Mustang I, 1/72 Italeri, RCAF 414 Squadron, F/O Hollis Hills
Hollis Hills was an American flying with the Royal Canadian Air Force, and this aircraft, with Hollis at the stick, was the first Mustang to score a victory, over an FW-190, above the beaches of the disastrous Dieppe raid, a dark day for the Canadian military. (Even these early Mustangs must have been pretty good to bag a Focke Wulf at a time when the RAF was pulling Spitfire V's off patrol due to the butcher bird.)
Hills went on to fly for the US Navy, and became an ace with them
Paints are Tamiya. Weathering and panel line shading with artist's chalk pastels. Decals are from an old Arrow Graphics sheet, needed Testors decal coating spray to keep them from disintegrating. Ez-line antenna. References included the IPMS Canada "RCAF Mustang Mk.I Addendum. This suggested at the time of Dieppe there was no camera in the rear cockpit at the time of the Dieppe raid, and the aircraft did not have the small maple leaf roundel on the nose or the white horses head logo which appear in some profiles and the restored warbird when it has flown as Hollis' aircraft.
Off the schneid at last! I see my last article was a year and a half ago. Kinda let modeler disappointment get me down, hung up on a Coastal Command Fortress project that I'm still trying to wrest from the shelf of doom.
Maybe the Italeri kit wasn't the best choice. Fit is not stellar, and one glaring inaccuracy is the P-51 D wing, with the very angled leading edge section near the wing root. I actually have a Revell P-51 B kit which could have donated a wing, but I am not yet the modeler to be able to face that much putty.
Not a contest winner, just felt good to finally finish one. Hopefully next one gets better as the skills improve.
Happy modeling one and all.
Excellent job, Aldo! Great to see your job after a small modeling "break"! The kit's shortfalls do not really matter. What does is that you are back on track with such great result, sharing it here!
Well done!
Thanks Spiros. Hard to stay away from the hobby seeing all the great work from yourself and the rest of the community for inspiration.
Good to see you back with a great build, Aldo @aldog
Despite the shortcomings of this kit, you created a beautiful pony.
Thanks John.
Very nice job. I don't think there are a lot of good Allison powered Mustang kits out there in any scale most manufacturers get the wings and gear bay doors worn on anything other than a D model. All in all your little Mustang looks great!
Thank you Clint. It's a shame about the lack of a good A model. Let's pray to the modeling gods that Arma or Eduard comes to the rescue. Cheers.
A nice little project, and what's not to like about as fastback Mustang! Glad you're back in the saddle...
Thanks Greg.
🙂 ... Greetings ... 🙂
Good work on that Mustang model Aldo.
Thanks!
Looks good from here, Aldo.
Thank you George.
Both of your aircraft look very nice. Glad to have you back and posting again! (@aldog)
Thanks John.