P-51 C Mustang – Gallery – Wojciech Werpachowski

There are never enough beautiful Mustangs! We present another one from the Arma Hobby kit in a 1/72 scale, this time built by Wojciech “Woit” Werpachowski. Woit chose a more unusual painting scheme: PK-J from the 315 “Dębliński” Squadron in a natural metal finish. See how he managed to turn plastic into metal and read what products he used to make it look real!

Wojciech „Woit” Werpachowski wrote:

The P-51 Mustang is one of those designs that make the hearts of most aviation enthusiasts beat faster. I belong to the generation which, in childhood, have read all available books describing the fights of Skalski, Horbaczewski, Zumbach, and other Polish fighter aces. Razorback Mustangs in these books had a prominent place.Therefore, as soon as the new Arma Hobby model kit announcement appeared, there was a change in my head in terms of modeling plans and priorities.Though I had the long shelf full of models to be glued and several other projects that have already started, it was the box with the turtle logo that chased the whole company away and settled at my place for good.

In the beginning, I decided to build the model “out of the box”. Well, almost, because I have chosen a scheme of a bare metal finish Polish Mustang. The choice was simple. A set of decals from Techmod that allows you to build the plane in the colours of the No. 315 (Polish) Fighter Squadron “Dębliński”.Some advice from colleagues from modelling forums, experts in this design, and who already finished the same kit, allowed for a relatively quick (for me) completion of the work.

The Arma Hobby kit unquestionably reproduces the Mustang in 1/72 scale most accurately among those available on the market. High quality of details and the number of variants are features that have been described so many times that it is no point to repeat them endlessly.

During the cockpit assembly, I used a magnifying glass practically all the time to be able to correctly place and paint particular parts or apply decals.More attention should be paid to the assembly of the canopy fairing parts and the tailplane. Anyway, it is mentioned in the guide on the manufacturer’s website. Techmod decals required a lot of softening liquids. I use Wamod products, which in my opinion deal with Techmod decals a little better than their foreign counterparts.Gentle incisions with a blade and the help of toothpicks made the decals fit nicely into the fine panel lines.

Besides the above minor nuisances, the entire construction of this kit is a “modelling feast”.

In this model, I made (well, I tried) from scratch the gunsight typical for the versions used by Poles and replaced the kit wheels and machine gun barrels.I’ve used turned metal barrels from Master (set dedicated to the P-51D version) and the wheels were replaced with Eduard resin casts.I believe that the kit wheels would be more attractive than the aforementioned Czech casts if they were not spoiled with non-converging tread lines.

During the fuselage halves assembly, I used only a symbolical amount of the putty, probably only because of my inaccuracy.For painting, I used products from Mr. Hobby, Hataka (Orange series) and AK Interactive (Xtreme Metal).In addition, I used a Tamiya panel liner and oil paints for some light weathering.

Now it’s time to finish the old projects and start another Mustang, this time in striped D-Day colours. Thank you for the effort you put into the design and production of the highest quality level, world-class kits! Greetings,
Wojciech „Woit” Werpachowski