Small Scale Military Headquarters

so the P-51B has the flat canopy and the 51C has the bubble right? Tonite I see that the WM got 3 of each... both with the bubble canopy! what's up with that?

fuddmiester wrote:so the P-51B has the flat canopy and the 51C has the bubble right? Tonite I see that the WM got 3 of each... both with the bubble canopy! what's up with that?

The B/C thing is just the different facilities the planes were manufactured at, it has nothing to do with the canopy.. The Malcolm canopy was actually a field modification done by the Brits because the Malcolm hood had better visiblity.. It was soon adopted by many in the USAAF..

fudd, which paint schemes did you see? Also, love your avatar.. where is it from?

I've got in my set, the "PRINCESS" 51C bubble top, and the "bee" 51B flat top. Tonite I saw them both with the bubbles. Going back tonite and grab a bubble "bee"! Oh, the avavatras came from a Xbox game, call of duty maybe!

Here is a blurb explaining my 1st post..

Not to be daunted by the shortcomings of the P-51A, North American set out to fulfill the Mustang’s mission of being the most capable fighter in the skies over Europe. At the recommendation of the air attaché at the U.S. embassy in London, North American designers began by pulling the Allison powerplant and substituting the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine. The Merlin had for some time been produced by Packard in the United States, and North American relied primarily on Packard Merlins to power the new Mustang, which would receive the designation of P-51B/C. Aircraft manufatured at North American's Inglewood, CA plant were designated P-51B's, while those built at NAA's new Dallas plant were P-51C's. The aircraft built at Dallas recieved minor improvements over the "B" model, warranting its separate designation. Compared to the Allison V-1710, producing 1200 horsepower, the Rolls-Royce/Packard "Merlin" superturbocharged V-12, the V-1650, would provide 1,720 HP. This additional power would drive the Mustang’s top speed up to 437 MPH. It would also give the Mustang an initial rate-of-climb of 2,600 feet-per-minute. Together, these performance improvements would make the P-51B/C an extremely capable defensive fighter. It would be faster than both the Me-109 and the FW-190; it could out-climb both; it could out-dive both; it could out-turn both.

Hope this helps..

Dang, wish I would see those again in my AI. I passed them by the first time I saw them. BTW, interesting bit of history there Hworth.

The S1 1:48 "Bee" P-51s showed up in my area again and I couldn't help picking one up this time around. I have the S2 P-51 "Princess" and will display one with the Davis canopy and one with the Malcolm. (The "Bee" P-51 looks a little better chasing the ME-109K than does the "Princess" P-51 with the japanese kill flags )

I think I'm going to grab both versions of the canopy also. The stuff you buy when things are slow!!

fuddmiester wrote:The stuff you buy when things are slow!!

Tell me about it! Thats sort of how I got into the 1:48 scale tanks & planes

grunt1 wrote:fudd, Also, love your avatar.. where is it from?

I thought they looked familiar, I think they are from the game Battlestations: Midway, great game . I have it for the pc but I think it also available for the xbox.

Battlestations: Midway.... YEAH that's the one!!! haven't tryed it yet, good game eh?

Yup...I have it too...great game. Needs more missions though....

-H

Good to see you back on this forum fuddmiester.

Mark