This is the Italeri P-51A. The Academy kit is better than this one, but I had already started this one before the Academy kit was available. The flaps and elevators were cut free and dropped, and the canopy was cut and opened up. The wing leading edges, middle gear doors, and the forward edges of the gear bays were reshaped. I went ahead and bought the Academy P-51A kit and used the Academy decals on this kit as I have been told that the Academy decals could be a problem, but of course they worked pretty well. They could have melted into the panel lines a bit better but they aren’t bad. The last thing I did was try to fade the paint a bit with a light grey overcoat, but instead of a light fading I got a light fading and some grey speckles here and there. I guess I should change the nose art to “Speckled Bird”, right?
