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'Morning ladies and gents, lads and lassies, Let me give it to you, straight. The Mustang was never one of my favorites. Something to do with the snobbish side of me, never wanting to love a plane everybody loves to love. It's sooo uncool to like a pretty face, right? That is until some months ago, when stranded in a foreign land and estranged from my trusty desk and rusty tools, all that was left for me to do was some virtual modelling on the internet. That is when I read about a new Revell release associated in some way with Radu Brinzan. I knew the name and respected the modeller. I was intrigued and read on, the previews, the reviews, the WIPs ... and soon before long I was hooked. I wrote to my friend in Belgium to buy a kit for me and in anticipation, I myself ordered an Eduard interior set. Thus, months later upon my return to my trusty desk, I was ready to join the fray. For my subject, I chose Art Fiedler's HELEN, a P-51D-5 of the 325 GR in Italy 1944. Seen here in static simulation And in simulated video The main reason for this choice is an opportunity to airbrush the famous yellow-and-black checkers and the various markings using Frisket film. I know it shows my age but what the heck? Secondly, this particular machine is retro-fitted with the dorsal fin fillet DFF found on later versions of the P-51D. So it will give me the chance to try my hand at the controversial 'swayback' fillet as these field-installed mods were known. Just what I needed to spice up an all-too conventional build... or so I thought at that time 'Nuff said. The ride is about to begin, ladies and gentlemen, all aboard. Cheers, Quang

The Bubbletop being a Brazilian machine with aftermarket decals, the Razorback one of the 325th Checkertail Clan using kit decals. For their age, the kits are decent, although lacking in cockpit detail. The Tamiya kit is superior, but the Hasegawa can often be found and swap meets for 5 bucks, in fact that's what dad paid for it about 15 years ago when he bought it for me. It was a 2 in 1 special edition.