001 - P-51D /U.S.A/"Fool's Paradise IV"/363° F.G. 9° A.F./England 1944

The First model of this collection counldn't be anything but the P-51D of the 363rd FG-9th Air Force, 413309 - A9A located in Ingland in the 1944 with the nickname "Fool's Paradise IV", which is nontheless the first kit ever produced by Airfix in the 50's.

I haven't found any hystorical information concerning the colours of this model, but my collection is equiped to bare with various possibilities.

In fact there are two suggested ways of painting this aircraft:
One that i've found on the internet with blue spinner and a part of the fuselage in Olive Drab, with classic invasion stripes on fuselage and wings.

I'm going to produce this variant along with the one suggested on the Airfix kit which consists of a full natural metal fuselage, yellow spinner and anti-reflection panel in Olive Drab.

This kit, being so old is pretty ugly, is made in positive with non fitting parts and imperfections.
Hence i consider it as a collection piece and to make the model I substituted it with a Hasegawa Kit from the 70's.

I just want to mention that I'm more of a collectionist than a modeller since i prefer a fabric look to the aircraft compared to a diorama like look.


Maurizio Valerani