’t have some of the glaring details of the Trumpeter kit, such as very bad fabric detail on the fixed portion of the horizontal stebilizers.
If you weigh the cost of the kits vs. what you get, I would say the Airfix/Heller/old MPC kits are the best bang for the buck in 1/24. I’ve got the whole series waiting to be built. I built a few years ago. I love all that detail. For 1970s vintage molds, they are excellent kits, far better than most kits issued then.
Trumpeter also made a mistake with the nose of the A6M2 Zero and Rufe, but their other 1/24 scale kits are very good. The Me-109Gs are extremely nice and the Fw-190D looks like a scaled up Tamigawa kit. BTW, Trumpeter has announced a 1/32 scale P-51B, though I don’t think it will be out in 2007.
Some Trumpeter kits have been released by Hobbycraft. The HC kits are identical to the Trumpeter kits with different decals.
That’s everything I can recall about the 1/24 market off the top of my head.
Bill
No problem. Did you see his Airfix P-51D on that site? Awesome. Almost makes me want to just detail the kit and hope to do as good as he did. He also has a 1/32nd scale P-51D on Aircraft Resource Center and the Trumpeter Mustang on Large Scale Planes. That guy sure puts me to shame.
What do you guys think? Should I do the B or the D model? I will leave it entirely up to all of you.
Hi,
I have been looking for the rear view mirrors provided in the Airfix 1/24 P51D to use on my Trumpeter Mustang. If any of you guys dont think you will need them for your plane, I would GREATLY appreciate them. They are molded in clear plastic and are on the sprue with the canopy. Thanks,
emo07
P.S. Good luck on your conversion !!
Hi Must58554,
I will be happy to get the mirrors from you !! I built the Trumpeter 1/24 P51D in the “Cripes a mighty” of Maj. George Preddy and it had the two rear view mirrors. My kit did not supply these. Let me know the mailing costs. Email me for my address. Thanks
emo07