P-51D Mustang

NitraModel - P-51D Mustang

P-51D Mustang - special edition for NitraModel

To the 30th anniversary of modeling competitions organized by our club in cooperation
with the company Eduard - Model Accessories, we prepared a model of the P-51D plane that crashed near Nitra. His pilot, 1st Lt. Lyman A. Beeman even visited Nitra, albeit involuntarily, and spent a night there in prison. 44 years later, a member of our club, Jaroslav Fábry, was digging up the remains of the Mustang...

What will be in the box?

News from the Eduard - Model Accessories workshop: new P-51D moldings (on the market from summer 2024)
instructions with a special appendix on 8 pages
masks - so that the stripes on the tail fit perfectly
mask for canopy
decals - when I don't want to disguise myself, I stick stripes there
photo etched parts

How can I get the limited edition P-51D:

you can find us at various modeling events at home and abroad
contact us by email or on fb
price: 15€
shipping worldwide

ScaleMates

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/mk-zobor-nitra-p-51d--1581728

Review:

Our club, MK Zobor Nitra has released this kit on the occasion of our 30th annual exhibition – Nitra Model 2024. The scheme represents the plane that crashed in Hruboňovo, village near Nitra. The kit is in a typical contemporary Eduard quality. In the box we can find the sprues, photo-etched fret, decal sheets, canopy masks, and as a bonus, masks for the tail stripes. It is a highly detailed kit that has its issues. I trial built one kit to find how to make the next ones. If you are searching for easy-to-make model kit, look for the Tamiya or Airfix, which have less parts and are significantly easier to assemble and can be recommended to kids or less experienced modellers.

Let’s get back to the Eduard kit. The kit itself is of high quality. You can build a very beautiful one from the box, you just need to paint it nicely. This kit itself has some issues anyway. Generally, during the assembly it is necssary to check the fitting of the parts. Very important thing is cleaning the parts after removal from the sprue. Each imperfection can occur later.

In the box we can find a photo-etched fret to embellish the details. The fret was made for other boxing therefore the numbering does not fit the instructions properly. For example the reinforcements of the seat are marked improperly. Skilled modeller can handle the situation anyway. If we overcome these minor problems, the rest of the assembly goes well

I was worring the most about the surface that I wanted to do as realistic as possible. I used Gunze Super Metallic panits, my favorite ones, supplemented by A-Standard by Ammo of Mig. These are lacquer paints with all the pros and cons of the lacquers (mostly pros the ). After airbrushing of the metallic paints I finalized the surface with semi-gloss varnish by Mr. Hobby – a great varnish that does not influence the metallic look much.

Decals are typical of Eduard – peelable. This step can be skipped to save some time, but after peeling of the film they look more realistic. The modeller can choose the way how to make the red and yellow stripes, because Eduard added the masks as well.

I combined the methods because the yellow decals were short so I airbrushed them with the masks. This means if the modeller does not have the spare ones, at least the lower part has to be airbrushed.
For the red stripes I used the decal, that when treated carefully, was possible to peel off. I fixed it by Gunze Setter, just in case.
Anyway, I recommend the following method: Rudder first and after the elevators.

Now is the time for washing and oil shading. I applied grey wash by AK into the panel lines, I didn’t want a high contrast of a darker tone. The rest I combined with oil paints. The washing is in the end more intense than I planned. You can see the result on the pictures. I am satisfied with the result even though there is still a room for improval.
Regarding the Eduard Accessories, they are producing more of them for this type specifically. I would for sure acquire the 3D printed details as a pilot seat and tyres. These can improve the kit the most. Cockpit detail itself is great from the sprues, instrument panel in this scale is visible poorly anyway. It is possible to improve the kit with the gun bay, but this is up to the modeller’s choice.

The kit is amazing with perfect details but in the same time with high amount of the parts. Thus I do not recommend it to everyone, especially not to the children. They are not yet patient enough.
To summarize, I am satisfied and I cannot wait for the next one which is planned. I have several of them in my stash. Each one of them will be better and better