The P51 mustang was only designed after the outbreak of WW2.  The airplane was developed due to an initiative by the British procurement commission, the one inquiry to the North American Aviation company placed to build the Curtiss P-40 for the RAF.
The NAA offered instead of this to build a completely new fighter.
From this the Mustang, a single-seat low-wing aircraft in complete metal developed on 26 October 1940 which was originally designed to use the Allison series engine producing 1.167 HP.  After various successful applications the US Air Force placed orders for the Mustang.

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In 1942 a 1,613 HP of strong roll Royce Merlin engine was installed in the Mustang and the results were very favourable.  Thereafter the Mustang was equipped with the Merlin engine built under licence by a Packard as V-1650.

The machine was redesigned (4-Blade propellers, smoother alignment and extended radiator with intermediate cooler) and so a top speed of 710 km/h at 9083m  was achieved.

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The needs of the US Airforce for a long-distance fighter to the escort for bombers deep into the heart of Germany from bases in England, led finally to the development of the P-51D.

This version had a curved canopy, 322 litre fuel tank behind the pilot seat, two 284 litre underwing fuel tanks and an armament of six 12.7 mm of Browning machine guns.

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The machine shown here is the P-51D 44-13948 " Arson's Reward ", flown in 1944 by
Captain Wallace Emmer (9th Airforce, 354th Fighter Group 353 th Fighter Squadron)
based out of France.
 

About the model:

• P-51 D from Tamiya 1/48 with Aires superdetail set.  (Cockpit, Wheel Well, Landing Gear, Weapons, Cowlings and the Packard Merlin Engine)
• Flattened wheels/tires from True detail
• Decals from Aeromaster (Mustangs Forever part 3 48-478) and Super Scale (Aces European theatre 48-671) (really super!)

   

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Paints used were from: Humbrol, X-tra Color, Tamiya, Revell

Washes and Weathering: Artist Oils and  Drawing Ink , character india ink, Tamiya "Smoke"

Scratchbuilt items: Clearance lights, landing lights, lines, cockpit floor from wood

Airfield accessories:   US Airforce Ground crew      Teknics TK 4800

References: Classical fighters     Heel publishing house ISBN 3-89365-847-5  American combat aircraft    Karl Mueller publishing house ISBN3-86070-698-5  In the cockpit     engine book publishing house ISBN 3-613-02011-4

Frank

To see more of Frank Dargies's model go to his website  http://www.dargies.de