In 1938 with the clouds of war gathering on the horizon, the British government set up the so-called British Purchasing Commission in the United States where it arranged the production and purchase of armaments from North American weapons manufacturers. Sir Henry Self, the head of Commission approached North American Aviation with the intention of asking whether they could build Curtiss' P-40 under licence (Curtiss-Wright's own factory was running at full capacity, causing a backlog of delivery). James H. 'Dutch' Kindelberger, NAA's President however offered a new, better aircraft than the P-40 which could get in the air sooner than establishing a new P-40 production line. The British then stipulated a fighter armed with four 7.7mm machine guns, an Allison V-1710 inline engine, a unit cost of no more than $40,000 and delivery of the first production aircraft by January 1941. In March 1940 an order for 320 aircraft was made.
The result was the NA-73X. It was of fairly conventional design but included a number of new features such as laminar-flow wings which allow high speeds with low drag. It also incorporated a radiator design which took advantage of the so-called Meredith Effect, in which the heated air exited the radiator with a slight jet thrust. The prototype was rolled out in September 1940 and first flew on 26 October 1940 - a period of less than 150 days after the order had been taken. Two of the aircraft from the first order were sent to the USAAF as the XP-51 for evaluation. The first USAAC order for the P-51 was placed on 7 July 1940. The NA-73 was given the name Mustang Mk I by the British and entered service with No. 26 Squadron in February 1942. The Mustang, with its excellent low-altitude performance and long range, made good tactical reconnaissance and ground attack aircraft, although thought to be an inferior air-superiority fighter because of its poor performance above 15,000 feet.
In April 1942, the Air Fighting Development Unit of the RAF, with the help from Rolls-Royce equipped a Mustang I with the Merlin 61 engine. Known as Mustang Mk X, the result was remarkable : the Merlin engine gave the Mustang speeds reaching 433 mph at 22,000 feet. The Army also tested the P-51A with Packard-built Merlin engines with the designation XP-51B, which first flew on 30 November 1942. Flight tests confirmed the potential of the new fighter. Usage of 75 gallon drop tanks enabled the P-51B to be used as bomber escort, with a range of 750 miles. The range was further extended when the Mustang was fitted with a 85 gallon fuel tank behind the pilot's seat. When full however, the CG of the Mustang moved dangerously aft. As a result maneuvers were limited until the tank was down to 25 gallons and the external tanks dropped. Even so, the Mustang (P-51B to P-51D/K, but especially the early D) still suffered from snap-roll under the right (or wrong) circumstances. To cure this problem a modification kit in the shape of a dorsal fin was introduced. The P-51Bs started to arrive at the ETO in August 1943 and they were also deployed in the CBI theatre. To improve the view to the rear, the bubbletop canopy was introduced in the P-51D. The D version also featured redesigned wings and gun arrangement. The P-51D (and the similar, Dallas factory-built P-51K) arrived at the ETO in mid-1944 and became the primary US fighter in the theatre.
The P-51 was the solution to the Eighth Air Force's escort fighter problem. It was clearly superior against the Luftwaffe's twin-engined Zerstorers. The Fw 190, while highly capable at low- to medium-altitudes, were no match against the Mustangs at the level B-17s are normally flying. The Bf 109s were more less on par with the P-51 at high altitudes but were increasingly hampered by the increase in armament; hence weight (in order to down the bombers). The Mustang, with its lighter armament, designed for anti-fighter combat, allowed them to face the Luftwaffe's fighters with relative ease. Furthermore, with independent fighter sweeps, rather than close escort, the Mustangs were able to intercept the Luftwaffe's
Gefechtsverband formations as they assemble, negating the threat to the bombers. Such tactics, together with the numerical superiority of the USAAF, the superlative performance of the Mustang and the better pilot proficency allowed the Allies to cripple the Luftwaffe. Reichmarschall Hermann Goring was quoted as saying "when I saw Mustangs over Berlin, I know the jig was up."
The Kit
The kit I used in this build was originally released in 1991 as kit SP58. In 1997, Hasegawa re-released that kit as SL3 with a new set of decals. The kit consists of parts distributed among four grey and one clear sprues. The grey parts contain all the airframe and stores parts which include the 75 US gallon metal drop tanks, 108 US gallon pressed paper drop tanks, 500-lb bombs, 5-inch HVARs and 4.5-inch bazooka-type rocket launchers. Both cuffed Hamilton Standard and Aeroproducts prop blades were included in the kit. The clear parts contain all the 'glasses' for the IFF and landing lights, reflector gunsight and the canopies, both standard and Dallas-type. As mentioned before, early 'D' Mustangs were not fitted with the dorsal fin. To make an early D from this kit, Hasegawa has you cut the moulded-on dorsal fin. To help the modeler, Hasegawa moulded the outline of a fillet-less tail on the inside of the fuselage halves. The original decal sheet was replaced with what Hasegawa described as 'Hi-Tech Decals'. Only one marking was available, that of 'Passion Wagon' of 362nd FS/ 357th FG. It was wrongly described as an aircraft from 336FS/ 4th FG which was actually a carryover from the original instructions (the marking info for Passion Wagon was swapped with the other option).
There were no stencil decals save for the aircraft data info and fueling markings on the wings
I bought this kit to replace my Tamiya Mustang which has suffered from
irrepairable damage as a result of a collision with the display
cabinet's glass doors. The older Mustang is still on my workbench
however and the opportunity was taken to compare the two kits. Offhand,
the Tamiya kit has better, crisper surface detail than the Hasegawa one.
Until construction starts, the Tamiya kit also held the upper hand for
fit and they definitely trounced the Hasegawa kit by having the flaps in
the lowered position (I found out that the Mustang's flaps are always in
the down position whenever the engine is switched off and hydraulic
pressure is relieved.). I am however, have no confidence in my own ability to make a good cut, re-filling and re-shaping the tail and make new panel lines. So the fillet remained in place and I decided to use the leftover decals from the Tamiya kit.
Construction
The cockpit parts were first painted on the sprue. I used Tamiya's recipe for interior green which was two parts XF-3 Flat Yellow and one part XF-5 Flat Green. The moulded-on seat belt was painted XF-62 Olive Drab whilst other details were painted in either flat black, red and silver. As for the cockpit floor, Hasegawa has you paint them in red brown, for which I use Tamiya XF-64. The dashboard has raised detail and I decided to use the kit decals. The cockpit parts, which consists of the cockpit floor/radio rack/fuselage fuel tank, side panels, seat, instrument panel and gunsight were then mated together and set aside. I then painted the inside of the fuselage halves Tamiya XF-4 Yellow Green and the (simplified) radiator and the tailwheel mount silver. The completed cockpit, radiator and the tailwheel mount were then glued to one side of the fuselage. There is a slight fit issue with the tailwheel mount; I simply enlarge the placement bracket using my craft knife. The parts which formed the rear of the radiator (just two of them) were then glued to the rear of the cockpit assembly. Finally the exhaust stacks were glued to the fuselage sides. I chose the shrouded exhaust as the aircraft I'm modeling was so equipped. The fuselage halves were then glued together. There was also fit issues here especially on the rear decking but it was easily overcome with a little bit of putty. I then attached the radiator intake cowling, the oil cooler flap and the radiator flap on the underside of the fuselage. The fit was quite bad here, requiring the sanding of the cowling to fit with the rest of the structure and some filling of the gaps between the flaps and fuselage.
Next, the wings. As stated before, Hasegawa's Mustang has its flaps in the up position whereas it would be more accurate to have them in the down position. I was thinking of using the flaps from my Tamiya kit and initial measurements show that the Tamiya flaps can be grafted onto the Hasegawa kit. However, I decided not to after soberly thinking that my 'surgery' skills were not as good as I thought! So, the kit flaps stay in place. Before gluing the wing halves together, I drilled the holes for the underwing pylons for the fuel tanks. The instructions also show the option to drill holes for the rocket pylons (both ZELL and the bazooka-type) but I chose not to as I want to portray the Mustang in its air-superiority role. Furthermore, the ZELL rocket launchers were not used in the ETO. Hasegawa also had the gun muzzles as separate parts; these were glued to the lower half of the wing. When the halves were mated together, there is a slight, irregular gap in the leading edge - most probably because of my fault rather than the kit design. There were also gaps between the gun barrels and the upper part of the wings. The fit between the wings and the fuselage however, was flawless. The horizontal statibilizers were then attached to the fuselage without any problems. The turbocharger intake however did not fit properly like the radiator intake cowl and had to be sanded. Next, the bits inside the canopy were glued onto the latter. The canopy were then masked off for painting.
Painting and Decaling
Instead of finishing the model with the kit markings, I decided to raid my spares box and came up with the spares decals from the Tamiya kit. I decided to build 'Petie 2nd', the P-51D of Lt. Col. John C. Meyer, Deputy CO of the 352nd Fighter Group, affectionately known as 'The Blue Bastards of Bodney'. He was the fourth highest-scoring American ace in Europe with 24 kills. Lt. Col. Meyer was particularly known for his role in what is known as 'The Battle of Y-29' during Operation Bodenplatte. His foresight in having the 487th Squadron of the 352nd Fighter Group pre-flighted and ready to take-off on New Year's Day 1945 prevented disaster when Jagdgeschwader 11 attacked the airfield (Codenamed Y-29). Meyer led the take-off under fire and even managed to shot down a Fw 190 while his landing gear was still in the down position.
Before painting the entire model with Tamiya AS-12 Bare Metal Silver, I first painted the canopy frame Flat Black and the wheel wells XF-4 Yellow Green. The wheel wells and cockpit transparencies were then masked and two layers of AS-12 were sprayed onto the model. Once dry, it's time to paint the distinctive blue nose of the 352nd FG. I used the painting instructions from Tamiya's 1/32 P-51 kit (which have Petie 2nd as one of the painting options). In the original 1/48 Tamiya kit, the instructions have you mix XF-8 Flat Blue and X-8 (Gloss) Blue in equal measure. I believe this darker blue was only appropriate for the later time period i.e when the 352nd had moved into continental airfields. The 1/32 kit revised the blue as 3 parts X-14 Sky Blue and 1 part XF-8 Flat Blue. To that mix, I added 20% XF-2 Flat White for scale effect. The tyres were painted XF-69 NATO Black and the the rest of the landing gear components were painted silver. Small detail parts such as the wingtip and IFF lights were also painted at this time.
Now it's time for the decals. The plane-specific decals came from my spares box. Despite being at least 10 years old, they were still good albeit with some yellowing. While they looked thinner than the usual Tamiya decals, they remain rather unresponsive to softening solutions. The general-type decals such as for the national insignia and some stencils came from the kit. At first I thought they were dry-transfer decals, but after reading the instructions, they were some sort of a cross-breed of regular water-slide decals and dry transfer ones. You still need to slightly wet the decal in order to separate it from the backing paper. Anyway they are thick and totally impervious to setting solutions - I had to use a burnishing tool to help the decals to conform to panel lines. The national insignia decals also suffered from some minor cracking. I also somehow placed the fuselage insignia some 1-2mm further forward and I have to modify the 'HO' decals to fit.
Finishing
I started by assembling the main landing gear parts. I goofed up when I put on the landing gear covers backwards! Luckily the glue hasn't properly set and I managed to pry them loose and put them in their actual positions. This was followed by the inner doors and the tailwheel. Next, the prop assembly. The prop blades were painted X-18 Semi-Gloss Black and I used leftover decals from my
P-47 for the Hamilton Standard logo and stencils. The method of assembly for Hasegawa's 1/48 Mustangs have you assemble the spinner parts and then place it on its location. The keyed prop blades can then be inserted into their places in the spinner so that the inner ends of the prop blades are sandwiched between the 'stoppers' and the fuselage, preventing the prop assembly from slipping out. However, I broke the cardinal rule of scale modeling here by not following the instructions - I assembled the prop separately from the fuselage. This of course resulted in the inner half getting in the way of the stoppers. Instead of simply partly pulling the prop blades up, insert the whole assembly onto the nose and pushing back the prop blades back, I cut off all the inner prop blade ends and inserted them back into place. This negates the function of the stoppers and I have to glue the prop assembly onto the fuselage...hmphhh!
For underwing stores, I chose to fit my model with the 108 gallon paper tanks. Instead of using the kit tanks, I used the ones provided in the Tamiya P-47 kit. The Tamiya tanks fit the Hasegawa kit with just a little cutting to the parts which connects the tank to the pylon. Also, instead of painting the tanks natural metal, I painted them Neutral Grey using Tamiya XF-53. The radio aerial and air data probe were the last parts attached to the model. Tamiya Semi-Gloss Clear were then sprayed onto the model and was followed by a spray of Flat Clear for the nose area. The masks were then removed to complete the build.
Conclusion
Hasegawa has always been renowned as one of the leaders of the plastic model kit industry. Their Mustang is one of the proof of that. Although somewhat eclipsed by the Tamiya offering, the Hasegawa Mustang can still hold its own. However their decal in this version left something to be desired.
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