MPM's 1/72 North American P-51/F-6A Mustang

By Norm Filer

History

Considering how difficult it was to convince the then USAAF to even consider the early Mustang, it is amazing we can look back on the Mustang at all.

Most of us have read about the British, being desperate for more fighters, came to North American Aviation and asked them if they would be interested in building Curtiss designed P-40s. James H. ‘Dutch’ Kindelberger, then head of North American, made a rather amazing counter offer. North American would design and deliver a whole new and better airplane is less than a year. Once the British accepted the offer North American went to work and did what they promised. Even overcoming what easily could have been the kiss-of-death-crashing the only prototype shortly after it’s first flight.

When the U.S. Government allowed the British to order the new fighter, they included the provision that they would receive two Mustangs at no cost. These were to be built as XP-51s.

While the British were very happy with their new Mustangs, the USAAF apparently took a very "not invented here" attitude. Both USAAF airplanes were delivered by March 1941, but testing did not take place until Oct-Dec of that year. There apparently was a decided lack of enthusiasm on the part of the procurement depts. But when Dec. 7^th arrived things changed dramatically. North American received an order for 150 P-51s. But Uncle Sam still did not appreciate the potential. They delegated 93 of the 150 to the British, and made the balance (57) into armed reconnaissance P-51/F-6s for use in Europe and North Africa. The subject of this kit is one of those 57 F-6s.

The Kit

With the kit manufacturers from the Czech Republic exchanging kits all the time it gets difficult to tell who is doing what, and with who’s molds. This appears to be the Condor P-51/A-36 kit with the revisions required to make it into a F-6A.

The box art is by the same artist, and the trees contain all of the parts required for the P-51A or A-36. The wings do not include the dive brakes and there is not any provision for the cheek guns. Does all of this cross kiting make this a bad kit? Not by a long way!! This is one very nice kit. As I keep saying with these MPM kits, they just keep getting better and better. The surface detail is very fine, with crisp, scribing and very smooth surfaces. There is a bit of flash here and there, but a very small annoyance at worst.

The kit comes complete with the plastic parts, but there is also a complete set of resin parts for a very complete cockpit and rear deck area. The floor, sidewalls, instrument panels and radios are all as good as resin gets, also included is a very small camera and mounting frame for the area behind the seat. Here is where the F-6 comes into play. The left rear teardrop window is bulged and separate from the rest of the canopy. Also included is a small round window to be installed in the belly. Many of the F-6s had a hole in the rear teardrop for the camera port, but this one is a bulged window. It took a bit of looking, but the kit appears to have it right.

Perhaps this is where one could make one very minor observation. This single bulged window makes this kit a dedicated F-6. There is no separate teardrop window to make a standard P-51. But then Condor already has both a standard P-51 and A-36. It is apparent that these folks are not shy about marketing limited market kits. It’s nice to have them looking out for us with some of these more obscure versions.

There are no less than six main gear tires in this kit! Two injection molded ones and four resin ones. The resin ones are by far the better.

Markings are from the usual Propragteam, and of course are beautiful. Included are the rather well known "Snooper" of the 111^th Tac. Recon Sqdn. In North Africa, another rather plainly marked 154^th Observation bird, also from North Africa with a very nice U.S. Flag on the tail-and yes it is the correct 48 star flag! Third one is a British Desert Air Force 225^th Sqdn airplane.

Conclusion

The great thing about this group of Czech Republic companies is that they just continue to crank out very nice kits of stuff that we have been told for years "would not sell well enough to make a profit". And each seems to improve in quality. The future has just got to be more good stuff.