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capt. R
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P-51D 1:72 Tamiya from Pacific. Luzon 1945.

January 24, 2023 · in Aviation · · 32 · 1.6K

What can you say about the Mustang model from Tamiya? A model from over twenty years ago, which I believe, defends itself very well today. After an exciting end of the year, I took up something simple and nice. Santa came out to meet me by bringing a 1:72 scale model of the Tamiya Mustang. The model has really good details in this scale. The cabin looks great and once again confirms to me that no aftermarket accessories are needed in this class of models. Even with the fairing open, you can literally see only a little of the interior (I decided on a figure of a pilot recovered from Wildcat Airfix). The main challenge of the project was a base stylized to look like a concrete runway. This is my first attempt at this topic, so please be gentle. It is laser cut cardboard, painted with a gray primer and then three shades of gray to create a patchy effect. To this I added small vegetation coming out from between the slabs. The base is supplemented, as usual, with a set of figures of pilots and mechanics from the CMK company. I always enjoy painting figurines. I chose a set of aftermarket Mustang markings from the Pacific region (DK-Decals brand, good quality, but at this build I tore "M" letter, and name of the pilot, but patched nicely. It's possible I was too tired or inattentive enough) of the famous air ace Major Walker M. Mahurin, who had a number of aerial victories in the Mediterranean area (He flew on P-47), and after being shot down, escaping from a POW camp, he was transferred to the Pacific, where he scored another shot down of a Japanese reconnaissance aircraft . This story has a further continuation, because in Korea, flying the F-86, he also shot down an enemy plane, and could boast of victories in three theaters of dogfights.
I used standard MR Color Super Fine Silver II, Super Chrome Silver, Super Stainless and a standard shade of blue for the nose and tail. Here we can have an academic discussion whether this or that shade of blue should be. In addition, I decided on additions in the form of resin casts of 250 lbs bombs (probably they should be 500 lbs, unfortunately they were not available in my hobby shop at the time). In addition, I used resin wheel casts which showed no seam through the center of the wheel as in the original Tamiya form. This was their only advantage, because the other details of the resin casting were completely invisible. Well, I guess that's it. I also used Washa Modeler's world and X-22 and X-35 clearcoat. I hope you enjoyed my project, and Lieutenant Lis will be back, I hope, soon with another surprising project.

Reader reactions:
21  Awesome

43 additional images. Click to enlarge.


32 responses

  1. Excellent work, great job on the different shades of silver, the ground crew and overall finish.

  2. That headline picture us great, @lis, could easily be mistaken for a larger scale. This is great work in 1/72, your figures are very realistic, the Mustang’s colour scheme really makes it pop, and the photographs are excellent.

  3. That turned out really nice, Lis.

  4. A superb result, @lis, an amazing build thread too!

  5. Very nice Pony! The scheme looks great.

  6. great work as usual @lis! both the kit and figures look fabulous!

  7. You did amazing work on this Mustang and the other 1/72 kits you’ve built, Lis @lis . An inspiration to me .

  8. An amazingly clean metal build and a great diorama!

  9. A beautiful diorama, Bernard @lis
    The Mustang, the base, the crew, everything is very nicely done.
    Well done.

  10. Excellent Mustang and diorama, Lt. Lis @lis. The crew figures are especially nice.

  11. Great work on this P-51 and figures, Bernard (@lis). It is hard to miss with a Tamiya kit, they all seem to be really good. Figures really add a lot to the model.

  12. Great build of the Tamiyas little P-51 diamond Lis 👍 Hard work painting 1/72 scale figures but they certainly add to the dio Nice one 😊

  13. Wow, that's 1/72? Could have fooled me. Looks great!

  14. That's very nice work @lis. The model looks great and the diorama really works well.

  15. That is a very nice looking model! Well done!

  16. Nicely done, I too, thought it might be a larger scale, nice work on the figures.

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