So I was poking around for a good 1/72 fighter and came across two favorable reviews on the Academy P-51 “North Africa” which I believe to be a B model. I’m going to head up to the local hobby shop at lunch today and see what 1/72 selection they have, hopefully I will luck out and this kit will be there, maybe… otherwise it will be off to the internet shops. On both reviews they state that it has good cockpit detail with sidewall detail, yet neither review shows a photo of the cockpit. In one review they say that there is not an open cockpit option, however the other review has more photos and they builder has the bird with a open pit… maybe custom? Has anyone built this little bird? Care to share photos?
It’s not a P-51B, it’s a straight P-51, or at best, a P-51A (or an F-6) with the Allison engine.
If you want to do an open pit, you may wish to look a the P-51B kit, which does provide optional parts to display the canopy open.
The Academy P-51s are nice little kits, with the exception of the D model, which is a re-pop of something truly ancient - Frog, perhaps.
The “North Africa” kit is indeed an Allison-engined Mustang. I haven’t seen one, but I have the C model and a B in progress right now. They both provide an open canopy option, as well as a Malcom Hood. I can’t speak to the other kit, though. In my experience, building them with the canopy open is the way to go - the parts for the closed canopy don’t fit well.
Kev
Calvin, I have built this kit and the cockpit is pretty decent for the scale. The Canopy does cme with a seperate windscreen so you could possibly modify to be open if you wanted to. All in all in was a great build with the usual comments on the kit decals. Thick and hard to get snuggled down. Also the wing stripes were not quite long enough so they required a little bit of paint to finish it off. HTH!
C,
Check this out - FSM has a review of an Academy P-51B. I don;t know if it’s the same issue - but it says that it comes with an optional closed or open canopy. Plus it’ll give you other info about the kit.
http://www.finescale.com/fsm/default.aspx?c=a&id=137
I built Academy’s C version. Compared to the Hasegawa D and a Revell of Germany B that I’ve built, I thought it was the best of the bunch. Very nice detail all over the surface, in the wheel wells and in the cockpit.
I might have overdone it a bit on the weathering - it was an experiment.
Chris
Calvin,
I’ve yet to build the Academy A which the North Africa kit is, but their B/C builds up very nicely. Almost as nice as the Tamiya D model.
Dave,
Nice work, may have to add this to the list of candidates for the Weekend GB.
Chris,
Nice work on the C.
Dave & Chris great little birds! I’ve searched everywhere around here locally, the market is pretty much dominated by cheap Revell kits and a very poor showing of 1/72 scale. One shop had a pretty good selection of 1/72 WWI birds but I remained true to my mission and kept the pocket book in my pocket, I will be ordering tonight.
Ordered!! [tup] Picked up an Academy 1/72 Messerschmitt Bf109G to build along side it. Can’t wait! Thanks for all of the help everyone! Looking forward to posting a build.
Edit:: oh yea I ended up getting the B version, if I like it enough my next will be the C version and I’ll pick up an axis plane along with it, cant have bedroom dogfights with just allied planes right?
I built the Academy P-51D and found it to be a decent kit although there were some fit issues with getting the cockpit properly positioned and a gap between the wing and the fuselage that required a strip of styrene to fill. Cockpit was very nice though!
Jimbot,
Judging by your signature it looks like you are a master of the 1/72nd scale, mind if I ask which 1/72 you have enjoyed the most, and which you thought it have the most detail?
The early Academy-Minicraft P-51D kit was poorly done. It had a reasonably accurate outline but details were soft and it had some serious errors; the most notable being the seven exhaust stubs each side!
The current P-51D is not the same kit. It is a huge improvement and very well done with usual Academy quality & detail for the scale. It isn’t quite as good as the Tamiya kit but at less than half the price, it offers excellent value for money.
Thanks for that info, I didn’t realize the kit had been updated. The only version I’ve seen is the older one - the elusive V-14 powered 'Stang. [;)]
Kev