IPMS Kit Review: Revell 1/72 P-51D Mustang Snap-Tite

Revell

1/72 P-51D Mustang Snap-Tite

Kit Number: RMXS1374

Reviewed by Adam and Mike Howard, IPMS# 30741

MSRP: $7.25
Website: www.revell.com

When I saw a Snap-Tite P-51D on the review offerings list, I thought that this kit would be great for one of my older two children and asked to do the review. When the kit arrived, I realized that it would be an even better kit for my budding 5-year-old builder (even though the box indicates ages 8 and up), Adam. He’s helped me with some quick builds in the past (ceiling airplanes for his room) and was becoming quite adept at finding the proper pieces and fitting them together.

The kit features the markings and nose art already in place, a painted pilot and even has the canopy frames already colored. These features make a great build for the casual builder who doesn’t want to put a lot of time into a build or doesn’t have the room and/or supplies. It’s also a great way for a younger builder to get past the difficult steps of painting, masking and decaling and still come up with a nicely-marked airplane.

Adam was quite excited to start the build, so we cleared a spot on the dining room table and set to work. In the past, he has been shown how to use sprue cutters and sanding sticks, so these were brought out and the production commenced. With approximately 22 parts and clear instructions, the build, even at the hands of a 5 year old (with a little help from dad) proceeded smoothly and quickly. The build starts by placing the seat, pilot and tail wheel into one half of the fuselage. Step 2 has you insert the horizontal stabilizer between the fuselage halves and then snap them together. The "snaps" worked fairly well and the body of the Mustang stayed together with just a little effort.

Step 3 moves on to the wing assembly, simply the one piece lower and a left and right side upper. The pin-and-post snaps weren’t quite as positive here but did keep all of the parts together. At this point I had Adam deviate from the assembly sequence since step 4 calls for assembling and installing the landing gear and fuel tanks. As any experienced aircraft modeler knows, these parts are usually best left for the final assembly steps (otherwise I’m sure I can break them!). Adam jumped to step 5 and installed the wing to the fuselage. This was probably the most difficult part so far, but he quickly sorted it out and got the kit looking like a real aircraft.

Step 6 calls for the prop, spinner and canopy, which went smoothly. The prop "snap" was pretty loose on our example and require some work later on to completely secure it. Now back to step 4. The wheel/tire assembly is trapped between the gear leg and the gear door, which required a little more coordination and planning than the rest of the assembly. An extra set of hands here helped Adam out and then a little more assistance getting the assembled gear legs fitted into the wing. This is probably the weakest point of the kit as the gear legs are quite thin and don’t seat very deeply into the wing.

As with any snap fit model that I build with kids, I ran over most of the joins with some Tenax liquid glue and then clamped where needed. All of these kits will get very aggressive and rigorous “test flights”, so the extra securing helps them last much longer.

Overall this kit would be a good first build for the modeler that’s looking for any easily finished display model. The details are reasonable for the scale and the overall appearance is good for the budding modeler (young or old). A big thanks goes out to Revell and IPMS-USA for allowing Adam and me the opportunity to build this Mustang.

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