1:48 Eduard P-51 Mustang & FW-190 Dogfight Diorama

Prior to the whole pandemic kerfuffle I had an idea to build a dogfight diorama. I purchase the two Eduard Profi-PACK kits back in 2020 and promptly put them on the shelf until the time was right. After a little research I knew the Mustang pilot had to be George Preddy. His prolific flying career is nothing short of legendary. I won't go into detail on him as Louis Gardner @lgardner has already done so in his wonderful article, Major George Preddy "Cripes-A-Mighty III"
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According to the box notes, the German pilot is Hans Weik of IV.Gruppe. Not sure what any of that means (and I don't care), but it was a cool looking paint scheme and the right time period, so I went with it. By all accounts, Weik was an accomplished Ace in his own right. I'm sure these two Ace's never met in aerial combat, but I chose to pit them together as the Blue-nosed Bastards of Bodney escort a B-17 bombing mission.

So, now I had the kits, but I still had to figure out the backdrop. I took photos of clouds, searched aerial combat archives and still didn't find the right setting for the diorama. Then I ran across some great digital aviation art on behance. Behold there was an artist who had rendered an image of the 352nd fighter group in action. I dropped the artist a note and he granted me permission to use his art for my diorama. I painted out a FW-190 that was on fire in the foreground so I could place my 3D fighters in it's place. So, now the concept was growing into reality.

The Builds

These Profi-Pack Eduard kits are super-detailed 1:48 fighters. Maybe too detailed, but the option provided for cockpit details, armament, drop tanks is awesome. I really applaud Eduard for also including the canopy masks in the kits. I think the only thing I hate more than masking canopies is building bombs:) I also purchased pilot figures as the birds are in flight, so that's kind of a necessity. The German pilot is a Eduard resin kit, the US pilot came from ICM kit that comes with pilot & ground crew. For the life of me I could not find a 1:48 US P-51 pilot figure…The FW went together without issue. As I built it I did develop an appreciation of the fighter. There's a reason these things were called “Butcher Birds.”

The Same can't be said for the Mustang kit. Can we get all model manufacturer's to NOT build P-51 kits with seams down the middle of the hood? The overall seam lines on the Mustang were a pain to smooth, fill and blend.
The biggest issue with both kits was they are built only for ground display—not dual-purpose for a flying representation. To this point, both kits landing gear doors and to be shaped to actually fit into the wheel bays. You would think for all the detail in these kits, that open-or-closed the landing gear doors would fit—nope not the case. The FW's rear wheel needed some modifications to give the correct retracted flight appearance and the Mustangs main flaps were molded in the “power-off” position. That would be down for those of you who are not in the know. I spent a whole night trying to figure out what needs to be removed, re-built and reshaped to get them to fit in the flight position. As I've said many time, the journey is the glory.

The Diorama

Once I had all the pieces I needed to get the image actually printed. Fortunately I have a good friend who's a printer and he did me a solid by printing it on canvas for me. From there all I needed to do was build a stretcher and wrap it like one would a painting. A couple of rods to hold the birds in place and Voilà! The skies of Europe came to life as the Blue-nosed Bastard Beats the Butcher. Hope you enjoy the final result—I sure do. Comment away and keep building.

9 additional images. Click to enlarge.