SPA Modeler

That's awesome - thanks Mike.

Not a problem!

Stuart,

Thank you for the sprue shots! I enjoyed seeing your new kit. And I’m excited for you! Seems like Airfix has done a really good job with the new tooling. That cockpit looks great too, lots of detail in there to pour over. This is going to be a lot of fun to watch come together, and I’m looking forward to seeing more.

Also, thanks to the fellas for sharing the diagram of the seams to putty over and sand. I need that for “Spare Parts” which I’ll start sooner or later.

There were at least two variations of the dorsal fins added to later D's.

speedgraflex wrote:Stuart, Did you find out why there are two tail fins? As far as I know there is an early type and a late type. Razorback (all P-51A, B, and C variants; no dorsal strake and a higher rear fuselage line): Bubble canopy without the strake (seen on early D-variants): With the strake (seen on later production D variants, integrated fully into K and H models and retrofitted to earlier Ds, sometimes to the Razorback B/Cs): I assume the early type has no dorsal stake and the late type has one.

From what I’ve read, the filets were added to the “bubbletop” types to combat lateral instability that resulted from reduced surface area of the design changes. The cut down of the rear fuselage behind the cockpit removed area that had previously done the same thing. The P-51 had more noticeable issues sooner, compared to the P-47, so the fix was designed and incorporated sooner into production.

From what I've read, the two versions of the tail represent (a) field-retrofitted fillets and (b) factory-installed ones.

Sorry Gents, I was at my new job today and away from the net - I'm working in the nuclear industry and the PC's are secure.

Interesting discussion though, I think John nailed it above. the two tails are the same size but they have different panels around the tail/fillet join - looks like one could be a retrofit.

Carlos - you're dead right, a lot of aircraft that were cut/down converted to bubble style canopies suffered the same issue - the mk.XVIe Spitfires were fitted with the larger rudder for the same reasons I would imagine.

Should be cool. I need a good Mustang kit. All I have is the ancient Revell kit.