I will be reviewing various bits and pieces of my diecast collection in pretty much random order.
Today's aircraft is Corgi's US322222, a P-51D Mustang as flown by Ed McComas out of China in the latter parts of the war. This particular model is part of Corgi's discount line, has an overall bare metal finish (something Corgi is traditionally not great at), and is from Corgi's pretty lousy P-51D mould. The result, not surprisingly, is pretty bad, though, on balance, it's not as bad as Witty's P-51s and kudos to Corgi for taking on a relatively unusual livery.
One of the reasons that this model is being reviewed first is that I was testing out a new camera. And, indeed, in the right light, the model looks not so bad.
However, taken overall, this must surely rank near the bottom of my diecast collection. As you can see, out the box, at least one propeller blade was bent forward. There are large gaps, especially near the tail, the landing gear look a bit ridiculous, and the overall detail is poor. There is little question that the king of 1/72 P-51D is the effectively defunct Dragon Warbirds and this Corgi model, however interesting the livery, doesn't come close. Again, the nice light under which these photos were taken really do flatter this below average model.
