North American P-51B Mustang

This is Tamiya's 1/48 P-51B Mustang in the markings of First Lt. William Whisner's "Princess Elizabeth", 487th FS, 352nd FG, May 1944. 

My original plan for this model had been to use AeroMaster's "Blue Nose Birds of Bodney" decal sheet (#48-130; I had already used this sheet for the P-51D "Slender, Tender & Tall" and was pleased with the results), but after discussions with Hyperscale participants it became clear that the decals for "Princess Elizabeth" were off the mark in a number of important areas.   For example, AeroMaster shows the squadron codes as solid letters, whereas photos indicate that the codes on this aircraft appeared as stencils.  In addition, the four kill markings are provided as black whereas the first two kills should be red.  Also, the W on the tail is incorrect for the aircraft prior to D-Day and should be removed.  Finally, and perhaps most noticeably, AeroMaster's "Princess Elizabeth" is incorrectly colored (the letters should not be black and white).  Rob Bilinski  came to the rescue on all fronts with some home-made decals of "Princess Elizabeth" as well as stencils for the squadron codes and kill markings.  Before I leave a completely negative picture of AeroMaster's decals for this aircraft, it's worth noting that an impressive model can still be made using them despite their deficiencies.  However, when improvements were offered to me I jumped at the chance.

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The model itself went together without a hitch.  The bare metal finish was applied using SnJ aluminum metalizer.  The squadron codes and identification stripes were painted using black Polly Scale acrylic, and the nose was painted using Model Master "True Blue" enamel (FS 15102).