While the P-51 B-, C-, and, certainly, D-models are well known and feature in plenty of references, that is not the case for the Allison-powered versions of the Mustang. SAM Publication’s new book The North American Aviation P-51 Mustang: Part 1 Allison Powered is meant to fill the void.

The first 74 pages of the book cover the history of the early versions, from inception and design, to early combat with the RAF, USAAF, and a few other minor operators. These sections pack an incredible amount of research and are paired with period black-and-white pictures illustrating the design, construction, and service of the early Mustangs. Reading these pages is very interesting, as they cover all sorts of details from armament philosophy, to the political situation within and between the US Army Corps and North American Aviation.

The next 12 pages are devoted to period pictures of the Mustang and the Apache A-36 in RAF/USAAF service. They also feature 25 color profiles.

Thanks very much to Ross at SAC for providing IPMS USA this review accessory, and to the IPMS Review corps leadership for entrusting me to use it.

Here is the latest in SAC’s line of gear to improve the kits we build. Consisting of two main gear, two retraction arms, two gear braces, and a replacement tail gear, it is a simple set with vastly improved strength.

How do I know this? During my marathon building session over the Columbus Day holiday weekend, I was able to build the Hobbyboss BV 141 kit. And dropped it twice after installing the SAC gear. It stayed on, bent, but was bent back into shape. Resilience personified.

This follow-up review of Eduard’s detail set covers pretty much “everything else” in the set since the cockpit was covered in Part One. I won’t summarize that section here, but have provided the link to it if you’re interested in reading and referencing that one to get the complete picture of this detail set.

A drawback of this entire build had nothing to do with the Eduard set---the Airfix A-4B kit I purchased was damaged---it came out of the box with three of the six tiny little slat tracks broken off, and worse yet, missing from the poly bag to boot. This further complicated the project and caused me lots more heartburn and delay than if I’d had a complete kit.