1:72 P-51 D Very Long Range - PE Parts (for Arma Hobby Kits)

The Mustang on the longest escorts of the war

The abbreviation Very Long Range denotes a way of employing the aircraft, not a different airframe. From the spring of 1945 Mustangs took off from the just captured island of Iwo Jima and escorted heavy bombers over the Japanese home islands. That meant roughly a thousand kilometers of flying over open sea out and the same distance back, mostly with the help of a navigation aircraft, because a single error in the heading ended in empty water. The pilots sat in the cockpit for seven or eight hours, and the equipment included drop tanks and navigation instruments that an ordinary European escort did not need.

Contents of the fret: metal detailing for the cockpit including the face of the instrument panel and the seat belts, plus small parts for the airframe, that is covers, grilles, flaps and small platforms, which at this size are meant to be on the edge of visibility.

Procedure: cut the parts off the fret with a scalpel against a hard surface and put them into a dish straight away, because in a small scale they vanish on the floor for good. Make the bends along the scored line. Pick the glue up with a needle in tiny drops.

Painting: after degreasing, apply a primer for metals and only then the paint. The natural metal finish of the Mustang is also sensitive to every fingerprint, so hold the model by its base after spraying.

Inside the package you will find a photo-etched fret. The model, paints and decals are not included.

Worth knowing in advance: aircraft from the Pacific theater often carried conspicuous stripes on the tail surfaces, which served to identify the squadron. They make it possible to trace a particular machine and to confirm its color scheme from period photographs.