Hello, the P-51 bug bit me again so I had to drag out the good old Tamiya P-51 B. I went with James Howard’s Ding Hao of the 354th FG. On January 11th 1944, Howard lead a bomber escort mission when it was attacked by 30 plus German fighters. Chaos ensued and he found himself defending the bombers alone for over a half hour. He shot down 6 and even continued the attack after he ran out of ammo. His determination and bravery that day won him the Medal of Honor. He scored 12 kills, which included 6 in China while flying with the AVG. They don’t make men like this anymore.
The Tamiya B is better than their D. It does however boast the same wrong metal curved cockpit floor that is correct for the A. I painted it to look like wood. Good enough. I used a Yahu instrument panel, which was quite nice. I added a PE seatbelt and Ultracast wheels I had in my stash. The 75 gallon tanks came off the Tamiya D as their B only comes with the 108 tanks. Paints were AK Real Colors. I used the hairspray technique for chipping. I’mgetting better at it. I’m liking it much better than AK chipping fluid, as the AK tends to pool on Alclad. Main markings were painted on with Montex masks. For Howard’s markings I used an old Superscale sheet I had which was complete garbage. The clear film desintergrated when wet and for the life of me I don’t know how I salvaged any of them. I ended up having to put the letters of Ding Hao and the AJ*A on separately.
That’s about it. Maybe eventually we’ll get a new B from someone. I actually prefer the look of the B over the D.
Thanks Jeaton. I have not. Actually I forgot about that one. I suppose I just assumed Tamiya is the gold standard. We are still way overdue for a new one. I’m surprised Eduard hasn’t stepped up yet. Their D is excellent.
Thanks Greg. Indeed, like Neel Kearby’s P-47, I read about him and had to do Ding Hao. I tend to get inspired by the stories of these pilots. There will never be men like this again. We owe them a great deal of gratitude.
This thread reminds me of the old Monogram 1:48 Ding Hao back in the day. It was the first model I had built that was cast with detail on both the inside and outside of the fuselage!
For those of us of a ‘certain vintage,’ I’m pretty sure that was probably our first encounter with both ‘Ding Hao’ and the Mustang in general…certainly the piano-hinged canopy model B/C.
As a huge James Howard fan, it pleased me that Monogram kept reissuing those same markings virtually from beginning to end.