As I briefly added in my “Building for Someone Else” thread- I found a Tuskegee Airman in my town through a number I left at a museum and interviewed him today. I plan on typing up a transcript of the interview and can post somewheres on this forum (although is there a relevant forum here for it??). Anyways-- he flew P-40s and P-51s in Italy and in bomber escorts to Germany.
After the interview, I told him I’d like to model one of his planes and he asked for a P-51C. Looking real quick at Great Models, I see they have an ICM kit and a AM kit in a bag.
What is the better choice?? I am assuming AM, but I am unsure about ordering just the bag… are any other companies selling the P-51C variant??
Lastly, if anyone has it in their model library and wishes to part with it, please let me know
The Rivet-Counters will hate me for this. With both kit manufacturers, there is no differnce in their P-51B and P-51C kits.
Get the Tamiya P-51B “The best kit produced to this day” and build your kit.
Let me know if this works out.
The ‘B’ did not have the fin fillet, only the ‘C’. Not all 'C’s had the fillet, though.
The AM ‘B’ and ‘C’ kits are identical except that the ‘C’ has the fillet. A few problems though, fit-wise. Building this one right now, just to see what it’s like; not all that awful, just a few headaches here and there.
The ICM kit is a slightly inferior copy of the Tamiya kit. Unless $$$ is an issue, I’d pass over this one and get the original.
The Tamiya kit would be my first choice, it’s far superior to other available options. Also building a couple of these at the moment. The only thing you’d have to do to make a ‘C’ is to add the fillet, if your particular subject had one.
I am not a very good scratch-builder, but he did mention about the fin fillet- so I need to be sure it’s there. I might just go with the AM kit, although I have always had fit problems with their kits!! It’s nice to have lots of detail but not at the cost of trying to cram it all into the fuselage fittings… what to do…what to do… how would I make a fillet?
Jeeves,
Perhaps you could make the fillet out of Evergreen
styrene and add it to the Tamiya P-51B. Does anyone make
Tuskegee Airmen decals or are you going to paint them?
fuzzy
I added a fillet to a P-47, and though it was a long, tedious process it’s really not too awful tuff to do.
This is how I’d do it:
Before assembling the fuselage halves, shave off a bit of each mating surface in the area where the fillet should be; just enuff so you can slide a suitable piece of plastic sheet/card in there. You can either shape it before or after you put it in, but I’d opt to wait a bit.
Once everything’s glued together, build up the sides of the fillet with more card and fill any gaps with a filler that’ll scribe/engrave well. My personal choice would be to fill in as much as possible with scraps of plastic and then use superglue for the rest. If you use superglue, wait until all the plastic you’ve glued has dried solid. Then use the CA and sand it within 5-10 minutes before it gets rock hard.
Repeat this as necessary and then sand it all smooth and to the proper shape. Then engrave your lines and you’re all set.
If you want a bit more detailed explanation and some photos, I’d be happy to help out. I’ve actually been thinking of doing this myself and this may be the excuse to get me crackin’!
Sure blackwolf-- if you don’t mind-- I really want this to be my best yet-- this guy gave me some great stories today!
fuzzy… I haven’t started looking for decals yet…but in January 2003 FSm on the inside back cover is a small write-up and in the references section, it listed decals- but they are OOP.
I am sure there are no decals out with his personal marking anyways-- so I am not sure what to do there…
May I ask this fella’s name? Also, the name of his ship, which squadron, etc?
I’ll try and start this little project in the next week or so and post some photos.
By the way, I just noticed that you had asked if anyone had a kit. Whichever you decide to do, I have dupes of the AM & Tamiya kits, lemmee know if you need one.
In the war, he was a captain, but earned the rank of Lt. Col. following the war in the reserves. His name is Clarence Dart and he is originally from Elmira but now resides here in Saratoga. While I don’t have his registration #, I know he named his planes “Tess’s Torch Song” and that his fuselage codes were A-29. He also said that his nose had a blue and black checkerboard pattern, but I had never heard of this…wonder if I can get decals for that??
Jeeves,
Seems like I saw an ad where AMtech was
going to release Tuskegee Airmen decals. Hope they do
them in 1/48th because I missed the sheets you’re looking
for.
Here’s some information that may be of interest.
Dart,Clarence W. Class# 43-J-SE
Date of Graduation 11/3/1943 Grade 2nd Lt.
SN O814826 Elmira,NY
Good luck on your mustang. Please post some
pictures when you’re finished.
fuzzy
Wow!! Can I ask where you got that info fuzzy?? There wouldn’t happen to be any pics with that stuff would there??? He said he had lost everything he brought back with him in a fire at his mom’s house. Please let me know where you got that stuff…I have been combing the net all night…
Jeeves,
I don’t have any photographs but here are some books you might want to check out. Black Knights The Story of theTuskegee Airmen by Homan/Reilly , Pelican .
Tuskegee’s Heroes Cooper & Cooper
Segregated Skies All Black Combat Squadrons
of WW2 Sandler
I saw a picture of a P-51D model for the Tuskegee
Airmen with checkers on the nose but there was no info on
squadron.
fuzzy
I just noticed your note about having dupes of the kits. How bad is the fit on the AM kit?? Looking over it’s description at great models, it seems like the perfect kit for this project-- but if the fit is tricky, I don’t want to mess it up and will go with the Tamiya kit after you give me the know-how to scratch build (which will be a first for me-- another reason for me to be nervous to mess it up…). Email me on what they are worth to you and I’ll get back to you
I was just searching some sites and there was a listing at rollmodels.com for a P-51C for Tamiya…it was an Eduard Photo-Etch Detail kit…I wonder if this includes the fin fillet?? If so-- I am all for grabbing the Tamiya kit…anyone know more about this??
