Italeri 1/72 North American Mustang F-51D

ITALERI 1:72 F-51D MUSTANG

italeri_f-51d.jpg (12951 bytes)

Reviewer: Myself (braithy@bigpond.com)

The title is correct, this is a post world war 2 Mustang model although options for others are included. When aircraft were redesignated from "P" to "F" in 1962, this included the aircraft that were currently in the USAF inventory. This was the time when it was officially accepted and recognised by US congress, but aircraft were being redesignated (unofficially) well before then. Thus the P-51 became the F-51 Mustang on 1 June 1948 and of course other than the redesignation there was very little difference between the models.

Perhaps the most turning point of post war air combat occurred on 7 November 1950 when three North Korean MiG-15 fighters tore through a 36th Fighter-Bomber Squadron of F-51D's. These F-51D's scored hits on the MiG-15's - although no kills were confirmed - without sustaining damage themselves and underlined the magnificence of this aircraft, even under the redesignation! Of course later in the conflict emerged the F-86 Sabre.

An F-51D (rather than a P-51D) in itself is a welcome relief to the proliferation of Mustang kits which have been produced over the years. It just adds a refreshing change to the number of P-51 kits and gives you another notch to fill, if you are a Mustang buff. Italeri have captured the look of the real machine very well with quite reasonable accuracy.

As with most Italeri kits you are presented with crisp flash-free parts on opening the box. Surface detail is finely engraved and there are only a couple of sink marks you need to contend with. They aren't too much of a problem to deal with and can be easily overcome with a little work. You are supplied with 64 light grey parts and four clear parts. Cockpit detail, however, is very basic. You are provided with a seat, frame, control column and instrument panel which all is affixed to a cockpit base/floor. There are no sidewall detail to speak of and instrumentation on the panel is almost non-existant. Contrastly, the wheel well area is of reasonable detail with struts inbedded in the panelling and are of depth which appears quite accurate.

Assembling the kit is relatively hassle-free and presents no real problems to the modelmaker. Parts fit quite well together and the crispness of same is quite delightful to work with but the otherside of the coin is that there is not a lot of challenge! The wing consists of an upper and lower section with the wheel wells recessing in the lower portion. One problem I noted was that the starboard wing did not fit as good as one would want, leaving a small gap which will require a small bit of filler to fix.

Options for weapons/stores include rockets, bombs and drop tanks to be affixed to underwing pylons. Detail overall is reasonable but could be a bit better. Accuracy on the finished product appears to be quite good when compared to reference books. The renowned nose profile and radiator intake seems to be well reproduced.

You can make up three separate aircraft in this kit from three separate air forces. Decals are provided for an F-51D of 12th Fighter-Bomber squadron USAF, Korea 1950, a Mustang IV of No 65 Squadron RAF, April 1945 and a P-51D of No 4 Squadron RNZAF, February 1953. Good quality decals which leave a slightly gloss finish.

Overall the kit is very reasonable, and should present a good introduction to modelling a Mustang or a refreshing alternative for the experienced Mustang modeller. A good representation should be achieved with a little work.

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Kit Review Index: 1/72 1/48

f51d_model.jpg (6325 bytes)

This is not a finished model of this kit but is a four-blade F-51D model from the Korean war