Thanks for the tip off, I just bought that one on Ebay.
I nearly got one a couple of years ago while I was in the US, it was also complete and undamaged, but the price was way more plus there would have been a bit of an excess luggage issue! I've seen a few 51/52 combos come up for sale in the UK, but they're normally cracked or missing components.
Talking about the LN 51, I did hear a rumour that LN may make a second 51 in a left-handed version, and one reason the chute is such a long time coming is that they're designing it for both left and right hand use. I seem to recall there was a massive Millers Falls shooting plane and shooting board that was designed on similar lines, the plane had two irons facing opposite directions for mitre work.
If you're shooting mitres as opposed to right angles you might be better off with a regular bench plane or the 09. Problem with the 51 is that, without a lot of messing around, it'll only really do one half of a picture frame mitre whereas the number 09 or a bench plane will do both. Actually the sweetest shooting board plane I've ever seen was a shade tree carpenter in India, he had an old wooden jointer with a big hole bored in the back that was filled with a few pounds of lead. The fact that it was a wooden plane meant it tracked really smoothly, and the added lead gave it the heft to slice through fairly big sections of hardwood. Getting a bit off piste here, but I remember he could also complete the Times Of India crossword faster than I can do the ***** level sudoko puzzle in the Sun!
