Dragon's Mustang

[William Reece]

This may be my first post at LSP I'm not sure. I don't normally work in 1/32, I'm known as a 1/48th builder but I do have a few 1/32 scale kits. I've been building models since the early 60's. I built all of the old Revell 1/32 kits (Stuka, P-51B, Spitfire, Me 109, P-40, and others) but that was years ago. I also built the Hasegawa P-51D many years ago. I have a few of the new 'State of the Art' 1/32 kits, to name three, the Hasegawa, Fw-190D9; Revell Germany, He-162Tamiya A6M2b Zero. These kits are all fantastic examples of what modeling has become in the early 21st Century, well fitting, easy to build, relatively good replicas of the real thing. I would offer the Hasegawa Ki-84a as another example of the 'State of the Art' in 1/32 scale plastic.

 

Dragon has a well earned reputation as the leader in 1/35 armor kits. I've got some of them as well, including the much debated and bashed PzKpfw. IVE (Panzer IVE, for you non armor folks). The initial release had some much talked about issues that I can assure you, rival the current storm over the P-51. Dragon had to back step and release a 'fixed' version that included extra hull parts to fix the initial release. This is well documented in many, armor modeling websites.

 

Here's the big problem with Dragon's P-51 as I see it, it just doesn't look right. The P-51 is a smooth airplane. It has 'sexy' lines and is by the standards of its day 'clean'. The Dragon kit doesn't look that way despite what Dragon says in their online marketing. That kit is covered with deep 'flush' rivets that just look wrong. In addition, and worse, the panel lines are wide and deep. Compare the photos of the Dragon P-51 to say the Hasegawa, Ki-84 Frank. The subtle shape of the Mustang is spoiled by the deep panel lines and thousands of rivets that make the surface look anything but smooth. Those of you old enough to remember the old Revell Spitfire Mk1 and the Me 109G, despite all their other problems, will recall the subtle surface detail those kits had. That was nearly 40 years ago, long before CAD, slide molds, etc.!

 

We've all wanted, dare I say longed for a new P-51D to replace the old Hasegawa, 1970’s vintage 1/32 scale kit. The Dragon kit is not what we'd hoped for at all and is to many modelers a huge disappointment. That, I expect is what is causing so much bandwidth to be spent on the internet over the Dragon kit. When one adds up the problems with the kit, the benefits don't outweigh the liabilities. I'm sure one could take the Rodney Williams approach, take the time and effort to fix everything, but that's not what most of us want. We want an easy to build, accurate and affordable P-51D in 1/32. We want a kit on par with the Hasegawa, Fw-190's or Ki-84. The Dragon P-51D is toy like in comparison. If we want a big, toy P-51D, 21st Century Toys has just that. I see many statements to the effect of; shut up, quit whining, be a REAL modeler and fix it if it ain’t right or be thankful you have a choice now. As I see it, I just don’t want to have to take the time to make that sort of commitment to a kit that should have been properly done in the first place. Dragon's P-51D should have been a slam dunk. I shouldn't have to chose between the lesser of two evils. The Dragon kit should make everyone who ever wanted a big scale P-51 drool. We are looking for ‘state of the art’ right?

 

 

William

[Harvs73]

Are we in fact victims of our own modelling habits? With all of the carry-on about the panel lines and rivets I think we caused the problems ourselves! Why I hear you ask?

 

If you have a look at pretty much every single model on the internet, magazines and shows you will notice that if there are panel lines and rivets they are highlighted. You see pre-shading, washes etc to highlight them and modellers seem to delight in doing so. So I think the result of this habit is that Dragon is pandering to them (excessively so in this case). The model has a number of other innacuracies but I reckon the panel lines and rivets are our own fault to some extent.

 

I mentioned this on Modelling Madness but the topic seemed to have been deleted for some reason.

[ironman1945]

Hey Guys.

 

I've been checking my HobbyLink Japan account for the last 5 days. Between yesterday and today it has changed from "awaiting stock" to "Item being processed for shipping".

 

If I get it before anyone else does I'll post some photos.

 

As to whether its nice or not, I like to read the reviews but have always thought that the best judge for myself will be my own Mk1 eyeballs....old and out of focus they may be!

 

Take care all, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and lets all try and get a few minutes to build!

 

Dave/Ironman1945

[CharlesMetz]

This may be my first post at LSP I'm not sure.

--snip--

Welcome, William. An excellent first post, in my opinion. I'm very happy to have you here, and those who don't already know your history of expertise and common sense on other discussion boards will undoubtedly feel the same soon.

 

Charles Metz

[Ads]

"*actual product may not be exactly as shown"

 

is probably your awnser to the US shipping it? Maybe - dont know

[LSP_Ray]

Now I'm really confused, because the DragonUSA website page at http://www.dragonmodelsusa.com/dmlusa/prodd.asp?pid=DRA3201 proudly shouts "NOW SHIPPING!".

It is always possible the guy I was talking to was an idiot!!!

Although, while I was talking to him I was checking out the DragonUSA webpage, and I didn't see anything about it shipping...and still don't!!

Strangely, it does say it is shipping on the Dragonusa website, but not the Dragonusaonline site, which is their online sales and ordering site! Hmmmm....

[ironman1945]

Gents

 

Gryphon Hobbies in Montreal, Canada, has it advertised as being in stock. I called them up, seems they arrived late yesterday and he had 1 left, so I ordered it. I wanted 2 anyway.

 

Gryphon Hobbies is supposed to be recieveing another shipment of them tomorrow.

 

Dave/Ironman1945

[bdthoresen]

Guys, I know I am a nobody here, and I have had the priveledge to meet and know some of you- I respect all of you as modelers, and I would even go as far as to say decent people. But, this Mustang thread is old.....real old. I think that there is one fact some have missed. Ask yourself this....

 

Will the Dragon P-51D be better than the decades old Hasegawa offering?

 

Hell Yes!

 

As far as I am concerned- I am happy that someone is taking a stab at it........

 

Just a thought........

 

Rant off- Modeling on!

 

 

THOR

[Ted Barrett]

Hi Guys,

 

Hornet Hobbies in Toronto, Canada, had four in stock today, three were spoken for but the fourth was on the shelf.

 

It has since sold and Dave Browne the store's owner says he will try and get another three tomorrow morning from his supplier.

 

So I might have one to apply paint and glue to by the end of tomorrow.

 

I won't comment on the kit good, bad or indifferent other than to say that the Petie II markings will make it for me!

 

Ted Barrett

[spruebrothers]

FYI - it has begun shipping in the US. We just received our shipping notice today that our shipment is enroute to us.

[LSP_Matt]

Sure isn't sounding like this kit has been pulled. Did I hear someone had arranged for it to be pulled?

 

[CharlesMetz]

Yesterday I posted:

Jerry Crandall told me that the Dragon instruction sheet acknowledges input from a "Mustang expert" whose name I had never heard before and don't recall now, so perhaps the problem is that they don't know whom to ask. If Dragon had asked me (fat chance!). my advice would have been very simple: "Forget about me and contact Charles Neely instead."

Mr. Neely has now offered his opinion of the kit on Hyperscale, and he's not happy with it:

 

http://www.network54.com/Forum/149674/mess...ctures+to+share

 

Charles Metz

[William Reece]

Thanks Charles. It's alway nice to see you online. I hope my meger contribution (s) are of interest. I look forwrd to more enjoyable time here.

 

William

[DougN]

Yesterday I posted:

 

Mr. Neely has now offered his opinion of the kit on Hyperscale, and he's not happy with it:

 

http://www.network54.com/Forum/149674/mess...ctures+to+share

 

Charles Metz

 

I wish that he was more specific about what he perceives as the issues, I don't think tossing in an off-hand, blanket statement like he did helps anyone. Perhaps you could ask Mr Neely to be more specific about what he is referring to.

 

Cheers!

 

Doug

[wingman777]

#1 - I'm glad to see Trump/, Haseg/, Tami/, Dragon and others producing new tool kits in 1/32 .

#2 - With laser and CAD technology plus the 1/1 aircraft to be studied "hands on" plus tons of photos as reference, its baffling that any manufacturer could release a kit that was not "dead-on accurate".

#3 - The kits produced by Revell and Hasegawa using slide rules shine even brighter when their 40 year old products still rank as the best or only pick in many cases.

#4 - Look how Radu used his God given talent to make an accurate series of resin Ki-61s in 1/32. He didn't have a 1/1 scale Tony to study yet see the accuracy and quailty. He did it without corporate financial backing and a team of "experts". Give MDC credit for providing a vehicle to produce it for the rest of us. Here is the classic story of an individual doing what world-wide companies can't or won't do. I just don't understand how with such potential that they could let this happen. Hasegawa, you doing it right more consistently just keep them coming.