***Finished*** My Interpretation Of "Lou IV" (44-13410) as of 26th July, 1944

[mark.au]

On 12/22/2020 at 12:19 AM, bigbadbadge said:

Looking absolutely splendid Mark.  Great interpretation of the photos I know I have learnt a lot from your excellent tgread and build.

Thank you 

Chris

 

7 hours ago, opus999 said:

I don't know how it got past me for so long, but I just discovered this.  The photo interpretation was fascinating, the work on the cockpit outstanding, and the rest of it simply beautiful.  I'll tag along for the rest of the ride, if that's OK!

 

Thank you gents.  @opus999 you're very welcome to come along for the remainder though there's not much left to go...  Here's the finished underside; to be honest I'm not completely happy with it.  The weathering didn't go as I wanted it to - it's not bad (I think...) but it didn't turn out as my mind's eye expected it to.

 

 

The finish looks a little more glossy in these pics than it does to the eye, the model is under very bright light on the desk.  Based on the photo above of Lou IV peeling away form the camera, there's a bit of general staining on the underside streaming back from the engine as well as some from the drop tank area and spent shell casing shutes.  I also seems to me that based on the photos the drop tanks themselves were new as they appear very shiny and bright.  Consequently I did basically no weathering on them at all except for a drop of dark wash on the filler cap to pop out the details on that.  Finally, also notable are the D-Day stripes not wrapping around the bottom of the fuselage as per the photos.

 

I'll be flipping the model over onto it's wheels tomorrow and finishing off the upper side.  Not much to do there actually, but I do need to BMF the canopy as well as finish/attach the propellor.  Almost there!

[bigbadbadge]

Oh wow,  great work indeed fella this looks fantastic and weathering is very effective. 

What's the next project then  are you going for a biplane?

[Big Dave S]

A really nice piece of work. Weathering has certainly hit the spot.

What kind of input would you say, hours-wise, this project has taken?

[Biggles87]

Driven by a Merlin so it would get pretty dirty underneath, although being the Boss's aircraft the crew would  probably make more effort to keep it reasonably clean. Looks about right to me, if you have seen my Korean War F-51 you'll see what I mean.

 

John

[mark.au]

13 hours ago, bigbadbadge said:

What's the next project then  are you going for a biplane?

Hi Chris, thanks.  Yes! I think I'm going to do a Camel (Academy 1/32) or  Nieuport 28 (Roden 1/32) as a first go.  The other other option would be a Dr.1 (also Roden).  This will give me a chance to expand my skillset as well as add a new dimension to the website.

 

12 hours ago, Big Dave S said:

What kind of input would you say, hours-wise, this project has taken?

Thanks Dave.  I reckon I've got something like 35-40 hours in the build plus another 15 or so in research and staring at photos.  I'll likely spend another 10-15 hours writing the piece for the website.  Crikey! that's like a part time job! 

 

@Biggles87 - I did just check out your Mustang, that a very nice piece of work there and I see what you mean about the weathering too.

 

I will likely not post again until after Christmas so I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a safe and Merry Christmas.

 

Cheers;

Mark.

 

[Jackson Duvalier]

Merry Christmas to you as well, Mark.  This is a smashing build and I've enjoyed following it.

[bigbadbadge]

8 hours ago, mark.au said:

Hi Chris, thanks.  Yes! I think I'm going to do a Camel (Academy 1/32) or  Nieuport 28 (Roden 1/32) as a first go.  The other other option would be a Dr.1 (also Roden).  This will give me a chance to expand my skillset as well as add a new dimension to the website.

Nice will look out fir the start.  The Camel from Academy goes together well, but some detail is lacking but for the price it is a good kit and with your skills you will have a master model, I am sure.   I do not know about the other two though.  

Hope you too can have a Merry and safe Christmas. 

Chris

[mark.au]

My Interpretation of Lou IV is complete.  The final lap is always fraught with danger for me; the inevitable screw up (didn't actually happen this time), the lost part (I pinged the rear view mirror into oblivion necessitating a raid to the spares box), the ham-fisted final enhancements as I think of things to do which I should have thought of much earlier in the build (I nearly disconnected both drop tanks while drilling holes for the fuel lines); all while I try to reign in my impatience to see it done..!  

 

Without further ado though, here's some rough and ready iPhone pics to whet your appetite...

 

 

 

The final steps on the upper surfaces included the the following steps in no particular order;

• I used BMF for the canopy and managed to do that without scratching the clear plastic while texturing the foil.
• Weathering was kept to a minimum - slight exhaust staining, the oil vent stain (clearly visible on the starboard side pic of Athelene), minor paint chipping on the wing roots (clearly visible in the close-up pic of the port side), and some scuffing on the port wing root from dirty foot prints.
• Masked and painted the staining around the square pistol port plate.
• Painted the gun barrels; this I did with matt black paint which was subsequently dry brushed with powdered graphite from a pencil rubbed on sandpaper
• Added fuel lines to the aux fuel tanks
• Applied BMF to the flaps where it was visible in the lower position as I wasn't happy with the painted result
• Attached the rear view mirror to the top-starboard side of the windscreen framing (as per photos) and filled the slot in the kit part for the more normal central placement
• A little dry brushing on the prop blades as an experiment in weathering them; it's subtle but it's there and I like the effect
• Painted and attached the antenna blade - it's painted blue with a band of black at its base per photos
• In accordance with the photos - or at least my interpretation of them - I finished the dark green on the wings and fuselage pretty flat while leaving the blue a more satin finish.  I made the demarcation between the two colours quite hard as per photos.
• I attached the exhausts after drilling them out; they are finished in a brighter metallic colour than I'd normally do them, but again, I think the photos show them to be quite bright at the time of the photo-shoot in July, 1944.

My Lou IV has ended up looking quite clean but I think that represents what we see in the photos.  I'm quite convinced (others may know this to be a fact...?) that the 26th July pics were a staged photo shoot and all four Mustangs were cleaned up in preparation for it.  The yellow nose on Lou IV was brand new - which we know because the pics taken a week or two earlier show that it hadn't been applied then.  Other observations noted earlier in this WIP show that the real Lou IV was a continuous work-in-progress as far as its decoration goes, and as it was the boss's Mustang it would have been well looked after anyway.

 

The blue was a very interesting experiment.  Observed from different angles the colour I settled on appears everything from a deep blue-grey, close to the "Royal Blue" described by Michael Bowyer in his notes, all the way to a shade absolutely indistinguishable from the green upon which it borders.  Having taken tons of photos now, I rather suspect the contrast seen in the black and white pics is largely due to the difference in reflectivity rather than the difference in colour.  
 

However, the smoking gun in terms of whether there was actually blue on these Mustangs is still the the colour plate below  (courtesy of @Dana Bell’s essay at Hyperscale) which [to me] clearly shows a blue-grey which I have replicated on my model.   In fact I only differed from Dana’s analysis in one respect, that being the leading edge of the tail fin - I don’t see blue there, nor any contrast to the paint on the rudder which is universally accepted as green. 

 

 

 

 

So that's it.  I'll take some proper glamour shots in the next day or two and post up an RFI thread - better lighting will display the colours to better advantage as well - these pics aren't actually doing it very much justice (he says without much evidence of modesty!).  I'll also write up the article for my site and stand by for the discussion...  🙂

 

Thanks for following along.

 

Cheers;

Mark.

.

Edited December 26, 2020 by mark.au
Added an extra thought - as usual...

[Biggles87]

That's excellent Mark, I hope you include a B & W photo in RFI to compare with the one above.

I know what you mean about screwing it up on the last lap when you're impatient to get it finished. I sometimes leave things for a couple of weeks when I get to that stage and work on something else until the impatience wears off.

 

John

[elger]

This has been such a fantastic build to follow. Such a convincing interpretation of Lou IV's colours!

[Andwil]

Excellent work, looks like you have nailed that colour scheme.  If I was to have one minor quibble, there looks like some paint chips on the leading edge of the fin that you haven’t replicated.

 

AW

[mark.au]

1 hour ago, Biggles87 said:

I hope you include a B & W photo in RIP to compare with the one above.

 

Indeed I will.  I need to set up the correct lighting in order to replicate that in the B/W images.

 

1 hour ago, Andwil said:

If I was to have one minor quibble, there looks like some paint chips on the leading edge of the fin that you haven’t replicated.

 

Yes, I missed those areas when applying the foil and I elected not to go back to correct the omission because the difference in underlying metal finish would have looked odd had I painted the chipping subsequently.

Edited December 26, 2020 by mark.au
Typo

[bigbadbadge]

Congratulations Mark on a fantastic model, the research you conducted was very interesting and compelling and it has been great to watch it translate to the model.  I have enjoyed this WIP as I  did with your Spitfire build. 

Great choice of subject and great work fella the model looks wonderful. 

Chris 

[Dunny]

Beautiful finish Mark - congratulations! 

[heloman1]

Excellent result Mark, I've enjoyed your build and the manner in which you have gone about it. Told a friend (not a BM'er)about it, he is not convinced, he's in to OD camp!

Congratulations.

 

Colin

[Dana Bell]

Hi Mark,

 

A beautiful job, skillfully excuted!  It's been fun to follow your progress and a joy to see the results!

 

Cheers,

 

 

Dana

[Anthony in NZ]

I am finding it difficult to add to what everyone else has said already.  Your reasoning and results of examination are difficult to refute (and I have always been of the thought that they were blue was rubbish, unless we dig the wreckage up and see).  I have to humbly rethink these colours and agree, probably both were used.  Hence the confusion for so many years.  In the end....looks like everyone might have been correct.

 

Totally love this build...we should have it pinned for future reference and a way of looking at this for future discussions (as they will forever come up)

 

Wonderful result sir, and one you should rightly be proud of!

 

Cheers Anthony

[opus999]

Fantastic!  I'd say you nailed it on this one!

[mark.au]

And... that's a wrap.  RFI posted;

 

 

And just because... here's a glamour shot and a b/w shot...

 

 

 

Thanks again for following.

 

[TempestV]

2 hours ago, mark.au said:

And... that's a wrap.  RFI posted;

 

 

And just because... here's a glamour shot and a b/w shot...

 

 

 

Thanks again for following.

 

Stunning work, really enjoyed following this and I have to say the best rendition I have seen

[bigbadbadge]

Great work Mark

Chris