Detail & Scale published its first two books on North American’s P-51 Mustang in 1996. Thirty years later, a new set of three publications, P-51 Mustang in Detail & Scale, significantly revises and expands the original coverage of this iconic fighter. This latest series of Detail & Scale started with Volume 1 in 2018 with the F3H Demon.

Bert Kinzey graduated from Virginia Tech in 1968 with a degree in Business Administration. Upon graduation, he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the U. S. Army and was sent to the Army’s Air Defense School at Fort Bliss, Texas. During his eight years as an officer, Bert commanded a Hawk guided missile battery just south of the DMZ in Korea. Later he originated, wrote, and taught classes on the air threat, military air power, and air defense suppression at Fort Bliss. Bert was dissatisfied with the existing manuals and other materials available for his classes because they were inaccurate and incomplete. As a result, he wrote his own reference books and other publications. Although he intended for these to be used only in his classes, they were soon placed on the Army’s official publication list and distributed throughout the military. Bert has also flown with active, reserve, and National Guard squadrons on training missions to observe the conduct and procedures of air-to-air and air-to-ground combat. While he was working for the Department of Defense, Bert started Detail & Scale, a part-time business to produce a new series of books on military aircraft. Later Bert added aircraft carriers to the Detail & Scale Series, and he also began a second series called Colors & Markings. In June 2004, health issues caused Bert to have to retire from his work. In 2013, Bert teamed up with Rock Roszak to begin producing the books again, but the new ones are now greatly expanded digital publications that are available in both the Apple iBooks and Amazon Kindle formats.

Haagen Klaus was born and raised on the east end of Long Island, Haagen grew up around airplanes, minutes from Grumman Aircraft Corporation’s flight test center at Calverton, New York. Among his earliest memories are test pilots, F-14s, and building kits at the dining room table. He has been building scale models continuously since 1985, and for just as long, learning anything and everything about aviation, aircraft. Haagen graduated with degrees in anthropology, archeology, and biological anthropology from SUNY Plattsburgh (BA), Southern Illinois University (MA), and The Ohio State University (Ph.D.). Since 1997, Haagen has been an active member of the International Plastic Modeler’s Society. He was a co-founder of IPMS/Champlain Valley, serving as their first vice president and helped bring about the annual CAN-AM Con model contest. Haagen has also worked in hobby retail on-and-off since 1997, establishing extensive background knowledge on kits, aftermarket products, manufacturing and modeling techniques, and tools.

Colonel Richard S. “Rock” Roszak is the son of immigrants who came to America from a war-ravaged Europe. He grew up in Staunton, Virginia and graduated from VPI in 1971 as a member of the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets. He was commissioned into the United States Air Force where he amassed over 2,000 flying hours, mostly in B-52D/F/G and C-135 aircraft, over a 27-year active-duty career. An avid modeler in his younger years, he has been a digital artist for over 13 years and has illustrated several books in partnership with Bert Kinzey. Besides being the vice president of Detail & Scale, Rock also creates all the artwork in the digital volumes and handles the electronic publishing end of the business. Rock currently lives in Blacksburg, Virginia, with his wife, Patty, two daughters, and six grandchildren.

This monograph is the first in a planned three volume set on the North American Mustang by Detail & Scale. The earlier 72-page Part 1 edition, Volume 50, covered the NA-73X prototype through the Merlin powered P-51C variants. This 102-page edition, Volume 21 in Detail & Scale, significantly revises and expands their original coverage but focuses only on the Allison-engined Mustangs. The cover shows off a color photograph of the first American variant of the Mustang, the P-51-NA, or when flown by the British, the Mustang Mk. IA. The rear cover is a color photograph of the instrument panel of the Yanks Air Museum P-51A-10-NA Mustang. Serial number 43-6274 was originally delivered in 1943. She served with the 4^th FTU in Nashville, TN, and Brownsville, TX. She was stricken from inventory in August 1945 before being flown in the Cleveland races under N73630 in 1948. She is currently on display as 36274 as an F-6B bird fitted with a K24 camera. I counted 69 black and white photographs and 179 color photographs. Rock Roszak provides seven aircraft color side profiles. There are 17 black and white line Mustang drawings by Lloyd S Jones and Rock Roszak.

Bert Kinzey, Haagen Klaus, and Rock Roszak maintain the overall format of the 1996 edition in that there are three major sections: 1) History and Individual variants, 2) Detailed photographs, and a 3) Modeling section. All three components are expanded over the earlier book. After a one-page introduction, the authors dive into a history of the Allison Mustangs. The NA-73X featured a laminar flow wing that is shown in the color illustration in the middle of Page 6. Preparation of the first flight of the NA-73X is displayed at the bottom of the page with test pilot Vance Breese at the controls. The Curtiss company was directed by the British to provide data from their XP-46A Kittyhawk prototypes to North American [for $56,000] to assist in speeding up the design of the NA-73X. Curtiss protested, but in the end the NA-73X was superior to the XP-46A Kittyhawk that was projected to be the successor to the Curtiss P-40 Tomahawk. The British ended up cancelling the XP-46A and the Kittyhawk moniker was utilized for P-40D and later variants in British service. Of course, Edgar Schmued noted that he had been designing the Mustang for five years and Dutch Kindelberger was well aware of that.

The next section covers the six major variants of the Allison-engined Mustangs. North American tried to call their NA-97 model the ‘Apache’, but the USAAF stayed with the ‘Mustang’ moniker. ‘Invader’ was tried later during the Sicily and Italian invasions, but of course that later became the official name of the Douglas B-26 / A-26 bomber. Three nice color photographs of the A-36A are shown on Page 41. The A-36A at the top of the page named “Dorothy Helen” has had its nose machine guns removed to reduce the nose-heavy airframe. The weight savings was sometimes transferred to the wings to carry additional ammunition for the twin fifties in each wing. Three of Rock Roszak color side profiles can be seen on Page 55 which feature three North American NA-99 P-51A Mustangs. The top profile represents a 107the Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron P-51A-1-NA, s/n 43-6046, that was deployed to England in August 1942. The 107^th is probably best known for their involvement in preparing for Operation Overlord and later as the first reconnaissance unit to operate from French soil. They continued to operate until March 31, 1946. The middle color profile is a P-51A “Mrs. Virgina” flown by Major Robert Petit that served in the China-Burma -India theater. One of 30 P-51As serving with the 1^st Air Commando Group, notable is the substantial exhaust staining that was due to leaning out the engine to improve range. The Planes of Fame museum in Chino California has their P-51A-10-NA, 43-6251, painted as Petit’s ride. The bottom color profile was Captain J.J. England’s P-51A-1-NA, 43-6077, serving with the 530^th Bomber Squadron in the Burma theater. They were the first unit to take the P-51A into combat.

Some photographs and drawings from the first edition are carried over, including the Lloyd S. Jones 1/72 four and five view drawings. A key feature of these drawings are the pointers to key features for each variant. Many more detail photographs are included, mostly in color. A good example is depicted on Page 70 of the Yanks Air Museum P-51A-10-NA, 43-6274, wearing the code AX-H. It was restored to flight condition in 1993, and is kept in airworthy condition, but is not flown. The top and bottom color photographs were included in the 1996 edition, only in black and white and roughly half as large. The Modeler’s Section goes from 7 build reviews to 11-pages and over 20 kit reviews. The Accurate Miniatures 1/48 Allison-engined kit reviews are initiated on Page 95 with a color photograph of Stan Parker’s P-51-NA Mustang. Accurate Miniatures released their Allison-engined Mustangs in separate kits for the P-51 [3400], P-51A [3402], Mustang Mk. IA [3410], F-6A [480017], F-6B [480010], and A-36A [3401]. These are still considered the best available today even though they were tooled in 1994. Although Accurate Miniatures has ceased business, these kits have been released by Italeri and Academy. The sections include:

• Introduction
• Allison-Engined Mustang History
  • Origins and Development of the NA-73X [Page 006]
  • Manufacturing Early Mustangs
  • Procurement and Growth of the Early Mustang Lineage
  • Developing A Niche: Allison-Engined Mustangs Join the RAF
  • Early American Mustangs in North Africa and the Mediterranean
  • Early Mustangs in the China-Burma-India Theater
  • USAAF and RAF Allison-Powered Mustangs Over Europe, 1943-1945
  • Analysis and Legacy of the Early Mustangs
• Main Differences of Allison-Engined Mustang Variants [Table]
• Allison-Engined Mustang Dimensions [3-D Drawing]
• Allison-Engined Mustang Variants
  • NA-73X
  • Mustang Mk. I
  • XP-51
  • P-51-NA, F-6A, & Mustang Mk. IA
  • A-36A [Page 041]
  • A-36 Cockpit Details
  • A-36 Details
  • P-51A, F-6B, & Mustang Mk. II [Page 055]
• Allison-Engined Mustang Details
  • Cockpit Details
  • Windscreen & Canopy Details
  • Propeller Details
  • Allison V-1710 Engine Details
  • Fuselage Details [Page 070]
  • Wing Details
  • Internal Armament Details
  • Landing Gear Details
  • Tail Details
• Modelers Section
• General Comments
  • 1/144th Scale Kits
  • 1/72nd Scale Kits
  • 1/48th Scale Kits [Page 095]
  • 1/32nd Scale Kits

Final Thoughts

This is a great follow-up to the original Detail & Scale edition that was issued in 1996. The 1996 two part edition comes in at 144-pages, while this latest 3-volume set will probably come in at 306-pages. Although there are a few carry-overs in photographs, it is notable how much more color there is in this latest book. There are enough photographs that aren’t in the new edition and the color profiles are different. I will be keeping my 1996 edition for those reasons, along with Bert Kinzey’s autograph on the title page. If you are planning on building any North American Allison-engined P-51, this is an essential book and it comes at a great price.

My thanks to Detail & Scale Aviation Publications and IPMS/USA for the chance to review this great book.

Highly recommended!