The North American Aviation P-51 Mustang is an American long-range, single-seat fighter used during World War II.
Mustang! Is there a name that better embodies the essence of sleekness and power than a wild stallion? The engineers at North American Aviation (NAA) in Inglewood, California must have been thinking the same thing when they developed the iconic design of the P-51 Mustang. The Mustang airframe is an aerodynamic masterpiece.
Insignias, aircraft markings, and station information of fighter aircraft groups and squadrons of the US Army Air Forces during World War II.
A collection of historic pictures from the Eighth Air Force 357th Fighter Group. A group consisting of the 362nd, 363rd, and 364th Fighter Squadrons.
Over the course of World War II the U.S Army Air Forces activated 114 fighter groups. Among these fighter groups, a select few stood out as elite units. The 357th Fighter Group held one of these outstanding combat records, in just over a year of combat 42 pilots would achieve ‘acedom’. Nicknamed “The Yoxford Boys” after a village near their base in Leiston, UK, the 357th boasted the most air-to-air combat victories of any P-51 group in the Eighth Air Force
I got a little exhausted with detailing the engine so I moved on to the radiator/oil cooler duct assembly. I believe this assembly requires its own post because it is a little miny model on its own. As seen from the below instruction snippets, completing the whole assembly requires 24 parts including metal rods and…
When tasked with the job of developing a new fighter, North American Aviation combined current technologies and also came up with some new enhancements that would make the P-51 arguably one of the best fighters of all time. One of these enhancements was laminar flow airfoils, for the smooth, uninterrupted flow of air over the…
It has been a while since my last post but our house renovation has pretty much eaten up all of my free time. But with the work finally winding down I was able to get some bench time in on the Tamiya Mustang. I decided to switch gears from engine work and move on to…
We have been doing a little spring cleaning, or at this current time winter cleaning, and I came across a box of old models that haven’t been touched. One delightful surprise in the box was Tamiya’s 1/48 scale P-51D. I have been super detailing my Tamiya 1/32 P-51D to a point where I could rebuild…
I finally finished up the exhaust ignition harnesses. I had a lot of trouble with these compared to the intake ignition harnesses. With the top harnesses I was able use copper wire and “fudge” the location of where the ignition lines connect to the spark plugs since they are hidden from the intake covers. However,…
I haven’t modeled since I was a young kid putting together Revell kits with Testors cement and finishing them in a couple hours. Even though I haven’t touched a kit since middle school, I have continued to follow model forums and build sites. Now, at the age of 33 and with the recent purchase of…