Halberd Models 1/48 XP-51 Mustang

Halberd is a Ukrainian based company producing very high quality resin aircraft kits and conversions in 1/48 and 1/32nd scale. This kit is of the Halberd 1/48 XP-51 Mustang. It represents one of the early XP-51 Mustang prototypes, specifically the XP-51 s/n 41-039. The first "Mustang" was NA-73X. After some design changes the first production run commenced. It was had two batches, NA-73 and NA-83 for the second batch. The production run was for the fabrication of the Mustang I destined for the RAF. From the two batches two airframe were selected and given to the USA for evaluation. The first XP-51 s/n 41-038 was from the NA-73 batch and the second airframe XP-51 s/n 41-039 from the NA-83 production batch.

Fortunately XP-51 s/n 41-038 has been restored and is kept at the EAA Museum. The EAA Aviation Museum’s XP-51 was acquired by EAA after years in storage at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. It was completely restored in 1975-1976 by Darrell Skurich of Fort Collins, Colorado, and flew in the Oshkosh air show from 1976 until Paul Poberezny made the final flight in late 1982. The EAA Museum is at 3000 Poberezny Road in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, 54902. Excellent color photographs of the XP-51 are on the EAA website to help with your build effort.

Excellence in resin should be Halberds middle name. A test fit of the kit shows no fit problems. My build confirmed that it fits very well and wing to fuselage join gaps were not apparent. The fuselage halves are thin and finely cast. No excess resin needed removal or trimming was required. Surface details rival mainstream injection plastic kits. This kit is complete with all parts and decals provided for a finished kit. No donor kit is required. No etched parts provided. Clear parts are very clear and cast in clear resin.

The kit was acquired direct from their website: https://www.halberdmodel.co/ . This kit can also be purchased from their eBay store “https://www.ebay.com/str/halberdmodels “for a slightly higher price to offset the eBay fees and free shipping.

Overall I am very impressed with the kit and can highly recommend it. The only other observations of note would be there may be some leftover issues from using the Accurate Miniatures P-51 Allison engine series as the donor design basis. The wing underside might be from the P-51 kit because it only has two shell chutes per side but there are three wing guns in the XP-51. Halberd correctly incorporated the three guns per wing layout on the leading edge in a beautifully cast representation but forgot to change the shell chute configuration on the wing underside since only two chutes instead of three per wing are present (?). The spinner is of the right shape and fits well but the propeller is a bit on the thick side and the prop tips as well.

Before the release of the Halberd XP-51 kit you could model the XP-51 as a conversion using the using the Ultracast Mustang MK.I conversion 48031 RAF-RCAF Mustang Mk.I Mustang Conversion for the Accurate Miniatures 3410 kit. Decal markings could be sourced from Decals P-51A to XP-51 Build the MSAP 48033 P-51 & A-36A Mustangs plus XP-51 decal or Ventura Decals V4869 (revised) Spitfire and XP-51 Mustang Prototypes.

References

Detail and Scale series Volume 21, P-51 Mustang Part 1: NA-73X through P-51A - The Allison Engine Variants (2025)

Valiant Wings Airframe & Miniature No. 6, The North American P-51 Early Mustang, pages 16-17 (2013 and revised 2024)

Andrew Garcia

March 2025

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