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.
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.
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..
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.
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.
Some colourized pictures from the war showing the olive colour as opposed to blue which was long supposed as the upper sides colour
“Lou IV” was shot down by ground fire during a ground attack on the 12th of August 1944. Pilot KIA.
Mustang Mk.IVa, 112 Sqn RAF, GA-S, KH774, Italy, 1945.
“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…
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.
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.
P-51K-10-NT - 44-12073 - "Sunshine" 348th FG, 5th AF, USAAF
Serial: 44-12073 “Sunshine”” was flown by the C.O. of the 348th FG, Sub.Col.William Banks. Circa 1945.
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…
P-51 Mustang Mustang Mk.IVA (P-51K-5-NT) KH716 “CV-P”
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.
This famous mustang was flown by squadron leader Murray Nash of the RAAF. Here is this famous kite in Italy late in the war.
...and here is the painted up version from ZM's site
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.