“Big Dick” in the craps is a pair of fives. Ten as a pair of 5’s may also be known as “puppy paws” or “a pair of sunflowers” or “Big John.”, but taking into account that “Dick” is a diminutive for Richard, one can guess that for this play on words the Captain, and later Major Richard A. Hewitt has chosen the name for a plane which is the subject of this gallery: P-51D-20NA serial number 44-64147, code MX-U, 82nd Fighter Squadron 78th Fighter Group, in Duxford.

The model is a Tamiya product, supplemented with:
1) resin wheel wells and covers from Aires (replacement of the original wrong wheel wells, seems to be a problem of most of the Mustang kits in this scale)
2) resin cockpit from Aires,
3) metal barrels from Master,
4) resin exhausts from Quick Boost,
5) Print Scale Decals (48-039).

Painted with AK Extreme Metal, washed with Panel Liner from MIG, weathered with pigments from AK.

The decals failed – checkerboard under the exhausts does not correspond to reality, but I decided to use them anyway. Technically, however, they were fine.

Hope you like it – the job is not perfect, but I learned a lot during the construction.











And the finished model:



















And some photos with white background:















Hope you like it.

Best, Hubert

Howdy,

Awesome build!! Really looks great.

Brian Riedel

Hi Hubert,

Very nice build of my favourite aircraft of all time. The Mustang just looks 'right'.

Excellent work on the cockpit.

Congratulations and thank you for sharing.

Regards,
Kobus

Thanks for your nice comments, glad that you like it
Best
Hubert

Hubert,
That's one really nice P-51D. The Tamiya kit really does it justice. I just wish that the manufactures, especially Tamiya with their series of 1/32 scale P-51Ds would have removed the wing panel lines. You took the time remove them, and the results speak for themselves. Well done. While the fuselage was bare Aluminum, the wings left the factory painted with Aluminum dope.

Not sure what you meant by issue with the nose checkerboard, but it looks outstanding in the photographs.

Joel

Lovely build Hubert. Great attention to detail and a very nice finish on the paintwork.

Cheers, D

Thanks for your comments Joel and Damian.




As for the issue of panel lines and rivets - I fully agree, however I think this should apply to 1:48th scale too. They just have to be removed unless one makes a museum piece, which Tamiya probably modeled.
Technically bigger problem in my opinion are the wheel wells, making them correctly requires major surgery.
The nose checkerboard looks quite well, but unfortunately is incorrect. That's how it should look like:



Best
Hubert

Hubert,
Fantastic P-51!

Gaz