Although it was a late start with spraying, I decided to give it a try.
I also thought I would use RLM 78 "Hellblau" as the lower color. In all honesty I really don't think that anyone would really know for sure what colors were used.
I have read where the Germans used captured Allied paint stocks as well as Italian colors. Since it's highly likely that this plane was painted in the field so it's probable that anything could have been used. It's even possible that the underside colors could have been left alone, and the plane could have kept its original RLM 65 light blue underneath.
I decided to use 78 because it looks better in my opinion when used with RLM 79 and it's a deeper blue.
Having said this, I thought I would give it a try painting the underside color first. This is my first time using the pre shading method.
Here's a picture of the elevator assembly. On the bottom of the picture you can see how it looks after a second light coat of paint. The top side is after a single application and the pre shading is very pronounced.
Moving right along I kept at it and continued to spray the underside. You can see how I masked off the wing tips and fuselage band since these were painted white.
Next photo shows the underside of the wing after a light coat of paint. You can also see how the pre shading turned out on the bomb bay doors. I ended up giving it another light coat of paint.
In an attempt to tone down the pre shading lines just a little, I gave them a very light coat of paint first before I painted the wings a second time.
This was basically a trial and error type thing for me. This last method worked out very good.
Finally here's a picture of how the underside looks now. The pre shading lines are there but are very subtle which is exactly what I wanted to achieve.
I'm going to clean up the airbrush and possibly spray some RLM 79 Tan on next.
This pre shading thing is going to take a little more practice for me to get used to it. I like how it takes away from the monotone color and adds a little life to it. It's artistic license at its best, as I have not noticed this effect on real warbirds on the 1 to 1 scale larger versions.
One other thing is if you are going to try this, it's very important that you thin out the paint quite a bit. You don't want it to lay down too much color or it will obliterate the pre shading lines and they will disappear. If this happened you could go back again and respray the lines again.
Overall I'm very pleased with this one and how it looks now. This is something that I would try again.
As usual comments are encouraged.
Thanks for looking.
