I chose a subject flown by one of my favorite pilots, John C. Meyer's "Petie 2nd" of the 352 FG/478th FS. Meyer was a great leader and would finish the war with 24 kills, to include 2 in Petie 2nd. I was also looooooooong overdue for a Bluenoser.
Better than Tamiya? Ok..here's my objective take.
What I liked:
* In surface detail, it's ahead of Tamiya. It's simply stunning and right up there with the best in any scale.
* I liked the design of the windscreen area. No sanding the bottom of the windscreen "curve" to make it sit in the pocket. The instrument panel coaming is one piece too...very nice.
* I liked the design of the lower radiator area with no nasty seams that run right through the detail. The Tamiya kit is a choir in this area.
* I liked the separate control surfaces.
* I liked the one piece prop and hub. They look great. There's even rivets in the hub!
* Hollowed exhaust...very nice! No need to try and drill these out.
What I hated:
* I'm no expert, but it seems underscale. It's especially noticeable in the exhaust pieces, which are tiny.
* It needs glue......lots (at least I did)
* The landing gear installation. I ended up breaking one of them (mentioned earlier) and then in final assembly, I discovered I installed them backwards. I had to chop them both off and glue them in correctly......Angry
* The canopy bubble has a seam down the middle. There was no way I was gonna try to sand it out. Unacceptable for a kit of this price
* No way to use aftermarket tires due to the inner wheel hub being incorporated into the landing gear.
* I found some parts fit to be poor and filler was needed...often.
* The machine gun inserts were great in theory but would not snap in as designed on my kit. I needed superglue to force them in.
* The windscreen was great in design but refused to snap in for me. I had to trim some plastic and force it in.
My verdict? I found this kit to be a frustrating experience, especially for something that wasn't even supposed to require glue. I thought I was gonna have a Mustang that built itself. Perhaps some of it may have been my own doing, but I did follow the instructions pretty much to the letter, as it's necessary for build sequence of its snap-tite nature.
So I wasn't particularly impressed with this kit, especially for the price. It's safe to say my huge Tamiya and Hasegawa stash will be staying put. I do however look forward to the new Airfix and Eduard kits which are sure to be stunning. Wanna bet one of those get Petie 3rd markings?
That's enough of that....here's the finished plane.
A few in-progress pics.
