In one week I will be looking to buy a new kit and I want to build a 1:48 P-51D specifically. I also wanna do PE for the first time too so i want a good PE set . My question is… (drum roll)… for my hard earned money…
Tamiya or Hasegawa and a good pe set for whichever is the better???
Let all the old guys speak up plz [;)], give me some opinions to work with here. I wanna build up the quinticential mustang. My main concern is accuracy in molding and detail and a good pe set to enhance it past the norm, something I can take my time on and knock your socks off with. I feel ready to tackle here but need the collective wisdom of the best forums to make an educated buy here. so let me know.
Ooo if any of you know a 1:48th kit by either of these makers that include the engine BIG plus, otherwise I’ll need a resin Merlin in 48th scale… tell me where to look.
Jeff, you’re not supposed to reply to your own post straight away!
From what I’ve heard there’s not a lot between the Tamiya & Hasegawa offerings, though I do know that the sprue connecting point on the Tamiya canopy is in an extremely awkward position. That and one of them has wheel wells which are too shallow, but I can’t remember which.
Have you tried Squadron for an AM engine from someone like CMK?
Apparently the Tamiya is slightly easier to build, but I haven’t checked out the Hasegawa kit. Tamiya has revised the attachment point for the canopy with thier latest release “8th Airforce Aces”. Both kits receive a lot of praise in the reviews I have read, although if you want to nit-pick they apparently both have problems for the rivet counters amonst us. Have fun Jeff, build em both, thats what I intend to do.
awesome jeff!! gotta love the stang my friend and i think you could do it justice!! i have built both the hase and tamiya kit and the tamiya kit is definetly the better kit IMHO!! i haven’t painted teh hase kit yet, but the fit is ok, but like snowy mentioned, the wheel wells look wimpy compared to tamiya’s. now, i’m no rivet counter, but the tamiya kit is an accurate build, and all the big dawgs seem to think that tamiya’s 1/48 stang is the best on the market these days. i have used the eduard PE cockpit set and was a little disappointed with the finished product. the best cockpit set for the money is True Details resin pit, it installs easily and adds loads of detail in the cockpit area. but, if you want a truely awesome pit for your stang, go with the aires pit, its extra cool!! it has just the right mix of PE and resin. the PE and film instrument panel is top notch, and the PE seat belts look more real that cast resin IMO. niether kit comes with an engine so you’ll have to purchase that in the AM realm as well. later.
FYI…a company called Art Model in the Czech Repubic…does a resin / PE “A” model for the Accu.Min. kit…maybe they also do a “D” that would work for you…
it’s a tad pricey…but…the resin was well cast with crisp detail…the PE all had a purpose and was well designed…
the AM kit contained engine w/ mount, all flight controls w/ flaps, gear, complete cockpit…
if i can get a line on a web site…i’ll forward it to ya…
There is an Aries set (#4089) that has both the cockpit , engine and wheel wells with all necessary details. It’s quite impressive in the box, but also pricey around $35-$40. The AM kit is designed to be used w/ the Tamiya kit. I am currently using (converting it ) for the Tamiya ‘B’ model stang.
Jeff,
I’ve built both - and liked 'em both. I think the Tamiya was a slightly easier build, but the Hasegawa kit seemed a little more delicate in the detail - and I didn’t like the Tamiya way of attaching the canopy - the Hasegawa canopy (both normal production and “Dallas canopy” are provided) was far easier to paint.
Asa far as detail bits go - I have the SuperTech super detail set (#478 - originally made for the Tamiya kit) and it has a nice cockpit, a far better seat than both kits have, radios, floor, Merlin engine and a PE set for the gun bays, and stringers in the cockpit - as well as the rails the canopy slides on - a nice touch.
KMC made some ok flaps and control surfaces - other than that, neither kit really needed much else for a great build.
I liked the Hasegawa a little better, but the Tamiya was easier to build (and you know you can’t go wrong with any Tamiya kit).
I seem to remember that I have a Merlin hidden away in my after market parts box. I think it was by Verlinden - check out Squadron for this. I seem to remember that Verlinden also makes a complete Mustang detail set that contains the Merlin engine.
As far as Tamiya vs Hasegawa, I can’t really say. I have both kits but I haven’t started either. I haven’t built a D model since I did the old Otaki P-51D with an aftermarket set. That one got destroyed in one of my many moves, so I’ll probably be giving the new kits a try as soon as I wind down on the group builds.
I’m surprised there hasn’t been a P-51D group build, or did it happen before I arrived?
I prefer the Tamiya kit. The Hasegawa kit is very nice, except for the wheel bays which are much to shallow. For either kit there are lots of AM sets. Both True details & Aires make very nice resin cockpit replacements. Ultracast has several resin sets to correct some of the minor problems with the Tamiya kit & Eduard offers some very nice PE frets. For the engine, the only one that comes to mind is the Verlinden offering. True details offers vacuum form replacement canopies. I have built several of each kit & you really can’t go too far wrong with either.
Ok now we are rolling. I am recording this so I can go on the web later and look at all this stuff. I remember verlinden set now, most likely will add that to the arsenal.
I prefer the Hasegawa kit. I’ve built both, and each has it’s strong/weak points.
Tamiya has a tendency to mold-in detail to simplify the build (most notably the cockpit & landing gear), and the canopy is “thick-as-your-fist.” But it does have dropped flaps and full-depth wheel wells. Tamiya also molds the kit in thicker plastic. This makes it sturdy, but small parts & details are out-of-scale.
It all comes down to what YOU want. Look at some pics on the internet of finished builds. They both look like Mustangs to me.
If you want to knock someones socks off, build the Monogram Mustang, and use all available sets for that bird out there. That would be quite impresive to see, and I bet it would be more impresive to do that with Monograms kit than an Tamiya or Hasagawa produstion. But that just me.
EU49216 P-51D Mustang Color Detail Set $22.47 $22.47
BL48025 P-51D Mustang Cockpit Set $8.92 $8.92
TD48409 P-51D Seat $3.46 $3.46
TD48025 P-51 Mustang Wheels $1.96 $1.96
EP48104 Slybirds the 353 F.G. Mustangs Part II $7.96 $7.96
EPIP4809 Blue Nose Birds of Bodney, Pt 3 $8.96 $8.96
TM61089 North American P-51D Mustang $26.97 $26.97
Sub Total → $144.61
Its a mix of Verlinden, eduard black box sets, decals and masks and the bottom one is the Tamiya P-51D kit. Couldn’t find another Merlin Engine beside the Verlinden one, I wanted to a make a display like a musuem with a merlin out front too.
Anyone out there know of anything else I can add to this.
This is the same kit as your “Big Beautiful Doll” Salty so I am gonna be buggin ya ok.
thats an impressive array of AM sets friend!!! you kits gonna wieght 400 pounds after all that gets glued to it!!LOL you may want to get ya some metal landing gear to support all that stuff!!
bug away my friend!! i don’t know how much help i’ll be, but we’ll give it a shot. later.
Jeff, as much as we talk about Eduard PE around here, it is far from the best. It is simply the cheapest (and at the rate it’s going up, that’t not going to last long) and has by far the most comprehensive product list. But when it comes down to quality and accuracy, Aires, Waldren and a bunch of others beat the socks off Eduard. Keep that in mind when acquiring the Super Stang accessories. You can get a product list from Waldren for free, and photos of the more obscure AM sets are on most web catalogues. I buy Eduard out of habit and slim finances, and a few of their sets (the three that go with the ProModeler A-26 come to mind) are without peer. But, for instance, the one I’m using on my Ju 52m3 is just a whole bunch of seat belts and three instrument panels for different versions. Beyond that, there’s not much of interest.
Best of luck.
Tom
Can’t agree with you on this one Shark. Have you seen or purchased any of the new Eduard color PE sets ? They are amazingly good. Waldron is good, Aires is fair to good, but the new Eduard releases are great IMHO. True, some of the older Eduard releases were only fair to good, but they have now raised the bar a significant amount.