1/32 P-51D/K Mustang IV by Zoukei-mura

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Thomas_M
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Re: 1/32 P-51D/K Mustang IV by Zoukei-mura

Post by Thomas_M »

Sprue E

75 gallon drop tanks and the fuselage side panels are included on this sprue with the perforated or closed air intakes for the carburettor.

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Now I have been greatly upset before by ZM’s non- inclusion of any ordinance on their kits or little of it. Especially on the Skyraider which really baffled me that a bomber kit has no bombs! You had to buy them separately which seemed like a cash grab to me. We have sense here with a pair of 75 gallon drop tanks of this mustang so all is forgiven – just keep it up!

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Perforated and closed intakes which we go along with the partially shrouded intakes we looked at on the extra runner.

The air filter intake covers (x3)
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This boxing gives you the option of using closed intakes for aircraft operating in colder climates.

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Open or perforated panels for hotter climes – these will need a little cleaning out with a pin.

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…And the other, not often seen half shrouded intakes that I can only suppose were for muddy fields or mild weather – the Polish and Commonwealth Mustangs serving in places like Italy certainly used them.

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Re: 1/32 P-51D/K Mustang IV by Zoukei-mura

Post by Thomas_M »

Sprue F

This sprue contains the two halves of a filleted “late” tail, the fuselage structure to mount them onto and the AN/APS-13 tail warning antenna along with the skin covering the gun barrels on the front of the wing.

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These two fuselage parts of the tail are for the later tail only – the early non filleted supports are on the spare runner.

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The fillet “late” tail – the other side houses the tail warning antenna.

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The skin around the leading edge of the wing which can be left off to expose the skeletal wing structure. Note gun camera port hole on the port wing,

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Re: 1/32 P-51D/K Mustang IV by Zoukei-mura

Post by Thomas_M »

Sprue G

This is another large sprue with some pretty important parts. The cowling of the merlin engine, horizontal and vertical tails, radiator intake and exhaust, wheel well covers and the Hamilton Standard spinner are all here. Some pretty important shapes are here on this sprue.

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The vertical and horizontal tail surfaces are here – all of them poseable which is great and all have trip activators moulded on.. The surface detail on the horizontal tail is not to overdone which is often a pitfall of many manufacturers.

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The nicely curved radiator intake and the Hamilton standard spinner here – again the spinner has lightening holes in the base.

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The landing gear covers – lightly riveted on the outside and scalloped on the inside. – very nice.

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The one part wing-tip pieces here that eliminate any hot glue and deforming problems which can happen – these just secure to the wing-tips. Another good feature is the wing root covers that sit on top of the wing which conceals any gap you might make up!

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Cowling covers are on this sprue – and although not as thin as the lovely covers from Tamiya they aren’t as delicate either. There are some large screw holes that could do with a filling just a little which I suppose will happen with undercoat and paint.

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Re: 1/32 P-51D/K Mustang IV by Zoukei-mura

Post by Thomas_M »

Sprue H

The skins of the laminar wings on sprue H go along with the movable control surfaces – this is where it gets interesting…

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The wing surfaces are largely rivet free. There was fierce debate with Tamiya’s riveted wings on their kit – it has since come to light that the P-51’s were puttied over and painted on their wings. Some later had stripped wings with bare metal showing and if you want this effect you will have to look elsewhere.

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Riveted surfaces of the control surfaces were the norm – these were not puttied over at all.

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Some nice wiring details on the inside of the wings it – with all the rest of the structure a great feature of this kit once it all comes together.

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Re: 1/32 P-51D/K Mustang IV by Zoukei-mura

Post by Thomas_M »

Sprue I

The I sprue has the two undersides of the cowling and the radiator housing part of the under fuselage.

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Sprue J

The top of the fuselage and canopy housing is on sprue J – along with the instrument panel shroud these are both lightly riveted.

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Sprue L

Contains several tubes for the cockpit’s life support systems

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Re: 1/32 P-51D/K Mustang IV by Zoukei-mura

Post by Thomas_M »

Decals

Decals are printed by Cartograf. There are three large sheets of shiny and thick decals including national marking for US and RAF/Commonwealth birds plus individual aircraft markings including black and white invasion stripes.

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The one thing I did notice was that the red and blues on the markings were a bit too dark. With scale effect as well these should be slightly lighter so this is a small concern.

There are some remarkably small stencils all over this bird – and they are printed in perfect register. I could find nothing out of place no matter how small the printing got.Take this bore sighting instructions for the MG panels - incredibly small and well detailed.

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Marking choices

Colours are given in Vallejo paints which are a good thing – until a point. I have still (yet) to see someone successfully recreates the metal effect of aluminium convincingly using acrylics (and this is something Vallejo has admitted themselves). I would very much have liked to have a map of which shade of metal should be darker/middle /lighter etc. That would be a massive help.

Our friend Gary did such a map of colours of the aluminium panels on his build of the “unbuildable” Dragon P-51D on his site Scalespot - this is what we really need to see.

Stencilling is shown, so no guesswork as to where to place your small label decals on this kite..

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I have gone through all of these markings with some pictures of the original birds so you can see for yourself the decal research has been done pretty well.

P-51D – “Lou IV” SN: 44-13410

This Mustang from the 361th FG, 375th FS - called "Lou IV" is one of the most talked about Mustangs of the war. Simply for the reason that the well-known picture was colourised by experts in their field – as a sky blue upper surfaced bird.

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Well it turns out that it might have just been olive drab over NMF – and here we have this scheme replicated in the new kit by ZM.

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Some colourized pictures from the war showing the olive colour as opposed to blue which was long supposed as the upper sides colour

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“Lou IV” was shot down by ground fire during a ground attack on the 12th of August 1944. Pilot KIA.

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Mustang Mk.IVa, 112 Sqn RAF, GA-S, KH774, Italy, 1945.

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“GA-S” #KH774 was a P51K-5NT /Mustang IVA and well known Mustang because of it’s large shark mouth decorated nose. We have an official RAF photograph of this bird here…

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This aircraft featured the 'Firewall' camouflage pattern using the ANA colours of 613 Olive Drab & 603 Sea Grey upper surfaces with 602 Light Grey lower surfaces.

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KH774 does not appear in 112 records after May 1944. IT is known that after a period in Northern Italy on occupation duty after the war's end the 112 Squadron was disbanded at Treviso on 30th December 1946.

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P-51K-10-NT - 44-12073 - "Sunshine" 348th FG, 5th AF, USAAF

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Serial: 44-12073 “Sunshine”” was flown by the C.O. of the 348th FG, Sub.Col.William Banks. Circa 1945.

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The 348th Fighter Group had 4 Squadrons: 340th FS were noted with yellow spinners; the341st FS - red, 342nd FS - blue, 460th FS - black. This – the CO’s kite sports all three of the squadron’s colours on his spinner so this, combined with the NMF and the black bands and nose art make this a lovely choice…

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P-51 Mustang Mustang Mk.IVA (P-51K-5-NT) KH716 “CV-P”

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This Mustang from the Aussie 3rd Sqn, RAAF was based in Fano, Italy in 1945. Primarily engaged in ground attack missions it featured an all-natural metal finish with Olive Drab anti-glare panel. Forward part of spinner red, codes in Black. 'Southern Cross' marking of white stars on blue rudder.

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This famous mustang was flown by squadron leader Murray Nash of the RAAF. Here is this famous kite in Italy late in the war.

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...and here is the painted up version from ZM's site

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Well that is it – This kit add the bits it should in markings that should please everyone and details of plastic that can be tripped back literally to bare bones or closed up in slick mode – this plane has it pretty much all. I know there are several add-ons (figures, armament, diorama scenery) on the ZM site that compliment this kit but these do not come in the box so I am not going to fluff the review by talking about these. I suppose it is an approach of as much as you can fit into the kit for a specific price. With such strong competition I think that this is a sensible option.

Although no model ever is perfect - this kit competes with one of their strongest kits on the market and it more than holds its own, in a few ways is the “ultimate “ Mustang in this scale. It has several features not found on other kits of the same type and scale and it is an inspirational model just looking at the possibilities it invites you to ponder.

Adam Norenberg

Thanks to Zoukei-mura who sent this kit to us to examine.

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Re: 1/32 P-51D/K Mustang IV by Zoukei-mura

Post by Thomas_M »

Although my name appears on the previous posts of this review this all is Adam´s stunning effort to review Zoukei-mura´s P-51 Mustang kit. It´s him who deserves our thank for sharing this with SPAModeler!
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Re: 1/32 P-51D/K Mustang IV by Zoukei-mura

Post by ads »

Aha! but it is you who did al lthe insertion - so credit to both!

Thanks for hosting it here mate

Its a very good kit - and it will look great built up

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Re: 1/32 P-51D/K Mustang IV by Zoukei-mura

Post by KSaarni »

Thanks Thomas sharing (and indeed, putting together) Adams review!

It was truly enjoayble going through the kit and of course all those reference pictures!

What a truly amazing and almost unbelievable kit!

- Kari
---
On the bench:
Tamiya F-4B Phantom II 1/48
Kinetic F-16A (new tool) 1/48



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Re: 1/32 P-51D/K Mustang IV by Zoukei-mura

Post by Thomas_M »

Kari, thank you! Glad you like Adam´s review. He is doing a fine job on these, much better than most other sites.
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