Hawk 1/48 P-51D Mustang
Here's another of my old builds, a 1/48 Hawk P-51D that I made in 1989 for a club group build on Aces from New Jersey. "Dragon Wagon" (WR-Y) was flown by Capt. James E. Duffy Jr. from the 354th Fighter Squadron, 355th Fighter Group, 8th Air Force. Back then we did not have the internet to really get good color images so this was the best we guessed on how the markings and colors looked for this plane. In today's world the nose ring would have been red instead of blue and Dragon Wagon shadow would have been red instead of black. This kit originally started out with the chrome finish but it was scuffed in many areas so I sanded the whole kit down and painted it silver.
I remember enjoying this build and like the overall look of this kit. Hawk originally released this kit in 1962, for its time I feel Hawk did a great job on making a 1/48th kit look pretty darn close to a P-51D.
Decals came from different microscale sheets that I had to piece together.
Nice, Bob. I built that one in the early โ70s and really liked it at the time. I actually think the shapes look better on that kit then on the one that superseded it, the Monogram 1977 bubbletop.
John, thank you. This was my 3rd time building this kit, 1st in 1970, then in 1979. I had the Monogram P-51D in hand but I did not want to deal with gluing and blending in the lower cowling, left wing gun bay doors and rework the inboard gun port that was oversized to fit a gun. Plus the overall fit was not that great. My other challenge was I had four different Jersey Aces to build so I went for the one I knew best. To this day I would not mind building another Hawk/Testers P-51D.
Looks really good Bob. I remember when this kit was released it was the super state of the art then and it has stood the test of time well.
Dale thank you and that is pretty much how I remember this kit back then.
Great looking build of a classic kit. They did a really good job of tooling back then considering there was no CAD or laser scanners.
Haslam, thank you. Yes Hawk did a pretty good job on this kit. I also feel the same on their Lysander.
Yes, The Lysander!
The Lysander was the first 1/48 kit I built and at the time I was very impressed. Since then I have worked almost exclusively in 1/48.
Nice clean build - especially coming from an old Hawk kit!
Greg, thank you. I did a lot of blending in the wing root area, the engine inlet and sanded down the spinner to reduce that blunt look that it had. Plus I filed down the base of both exhaust stacks because they stuck out so much. I do not remember taking a lot of time on this build. If I had made this kit today, I would have not made it in out of the factory look but dirty up just a little.
Looking great, Bob.
Maybe not the correct colors, but if you didn't tell, I wouldn't now about it.
To me it is a very nice build.
Thank you John, I figured I better say it because now the photos are in color. I wonder how true they are today!
1 attached image. Click to enlarge.
A great build of an old classic, kit and aircraft.
Thank you Robert, an old classic kit it is and a great aircraft.
Boy, that brings back some memories! Nice result and it looks better than both the Monogram and Revell 1/48 kits that came after.
Thank you Tom, I had and build all three back then and I also had the Otaki kit. Monogram had the better details of all but a tougher build (for me at that time).
๐ ... Greetings ... ๐ :
Looking at this build brings back memories. My brother still has this model, he broke his, I ended giving him mine ... no biggie. I had two more kits in my closet.
Nice work on this classic.
Thank you De4ever. I have one in my stash, I would not mind making another one.
Really great model of a classic kit, Bob! Regarding the colors, you did the best for the then given cicumstances and info and that's what counts!
Thank you Spiros. Agree on the colors, look at Dooley Bird from the old Matchbox kit to the more recent Airfix release. The blue is now yellow...I wonder how much of that is accurate. Right now I am working on a PZL P.11c. Ten years ago it was olive green, now itโs more like a chocolate brown...
Neat build of an older kit! Hawk did a way better job of getting the "smile" of the carb intake right. Liked.
Doug, thank you.
Beautiful model Bob. It certainly looks like a P-51D from any view. It's one of my favorite kits and always pick them up at shows.