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Davis Sampson
Bear Valley Springs, California
Astonished at the absence of a basic 1/48 scale kit of the Mustang 1, the aircraft ordered by the Royal Air Force that started the legendary Mustang line, David converted Accurate Miniatures’s Mustang 1A with help from an Ultracast set. The latter included a new lower cowl with machine gun ports and barrels, wing leading edges with openings for .30- and .50-caliber machine guns, and new prop blades. In addition to modifying shell ejection ports and ammunition access panels, he detailed the cockpit with Eduard photo-etched metal, added resin wheels, and added flaps from a Tamiya P-51 after cutting away the kit’s molded flaps. Using Model Master enamels, Montex Masks, decals from Arrow Graphics, and hand-painting, he finished it as an aircraft flown by American Hollis Hills with the Royal Canadian Air Force who has the distinction of scoring the first ever kill in a Mustang when he shot down an Fw 190 in August 1942.