I thought this might be the best place to introduce this model. I've been working on a payware product by the name of "Mustang Tales: Post-WWII and Navy Service" through Warbirdsim, and as the title hints at, our main goal has been to tell some of the stories from the Mustang's legacy from WWII until today, through 16 different individual models. One of the earliest within this project is that of the P-51D-30-NT's that were manufactured in mid-late 1945, by the Dallas NAA plant, for the Royal New Zealand Air Force. For a specific RNZAF example, we chose to depict NZ2423, as it was in 1945 with No.1 Auckland Squadron, and this model is a specific depiction of that aircraft throughout. At this time, the aircraft were still fresh in their USAAF delivery markings, and had the roundels painted over the stars & bars - the top line of the data block reads "New Zealand Government", followed by the standard USAAF information. The aircraft is very factory stock, and built to late factory specifications (being amongst the very last NAA manufactured Mustangs). By the time of the manufacture of these aircraft, items like the rocket launcher stubs, g-suit provisions, SCR-695 IFF set and ARA-8 set, and cuffless "square-tip" Hamilton Standard prop blades had become standard. Unlike earlier manufactured P-51D's, which had the battery in the aft cockpit, on the P-51D-30-NA, -25-NT, and -30-NT, all fitted with the SCR-695 IFF set, the battery had to be relocated to the engine compartment, in front of the firewall. When this took place, a battery vent (with scoop) was added to the port-side wing elbow fairing, and a drain line had to be added underneath the starboard-side wing shoulder fairing (a rubber hose extending down from the lower-aft wing/fuselage fairing). On the P-51D-25-NT and P-51D-30-NT, only, the external power socket was also relocated, and can be seen in the relocated position at the base of the starboard fuselage roundel/insignia. Mounted at the back of the headrest is the inertia switch/timer and indicator lights for the IFF detonator. Also, the aircraft has the unmistaken profile, late-Dallas canopy.
I hope you'll like it, and if you have any questions please ask! As an additional note, NZ2423 is one of the few original RNZAF Mustangs that still survives to this day, and is the same aircraft that was flown on the last official RNZAF Mustang flight, on May 30, 1957.
The standard factory-fresh P-51D-30-NT cockpit:
