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Rafi Ben-Shahar
187 articles

Tamiya 1/32 P-51D

December 28, 2023 · in Aviation · · 28 · 345

A great kit. Engine wires and plumbing sources are marked to ease construction. However, the busy wheel well is relatively barren. Hence, it is up to the builder to complete the missing plumbing.

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20 additional images. Click to enlarge.


28 responses

  1. Excellent job as always, Rafi! The NMF looks superb!
    Interesting that Tamiya did not add more detail to the wheel wells.

    • Thank you Spiros!
      Given that the "definitive" Eduard model suffers from the same lack of details it seems that there are too many parts to manufacture for a relatively hidden area.

  2. Amazing result, Rafi @blackmopane
    Lots of details to be seen, especially the engine is a true art.

  3. Nice work as usual. It looks really nice and there's a lot of good work with that engine @blackmopane

    Interestingly - and this is no criticism of the modeler - the people who have researched Meyers' Peties have consistently made the mistake of giving his final score to his second P-51. The fact only one photo was ever taken of "Petie 3rd" probably has a certain bearing on that - a photo take at Asch after the New Year's Day battle, taken by his crew chief and not found till after the crew chief's death in his belongings; Petie 2nd was actually his lowest-scoring airplane and 3rd the highest-scoring. Eduard managed to do Petie 3rd in their P-51D aces kit that has Pierce McKennon's Ridgerunner on the boxart - and in the kit, they got confused as many have by the fact Ridgerunner II and III differed only by serial number and the number of parachutists in the nose art, and they ended up doing Ridgerunner II, the more historically important airplane that he was shot down in and then rescued by George Green. (apologies for the didacticism but these two items were the most interesting facts I discovered researching "Clean Sweep," from a modeler's perspective)

  4. That is a really nice Mustang Rafi. Nice work on the sparse wheel bays, your skills made a good kit even better, as usual. I've always wanted to pick up one of these Tamiya P-51s but I really hold out hope they would do an accurate B/C model. The Trumpiter kit is OK, but with the wrong wing shape and all the other little issues, a new 32nd scale B model would be awesome.

  5. Great build, Rafi...your adds to the landing wells and open engine bay are fascinating! I grabbed a fire-sale Hasegawa 1/32 Mustang, won't have the plumbing you added, but I need that iconic aircraft on my shelf. Such a beauty!

  6. A kit not without it's challenges! Boy, you better get that engine right if you want to fit cowlings :). This looks amazing. Could look at it all day!

    • Thank you Ross.
      I did not mention that thanks to the inherent cowls structure, that is relatively consistent curvatures on the length, closing the engine should not pose a problem.

  7. Rafi, thank you for showing us the exposed areas of this wonderful warplane. Some great work, as usual. @blackmopane

  8. Amazing- your skills are outstanding, build after build. You set the gold standard with this one (and all your others too!) Thanks for sharing and inspiring

  9. Awesome build - great detail and finish.

  10. Really cool Mustang, Rafi.

  11. Very nice Mustang!

  12. Wow...that's just stunning. You nailed it, clean, just as Meyer and his Crew Chief kept her. Great build!

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