Thanks all, hopefully the following will answer questions. I’m gonna call her done. It’s in the 352nd FG 487th FS markings of “Petie 2nd”, flown in the Fall of 1944 by John C. Meyer. He was the 4th highest American ace in Europe with 24 kills. He’s also fairly well known for shooting down an Fw190 during Operation Bodenplatte while he was taking off and retracting his landing gear. His actions that day earned him the Distinguished Flying Cross.
The kit? Ok…here’s my objective take. What I liked:
In surface detail, it’s ahead of Tamiya. It’s simply stunning and right up there with the best in any scale.
I liked the design of the windscreen area. No sanding the bottom of the windscreen “curve” to make it sit in the pocket. The instrument panel coaming is one piece too…very nice.
I liked the design of the lower radiator area with no nasty seams that run right through the detail. The Tamiya kit is a choir in this area.
I liked the separate control surfaces.
I liked the one piece prop and hub. They look great. There’s even rivets in the hub!
Hollowed exhaust…very nice! No need to try and drill these out.
Now for what I hated:
I’m no expert, but it seems underscale. It’s especially noticeable in the exhaust pieces, which are tiny.
It needs glue…lots (at least I did [:(DD])
The landing gear installation. I ended up breaking one of them (mentioned earlier) and then in final assembly, I discovered I installed them backwards. I had to chop them both off and glue them in correctly…[:@]
The canopy bubble has a seam down the middle. There was no way I was gonna try to sand it out. Unacceptable for a kit of this price
No way to use aftermarket tires due to the inner wheel hub being incorporated into the landing gear.
I found some parts fit to be poor and filler was needed…often.
The machine gun inserts were great in theory but would not snap in as designed on my kit. I needed superglue to force them in.
The windscreen was great in design but refused to snap in for me. I had to trim some plastic and force it in.
My verdict? I found this kit to be a frustrating experience, especially for something that wasn’t even supposed to require glue. I thought I was gonna have a Mustang that built itself. Perhaps some of it may have been my own doing, but I did follow the instructions pretty much to the letter, as it’s necessary for build sequence of its snap-tite nature.
So I wasn’t particularly impressed with this kit, especially for the price. It’s safe to say my huge Tamiya and Hasegawa stash will be staying put. I do however look forward to the new Airfix and Eduard kits which are sure to be stunning. Wanna bet one of those get Petie 3rd markings?
That’s enough of that…here’s the finished plane. Thanks for following.
Despite your problems it turned out really nice Joe. I appreciate the “review” and it makes me rethink getting one of these. Think I’ll wait for the Eduard mustang. Thanks for sharing!
Well, she looks simply fantastic, despite the woes you described. I think I ordered mine the day before seeing some of theissues you ran into, and it arrived yesterday. I agree about the seam on the canopy, but I’m pretty sure it’s a byproduct of the slide molding process. I’m thinking it’s required to get the detail on the sides, but I know others have done this before without slide molding, so I’m not sure what Meng is trying to achieve. Shape issue? I notice this is common on jets. Even the Tamiya F-14A has it, which was shocking to me. I’ll use my Mustang as a guinea pig for taking care of the seam.
I agree with you on the landing gear assembly. No idea why they would make you put them in before, and yeah, I hadn’t thought about the AM tires issue, but that may be corrected. Tamiya’s F-14 has triangular mounting pieces for the tires to the gear struts, and some AM companies have made products to fit. So maybe.
In any event, I am looking forward to the duard Mustangs. I think when they come out, they will be the definitive ones in the scale, if their Spitfires and 109s are anything to go by. Airfix, I am not so sure. I love the fact that Airfix is giving us the option to have the tail fillet or not, which I think is a first in this scale. Surely with modern kits. But while I am a big fan of their P-40B and Hurricane, I do think the plastic and panel line moldings would be more difficult to achieve a good natural metal finish with. That said, in 1/72, I really liked their Mustang.
Again, great job on this. I love these markings, and if I were to hazard a guess, Eduard will give us Petie 3rd, and I’m hoping some other iconic ones like Big Beautiful Doll, something from the Pacific, a Tuskegee bird and some obscure ones.
Man, that’s a sharp build! I understand the frustration; Academy’s 1.72 Phantom didn’t know what it wanted to be, a snap fit with great detail or a glue kit with huge attachment points. For the price, it wasn’t great at either.
Just an outstanding build. I’m always marveling at the way you guys call out the faults in a kit and then show how you overcame the problems and present an award winning model.
I’m still trying to figure out how to mask my model for airbrushing a tri-color scheme … [:$]. Oh well, another 5 or 10 kits down the road and mayber I’ll figure it out.
That looks really good Lawdog! When you started this WIP I got pretty excited about this kit and started looking into it and my excitement started to wane when you started mentioning all of the issues you were running into. I think I’ll wait and look more into the Airfix kit when it comes out.
Glad I could help. I hate to turn anyone off on the kit. These were just my issues. Others may have better results. By all means give it a whirl if you can find it cheap. I do look forward to the Airfix and Eduard kits though…
Your work is stunning! I am going to attempt the Tamiya version of this build using the tutorial you outlined a few years ago as a template though I’m using the OOB pit.
This will be the first time I have ever used Alclad so we will see how it goes. I had a general question about how you use the Alclad in these builds. Do you add a protection layer to seal the paint prior to adding the decals?
As usual she looks fantastic Joe, I can’t see the problems you encountered in the finished product. I’ve seen that kit for sale but think I’ll stick with the Tamiya and Hasegawa versions I have in the stash (unless of course Airfix or Eduard do hit it outta the park, then I might be tempted to pick up another P-51…)
