Small Scale Military Headquarters

My story is that i went to wally today and the planes are marked down to 25.00. i just bought mitchs squitch and the chinese mig 15 for full price. so i'm going to go back and get the diffrence from them. i'm debating on either getting the flying undertaker P51 or the F86 The Huff to go along with mitch. Hows the new P51's? are they worth it. what I have for P51's is the first BBD from 21st and BBi's old crow and killer. if I would get the Flying undertaker I'd have 4 P51's. looking at the Undertaker today it didn't really amaze me. plus the pilot is one hell of an ugly dude. all the ones i saw today had a black dot right on his nose. i just need some pushing on what dicision to make.

The Flying Undertaker doesn't really impressed me that much, and that mustang might have the bent propellers problem that the first-run Mustang suffered from.

But on the whole, the new-tooled 21st Mustang is worth getting, IMHO. It's better looking than the BBI Mustang (although the BBI cockpit is far better...not to mention the BBI pilot is waaay better than 21st's...)

I'd say, save your $25, and just put it to another 21st new-tooled Mustang, like Petie 2nd, or the Tuskeegee Mustang.

The only good thing about the Flying Undertaker is it's the only PTO Mustang out right now (I think..).

I like the huff I also have the first BBD and the 2nd one and personally I like the first one better for the paint job the checker board is nicer plus when they come out with the P51s with the ammo doors they probably will redo BBD again hope that helps

Kurt

I like the new BBD actually. The checkers are now the correct size and also the wing tips have the 3 rows of checkers.

Undertaker is cool as well, but the Huff.... Well it's a MUST HAVE! ya know, while we are on that topic let me tell you guys a cool story.

21st received a letter from the Pilot who flew the Huff sometime a few months back. He had been in a store somewhere and bought one. He took it home and inspected it closely. He was so inspired by the quality and specifically the paint colors, and the markings that he was compelled to write a letter. In it he thanked 21st for such an accurate and through job. He continued to say that the huff reproduction products had always been done wrong in years past and that this was the first accurate model.

It's a complement in the highest degree being that it comes directly from the pilot who flew her. Roy is pretty proud of that scheme as he obviously did his research. It's those moments that stick with you. I will have to see if I can get the permission from 21st and the Pilot of the Huff to post the letter. It's a cool read for anyone who likes to hear from the real aces who flew these awesome machines!

That letter would be nice to have. I would reproduce it and put it in the Huff box for collection purposes.

I would love to read that letter.

TKO, I always wondered if it was a correct scheme. In all the pictures I have found of it show that the front gear door was painted red. I have been meaning to make that change to my Huff but I am glad I won't have to do so now!

It would be very cool if you could post that letter; what a great way to connect with history!

One thing is certain: 21st won’t be getting a thank-you letter from any BBD collector any time soon. It must be the worst paint job in the whole XD inventory (and that’s sayin’ somenthin’). Maybe it’s a good thing Col. Landers didn’t live long enough to see his awesome bird “defaced” in this way by 21st.

Mine had a big, beautiful blotch of black paint on the cowling air intake, and another one on the port wing, both well hidden from sight in the boxed model, so that you won’t notice until, oops, you open the box of this, ahem, “gorgeous” plane. And you’d better not look at the “checkers” on the wingtips either. They’re anything but square. And forget about alignment.

So, yep, a huuuge improvement over the last version (I shiver to think what it must have looked like; if the other one was crappy this one’s simply shameful).

Conclusion: If you’re satisfied with your BBD, don’t push your luck by getting the new one.

so i made up my mind and bought the Huff. after having it put together it's a beautiful plane next to my mitch. i'm glad i bought it. now the only gripe. wheres the screw covers?? i'm not talking about the 2 that come in the bag i'm talking about the whole plane is missing screw covers. what the hell is going on with 21st.

You know, that's why the call them SCREW covers. Unfortunately, 21st is not too good at covering up their screw-ups.

King O' Fools wrote:One thing is certain: 21st won’t be getting a thank-you letter from any BBD collector any time soon. It must be the worst paint job in the whole XD inventory (and that’s sayin’ somenthin’). Maybe it’s a good thing Col. Landers didn’t live long enough to see his awesome bird “defaced” in this way by 21st.

I actually think this is one of the best P-51 paintschemes and far better than the old version - if, as you so duly noted, you do not get a bad version

The BBD scheme is actually a very complicated paint pattern and 21c sometimes seems to have difficulty getting such patterns to come out perfect on every plane (look at the "Eileen" P-47s, for example.) I held off ordering the BBD Mustang online, but got lucky over the summer and found 14 of them at one of my local Wal Marts. All but 3-4 of them had some sort of visible paint flaw that detracted from the overall look of the plane. The flaws were usually overspray or mis-aligned checkers on the cowling and the wing tips. The swastikas aren't on the kill markings either, but that was a minor concern and easily fixed with decals. It is troubling, however, that of the large lot I saw, only 3-4 were truly pristine examples... I feel lucky to have had a rare opportunity to choose the best from a large lot, however, and thus I am quite pleased with my example

*** *** ***

On another note, TKO, that's a great story about the letter from the pilot of "The Huff" (That was Jim Thompson, I assume?) It really is a great paintscheme and with the examples of the plane that I saw in person, one that 21c really seemed to get right with few flaws time and again. Great job on that one, and glad the pilot thinks so as well!