Title structure
The book is divided up into two sections, plus appendices – Airframe chapters cover evolution, testing, production and drawing board projects, camouflage and markings plus colour profiles of the Early P-51 Mustang from Richard Caruana. Miniature chapters cover kit builds of the major Early P-51 Mustang kits in 1:72 and 1:48th scales, detailed isometric views of all prototype and production variants for those wishing to build a collection. Also included are detailed walkaround photographs of examples of the aircraft and the coverage here is extensive.
The book is topped and tailed by a detailed reference bibliography and comprehensive kit listings. In addition, there are comprehensive listings of all aftermarket items like resin and etched detail sets, plus decal sets that have been produced. The scale plans to 1:48 scale are a bonus for sure, especially if you plan to rivet your model or are looking to upgrade one of the many kits available at the time of writing.
Modelling focus
As a pure one-stop-shop this title is going to be hard to beat, it really contains all most modellers will need to see in a good model reference title. Many of the period images won’t be new to you if you are well into your subject, but some will be, as will the line drawings and profiles. Richard Caruana is a talented artist and his profiles will inspire you and make you want to go and get that Early P-51 Mustang model out of the stash and get building.
I am a big fan of quality reference material as many of you will hopefully appreciate as we recently added our 200th set of detailed walkaround images to SMN’s Photo Reference Library. So too in this book, walkaround coverage is given to surviving Early Mustangs – plus lots of period photos. In some ways this book reminds me of the excellent Aerodetail titles available from Hobbylink Japan, but the scope of this title is far wider and consequently better value for money.
Kit builds
A decent selection of type kits are built for the book and that is to be applauded – they certainly give you an insight into what building these particular aircraft will bring depending on your choice of scale and kit. The scope and model coverage is very good and shows how this series is developing very well. The main down-side is the lack of a build in 1:32 scale and given the popularity of the scale and the availability of the Trumpeter P-51B kit this is a shame and leaves the book short.
The quality of the builds is high and there are some nice weathering touches like weathering to the wings and airframes of most builds featured.
Overall
I would certainly recommend this new title as it has plenty of good reference material, images and profiles – and those scale plans to help us get the best out of our Early P-51 Mustang and Apache projects. I wonder what will be next. Keep up the good work team!
Recommended
Geoff C.