Hasegawa/Italeri Mustang 1/48

November 5, 2018 · in Aviation · · 20 · 2.4K

Hello, felllas.

This is my attempt at 's . Boxed by Italeri, it comes with an attractive decal sheet depicting 4 RAF Mustangs, and being a s****r for a sharkmouth aircraft, that is the one I chose. There is no way a doesn't look good, but I particularly like it in RAF camo - perhaps because we are so used to USAAF more flamboyant color schemes, there is an elegance to it.

Having built a few Hasegawa kits before, the shortcomings of this particular kit were a bit surprising: a VERY shallow landing gear bay, strangely dimensioned instrument panel/rudder pedals, and clear parts too wide for the airframe. The fit of the wing/fuselage joint was also bad, the upper wing panels needing pieces of sprue cut to lenght to sit flush with the fuselage fairing - althought that perhaps was my mistake while clamping the parts while the glue set.

As with other recent Italeri kits, the decals are shiny and thick, and after several coats of micro sol, a toothpick was needed to make them ser into the panel lines. Even after this special treatment, an oil wash just wouldn't stay in the lines under the decals, so I did this: instead of trying to run the wash through the lines with a fine brush, I dipped the sharpened tip of a 0.5 mechanical pencil in a 50/50 mars black tube oil paint/thinner wash and gently ran the lines. The wash finally settled, bringing the detail to life. I don't know about you, but it really bothers me when a panel line disappears under the decal - more so than other build defects I can live with.

The kit looks a lot better than in the pictures (if I do say so myself ?), which were taken with a cellphone and very rudimentary backdrop and lighting.

Other than the points mentioned above, the kit is fine and the decal sheet in this boxing makes it a good value.

As always, thanks for looking and all feedback is greatly appreciated!

Cheers!

Reader reactions:
4  Awesome

7 additional images. Click to enlarge.


20 responses

  1. Nice work...I like it !

  2. Very nicely done. Gotta love those ‘Stangs

  3. Great looking P-51, Thiago!

  4. You did a great job here Thiago. The Hasegawa mould is old, without googling I’d say late 80s, early 90s. I remember when it was the hype for getting a Mustang in 1/48, and it remained so until Tamiya released theirs.
    The sharkmouth decal is the center of this model and the extra work you had paid off greatly. Keep them coming!

  5. Thiago. You have done a marvelous bit of modeling here and came up with a very attractive build. Nicely done !
    I always say when it comes to building a 1/48 scale P-51D, first buy the Hasegawa kit. It may not be the best P-51 kit, but you get a whole bunch of extra stuff in the kit like fuel tanks, rockets bombs and exhaust types, for your later mustangs !

  6. I to love the RAF P-51s. You nailed this one! It really pops and looks like u could hop in and run her up. Great overall finish and weathering. Just right, spot on.

  7. Nice work Thiago ! The sharkmouth looks superb.

  8. Looks excellent! You're trick to get the panel lines showing where the decals are worked wonderfully. I agree about Ponies in RAF colors - I need a few for my collection!

    • Thank you, Greg! Before settling for the sharkmouth scheme, I thought of doing a desert what if version, because of a movie where Tom Hanks plays a RAF pilot who flies a Mustang painted in that scheme. I couldn't find stills of the movie, so I left it at that.

  9. Beauty, everything looks better with roundels

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