In their special Eday 2024 edition of Info Eduard e-magazine, Eduard announced the future release of a limited edition “Very Long Range: Tales of Iwo Jima” boxing of their excellent 1/72nd North American P-51D Mustang kit. The kit will be released in the second quarter of 2025, and will most likely contain the same decal options as their 1/48th limited edition “Very Long Range: Tales of Iwo Jima” boxing.
Eduard
Nice to see Eduard providing those who model in 1/72nd scale with 12 different decal options covering all three Iwo Jima VLR Mustang groups. Consistent with their other limited edition boxings, it is anticipated that Eduard will include a photo etch cockpit detail set, Brassin 3D printed parts (seats, exhaust stacks, wheels, etc . . .), and a lapel pin. If you are reading this Eduard, it would be nice if the lapel pin has the 7th Air Force logo on it.
In other exciting news, Eduard is getting back into the 1/32nd scale market and has announced the future release of a 1/32nd North American P-51B Mustang. Nice to see Eduard announce the future release of a quality 1/32nd P-51B. While the Trumpeter 1/32nd P-51B kit is a decent kit, it has a large number of inaccuracies.
Yesterday, I received an email from Eduard that they are now accepting pre-orders on their new Royal Class 1/72 North American P-51D Mustang Dual Combo boxing. From the CAD drawings and the information posted on Eduard’s website, it appears they have done an excellent job of scaling down their 1/48th scale kit to 1/72nd scale.
Eduard
The box art for the 1/72nd Royal Class Dual Combo boxing is similar to what it was for the 1/48th Royal Class Dual Combo boxing except for the orientation of the Mustang drawing and the color of the background. Like the 1/48th Royal Class Dual Combo boxing, the 1/72nd Royal Class Dual Combo boxing includes the exact same 14 decal options, which means that decals for two Iwo Jima VLR Mustangs are included, both from the 506th Fighter Group.
Iwo Jima VLR Mustang Decals: The first set of VLR markings is for 555 “The Ole Lady/Little Anne/My Darlin Betty Ann” (P-51D-25-NA, 44-72628), a 458th FS Mustang flown by 2nd Lts. James E. Coleman and Ralph R. Coltman, Jr.
Eduard
The second set of markings is for 528 “The Enchantress” (P-51D-25-NA, 44-72671), a 457th FS Mustang flown by 2nd Lt. William E. Saks. 2nd Lt. Saks was one of the pilots lost on the June 1, 1945 “Black Friday” mission, but he was not flying 528 on that day. “The Enchantress” is popular amongst modelers because the nose art and pin-up girl that adorns the fuselage.
Eduard
Like its bigger brother, you can build any variant of the D model from a D-5 to a D-25 with this kit. All the parts to make an accurate Iwo Jima VLR Mustang are present. I have included drawings of two sprues for the kit that Eduard posted on its website. It appears that the fuselage floor and fuel tank (Part E24) will be one piece, and the SCR-522 radio transmitter, SCR-695 IFF transmitter, and the rack they sit on are one piece as well (Part E27).
Eduard
A major difference from their 1/48th kit is that all of the different drop tanks that Mustangs carried (75 gallon, 108 gallon, 110 gallon, and 165 gallon) are included on one sprue. In the 1/48th kit, the 110 gallon and 165 gallon drop tanks carried by Iwo Jima VLR Mustangs and their sway braces were produced on a separate sprue, and only included in the Royal Class Dual Combo and Limited Edition Tales of Iwo Jima boxings. Now, as shown below on the drawing of sprue F, they will be included no matter what boxing of the kit you purchase. Nice touch on Eduard’s part.
Eduard
As is customary, Eduard includes a lot of goodies in their Royal Class Dual Combo boxings. This boxing is no exception and will include two sets of resin cast main wheels and tail wells, 3D printed shrouded exhaust stacks, un-shrouded exhaust stacks, and seats. While there are no photos yet, the information on Eduard’s website about this boxing indicates there will be two color photo etch cockpit sets included.
Eduard
In addition, Eduard will included a set to solid masks for painting around the wheel wells. They appear to made of some form of a foam material, and are designed to be placed into the wheel wells to protect your already painted wheel wells when you are painting the bottom of the wings. Again, a very nice touch on Eduard’s part. They appear to be doing that for their 1/48 kits as similar solid masks are included in their P-51B Mustang Royal Class Dual Combo boxing.
Eduard
According to Eduard’s website, pre-orders will be accepted between April 26th and May 8th, and kits will ship in the second half of June.
Kudos to Eduard for producing a 1/72 P-51D Mustang kit with all the necessary parts to build an accurate Iwo Jima VLR Mustang. Let’s hope that they follow suit and release a limited edition boxing dedicated solely to the Iwo Jima VLR Mustang groups in 1/72nd scale.
In his editorial in the January 2024 edition of Eduard Info, Vladimir Sulc announced the future release of the Eduard 1/72 North American P-51D Mustang. Eduard had previously indicated their intention to scale down their phenomenal 1/48 P-51D kit, so while it did not come as a complete surprise, it is great news.
Eduard
Eduard’s releases of their 1/48 P-51D kits covered every production block of the D model from the early filletless D-5 through the D-25, including the needed parts for the D-20/25 Iwo Jima VLR Mustangs and kits for the P-51K and the F-6D/K photo reconnaissance versions. The hope is that Eduard will follow suit with their 1/72 P-51D kits.
Eduard
The projected release of this kit is June of this year, the same month Eduard will be releasing their new 1/48 P-51B Mustang. With Arma Hobby releasing their 1/72 P-51D Mustang in the first quarter of this year, it is a good year to be a Mustang modeler.
At the end of March, Zoukei-Mura presented a mock-up of a 1/32 Kawasaki Ki-100-1 Otsu “Goshikisen” along with some CAD drawings. The news quickly appeared on both Brit Modeller and Large Scale Planes’ forums and was enthusiastically received.
Zoukei-Mura
Part of the enthusiasm is due to the fact that no mainstream model manufacturer has released either the Ki-100 Otsu (fastback) or the Ki-100 Ko (razorback) in 1/32 scale. While kits have been produced in 1/48th scale (Hasegawa and Otaki/Arii) and 1/72nd scale (Aoshima, Fine Molds and RS Models), there have been absolutely no injection molded kits in 1/32nd scale.
Zoukei-Mura
If you wanted to build either plane in 1/32 scale, you had to buy the 1/32 Hasegawa Kawasaki Ki-61 Hien (Tony) kit, and one of the Alley Cat resin conversion sets. Those conversion sets are no longer in production, but once the Zoukei-Mura kits are released, I am assuming we will see some of the Alley Cat conversion sets for sale on eBay.
Zoukei-Mura
The Ki-100 was a Ki-61-II airframe mated with the reliable Mitsubishi Ha-112-II Kinsei radial engine. The result was an very agile and maneuverable fighter with a good rate of climb and excellent handling characteristics. It was considered superior in all respects to its predecessor, the Ki-61 Hien. The Ki-100 was also considered by some Japanese pilots who flew both types to be superior to the Nakajima Ki-84 Hayate. It was first flown in February 1945, and the IJAAF began equipping units with the Ki-100 in March 1945, albeit in very limited numbers.
Kawasaki Ki-100-1 Ko “Goshikisen”
Due to its late entry into the war, the Ki-100 was not given a code name by the Allies, and its performance characteristics were unknown to the United States Army Air Force and the United States Navy. Anecdotal accounts suggest that the Ki-100s may have been misidentified as Ki-84s due the the fact that both had radial engines. There was no Ki-100 captured during the war for evaluation, and there were no evaluations after the cessation of hostilities to determine how it compared with the Navy’s Corsairs and Hellcats and the Army Air Force’s Lightnings, Mustangs and Thunderbolts.
Kawasaki Ki-100-1 Otsu “Goshikisen”
While the Ki-100 did not have a significant impact in the air war over Japan due to is late entry into combat, it provided the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force with a very capable dogfighter in the hands of an experienced fighter pilot. One wonders what impact it would have had if it had been supplied in sufficient numbers and flown by experienced fighter pilots. Unfortunately, from an historical perspective, it falls into the category of “too little, too late.”
Zoukei-Mura
Radu Brinzan has confirmed that Zoukei-Mura intends to release both the Ko (razorback) and Otsu (fastback) versions of the Ki-100 as supported by the above CAD drawings. That is great news!
When these kits will be released is unknown. Zoukei-Mura has previously announced a line of five Fw-190 kits, an Ar-234 kit, and a P-51B/C kit. It may be a while, but definitely worth the wait.
In this month’s edition of INFO Eduard, Eduard announced that their next release of their P-51D Mustang kit will be a Weekend Edition focusing on the Block 20 Mustang. The decal options include two European theater Mustangs and two Pacific theater Mustangs. The first Pacific theater Mustang is the widely recognizable The Flying Undertaker, flown by Major William A. Shomo of the 82nd TRS, 71st TRG. The other Pacific Mustang is the 458th FS, 506th FG Iwo Jima VLR Mustang, The Boll Weevil/A Neat Package, flown by 2nd Lt. Bennett C. Commer and 2nd Lt. Henry C. Seegers, Jr.
Eduard
All three VLR groups were initially equipped with Block 20 D models. As losses and attrition took its toll, Block 25 D models were used as replacement aircraft. The distinctive equipment used on VLR Mustangs, the SCR-695 IFF transmitter set, the AN/ARA-8 homing adapter and twin Uncle Dog antennae, were field modifications on Iwo Jima for both Block 20 and 25 models.
Eduard
Due to the fact that the 506th Fighter Group assigned two pilots to each plane, the markings on certain planes provide for interesting decal options. The Boll Weevil/A Neat Package is a nice example of this.
556 The Boll Weevil/A Neat Package (Bennett C. Commer via Dr. John Benbow)556 The Boll Weevil/A Neat Package (Charles Barr via Dr. John Benbow)
Kudos to Eduard for providing a multitude of 1/48th scale P-51D Mustang kits which cover blocks 5 to 25 with so many decal options. Something for everyone.
Iwo Jima Models 