Not long ago, I put out some feelers in the classifieds for a Harbor Freight P-51. I'd always wanted to convert one to brushless power, but even with a famed Harbor Freight discount coupon, the $100 price tag was a bit much, especially since all I wanted was the airframe.

Enter RCG user Jimmy Dixon, aka "jdixon" who had not one, but two Mustangs up for grabs.

The first was a complete Ares P-51 less its motor and props. My local HobbyTown franchise was unable to get the parts, so I found them on Amazon. Pictures to follow; it's untouched cosmetically. It is one of the sweetest flying small models I've ever flown and should anything happen to it, I'll buy a new one right away.

That second P-51 was a well used Harbor Freight version, complete with a handful of spare parts and a complete if damaged airframe.

My original goal was to upgrade the HF version and do it up like Bunny, the Tuskegee Airmen tribute P-51 at the Palm Springs Air Museum. That's exactly what I plan to do as work progresses on the model as shown below.

A 1000Kv brushless outrunner and an E-flite stick mount adapter along with a 20A ESC are lined up and ready to go once it's finished. A visit to the air museum is in order once Bunny returns from the Reno Air Races. From there, photos will be on their way to the one and only Callie Soden of Callie Graphics for her peerless custom decals.