The engine mounts on the 60 size were very weak. 2 wood beams attached to a 1/8 nose ring, a 1/8 "firewall" and another 1/8 bulkhead. The vibration shook them all loose in 3 flights. When I saw what happened, I wondered how I missed spotting the problem before I ever flew it. Anyway, I filled in the spaces between the beams and the fuselage sides with pieces of hardwood that I custom-shaped to fit and also added a hardwood piece between the beams and against the firewall behind the engine. Then I drilled and dowel-pegged them at 3 places on each side including that crosspiece and 2 thru the nose ring.

That did the job.

The scale is almost identical to the Top Flight Gold Edition P51. In fact, I used the TF "B" conversion kit to modify the Model Tech to a P51B. If you like it as a "D", the Top Flight canopy is much better scale outline and also sturdier thicker plastic. The one from Model Tech is thin and flimsy and all wrong in shape basides.

The vertical tail is too small and incorrect in shape too. I modified mine adding about 3/4" to the bottom and a tapering piece to the TE of the rudder to correct the taper angle. Had to make a new tip too.

I also found the fuselage was one & a half inches too short behind the wing but I found a clever way to modify that. The mods for scale outline were actually not very hard and it was fun and satisfying to improve the appearance. I sent a pic to Frank Tiano and he published it in the March 2002 RC Report magazine, so if you have access to that issue, you can see how it came out.

Mine was 10 lbs 6 oz on a ST 90. All my mods notwithstanding, the Model Tech was a wonderful flyer.

I'm not telling you to do all the stuff I did; I'm just passing it along FWIW for anyone interested in scale outline, but do beef up the engine mounts at least.

Oh, yeah, the balance point in the instruction booklet was incorrect - way too far forward. Some kits (not mine) had a correction sheet. I flew mine at 27% MAC and later even added weight to the tail and still could not induce a snap, so it was safe back there.

Best of luck with yours.

Tom