Manufacturer:Revell, 8601 Waukegan Road, Morton Grove, IL 60053-2295, 847-966-3500 www.revell-monogram.com
Kit: No1654
Scale: 1/48
Price: $17.65
Comments: Pre-painted, injection-molded, 51 parts, decals, and glue included
Pros: No need to paint anything
Cons: Unless filled and retouched, seams show, fuselage and wing invasion stripes don’t line up, decals are translucent

Revell has a new angle – a pre-painted P-51B in their new Pro-Finish line of 1/48th scale kits. In the box you get the ProModeler kit (a Monogram kit revised with recessed panel lines) that, despite still being in kit form, is completely painted! All the parts are painted in the appropriate colors (for example, the cockpit and wheel wells are painted in Interior Green). The subject of this boxing is Clarence “Bud” Andersonps “Old Crow” with a Malcolm hood. The kit also features flattened tires, drop tanks, and a pilot figure.

Building the pre-painted kit presented a few challenges. Most parts are still attached to the sprues, so damaging the paint finish at the attachment points was hard to avoid in several cases. I touched up the areas with the appropriate colors.

The kit includes tube cement and as a fair test I used it in as many places as possible. It worked well on the small parts, but I used liquid cement on the larger parts to avoid damaging the paint finish.

The base kit is nearly 30 years old now, and its poor fit produced gaps that are impossible to correct without repainting the affected areas after the seam work is done. I decided not to fill the seams.

I tried applying the decals on the kit’s flat finish, and found they would not adhere. I applied a clear gloss, then decaled, then sprayed on clear flat. The decals are translucent, most evident with the national insignias over the invasion stripes. These pre-painted stripes don’t line up from one fuselage half to the other, and are likewise misaligned on the wing halves.

I was able to complete my Pro-Finish P-51B in a quick six hours. Experienced modelers won’t like the fact that fixing seams will damage the finish. The misaligned painting also is annoying, but since this kit is aimed at beginners, they’ll appreciate that much of the hard work has been done for them.