Here is the fifth of my latest builds, Hasagawa’s P-51D Mustang of the Checkertail Clan.
This was a good kit, not quite Tamiya quality but very good nevertheless. No construction issues or poor fit that I recall, and any errors are mine alone.
Paint is Alclad over a Stynlyrez black primer. Unlike the P-40F, this kit came with the checkerboard decal, so I put that to use. It looks good but up close I can see why I should have just painted the pattern. I cut the decals along the flap/rudder lines so there would not be some clear film covering those areas, but the result has been that the decals lifted some during the weathering process. Lesson learned - just paint!
Build Photos
This is the ride of Colonel Felix Vidal, the “Dusty Butt”.
In retrospect, I should have handled the checkertails myself on each of these. The decals look decent but I really like what I did with the P-40F. It was far easier than I expected it to be, but with this 'Stang, I was afraid I would have a lot of trouble coming around the almost-squared off bottom curve of the fuselage and getting around that aluminum cutout where the stabilizers attach.
Nice work on your P-51. The Hasegawa kit has a lot going for it and with some extra work is easily better looking that the Tamiya kit. The clear parts are beautiful. They did fall down on how the did the guns IMO though. The spinner needs some reshaping and the Forward fuselage needs some work in order to match the spinner profile. Still a great kit though.
The only Mustang I have in my stash is Revell’s P-51D. It’s still shrink wrapped so I may put in on eBay and eventually get either the Tamiya or Hasegawa stangs. Your Hase Mustang looks great!
The revell (monogram) kit is a diamond in the rough. It’s a great kut to build your modeling skills on. Shapes are near perfect and interior detail still not surpassed by tamiya or hasegawa offerings.
Having built all of these, I concur. Not to start another debate over the merits of the old Monogram kits, but those kits can be built into truly impressive models if one simply invests the time and effort into improving them through scratch-building or after-market parts. I would recommend obtaining an older version of the Monogram kits, as I have noticed that the molds don’t seem to produce the same quality parts if a newer re-release. I bought just about all of Monogram’s original blue box releases for that reason.
