..and I enjoyed myself repainting the shockwave WWII P-51D Mustang. Both paints are based on original paints scheme from the war, as most of my material was in black & white, am am not 100% sure about the colours and some of the details, but I am quite happy with the results anyway.
44-15052 was flown by Lieutenant James A. Hickey of the 354th Fighter Squadron of the 355th Fighter Group, based in Martlesham Heath, UK, while  44-15255 was flown by Lieutenant-Colonel Gordon Graham of the 360th Fighter Squadron of the 356th Fighter Group.






What do you guys think? Would I make anybody happy with an upload, or does nobody fly this plane?

Hi jankees,

Both look very nice and I would definately like 'Down for Double' as it is/was a scheme I was thinking of doing.

The colours look about right, although the anti-glare panel is probably too green & should be olive drab.

One other little point, the aircraft and pilots were assigned the opposite way round. Gordy Graham was 354FS/355FG which operated from Steeple Morden, UK.

BTW I am working on Jane IV of Lt Col Bert Marshall of 354FS/355FG & planning to do one or two from each sqn of the 355th.

Nige

Hi jankees

Thanks for the reply.

Jane IV is coming along well, I think I'm about ready to start on the alpha channels. I have to agree with you regarding photos, I've been working from a grainy B+W photo & the cover art of Bert's son Bills book 'Angels, Bulldogs & Dragons' and correspondence with Bill. There were indeed 7 'Janes' & none were lost as a result of aerial combat!
Whilst I do like the polished look to the aircraft, the purist/perfectionist in me wins & Jane IV will be as Bill put it, 'kept clean but time was not wasted polishing her'.

Regarding the anti-glare panel, I use the RGB colours of 85/79/68 based on the Federal Standard colour of FS34087 recorded on the decal instruction sheets from Cam Decals.
Like Jane IV, I think Down for Double only had the name/artwork on the LH side, but this evening I'll check through my 355FG material to see if I can confirm/deny that.

What I would do is, if you look at that real photo of the mustang and see how the panel lines appear to be a lighter color then the polish AL. I would lighten the panel lines a color lighter then the base polish almost like a light grey. It looks good without the polish, Just do your best to make the repaint look real.

Well in my terms I don't budge about taste, I develop something as real as possible. Why would panel lines become more noticeable in some pics then others? Well, first panel lines become more apparent when oil stains dirty up the paint. When a aircraft is clean, panel lines are almost hidden. I'm not trying to be a judge of your work, just trying to provide you with something that we would both agree on.

Whoops, sorry SkyNoz, it did not mean that you had to budge, all I wanted to say was that different people have different tastes, and in the end, nobody (or everybody, depending on your view) is right. I draw them the way I like'em, and the way they feel realistic to me. They are never perfect, and other people do them differently, no worries there. I like them a bit used, and oil stained, so the lines show up. On the other hand, your comments will make me (and Nige apparently) try different things, like in my previous post, so you're helping me there, thanks!
Nige, yes, new, they would look perfect, but new is not my main interest. I like used, or as you say, clean, but not polished. I tried to make KI-B Josephine a bit dirtier and less shiny, but prefer the effect of Down for Double. I hope you like that paint. I know there probably was nothing on the other side, but I just couldn't resist. And hell, you'll see lots of Mustangs with 'creative' paint schemes, like Damn Yankee, the one in my sig. It looks like that at the moment, but as far as I've been able to find, no plane with that registration or  name ever flew with that squadron. Still looks good though, both in real life and in FS.
I think we can all agree that we do our best, and I am very anxious to see Jane....
As a teaser, here's the last one I've been working on, taken from far away, so we cannot see all those horrible lines (and other stuff I still have to figure out, like where are the bars on the front windscreen? (if you know, please tell me!) Why does the nose distort my paintjob, and how can I accomodate for that? Why don't the bloody stripes match up? etc etc)




Thanks for all your reactions, it helps!