Please let us know. I got to see the HobbyCraft 1/24 kit. It is a beauty. Should make a nice piece.

Well, when a company wants to bet it's reputation and go for the glory, it's going to be on two aircraft, the NA P-51D or F-4 Phantom in 1/32nd or greater scale. No other aircraft command such great interest or so many students. Both are extremely difficult to "get it right". Most available reference drawings have serious flaws and except for Tamiya's 1/48th kit, models of the P-51 do to. The Trumpeter 1/24th P-51, at first glance, looks to be museum quality OTB, well worth the $$$. I was going to order six more until checking measurements and mocking the fuselage and wings up (spot glue). In this scale, accuracy within inches really does count, same with component parts. You CAN tell the difference. Trumpeter's attempt to deliver has to be applauded. The fuselage captures the "fat" waist and "heavy" look of the real aircraft. P-51s are big, heavy, over-engined fighters and nothing on them is or looks flimsy. The kit's engine cowling is a true piece of art, the curvature and fit near museum quality - no one comes close with plastic! Overall outline is superb. The lower chin/bottom tapering/detail is beautiful craftmanship. The canopy is the best clear-molding you'll see. The wings and gear gush with detail, including the factory painted, baby-ass smooth surface for laminar flow. But wait. Something is wrong. The wings appear clipped - yep, 8" short overall. The leading edge is horribly flattened, main-gear leading edge juncture off and NACA airfoil shape & dimensions incorrect. At least these flaws can be salvaged/reworked (I think) but why is there such gross quality difference in the wing compared to the fuselage? The fuselage does offer some hope. On big scale P-51s, you must have the spinner-hub diameter at 28-29" range (real is 28.75"). This allows proper outline of the nose as it tapers back. Trumpeter scales an inch shy. To compensate, they deepened the nose airscoop while pulling back the forward eyebrows on the top cowling - required to clear the valve covers. Only Guillows (1/16th) and Tamiya have this correct in my judgement. The net effect - she doesn't look right. The big airscoop looks almost comical and the nose, noticably, too pointy although the eye plays tricks at this scale. The scoop is easy to correct using the inner plastic molding as a guide and filling/sanding to shape. The eyebrows can be added/shaped with filler but I hate the thought with such a well fitting, detailed kit. Most serious, the front windshield "box" is too short, thus the classic plexiglass teardrop is noticably off. The guy who did the canopy was sub-contracted obviously. It is 4-6" too wide requiring the frame to curve and bulge out away from the otherwise beautifully shaped fuselage sides. The canopy shape is off as well but man, what a great first attempt to get the "blown" sides correct for once. Please try again Trumpy - no one else has the talent or desire to "get it right".
Trumpeter, a company of tremendous potential and much-needed for the hobby, needs to pull this kit from market, replace the wings and canopy, re-work the nose and windshield - or sell it as a GI-JOE toy. I hope they choose the former because the kit will set a new standard for all other manufactures to follow. Heck, I want Trumpeter to achieve the best P-51 ever offered! I'll build 'em for breakfast, lunch and supper at the current price. As it stands though, this is my first, and last, purchase of a Trumpeter product (until the 1/32nd scale SU-27 is released, of course).

Thanks for the heads up. I think for the time being , I will stick to my Hasagawa P-51D in 1/32. Let us know if someone else gets it closer. Mav

Dude the Hasegawa 1/32 P-51 is probably the worst P-51 in a larger size scale I have ever come across.There are so many problems with that thing Im not going to even name them off.There are many fit problems but the most is accruacy(terribly horrible)and actual scale of parts.

Amen Zach, but with lack of a better alternate and the price, I guess I'm stuck right now. Thanks alot for the info though. Lets hope Trumpeter does try again.

Thanks for the tutorial! Why Trumpy insisted on giving us another P-51D (they did the same thing with the Spitfire Mk. V) when there was no P-51B or Spitfire Mk. IX in 1:24 scale never ceases to amaze me. Have you heard anything on the 1:24 P-51B that Trumpeter announced seven years ago?