PLAAF P-51D Mustang

by George Schmidt

images and text by Ben Schmidt

Tamiya's 1/48 scale P-51D Mustang is available online from Squadron

These are the photos of my father's most recent project, a Tamiya 1/48 scale P-51D Mustang in Communist Chinese People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) markings.

This model is depicted as it appeared around 1950, somewhere in mainland China. This Mustang was one of at least twenty that were originally Nationalist Chinese aircraft. When the Nationalists evacuated to Formosa (Taiwan) these planes were captured on their airfields by the Communists.

To disguise their beaten up and dirty appearance (since they had just fought a civil war, after all!) they were oversprayed with aluminum paint, the blue rudder stripes were repainted in red, and PLAAF insignia were applied in six positions. It is still unknown if any of these Chinese Mustangs were used in the Korean War or if they were only used for propaganda purposes.

This is the excellent Tamiya 1/48 scale P-51D Mustang kit.

George added True Details "weighted" wheels, a True Details Mustang cockpit set, and a Squadron/Falcon vacuform canopy.

The Chinese radio aerial on the rear fuselage and the cover over the original radio wire hole in the canopy were made from scrap plastic.

Dents were added to the wings and fuselage using a grinding tool, and the engine grills were rescribed.

Decals were scrounged from an AA Models (China) kit decal sheet. Model railroading weathering dust was used to create the dirt and dust inside the cockpit area.

Model and Text Copyright © 2003 by George Schmidt
Images Copyright © 2003 by Ben Schmidt
Page Created 23 September, 2003
Last Updated 17 March, 2004

Back to HyperScale Main Page