Detail and Scale has released the 3^rd book of its Mustang series. Part 1 and 2 cover the earlier Allison powered airframes and the Merlin powered airframes with a razorback fuselage respectively. This book covers the -D marks and later marks or, in other words, all the “bubbletops” mustangs.

This book is available both in print and in digital format. I am reviewing here the print version of it.

The book starts with a bit of a historical section on the late mustang history, including some unique pictures of bubbletops with -B/C wings and even a razorback with a -D wing. The history section progresses with highlights of service in WW2 (Europe, Mediterranean and Pacific), Korea and it mentions the need for a “lighter” version of the P-51, the -F/G/J and the -H, which went into production but didn’t see combat in WW2.

The next chapter includes a nice description of the main characteristics of the XP-51D, the P-51D and its twin, the P-51K, following by Mustangs Mk.IV and IVa and in general Commonwealth Mustangs (Australian production) to wrap the chapter with sections on the reconnaissance Mustangs, the F-6D and F-6K, the twin seaters TP-51D and TF-51D, plus the lightweight P-51H and some experimental Mustangs.

Later on, the book moves into an extensive walk-around section covering every single airframe detail of the P-51D and P-51K, followed with another walk around section on the P-51H, highlighting the differences with the -D/K.

As is common with this series, the last chapter is the “Modelers Section” with a description of the main kits available for each scale, from 1/144 to 1/24. This section also has plenty of pictures of finished kits but there are no built-articles, just a good description of pros and cons of each kit available on each scale.

Roughly speaking this book is about 30% a narrative on each bubble top variant of the Mustang, a 55% walk-around, and a 15% modeler section and that is a perfect combination in my opinion.

The main section of this book - the walkaround - is profusely illustrated with color close-up pictures of every aspect of the airplane. That is all you need for your next “pony” project. That alone makes this book a “must-have” for any modeler.

Highly recommended.

I would like to thank IPMS/USA and Detail and Scale publications for the review sample.