P-51 Mustang in Detail & Scale, Part 3: P-51D and Subsequent Variants
Detail & Scale Series Volume 23
By Bert Kinzey, Illustrated by Rock Roszak
Softcover, 102 pages
Published by Detail & Scale, January 2026
Language: English
ISBN: 979-8-2424655-5-8
Dimensions: 8.5 x 11.0 x 0.3 inches
The North American P-51 Mustang needs no introduction. It is considered by many to be the best piston-engined fighter of the Second World War, and more than eight decades later it is the most numerous type of vintage warbird left flying. Its popularity within the modeling community is rivaled only by the Messerschmitt Bf 109 and the Spitfire, it is common to find a Mustang on the show tables at any contest in all of the major scales. The Mustang is also popular with publishers and there is no shortage of reference books available to the enthusiast. So, do we need another Mustang reference?
This is the fifth book on the Mustang in the Detail & Scale series. The first pair (volumes 50 & 51) were part of the original print series and were published in the 1990s. With the advent of the electronic age D&S are revisiting and updating their earlier works. Their newest books are available in print or electronic format and divide the Mustang story into three parts – volume 21 of the new series covers Allison-engined variants; volume 22 the P-51B and C; and volume 23 the D, K, & lightweight H. The P-82 Twin Mustang gets some space in the older volumes but only a brief mention in the new. While there are a few photos re-used between the series almost all the content is new and revised, so it is still worth hanging on to your older books while getting the new.
This book is aimed squarely at the scale modeling community, particularly at modelers who strive for accuracy and want to super-detail their latest masterpiece. The book is loaded with photographs, captions point out interesting details of each. The authors have located numerous full-color period photographs and supplemented these with detailed walk-around photos of surviving aircraft from multiple angles. Line drawings illustrate the detail changes of the D, K, and H Mustangs as well as the photo-reconnaissance and trainer versions, and there are also seven color profiles included. As with all D&S books there is a modelers’ section reviewing the pros and cons of kits available in all major scales, in this case a generous fifteen pages are devoted to this. I cheat and always skip straight to the 1/72 scale section first, it covers everything up to the new Eduard releases but the Arma kits didn’t make it out in time – perhaps the electronic publication format will facilitate them being included in a future update.
Upon opening this book I was impressed by the sharpness of the printing of the photographs – this has improved immensely compared to earlier volumes and is noticeably superior to many existing Mustang books. The photo quality works to offset an inevitable criticism of modeling references in general – there is a balance between the size of the photos and their number, this would be a 300-page book if every photo was given half a page. I was impressed with the coverage of detail areas such as cockpits, wheel wells, gun bays, and engines – these will be quite useful for the modeler. The lightweight P-51H is also better covered than usual with the numerous differences from earlier Mustangs described in detail. Nice to see the material on the H and there were many things included here which I was unaware of.
In all this is a great Mustang reference, put together for modelers by modelers. This will definitely be on my bench when I tackle the new Eduard and Arma kits in the stash. Recommended!
Review copy courtesy of Rock Roszak.
Inch High Guy 