To Pixilater (and others) - Help w/ AM P-51B - What The ?

Modeling Subjects Aircraft
1

Pix, I must start out by saying that I absolutely admire your model building skills and abilities. I can only hope that some day I produce models of half the quality that you crank out.

WIth that, I am fairly far along on the construction of my first Accurate Miniatures kit, a P-51B, and I am quite pleased so far with how everything goes together. The fit is very good.

However, something isn’t right…where the rear fuselage section mates together with the front section, there is the beginnings of what looks like a fillet fin or something, this is on the front section. There is nothing like this on the rear section, it’s as if I have parts from two different kits (maybe a P-51A or C model, or an A-36 or F-6, etc.).

The photos below should illustrate this.

Any ideas why this would be? I know how to take care of it, I’m just curious why this is.

Thanks everyone (especially Pix).

EDIT: The photos are very small. Pix, if you want I’ll e-mail you the actual files, you can view in a larger format. Thx. MACooke@fuse.net

2

I think I can solve the mystery. AM also makes a P-51C which has the small fin fillet. They use a common mold for the front fuselage halves, but give you unique tail sections for the B & C models. On the C kit, the tail section has the rest of the fillet. On the B model, simply file or sand the fillet nub off.

Regards, Rick

3

I always thought the only difference between the P-51B and C is that the B was built by North American’s Long Beach plant and the C was built by the NA Dallas plant. Is there really a visible difference between the two?
TOM

4

Most C models were fitted with a small fin fillet. It’s the only visible difference between a B & C.

Regards, Rick

5

Thank you MA !

As Rick said, the same tail section was used for both of Accurate Miniatures kits (B & C). The B and C were made at different plants, but I think that only the C had a fillet. It’s a great kit, and you get an accurate flat plywood cockpit floor. Sand away and have fun !

6

Thanks everyone. I know the solution is to simply sand off the beginning of the fillet, I was just curious why it was there. I was losing sleep over it…[(-D]

And a great big “D’OAH!!” - I got the cockpit installed and the front fuselage halves glued together then realized that the cockpit floor planks are still interior green zinc - I forgot to paint them brown. D’oah! D’oah!

The MA are my first two initials…my name is Mitch, y’all can call me that.