1/72 Academy P-51D Mustang

Gallery Article by Fernando I. Moreno Villa on Dec 7 2009

 

P-51D Mustang - Fuerza Aérea Guardia Nacional de Nicaragua

Some of the most exotic Mustangs in Latin American service were those used by the Air Force of the National Guard of Nicaragua. The largest batch of P-51D/K was received in 1955 from the Royal Sweden Air Force, supplemented by others from the USAF surplus stocks. These warbirds saw extensive service during the border tensions with Honduras, in COIN missions against anti-Somoza rebels, as well as in many covert (and uncovert) military missions in support of CIA operations in the region. The last Nicaraguan P-51's were retired in early 1970's due the lack of spares.

THE KIT

After building several Mustangs from different manufacturers, I can say the Academy is by far a much better kit in terms of detail and accuracy. It has a well detailed cockpit, control panels and wheel bays. However, I found some difficulties with the assembled cockpit when joining fuselage halves so I needed to make some cuts to make it fit correctly. Also, there are some sink marks in the interior walls of wheel bay doors that must be eliminated. Finally, in my opinion the clear canopy was a little bit large and the windshield had the hole to place a rear view mirror that these planes didn't use in Nicaraguan service…

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CONSTRUCTION

The building of this model was really enjoyable and easy.  However, I needed to do some sanding to delete all joints and seam lines, but there was no excessive extra job and the entire process went through with no problems at all. 

PAINTING

Nicaraguan Mustangs sported an NMF with very colorful bands on the wings intended to facilitate identification. I only used the following Model Master's Metalizers: Aluminum non-buff, Steel and Exhaust for the entire body, applying different shades to panels in wings and fuselage, according to my reference pictures. I masked with Tamiya tape after reducing its adherence to prevent peeling the previous paint job. I didn’t applied any primer before metalizers, mostly because the surface suffered almost no damages during the assembly process.  

DECALS

This was my chance to finally use this version from the impressive Aztec Decals' Macho Mustangs II decal set provided by my good friend Aldo Flores. All decals were placed after a coat of Future applied with a wide brush, to provide a shiny and uniform surface. Then I sealed the entire work with another coat of Future, applied in the same way a day after. I preferred not to use the Metalizer Sealer this time and I think it looks good enough for me…

WEATHERING

There was no need to do any kind of weathering because I tried to catch a very clean look of these beautiful Nicaraguan fighters.    

CONCLUSION

This model won a first place in a local special contest in October, receiving a nice trophy from my modeler colleagues of La Silla Scale Modeling Club….In November 7th, it also got another first place in the "Out of Box" category at the regional contest in Monterrey, so finally I had something to convince my wife that the time spent in the hobby is worth =)  

REFERENCES

  • "Latin American Air Wars 1912-1969", Dan Hagedorn. Hikoki Publications.

  • Articles  from the Air Combat Information Group website

Thank you all and regards from Monterrey, México.

Fernando I. Moreno Villa

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Photos and text © by Fernando I. Moreno Villa