1:48 71st TRG Reconnaissance North-American Mustangs over the Pacific

Photo reconnaissance over the Pacific in the last year of the war

The reconnaissance version of the famous fighter did not carry cameras in its fuselage for the sake of looks. The group the sheet is devoted to mapped Japanese positions in the Philippines and later from a forward island, and its pilots flew alone, low and with no way of defending themselves other than speed. Yet it is from here that one of the most remarkable air combats of the whole war comes, when a pair of reconnaissance machines ran into a numerically stronger Japanese formation and settled the fight in their own favor.

The sheet offers ten items for two photo-reconnaissance versions, which differed in the type of engine and in the shape of the canopy. Besides the machines from the Philippines there is also an aircraft operating from Ie Shima and one classic fighter variant without cameras. Several items belong to the same aircraft at different stages of its service, as the unit markings and the pilot's rank changed, so a pair of models of the same machine in different states can be built from the sheet.

A practical note on building

The decals are printed in 1:48 scale and assume a kit bought separately. The reconnaissance versions had windows for the cameras on the sides of the rear fuselage, which is the most conspicuous difference from an ordinary fighter when building; some kits have them, elsewhere they have to be added. The markings go onto a smooth gloss surface, and with a thin coat over them they hold even on the bands around the fuselage, which follow a curved surface. A final matte varnish then evens the sheen of the whole airframe out.