Hi all. The 1/32 Tamiya P-51 d kit comes with the wide cuffed blade prop. Does anyone know if the cuffs can simply be trimmed off to reprisent the later period narrow root blades? Would it be only the blades that changed or the entire prop hub/pitch assembly inder the spinner aswell?
Were the USAF F-51 wings the smooth putty and sliver lacure wings during Korea aswell or bare metal with the rivet/ panels exposed?
Need to know in order to make my 1/32 Tam P-51 into a SAAF Korea F-51
There were three propellers used on the Mustang, one was the Hamilton Standard cuffed. These always have a very rounded tip. There was a second Hamilton Standard propeller without cuffs and it had a different blade profile, broader at the root and more squarish at the tip. The other prop which is usually associated with the P-51K built in Dallas was made by Aeroproducts and had an almost square tip, just rounded on the corners a little, and never had cuffs. Hard to tell from the uncuffed HS prop to me. Don’t know about the hub but you can’t see it with the spinner on anyway.
So you could sand down the cuffs on the HS prop to get an uncuffed version of that blade, but I don’t think that was used in Korea from looking at my collection of photos. The only source in 1/32 for the uncuffed HS prop is the old Monogram 1/32 Mustang or it’s more available Visible Mustang kit.
Four pictures, the first of an uncuffed Hamilton Standard, the second is in my opinion a HS cuff type prop with the cuffs removed. Third is the two HS props, I think. Last is a P-51K (or F-6K, perhaps) with the Aeroproducts propeller which had hollow steel blades.
It seems the cuffed porp in the kit can not just be cut down, the shape I understand is to far off at the root of the blades.
I would like to get the correct prop as the kit gives a nicely detailed prop hub assembly incl the pitch controll dome. I am planing a miantenance dio with all the pannels off
Some more googling is required for AM props it seems.
BTW. nice pix of the wheels aswell as the main gear doors, that will help also.
