RE: Top Flite 1/7 P-51 Build
Mine has a wingspan of 60", Wing Area 608 Sq, and weight 5-1/2 to 6-1/2 lb. That extra 5" on ya'lls would be have been big. I always felt mine was small. "no jokes!"
I hesitate to post any pictures of it here. You all have built such nice Ponies! I built mine when I was 13-14 years old or so. I can't remember anymore. I painted it with Automotive Enamel. It still has some painting left to do. The flat black on top in front of the canopy, the spinner, and canopy itself. I was too young to understand scale details. I wish I could find this paint scheme again. It was a photo Recon F-6D, I changed the white to silver, the green areas to red, because I liked red better! But the pattern and all else are correct. Just wrong colors. I can't find the book I had anymore. But this Pony was unique in that it was white and not bare metal. I wished I had held the details better. But what the heck i was young.
My dad has a forge and makes damascus knives. This thing has sat for 25+ years in that garage. It has gotten some real bad spots on it. I guess all the high temps then low temps etc. The tail feathers, ailerons, flaps have swollen and don't move well. It's never been flown. I wanted to finish dressing her up and fly it but it would take so much I figure I might as well start over.
Another big difference was my vertical fin and horizontal stabs were not built up like yours. They were just 1/4" balsa. I didn't have any preformed pieces either. The scoop, the cowl all had to be carved. I wished I had a formed scoop sooooo bad!!! I did put retracts in. I pulled the old Rhom Air's from my Dirty Birdy Pattern plane. If my memory serves me correctly the my plans didnt' show a retract installation or flaps. I had to figure all those out myself.
Sean