Editor's showcase: 1/48 Tamiya P-51C "Lou III"
This might be one of the last good chances to impress anyone with a completed Tamiya 1/48 P-51B Mustang kit, so here it is! I finished this model some three years ago, and it still stands as one of my personal favorites.
Building it was as smooth as you'd expect from a kit with such a great reputation. The only area I was less than happy about was the lower fuselage "belly", where the detail is soft and correct matching of various flaps difficult. Otherwise, this still is a great kit for everyone.
I made a few personal tweaks to the basic kit:
- Detailed cockpit from Eduard's color-printed Zoom set
- Added riveting across the entire airframe
- Fitted a vacuum-formed Malcolm hood from Rob Taurus
- Used resin wheels from Barracuda Studios
- Paper tanks were sourced from Eduard's P-51D kit.
For the paint scheme, I went with the one flown by Colonel Thomas J.J. Christian, Jr. of the 361st Fighter Group. Col. Christian famously piloted "LOU IV," one of the most well-known Mustangs of the European Theater of Operations. "LOU IV" was highlighted in the colorful publicity photos of the Bottisham Four—four Mustangs of the 375th Fighter Squadron flying in tight formation at high altitude.
However, during much of spring 1944, including D-Day, Col. Christian flew an earlier P-51C Mustang named "LOU III." From what I can gather, only two rather blurry photos of this aircraft are available, but they indicate a vibrant and interesting paint scheme that I aimed to replicate here.
The decals came from various sheets including the one for "LOU IV". I even produced the "LOU III" emblem from "LOU IV" decals using tiny bits of red and white striping to replace the roman numerals.
I had a blast working on this project and really love how the model turned out!
Comments and feedback are mostly welcome.
Beauty
I'm glad you like it
That looks great! Thanks for sharing. Most of those Tamiya and Hasegawa kits from the ‘90s and early 2000s are just fine . I personally don’t feel the need to drop for a brand new fully riveted kit to replace a model like this. I still have one in the stash that I’ll happily build. I will get an Eduard “B” with the fin filet when it inevitably shows up. I’m admittedly probably an outlier, but still hoping for some modern F4Bs, P-12s, SBCs, BT-1s, etc……instead of finer and finer Mustangs, 109s, Spits, etc.
@j-healy I agree that many of these kits are just fine and, may I add, often very simple to assemble compared with the newest offerings.
And yes, if there was a new-tool P-12/F4B, I'd definitely buy one!
This is an excellent build of a fine kit. I have a mixture of P-51D models (Eduard and Tamiya), mainly because I wanted the extra detailing. The Tamiya kit I have came with a Jeep which I wanted for a future diorama, so the Mustang was a bonus.
@clipper There's no denying that Eduard's surface features are hard to beat! I found that adding riveting is a good way to bring the 1990s kit to a new level, but even though the result looks great, it is not 1:1 match for what Eduard is providing out of the box. But once you assembled and painted the kit, the difference may no longer be that noticeable.
Looks great, Martin! I've always liked the NMF and OD schemes.
Yes, me too!
Awesome job on the fine Tamiya kit, Martin!
Congratulations!
Thank you @fiveten, glad you liked it!
There is always a chance to get that wow factor with this or any other kit as long as it’s done with such care Martin.
A very solid build with a great paint job overall. Really enjoy this version of “Lou” string of Ponies
Yes I'm a slow builder so didn't take many shortcuts with this one 🙂 Thank you for the fine words @holzhamer
A beautiful Mustang!
Thank you!
Nice job Martin, also love the razorback Mustangs.
Yes I think that the B/C series was the best looking Mustang of them all.
Martin, that is a great looking Mustang! 🤩 @editor, Top work, for sure! 👏
Thank you @garybrantley!
That is absolutely a WOW, Martin @editor
This Mustang will look amazing together with your other superb builds.
Well done.
Nice result, Martin.
Thank you!
A beautiful Mustang with other than “the usual” markings.
I always wanted to build a LOU IV, but actually like the look of the razorback P-51B/C better, so this is what I ended up with 😀 Modeler's logic I suppose...
Martin, Very nice work, It's always nice to see the "other aircraft", that may not be as famous as the ones we usually see. Your time and patients have paid off on this one.
Beautiful build...glad to see the early version of Lou...can't go wrong with the Tamiya.
It looks absolutely great. I like it very much.
G’day Martin (@editor),
The photos of the real aircraft show how neat the dark green scallops were on the tail and wing roots.
I always prefer to model off a photo of the aircraft and you have replicated the photos nicely.
Liked!