Hobby Master Archive

Later in WWII the Allied bombers were flying deep into Germany but suffered tremendous losses because of the lack of range the fighter escorts had. German fighters would wait beyond the range of the Allied fighters and then attack the vulnerable bombers. Once the P-51 called Mustang by the British had the Allison engine replaced with a British Merlin it possessed the high performance that had been lacking. With drop tanks the P-51 had the range to escort bombers all the way to Berlin and back.

Roscoe Brown received his pilot wings at Tuskgee Army Air Base and went for his fighter training in Michigan and South Carolina before being shipped off to join the other Tuskgee Airmen already in Italy. Lt. Brown arrived in Italy in July 1944 and assigned to the 100th FS of the 332nd FG. After 8 months and 60 missions Lt. Brown was Squadron Leader for a bomber escort on March 24, 1945. During this sortie he is credited with downing an Me-262 jet. In April 1945 he was promoted to Captain and made Commander of the 100th FS. By the end of the war he was credited with 2 aerial victories, 3 aircraft destroyed on the ground and 13 locomotives. He received the DFC and other metals and citations.

Specifications for the North American Aviation P-51D Mustang Tasks - Dive-bomber, bomber-escort, ground-attack, interceptor, photo recon Number Produced All Variants - 14,819 Dimensions Wing Span - 37 ft (11.27 m) Length - 32 ft 3 in (9.82 m) Height - 13 ft 8 in (4.16 m)

Weight Empty - 7,125 lb (3,232 kg) Gross - 10,100 lb (4,581 kg) Maximum Take-off - 11,600 lb (5,262 kg)

Performance Engine - Packard Merlin two-staged supercharged V-1650-7, 12 cylinder V engine 1,695 hp. Maximum Speed - 437 mph (703 km/h) Ceiling - 41,900 ft (12,771 m) Range - 950 miles (1,529 km) Maximum Range - 2,300 miles (3,701 km)

Armament (6) .50 caliber MG Maximum External Bomb Load - 2,000 lb (907 kg) Or (4) .5 inch rockets.

Hobby Master 1/48 Air Power Series HA7717B P-51D Mustang “Bunnie” flown by Capt. Roscoe C. Brown, Jr. 100th FS, 332nd FG Ramitelli, Italy March 1945

1/48 scale pre-finished Die-cast metal with a minimum of plastic. Professionally painted. All markings pad applied for superb results. Cockpit slides open. Comes with a pilot that can be removed. Comes with display stand. Can be displayed with landing gear up or down.