# I just ordered Tamiya P-51 kit 60322



## grampi (Nov 23, 2006)

After reading as many reviews as I could find, this appears to be the cream of the crop for 1/32 scale (or any scale for that matter) Mustangs. I have a Hasegawa 1/32 P-51 kit that I started a long time ago, and now I'm gonna finish this kit before I move on to the Tamiya kit. I need more practice applying the metalizer paints, and doing the weathering. I wanna make sure I'm up to speed before I start working on the Tamiya kit. Have any of you built this kit? If so, how do you like it?


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

grampi said:


> I wanna make sure I'm up to speed before I starting working on the Tamiya kit. Have any of you built this kit? If so, how do you like it?


You can't go wrong with Tamiya. The only potential issue is to be very careful with the engine parts and construction. IIRC there are some leftover parts from the Spitfire, and, while the instructions are quite clear about the part numbers, it is still easy enough to get the wrong part off the sprue if you don't realize there may be duplicates that are slightly different.


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## grampi (Nov 23, 2006)

So, of those who have built this kit, how detailed is the cockpit right out of the box? Does it need an aftermarket cockpit kit? Anything else I need to know about this kit?


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

Unless your uber pedantic about hard to add, minute details that you will never see, the kit is really pretty solid out of the box. You get seat belts etc. I suppose you could try to add some wiring to the engine, but, it is really well done and thorough. These are VERY complex, detailed kits. The biggest thing is that tolerances are very tight. make sure every part is 100% cleaned up. No seams, no sprue burrs etc. Even the thickness of a coat of paint on the gluing surface of parts can throw the fit off. So, just do a lot of test fitting and understand how parts go before you slap glue on them.


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## grampi (Nov 23, 2006)

This kit finally arrived today. I ordered it directly from Japan so it took over a month to come in. I can't wait to get it home so I can open up the box and go through it. That alone will take me a night to do I'm sure. I highly doubt I've even seen a kit of this level of quality and complexity...


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

Those are real nice kits and go together pretty easily. They do require CARE. The tolerances of some of the parts are very tight, so you need to make sure there are no bits of excess plastic, mold seams, etc. left. And use the right pieces; I think you get some leftover engine parts from the Spitfire that are similar but different, and it causes fit issues if the modeller mixes up the parts.


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## grampi (Nov 23, 2006)

I did notice in the instruction manual it has a list of "not used" parts...those must be the Spitfire parts you were talking about...


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