Scale 1/72
Manufacturer Matchbox
Kit ID PK-13
Type F-51H 44-64675
Unit 3625th TW Tyndal AFB Air Training Command
Date 1947
Aftermarket parts used Maintrack Resin Conversion
Other detail added Decals From spares box + Phil Butler Aerials and Buzz Nmbers as printed by Frizsche Decals
Model built by Alex Hunger
Date Completed October 2010

The F-51H lightweight Mustang represents a bit of a holy grail as far as 1947 era USAF aircraft are concerned. It was after all with, a top speed of 784 km/h, one of the fastest ever series production propeller aircraft ever made with just basically just a normal Packard Merlin engine, as opposed to the Rolls Royce Gryphons used on the later marks of the Spitfire. It did that with a radical weight reduction program and some aerodynamic fine tuning. The downside was that only 556 were made, and it never saw combat and lived out its last years in the Air National Guard without going to Korea, unlike the normal F-51D. While the F-51H has a graceful air, it does look a little more flimsy than its older mud moving capable stable mate. Excellent research material is available via the Ginter Books Air Force Legend Series No. 209.

There are at least 3 known kits for the F-51H. The earliest is the 1983 vintage Vac Wings vacuform which did have white metal parts like landing gear, prop and seats as well as a high quality Vac canopy. It also had excellent instructions which served well as research, which may be of use to anyone not having access to the Ginter book. The decals are only so-so with only the stars and bars of use.

There is an other Beechnut short run injection Kit from the late 1980s which looks quite basic and has no metal detail parts and only has a flimsy vacuformed canopy. Apparently High Planes in Australia also did a short run injection moulded version, which I have not seen at all, while the Czech made M News short run injection moulded kit looks quite good on the internet photos I have seen. The state of the art is probably the Czech Master Resin, which features a very nice decal sheet, but is otherwise unavailable rigt now.

My solution turned came from the €5 parts bin at a Dutch model show. There I found the impressive Maintrack resin conversion kit for the Matchbox Mustang, which itself only cost me €3.50 on Ebay.

The Matchbox wings are apparently a little too thin, which makes them just perfect for this conversion. The beauty of this kit is that the resin fuselage fit Matchbox wing like a charm. I only needed to remove the “chine,” reposition the landing gear bays and recarve the panel lines. The seat needed serious trimming and the Pilot needed to have his legs chopped off in order to fit the narrow cockpit. The tail plane was a little on the rough side, but the small resin wheel were delightful. I only needed to drill out the front of the fuselage a bit to make the prop assembly fit and sand off the sleeves of the props themselves. The canopy and other standard Matchbox parts also fit very nicely.

USAF Decals had to come from the spares box, while Phil ran off some serial and Buzz numbers which I had printed by Fritzche Modelbau. The Air Training Command badge from the Microscale set was trimmed to fit. The decals for the prop came from the F-82 Twin Mustang kit.

All in all, this fills an obscure but interesting niche in the USAF inventory, and at least for me at a price that compares favourably to a new Academy F-51D kit.

Article and photographs by Alex Hunger