[Serpiko]

Box picture found in the web
WARNING: this same kit may be still sold in several different boxings


PROS
- Err... cheap?

CONS
- Old flashy molds
- Inaccurate
- Wrong-looking




THE PLANE (?)

Apparently, in the mid-'40s, a guy working for an unknown manufacturer got a deal with the managers of North American to licence build their P-51D Mustang.
Unfortunately, during a bathroom rest on the way back, the purchased blueprints accidentally fell into the toilet. The guy managed to recover the papers but, feeling too much embarassed, just squeezed and dried them the best he could, and later gave them to the engineers without telling anyone.

This kit is an accurate replica of the plane that came out of those blueprints, also known as "P-51D'oh!"



THE KIT

So there's this box in my hands. It's smaller than the usual, there's a nice art on it, and it was rather cheap. Nice, huh? Well, not exactly, once you realize that this is one of the worst cases of re-re-re-boxing... you know, when the box turns out to be the best part of the kit!
Inside, despite new instructions and decals sheet, there's a sprues set that, after a quick web research, appears to be dated 1963!
Raised lines and rivets are the first evident feature. The second one is FLASHFEST! Almost every single piece needs edge trimming and/or shows injection marks. Luckily, there's not many of them: only 34 parts, some of them optional.
Taking a closer look, things don't get better. Thinking of this as a "vintage" kit, one could accept some lack of detail, but here we have a few major inaccuracies, enough to annoy even modelers who don't bother with absolute precision.
First, gear bays are NO WAY correct: they are shaped as generic polygons, and rear wheel bay is fairly oversized (of course, no internal details). Then, someone totally forgot about the rear opening of the radiator: behind the ventral intake, there are only flat riveted panels back to the tailwheel. Last but not least, fuselage shape and proportions appear to be all wrong (including the one-pieced canopy); this becomes evident once the model is assembled.
All in the sprues looks mediocre, from larger parts to smaller bits. The provided options are a pair of droptanks, and a figure of either Jeff Goldblum while transforming in the Monster Fly... or, maybe, a pilot.
The decals sheet is for one plane only, CV-D "Cookie" from 359 FG, 368 FS, 8th AF (serial 413762). Being a new print, decals at least seem to be ok, but they hide an annoying surprise...




BUILDING

Once you've got rid of the tons of flash, you can start the construction. The cockpit is made of only three pieces (floor, seat panel and gauges panel); some side details are molded inside the fuselage halves. There are only a few pins keeping the cockpit in position and, sadly, large gaps remain on both sides of the floor.
This time, more parts than usual must be enclosed between the two fuselage halves: not only the cockpit and the propeller support, but also the horizontal tailplans (they are molded as a single piece) and, in case of lowered gear, the tail wheel. Fuselage edges fit decently, while some gap remains around the elevators.
You can now add the radiator intake, that is molded like a grid :-? , the dorsal antenna and engine exhausts. Some adjusting is sure to be needed in orfer to make these details fit. The propeller is one piece featuring the spinner and the blades. It is also quite ugly and, once fixed onto its movable support, it's unlikely to remain firmly centered.
The wings have a classic structure, with a single tip-to-tip lower surface and two sepatate upper surfaces. The fitting between upper and lower parts is acceptable but, when adding the wings block to the fuselage, you'll face large gaps.
Speaking of the gear... honestly, my advice is to glue those horrible doors closed and leave them as hidden as possible! :OO If you're adding the droptanks, the model can stand on them.
The canopy looks a bit oversized, but maybe that's because the frame part is (barely) molded too narrow. As I said before, it comes in a single piece, and frankly there's no point in cutting it open, due to the lack of cockpit details.
Besides the reported issues, many things look wrong once the model is built. IMO, either the nose is too slim (expecially the "chin"), or the tail section is too "fat", or both. Plus, the whole fuselage is too narrow, and the rudder is inaccurate. Look at the pics and judge on your own.




PAINTING AND DECALS

As you can see in the boxart, CV-D "Cookie" wears a shiny green nose on a bare metal body, with OD engine upper hood, yellow rudder, black stripes on the wings and black-white invasion stripes on the bottom half of the fuselage only, wrapped around the radiator. After a quick look at the decals sheet, it is clear that stripes are NOT provided, so they have to be painted. Ok, that shouldn't be a big problem, right?
So there I go with tape, paint and patience, until I get my invasion stripes. Then I start decaling, and WTF?! The stars and bars in USAAF insignas are NOT white! Insignas have been printed with blue only with a transparent background! Now, since the ones on fuselage sides are supposed to be placed exactly on the margin of the invasion stripes, what am I expected to do, struggling to perfectly paint the white background behind every insigna? On SUCH model?! Screw that, I'm keeping the transparent stars! :evil:
Let alone this "little" nuisance, decals are adequately detailed and go on pretty easily.




CONCLUSIONS

"Revell, what have thy done?" I really CAN'T recommend this kit, since it's hard to find anything good about it. Even for an economic kit, this one ranks several steps below the average, on-par with Airfix's infamous reboxings of kits from the Stone Age (while Revell's 1/72 FW-190A/F and BF-109G10, for roughly the same price, are way - and I mean WAY - better).
Unless the engine of the Mustang has been nicknamed after you (and therefore you are Merlin :mrgreen: ), you WON'T get an accurate P-51D model out of this kit. What you can get is, at best, a colourful "toy" plane that somehow resembles a Mustang (even less accurate than some actual toy planes).
Looks like my "Shelf of Shame" © just welcomed a new guest...

RED light!