The P-51 B (Mustang Mk.III if you prefer) has been acurrately modeled?

[Swagger7]

Originally Posted by Mr.Blonde

First of all I don't know if this has been discused, but I couldn't find it searching the forum, so here I go.

I think the 3d mesh of the Mustang B (the one used by the RAF at the game in the sicilian campaign) in the game is not completely acurrate. I don't know if this is 100% correct, but I always thought that no Merlin powered mustang had that small scoop at the engine hood. As far as I know, that little air intake was for the Allison carburetor used in the P-51A (The Allison powered Tomahawks have this scoop as well), so a P-51B shouldn't have this at the top of the nose, am I wrong?

Besides, I realised that the plane's guns are quite long, so long that the gun barrels extend beyond the leading edge. The P-51D had six 0.50 (12.7mm) machine guns and had no problems with the gun lenght (100% located inside the wing). All the pics I've found of P-51B had the guns instaled like the P-51D, but I found pictures of Mustangs with gun barrels exceding the wing, although these were pictures of P-51A (Mustang Ia for the RAF, the first Mustangs received by the brittons), which were equiped with 20mm cannons instead.


Notice the scoop and the cannons in this early Allison powered Mustang (oddly enough, with USAAC markings)


I know it's nothing serious, but I want to confirm if some P-51 with these features existed or it's reasonable to think that there has been some confusion between Mustangs.

I think you're right. The game model is an Allison engined P-51A with 4 20mm guns (hence the large size), but they gave it the performance & armament of a P-51B for some reason.

Here's another pic of the P-51A, by the way. You can see the cannons better:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File-51A.jpg

Edit: It replaced part of the file name with a frikkin smiley! Just go to the main P-51 article here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P-51_Mustang

and scroll down a little.

[sir70]

It's a P51-A/Mustang II
Allison engine, 3 blade prop, 4 .50 cal guns(the wings on the A model were too thin to fit the guns inside, D's were redsigned).

Both Mustang I and IA were just P-51 to the U.S.


source, mybigcoffeetablebookofalltheworldsaeroplanes1945/6

[mondo]

The P51 with the 20mm's from the wings is the A36 Apache. The RAF called it the 1A.

The Mustang MkIII is the RAF's designation for the P51C. The Mustang MKIII's used a different fuel from the P51C and had higher performance due to this.