At last the long awaited continuation of the Mustang story has arrived from Valiant Wings. Built in greater numbers than other Mustangs, the D/K versions were the mainstay of US fighter units in Europe and the Pacific by the end of the war. So useful were the aircraft (and so plentiful were the spares) that the aircraft served in the post-war US Air Force both in the ANG as well as in combat again in Korea. In this latter role, it was mainly used as a fighter bomber, even though not really the best for the role. However, as mentioned, there were lots of spares in place in Japan so it was the logical choice.

In addition to being heavily used by the US, the type was provided to allies in WWII and sold in fairly large quantities post war to a variety of foreign air arms. These were particularly prevalent in Central and South America where their relative ease of maintenance kept them in service for decades. In fact, the last regular military use of the Mustang was with the Dominican Republic in the 1980s, a remarkable longevity for a piston-engine fighter. With so many having been built, it is no surprise that so many are still in the air with a whole industry built around providing spares for these aircraft.

Valiant Wings' series of Airframes and Miniatures is the flagship book in their current library of publications. It provides the full gamut of information on the subject which includes a background history, a brief look at the different variants, the camouflage schemes worn by the aircraft (which includes a lot of full color profiles), and a set of detail drawings of each different variation on the scheme. This particular book also covers the lesser known lightweight P-51F/J as well as the P-51H, which is arguably the best of the type, even though not built in huge numbers. In addition to this, you have a fairly complete modelers section which looks at the current crop of kits for the Mustang, then a build section which in this case includes the Airfix kits in 1/72 and 1/48 scale, the Tamiya 1/72 kit and the Eduard 1/48 offering. In addition, you have the Halberd conversion for a Cavalier Mustand and the Revell 1/32 kit so lots of modeling info. One section I particularly like is the 'building the Mustang' set of drawings which starts with the prototype and then proceeds to show every external detail change, no matter how small. A real boon for those who want to get things just right. Then there is a detail section which uses both images from extant airframes as well as a plethora of period photos and drawings from the technical manuals. Next are listings for all the different kits ever done on the bubbletop P-51 as well as decals, accessory sets, and books. The last pages of the book are 1/48 plans for several versions in a huge multi-page fold-out. 

Overall, this makes this THE book to have on the later Mustangs. The amount of information is incredible. It is one of my favorite book series. It is a book for which I can easily provide my highest recommendation.

February 2022

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