stevej60 Posted March 13 Share Posted March 13 Only kidding,I'm not going to light the "blue" touchpaper on the whole "blue" debate but I remember as a kid my local library had a huge book on WW2 aircraft that I constantly borrowed full of colour profiles and the centre pages opened up to reveal Lou iv in a glorious royal blue over natural metal finish.Sadly now we know it's all pie in the sky but taking inspiration from the restored warbirds flying over the pond a couple of which are painted in that very scheme I'd like to build a shiney replica of one of those aircraft using the tried and trusted Hobbyboss kit and spare decals from the Tamiya kit complete with full D-day stripes.Grab your sunglasses! 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wings unlevel Posted March 13 Share Posted March 13 11 minutes ago, stevej60 said: Grab your sunglasses! We’re ready to be dazzled! 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevej60 Posted March 13 Author Share Posted March 13 38 minutes ago, Wings unlevel said: We’re ready to be dazzled! This is the inspiration. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stever219 Posted March 13 Share Posted March 13 There have been several threads on here about the original Lou IV that strongly suggest that the areas of the upper surfaces that had had the invasion stripes applied had subsequently been overpainted in a dark blue-grey. At least one eye-witness account from a respected aviation historian supports this. I'm currently stalled most of the way through building an Airfix P-51D-5 in these colours, mostly because the invasion stripes decals are about as thick and stiff as a sheet of deep-frozen lino. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevej60 Posted March 13 Author Share Posted March 13 24 minutes ago, stever219 said: There have been several threads on here about the original Lou IV that strongly suggest that the areas of the upper surfaces that had had the invasion stripes applied had subsequently been overpainted in a dark blue-grey. At least one eye-witness account from a respected aviation historian supports this. I'm currently stalled most of the way through building an Airfix P-51D-5 in these colours, mostly because the invasion stripes decals are about as thick and stiff as a sheet of deep-frozen lino. Yea Steve that debate has raged for year's despite members of the ground crew who stated that no blue was ever applied the one suggestion was RAF green was used as tins of the stuff were lying around the well known colour photo added to the myth which some say was caused by the quality of the wartime colour film,we'll never know. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TEMPESTMK5 Posted March 13 Share Posted March 13 Hi Steve Welcome aboard again .. Have fun with your build Regarding the debate I think that it would be fun to build one Mustang with the top surfaces painted in blue and another one with the top surfaces painted in green ... Best regards Patrice 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Boak Posted March 13 Share Posted March 13 Less wartime colour film than postwar colour reproduction: I have seen it as green and as blue. I feel that the wartime comments from aviation enthusiasts (Observer Corps members?) who visited the airfield are somewhat stronger evidence than postwar memories. There are other examples: did the 357th use OD or RAF Dark Green? Different groundcrew members say different things. There was a US carrier late in the Pacific War that was known in the fleet because of its blue camouflage: asking one sailor who was on it at the time answered that it was grey, like all the other ships. So could it be that memories of the common colour OD have influenced other people's memories? At this time OD was no longer specified for US aircraft, but several 8th AF fighter groups were intended to go to France, so overpainting the stripes with a dark green rather than a silver to better match the aircraft overall makes sense. Equally it is the time when the units were blossoming out in bright colours, so the blue makes sense from that viewpoint. I don't think this is ever going to be settled. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RidgeRunner Posted March 13 Share Posted March 13 Nice one, Steve 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevej60 Posted March 22 Author Share Posted March 22 Hi folk's without going down the "what if" road I hope it's OK to go down the most likely one instead. the restored version I'm basing this on has a passenger seat fitted and try as I could no photo's of the cockpit can be found which is good as I can use artistic license and rearrange the interior and find a spare seat from the spares box. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wings unlevel Posted March 22 Share Posted March 22 38 minutes ago, stevej60 said: the restored version I'm basing this on has a passenger seat fitted and try as I could no photo's of the cockpit can be found which is good as I can use artistic license and rearrange the interior and find a spare seat from the spares box. Are you going to source a figure of a joyriding passenger too? 🤭 2 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevej60 Posted March 23 Author Share Posted March 23 Hi folk's well the seat was scratch built from a plastic knife blade box with the base coat on and harness added looks OK. 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blitz23 Posted March 23 Share Posted March 23 I like your idea of modelling a restored version with the passenger seat, something a bit different 👍 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevej60 Posted March 30 Author Share Posted March 30 Hi folk's here's where I am with this one,no loop or arial on the restored Warbird so after the seams were cleaned up in with the filler. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevej60 Posted April 2 Author Share Posted April 2 Hi folk's,rattle can primed and the white area's of the ID bands painted,decided to show the upper bands which the real aircraft only wore for a few days and got a lovely blue for the upper colour. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wings unlevel Posted April 3 Share Posted April 3 7 hours ago, stevej60 said: got a lovely blue for the upper colour. Looking forward to seeing it. Very tidy so far Steve, of course. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevej60 Posted April 5 Author Share Posted April 5 Hi Folk's.Brushed on the underside and fuselage aluminium then brushed on the blue uppers and black stripes,sprayed the yellow forward fuselage so now out of Tamiya tape! 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blitz23 Posted April 5 Share Posted April 5 Look's great, very sharp. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2996 Victor Posted April 5 Share Posted April 5 Looking very swish there, Steve, I'm liking the look of this scheme! Cheers, Mark 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan P Posted April 5 Share Posted April 5 While I'm not convinced by the blue colour debate, can't argue against that looking really good in blue! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wings unlevel Posted April 5 Share Posted April 5 That really pops! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevej60 Posted April 6 Author Share Posted April 6 Evening folk's,weekend off,weather terrible so plenty of modelling time.Tamiya decals were awful especially the silver surrounds for the stars the wing one was way out of shape so left it off but trimmed the fuselage one's and got a reasonable fit. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2996 Victor Posted April 6 Share Posted April 6 Looking fantastic! What a damn' nuisance about the decals - are spares available anywhere? Cheers, Mark 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevej60 Posted April 6 Author Share Posted April 6 10 minutes ago, 2996 Victor said: Looking fantastic! What a damn' nuisance about the decals - are spares available anywhere? Cheers, Mark I've two more sheets Mark but I suspect the same issue will turn up. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2996 Victor Posted April 6 Share Posted April 6 6 minutes ago, stevej60 said: I've two more sheets Mark but I suspect the same issue will turn up. That's a bother - hope it was a one off problem and the spares are good! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevej60 Posted April 10 Author Share Posted April 10 Hi folk's had a struggle but replaced the original wing star with a spare and got the silver decal cut to match the star as on the real aircraft,I also noticed these restored warbirds have later clipped props (maybe from old F-51's)?Not a great deal left to do now especially as no weathering needed. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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