Warbirdsim P-51 question

[Bone]

What's the difference between pack number 3 and pack number 4, other than the paint jobs you get? It seems to be the same P-51D model to me, but for each pack being approx $47 USD. I'm only going to buy one, but need to make an informed choice. Any input?

[fsxar177]

Good-day,

"Pack 3" as you call it, which you must be referring to the "Cadillac of the Skies" series, part 3, is

accurate war time models and depictions of D-10-NA, D-15-NA, D-20-NA, D-25-NA, and K-15-NT. All in authentic war-time schemes. Excellent variety. Also now featuring redux textures, to equal the quality of part 4.

"Pack 4" is exclusively the D-5-NA model, which was the earliest of the bubble-top variants, and also one of the more widely used models in the 8th Air Force, many aces scored kills in the D-5, and this pack represents, very well, several of those.

Either one is outstanding.

The other two D model packages are also very viable options!

Read about them all here.

Joseph

[Bone]

Thanks alot Joseph. I've never really paid much attention to Warbirdsims, until now, and the thought of going to their website for an explanation never really occurred to me, lol. Sometimes I feel like this sim gig is one big excercise in sensory overload.

[Bomber_12th]

It is sort of tuned to the likes of me, I guess. : )

The various products are an effort to provide the most accurate depictions of the P-51D, so you aren't getting, for example, a P-51D-30-NA model that never saw combat in WWII, with a paint scheme from a P-51D-5-NA from the summer of 1944.

As Joseph mentioned, "Little Friends (I)" is made of mid-to-late model wartime P-51D's and a K-model, with all of the different variations between them - some with the tail warning radar set installed, others without, some with 108-gallon paper drop tanks, and others with 75-gallon metal drop tanks, depending on which was most common for that fighter group, or what was in use the most at the time for any given variant. Other differences you will find between models in this product, include different production canopy shapes (there were as many as 5-different canopy designs throughout P-51D/K production, depending on production model and being produced at either the Inglewood or Dallas plants), tons of different external mirror configurations, different exhaust shroud configurations (on or off), etc., all to work up to providing anyone the closest depiction of each particular Mustang reproduced.

"Little Friends II" was produced to focus attention on the P-51D-5-NA alone. This was the earliest production model, and varied a lot even from the next production model, the P-51D-10-NA. There was too much work involved in producing the D-5-NA variants, to include them in the first "Little Friends" product, requiring an extra 4-5 months of work to complete after "Little Friends (I)" was produced. Externally, the tail had to be re-modeled and re-textured, a new canopy had to be modeled (unique to and only used on D-5 production), the drop tanks had to be re-plumbed, and a number of other smaller detail changes. Internally, the instrument panel is completely different, an N-9 reflector gun sight is installed (correct for the variant), as opposed to the K-14 gyro gun sight installed on later D-model variants, and just about everything else, from the armor plate installation, to the seat type, to the electrical panel layouts, to the engine controls, and more, are all different than that of the later models in "Little Friends (I)", and all accurately-so. As with "Little Friends (I)", each aircraft is also detailed inside and out to match the differences between each individual variant, so for instance, flying the reproduction of "Lou IV", you'll see the installation of a Spitfire mirror, to the right of the windscreen, mounted the exact same way, with the exact same bracket design, as on the original aircraft. Or when flying "Glengary Guy", a P-38 mirror is installed, just as the original had added in the field. As most know, the vast majority of P-51D-5-NA's were produced without vertical tail fin fillets, but the very last ones were, and through a field-issued Technical Order in August of 1944, and parts supplied directly from North American, all P-51D-5-NA's serving in combat were required to have the tail fin fillets installed, which had since been introduced on the factory floor back at North American. While most of the variants depicted in the product are from the weeks before this took place, there is one variant included that does have the tail fillet installed. Between the fillet-less and filleted models, are also two different flight models, to reflect the differences in handling between the two, the fillet-less variants having quite a bit more yaw-instability, requiring greater attention on the rudder - it isn't more difficult to fly, it just demands more attention to fly well (which I like!).

I hope that sort of summarizes it all well enough. I know that all of this detail between variants doesn't speak to some, but years ago, as a repainter, it oftened bugged me to have only one generalized P-51D (which seemed to always only try and reproduce the look of a variant, if it would have existed, that never made it into action in WWII to begin with), to cover every single different P-51D variant/paint scheme, when there were so many different variants of the D/K, with hundreds of changes from the earliest to the last P-51D produced, not to mention all of the different individual in-field modifications that set apart one particular example from another, that can't be reproduced just through textures.

The materials/textures were upgraded/improved by quite a lot on "Little Friends II", but I have uploaded to the file library here at SOH, a "Redux" pack, that updates all of the paint schemes in "Little Friends I" to the same level/standard as that found with the "Little Friends II", so if you do happen to get "Little Friends I", I can quickly point you to the update.

[Bone]

Thank you Mr. T, very good briefing. I just installed Little Friends II, so without further adieu....