Mustang I

Hi All!

On August 19, 1942 “A” Flight of 414 (Canadian) Sqn was assigned to perform tactical reconnaissance over the Dieppe operation. This flight was history-making, because Pilot Officer Hollis Hills was flying a fairly new Mustang I when he shot down a FW-190A. This was the first kill for the Mustang. The P-51 Mustang would eventually defeat the Luftwaffe over Germany in 1944 (now to find the last kill in Europe by a P-51).

Accurate Miniatures (AM) raised the bar when they released their Allison Mustang series. They produced over the years: Mustang IA, A-36, P-51, P-51A, F-6A and, an F-6B. AM also produced a nice P-51B and P-51C. They were reasonably detailed, fit well, and were of a subject ignored in 1/48th scale. There was trouble in paradise though. The instructions were poor ( I am being VERY nice here), the prop was too thick and the chords were wrong. Only one style of camera window was provided for the recon variants, no seat armor was provided the instruction failed to mention the wheel door stayed up until the gear cycled. Finally the most important version, the Mustang I was not modeled.

Ultracast of Canada came to the rescue with resin seats, wheels, exhausts, and a Mustang I conversion set for the AM Mustang IA, the P-51 and F-6A. However, the sets came with the later, wider chord prop. Ultracast eventually released the proper narrow "needle" prop for the Mk.I. I wanted to redo Hill's RU*M so the parts were gathered and work started. I also found the instructions from the yellow box release of the kit, and though they are still poor, and light-years ahead of the originals. I used the Mustang IA kit.

The first step I did was to tape the parts together and cut the wings and fuselage. Measure 6 times, and cut only once. The better the cut the less work you need to do. I was sloppy on one or two cuts and needed a bit of filler to correct the fault. After careful painting of the interior and wheel wells ( which were wrong, Airfix, Eduard, and Meng got the wells correct) the kit was assembled with no issues. the resin inserts were added, filled, and sanded to my liking. During the assembly seat armor was cut from a piece of styrene sheet. I also added the wrong seat belts, which should be a Sutton Harness. The control stick had a "pistol" grip attached, NOT a spade grip. During the assembly of the wings, I cemented the wheel doors in the up position. The prop was from Ultracast, but if you have an Eduard P-39, the correct blades are in the kit ( BTW the correct blades for the P-40L, M, and N prop blades are also in the P-39 kit). Also, the Tamiya P-51B open canopy will fit the Accurate Miniatures model.

There are no known pictures of RU*M, so the scheme was derived from other AG serialed Mustangs in the Squadron. From images, the wing leading edge ID stripes ran from the outer gun port to the wing tip. The 6-inch over and under-wing ID bands had slight differences in position. A lot of AG serialed Mk.Is were painted in "Mixed Grey" which was darker than Ocean grey. RAF-style fishtail exhausts were fitted. At the time of Dieppe, cameras had not been fitted to Mustangs as the mounts had not been designed. And the Mk.I was fitted with the tall thin antenna mast.

After assembly, the seams had been finished to my liking, the model was wiped off with Isopropyl Alcohol. Hataka Dark Green and Vallejo's Medium Sea Grey were used. The "Mixed Grey" was mixed to match a section of Spitfire elevator cloth painted in Mixed Grey. The fuselage band and spinner were painted in Vallejo Sky. The decals came from an IPMS Canada sheet. The prop was assembled using the Ultracast "Needle" blades, the exhausts were also from Ultracast. The glass was carefully painted and attached and the kit was done.

The model represents a North American Aviation Mustang I, serial AG470, and coded RU*M of 414 (Canadian) Sqn. during the Dieppe Raid in August 1942. It was flown by Pilot Officer Hollis Hills ( an American flying for the Royal Canadian Air Force) on August 19, 1942, when he shot down the first air-to-air victory (a Fw-190A) by a Mustang.

The Accurate Miniatures Allison Mustangs are detailed, easy-to-build models. The faults, (props, instructions, seat armor) are easy to correct. I can recommend them to everyone!

Bruce

3 additional images. Click to enlarge.