1:32 P-51B MUSTANG

The Mustang that did not yet have a bubble

The B version is the moment when an average attack aircraft became an escort fighter. A Merlin with a two-stage supercharger came into the airframe, performance at high altitude rose and with drop tanks the machine reached as far as Berlin. From outside the airframe stayed old for the time being: a raised fuselage decking, four heavy machine guns in the wing and a nose with a deep carburetor intake above the cowling.

Three forms of cockpit on one type

Nowhere else in this scale does it pay to follow the development of the glazing as it does on the B. The production form had a framed canopy made up of a fixed front section, two hinged side panels and fixed rear glazing that ran into the fuselage decking behind the pilot. British units soon began fitting a domed one-piece hood, which by sliding back opened up the whole cockpit area and improved the view more than anything else; this conversion became typical of photographs of Bs in Europe. Only the following version received a full teardrop bubble with a cut-down decking. The mask therefore has to match which of those three forms the model represents, otherwise the number of pieces will not fit.

Box contents

The listed contents hold the canopy masked in two layers, a pair of stars and decals. A framed canopy means a great many small panels, and that is exactly the situation where a pre-cut shape saves the most time against trimming tape by hand. Do not look for plastic, paints or glue here; the set belongs with a built model.

Stars from a mask have an unquestionable advantage over a decal on the curved surfaces of the cowling and the canopy, where a carrier film likes to wrinkle and is then visible even under a matte coat.