Korea – The Forgotten War GB. North American F-82G Twin Mustang
The F-82 was originally intended as a long range escort fighter, intended to shepherd B-29 raids to Japan beyond the range of the P-51 Mustang or P-38 Lightning. That role went out the window with the end of WWII, and those F-82's that had already been built went into mothballs. They were revived a few years later when the USSR developed both nuclear weapons and a bomber (the Tu-4, which was a reverse engineered B-29) to carry them. The USAF realized that the early jets lacked range and capability, so the F-82 went into service as an escort fighter and an all weather point defense interceptor. Early F-82's were powered by Packard built Rolls Royce Merlin engines, but reluctance to pay licensing fees and a desire to have an "all American" aircraft resulted in a switch to the Allison V-1710. They were among the first combat aircraft sent to Korea, and in June 1950, Twin Mustangs of the 68th FS scored the first three aerial kills of the war, shooting down a Yak-9 and two Yak-11's. They were also used as ground attack aircraft, serving ably until they were replaced by F-94 Starfires in late 1951.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_F-82_Twin_Mustang
This is the Monogram F-82G night fighter in 1/72 scale. This kit came out in 1973, and I remember as a kid being very excited when it did because it wasn't the usual Mustang-Messerschmitt-Spitfire issue that everyone else was doing. The owner of the hobby shop where I hung out got me two of them for the princely sum of $8.00.
I'm not really sure what moved me to do this one, but it was nostalgic for sure. It went together about as I remembered. Cockpit detail is sparse, but since I was leaving the canopies closed, what was there sufficed perfectly. Fuselage fit left a bit to be desired, and plastic card was used to fill in the huge trenches where the slide for the functional canopies went. Wings and horizontal stab fit very well, with just a bit of filler needed in a few places. Outline is pretty accurate and it was quite an enjoyable build. Paint was Rustoleum high heat black from a rattle can, which has a slightly more gray cast to it that almost completely disappeared under a coat of Future. Decals are from Print Scale, representing an F-82G night fighter of the 318th FS. Having some nice nose art made that choice pretty easy, but they silvered more than I like and no amount of setting solution seemed to fix it. Build thread is here for those interested...
https://imodeler.com/groups/korea-the-forgotten-war/forum/topic/f-82g-twin-mustang-monogram-1-72/
The F-82 is pretty poorly represented in plastic. The Monogram kit is accurate, but showing its age. Special Hobby issued this airplane in 1/72 a few years ago, and while the detail, especially in the cockpit is much better than the Monogram kit, it suffers from serious shape issues in the tail and with the radar pod. Kitbashing the two together would probably result in a very nice model. And then there's the awful Model Craft kit in 1/48, which for some reason I have been collecting parts with which to correct it and will attempt building it once I sniff a little (well maybe a lot) more glue...
All in all a very enjoyable build of yet another forgotten airplane...
Nicely done, Jaime. The comparison shot with the 'D' illustrates that the F-82 wasn't simply two P-51's slapped together.
Fortunately, Modelsvit is going to come to the rescue this fall with a world-class 1/48 kit.
Nice work on this old chestnut.
That's good to hear, Tom. A nice 1/48 model of this airplane is long overdue.
Nice work Jaime, great to see the progressive build.
Great head-on pic, I hate to see those twin props coming at me!
Nicely done Jaime.
Great Twinmustang, Jaime!
A nice result came out of this classic kit.
I enjoyed following your thread.
Very well done.
Not Just simply two planes together, must have been a lot of engineering to get this done.
Nicely done for an old kit Jaime, too bad the decals didn't work out they way you wanted, especially that nose art. You may already know that an XP-82 Mustang has been restored and flying again. Airframe came from a collectors farm near Cleveland,Ohio. Quite an interesting story.
Nicely done! I've got this kit - going to have to build it soon. I had already build an NMF version, so a night fighter is slated for my next twin build.
Jaime, @jetmex
You have done a great job with building your F-82. Not only was it built well, but it was also built very fast. It’s not often that you can have both.
I have one of the Modelcraft 1/48 scale F-82G night fighter kits you mentioned. I’ll try to get it done before the 3 year deadline arrives. It might take me that long to finish it up especially when I have read so many bad things about it.
Thanks for participating in our ever growing Korean War group build. You were the first to complete a build from the group.
Great work Jaime! Quick off the mark for The Korea GB and a stunning job you've made of it! Leading the way with an iconic bird in black. Love it!