Modelcraft 1/48 F82B ‘Twin Mustang’

[Dave W]

I’ve wanted one of these for years. And I was talking about it to a fellow modeller where I’m currently working in Hampshire and he said “I’ve got two of those”. So a deal was struck. This kit didn’t come with a box . It should be in the one shown below. The parts are not the best quality. But at least the panel lines are engraved.

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[Dave W]

I started by glueing the nose sections to the main fuselage halves. I’ve learnt through experience,even with Hasegawa kits, to ignore instructions that tell you to build the forward and aft fuselage sections and then glue them together. If I done that with this kit there would have been a problem as the forward section would have been wider than the aft section. I then sanded down the joining surfaces of the completed fuselage halves on sand paper taped to a flat surface.

[Guest]

Odd moulding choices … Surely it would have been cheaper for them to have one mould with two fuselage halves and use it twice, rather than one mould with four halves, for example? They only seem to have thought of that by the time they were designing the details sprue, though.

I also have to ask: if you wanted a Twin Mustang for ages and this kit isn’t that great, why didn’t you just start with two P-51s and scratchbuild the central wing section etc.?

[Dave W]

Odd moulding choices … Surely it would have been cheaper for them to have one mould with two fuselage halves and use it twice, rather than one mould with four halves, for example? They only seem to have thought of that by the time they were designing the details sprue, though.

I also have to ask: if you wanted a Twin Mustang for ages and this kit isn’t that great, why didn’t you just start with two P-51s and scratchbuild the central wing section etc.?

Not that easy Jakko. The Twin mustang had two P51H fuselages that were lengthened 57 inches with a fuselage plug inserted behind the cockpit. It also had large dorsal fillets for the vertical tails for added stability in case of an engine failure. And the undercarriage was mounted further inboard than the P51 and retracted into the fuselage centre section.So there is a lot more to do than just sticking two Mustangs together.Added to that the aircraft was powered by Allison engines giving the nose a slightly different profile to the merlin engined P51. Some time back in the 1970's when I was a teenager,I did attempt to make one. I joined two Revell 1/72 Mustangs using balsa wood for the centre wing and tail. Not at all accurate,but I was pleased with it at the time.

[Guest]

More differences than I thought, so yeah, you’re probably right that it’d be much more effort than detailing this kit

[Steve Jones]

Looks like a nice clean kit Dave. Hopefully it will go together well for you. Good luck:thumb2:

[yak face]

Great choice Dave ! I love the f82 too and like you have always wanted one but up until recently the old monogram 1/72 was the only game in town - not bad but not very detailed and dodgy canopies with separate bottom rails. Ive seen the modelcraft 1/48 for sale occasionally too, but think i might one day get the special hobby 1/72 ,this comes with resin and pe so no need to add extra detailing. Are you going to do the Night fighter version (my fave with the 'long schlong' radar pod!) or the nat metal ? cheers tony

[Dave W]

Great choice Dave ! I love the f82 too and like you have always wanted one but up until recently the old monogram 1/72 was the only game in town - not bad but not very detailed and dodgy canopies with separate bottom rails. Ive seen the modelcraft 1/48 for sale occasionally too, but think i might one day get the special hobby 1/72 ,this comes with resin and pe so no need to add extra detailing. Are you going to do the Night fighter version (my fave with the 'long schlong' radar pod!) or the nat metal ? cheers tony

I’m going to do a natural metal F82B. This kit doesn’t have parts for the night fighter.Ive got a problem at the moment as the canopy and windscreen are quite a bit wider than the fuselage opening.And it’s not because I’ve sanded the fuselage mating surfaces down as I didn’t take that much off. I happen to have spare windscreen and canopies from my recent Airfix 1/48 Mustang. And they fit very well. The F82 had a more bulbous canopy though.

[Dave W]

I’ve hit a snag with this kit.The windscreen and canopy are too wide for the fuselage opening. Unless I fill the gap with plastic card.On the other hand I have spare screens and canopies from my recent Airfix Mustang build. They can be made to fit with a bit of adjustment. But the F82 had a noticeably more bulbous canopy and it doesn’t look right.’Squadron’ do a vacform canopy set for this kit. But my usual go to for modelling stuff (Hannants) haven’t got any in stock.


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[Dave W]

I’ve just found a Squadron vacform set on the internet which will cost £13.49 with postage.From a company called ‘1001 model kits’.Any one on here felt with them before?

[stillp]

Mixed reviews here: https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.1001modelkits.com

Pete

[Dave W]

Thanks for that. I've just found a 'Falcon' vacform set on Hannants site. Will cost a bit more. But I've bought a lot of stuff off them over the years with not one problem.

[Dave W]

While I wait for the canopies to arrive in the post I’ve started putting the cockpits together.These aren’t too bad and I will dress the seats up with some Eduard etched seat belts. The instrument panels look ok as well.

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[Jim R]

Hi Dave
Hannants are always reliable in my experience. Rather a mixed bag this kit. Fit looks as if it may test your skills and patience although the parts count is not high. To be honest I've never heard of this plane before so it will be interesting to see it come together.
Jim

[Dave W]

Hi Dave
Hannants are always reliable in my experience. Rather a mixed bag this kit. Fit looks as if it may test your skills and patience although the parts count is not high. To be honest I've never heard of this plane before so it will be interesting to see it come together.
Jim

This aircraft was developed as an escort fighter to accompany B29’s on the long flight to bomb Japan in WW2. The Americans lost a lot of P51’s on that route due to pilot fatigue.So this aircraft was the answer.However it arrived too late for WW2.But it was a very successful night fighter in Korea and made the first aerial ‘kill’ of that war (a Yak 11). It was a fast aeroplane with a top speed over 475mph . The kit is old school with lots of filling and fettling involved. It won’t be a show winner. I’m just building it for the fun of it.