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Rafi Ben-Shahar
369 articles

Revised: Tamiya 1/48 P-51B "Shangri La"

November 4, 2024 · in Aviation · · 13 · 331

"Shangri La", the iconic piloted by Capt. D. Gentile, 336th FS, 4th FG with the early white spinner. And how disappointing was the end of this aircraft...

Reader reactions:
12  Awesome

19 additional images. Click to enlarge.


13 responses

  1. Fantastic job on the now classic Tamiya kit, Rafi!

  2. Excellent result, Rafi @blackmopane
    Did build this same one myself and I really liked how it went together. A pleasure to build this kit.

  3. Nice one, Rafi.

  4. Nice work, but for the scoreboard you have, the spinner should be all red. The red/white lasted about three days after they first painted the noses red on March 1. Blakeslee ordered Gentile and Godfrey to both paint their spinners on March 4 when they came back from the abortive Berlin mission, and when they tried to argue they needed it for recognition, told them both they were grounded till the spinners were painted. They were both bright red the morning of March 5. At the time of the red/white spinners Gentile only had 5 victories. (Don't feel bad, it took me interviewing Goodson, BobWehrman and eventually Blakeslee to finally get the whole story - it was basically the beginning of the progessively-worse bad blood between Gentile and Blakeslee)

  5. Historically accurate or not, it is another absolute beauty!

  6. Like they said, a real beauty even if not totally accurate!

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