P-51C Mustang
Tuskegee Airmen

Accurate Miniatures, 1/48 scale

Reviewed by Simon Wolff

Accurate Miniatures' 1/48 scale P-51C Mustang is available online from Squadron.com
 

The following is taken from the kit box:

The Tuskegee Airmen were an elite group of pilots, ground crew and support staff that were pioneers in equality and integration of the Armed Forces. No U.S. military pilots had been black prior to the Tuskegee Airmen; The Army Air Corps was required to form an all-black combat unit in 1941 through Congressional legislation. The War Department set up a system to accept only those with a high level of flight experience or higher education that they expected would be hard to fill. The Air Corps received an abundance of applications from men who had already participated in the Civilian Pilot Training Program, which the Tuskegee Institute had participated in since 1939.

The Tuskegee program officially began with formation of the 99th Fighter Squadron at the Tuskegee Institute in June 1941. The Tuskegee Institute was a highly regarded institute founded by Booker T. Washington, through the work of Lewis Adams and George W. Campbell in Tuskegee, Alabama.

After basic training at Moton Field, they were moved to nearby Tuskegee Army Air Field about 10 miles west, for conversion training onto operational types of aircraft. The Airmen were placed under the command of Captain Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., one of the few African American West Point graduates. His father Benjamin O. Davis, Sr. was the first black General in the U.S. Army.

The kit comes packaged in the familiar Accurate Miniatures box, inside the Box are four main sprues in two bags located on a top section while under a large colour illustration of aircraft ‘72’ Ina the Macon Belle (which is also the aircraft illustrated on the box art) in a lower section are the clear parts plus twelve page build instruction book; four page colour instructions sheet and large decal sheet.

There are four grey moulded sprues, two dark grey containing the fuselage parts, spinner, four bladed prop, two exhaust sets and some interior parts while the two light grey sprues look to contain all the remaining parts plus three bladed prop and exhausts which are redundant to this kit.

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Thumbnail panels:

The twelve page build instruction book looks to be part generic to the B/C kit as reference is made to optional tail sections (which you don’t get in this kit). Also the part numbers for the separate tail section parts are wrong, (which Accurate Miniatures have pointed out on their web site) in the instruction book they should read 48 and 49. Something I found a little confusing is on the fuselage halves sprue you get two sets of exhausts plus a third on a light grey sprue. The instruction sheet refers to 11L and 11R which are on the dark grey sprues.

The instruction sheet is quite detailed and goes through the construction sequence page by page, describing in clear detail the sequence of assembly which is quite a nice touch. Each page has its own illustration plus written instruction for the assembly and then written instructions for the painting pertaining to that pages illustration, very thorough.

Warning: I would definitely take the time and familiarise yourself with the instruction book and kit parts very thoroughly, before beginning building this model. I feel if care is not taken mistakes could easily be made, for example the first illustration (in the assembly instruction book) regarding the fuselage and tail assembly is somewhat unclear both in part numbers and illustration. Another example is a number of instrument panel decals are provide on the large sheet which are not used, a separate small set of black dials are provided which appear to act as backing to the clear instrument panel part (but  when dry fitting they don’t seem to match each other) as they say if all else fails read the instructions.

The parts themselves are well detailed with very little flash evident, there were some minor sink marks on the four bladed prop, all the panels are recessed bar a couple of items. You also get with this kit options for either normal or flattened tyres which is a nice touch.

Also supplied with this kit is a nice Malcolm Hood however I am not sure if the Americans used them or not.

Colour schemes; the decals are glossy with only slight film showing to them.

There are four options given all from the 332nd Fighter Group they are:

• Number 72 “Ina the Macon belle” 1st Lt Lee Archer

• Number 66 “By Request” Col. Benjamin O. Davis

• Number 10 “Lollipoop” 1st Lt Spurgeon Ellington

• Number 1 “Skipper Darling III” Captain Andrew Turner

All in all a lovely looking kit, lots of information to take in and I did like the informative nature of the kit instructions, despite some confusion. Definitely recommend this kit to an experienced modeller.

Thanks to Accurate Miniatures for the sample

Review Text Copyright © 2009 by Simon Wolff
Page Created 18 June, 2009
Last updated 18 June, 2009

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