@lgardner - the stripes on the horizontal stabs are black on top and bottom. An easy fix. Otherwise, all looks really good and you are headed for a great result.

Now here's some stuff that I found interesting. Please follow along with me, as I describe the thoughts behind my conclusions. The Mustang "LOU IV" went through a series of changes, as it was touched up or painted in the field, just as "Cripes-A-Mighty" did and is so nicely documented in the book that came with the decal set from Eagle Editions.

Granted this is only an "educated guess" at best, mine, and not absolutely to be thought of as Gospel. Green or Blue, take your pick. Or you could build two models, painting them differently, (which I just might do sometime later on, using an Aifix Mustang in 1/48 scale). 😉

This is a photo of a restored Mustang, I think it was taken a while ago at Duxford. This one was painted with the topside of the wings, horizontal stabilizer, and fuselage spine using a shade of Green. This is how I "think" that "LOU IV" could have been painted shortly upon arrival at the 375th Fighter Squadron. Now what shade of green was it ? I really don't know for sure, but it was likely Olive Drab or possibly even RAF Green.

This would also explain the way the horizontal stabilizer stripes were painted in a lighter color on the real Mustang.

If you look really close, the horizontal stabilizer stripe has been over painted with a darker color. You can see the "ghost" effect and the stripe is still slightly visible. Had it been painted using a black color, the stripe would not show up . If it was visible after the upper color was painted over it, the stripe would look darker, not lighter. In this picture it looks as if the stripe was painted over using a dark blue.

http://www.clubhyper.com/reference/showandtell7db_1.htm

The first time I read about the possible blue color, it was an article written by Dana Bell. The link I provided goes to the actual article where he describes his findings.

This picture shown above, is actually one of his pictures from his article that I have enlarged and cropped.

This is the picture as explained and cleaned up by Dana Bell. You can see how some places do indeed look blue.

Here is the same picture, but this time it is shown in "Black and White". The stabilizer stripe is still lighter than the surrounding paint. I believe the stripe was painted on first using a white paint, and then later covered up using a very thin coat of "Dark Blue". I have a strong suspicion the upper portions of the D Day Invasion stripes were also painted over, quickly, and using a Dark Blue color to do so.

This explains the Dark Blue color that Dana Bell mentioned in his article. It can be seen in the area where the Invasion stripes once were.

Here is another picture of "LOU IV" that was taken earlier, before the rest of the nose was painted in Yellow. At this time, the nose was yellow, but not as much of it was covered. You can tell this by the anti glare paint ahead of the windshield. One more conclusion I have come to is the wing fillet is likely painted using a Black color, since it matched the numbers and letters on the fuselage.

If you look even closer, you can see where the Invasion stripes are still slightly visible, as if they were thinly painted, using just enough paint to get the job done.

I think this area covering all of the Invasion stripes was done using a Dark Blue paint.

The rest of the camouflaged painting was done using some shade of Dark green, and you can take your pick there.

During the War, there was no official color standard set by the US Army (including the Air Forces) for the Olive Drab green color. Dana Bell mentions this in one of his books too. So in theory, it could be another variation of the good old Olive Drab, OR, it could be RAF Green.

As long as it looks like the green in the picture, it's good to go.

Finally, I found this picture on the American Air Museum website. It shows the "Bottisham Four" as they are flying above the camera plane, and peeling off. This shows the undersides, but it's not a good quality picture.

I hope this has opened up some thought, and I'm open to hear what you have to say. You don't have to agree with me, but I think what I have presented here is quite logical.

Now live long and prosper... 😉

As always, comments are encouraged.
Good night.

@lgardner - my mistake. I thought that white upper was on Cripes A Mighty. Yes, white on top of Lou IV. It's soooo confusing! 🙂

Great detective work, Louis (@lgardner). I think it was really inconsiderate of the people in the 1940s not to take some nice color photos of these planes, along with some accurate notes about colors and paints, etc. Black and white photos can be really hard to interpret, especially when they don't always accurately depict relative colors. I think your deductions and conclusions are perfect and will give you the accurate paint scheme you are looking for. Doing this sort of research can be really fun.

Ok boys and girls, here's a quick lesson in what not do do.

In my last posting with descriptions of the builds, I mentioned how the early version of "Cripes-A-Mighty III" had the 32 hole breather covers installed when it was first delivered, and then these were replaced with the solid style cover later on.

I have since made an effort to fix this, because originally I had installed the solid cover, and it's wrong for the version I'm building here.

Luckily for me, I have two sets of these 32 hole covers, since all three cover styles are included with the kit parts.

First thing I did was remove the solid covers. Of course I had them glued in place rather well. So it took a lot of effort, and some bad words entered my mind, with one or two, possibly even more were escaping on occasion. Once I had the covers removed, I had to carefully glue the 32 hole style covers in place.

This was not as easy as you might think. I ended up dropping one inside the nose compartment !
In order to remove the existing solid covers, I ended up cutting away the molded in ledge that keeps this from happening. Since I didn't have access to the inside of the nose section, I couldn't glue in a backer piece as it was originally molded in the opening.

Thankfully after a little bit of shaking the model, I was able to get it in a place where I could grab the part with tweezers.

Today I took a good close look at the work after the glue had dried. I was careful not to press the new 32 hole cover too far into the fuselage, for fear of it dropping inside again. Because of this, it was not sitting flush. No problem, or so I thought.

I'll just sand it down a little...but it ended up looking like this. Did you notice the part was no longer on the model ? That's because I figured I could simply drill the holes a little deeper, restoring the look. Then as Murphy's Law came into effect, I ended up drilling completely through, not once, but three times !

Making things worse, since I had obliterated the existing holes, I ended up getting the drilling off center. Not cool ! 🙁

So I remembered that I had another Revell Mustang kit where I wasn't using these spare 32 hole cover, the one from "LOU IV". Problem solved ! It was then glued in place carefully.

Sorry for the blurry picture here...

Meanwhile, using a #70 hobby drill bit, I started drilling the holes a little bit deeper on the other side. I was a little smarter this time around, drilling the holes deeper before sanding them away. This side also needs to be leveled out with the surrounding covers. By drilling the holes first, it's far less likely to remove the hole pattern. I have been extra cautious while drilling, not going too deep to keep from breaking through. I'll add some black wash to these covers once the model has been painted. This should make them look more realistic.

This picture shows that I have completed the first row of holes.

Feeling better this time around, I continued on until I had half of the holes drilled a little deeper.

I will wait until later tomorrow to pick up where I left off.

Now here's another bit of common sense information. It pays to study the subject in depth before you start building it. Had I read the booklet that came with the decal set, all of this would have been avoided. Granted I simply could have removed the upper stripes, but I wanted to build the version where the stripes wrapped completely around the wings and upper fuselage.

Live and learn. 🙂

As always, comments are encouraged.

@lgardner - the chances are 90% that the green is RAF Dark Green. However, the color was generally described by 8th AF people as "Olive Drab," and they weren't wrong, since both RAF Dark Green and "green base" Olive Drab 41 are the same color! Both were created using the official specifications for World War I "PC 10" the color that was used on RFC/RAF aircraft (and could be anything from green to brown and all in between, since there were a few hundred contractors making it, and little attention was paid to the specs). However, when the colors were created officially for USAAC and RAF, they followed the official specification and got "green-base olive drab." Americans would look at the color and see "Olive Drab" as it was on most of the planes they had that were painted at the factories (Green-base OD 41 was used up through the spring of1943, though it was "officially replaced" in the summer of 1942 by the "brown base OD-41").

According to Dick Hewitt of the 78th Fighter Group's 84th Squadron, who as Squadron Maintenance Officer was responsible for the application of camouflage paint to NMF P-47s in the summer of 1944, RAF paints were used because there were no USAAF paints in England.

The blue used in 361st FG Mustangs was likely an RAF color, perhaps Dark Mediterranean Blue, which would have been available in quantity.

Louis,

Regards the Dana Bell photo and the "Blue". The horizonal stabs there is distortion from the photo but, if your doing "Get her done" in a hurry and using a spray gun who ever was painting allowed for over spray and a soft edge chord wise. But, they also, sprayed span wise on the elevators. Not the complete elevator maybe a foot or two to paint the tabs? Maybe touch up. The wings if you look at the high lights " shiny reflections " the port wing has many. The port elevator have a reflections span wise. Could the lighter area over the invasion strips be the reflection from the canopy? The wing fillets are shiny too, more attention was paid to the main wing in wiping down fuel stains and keeping the surface clean. Speed is everything to a fighter pilot. Perhaps the wings was painted RAF green.
Another observation, in looking at Bells photo, the base of the wing at the leading edge where the wing meets the fuselage towards the front of the wing fillets. Just bellow the "LOUI VI" is a shiny new panel, a stamped piece of aluminum. Bare metal. This should be used as your base for new vs old and weathered and "shiny " high lights in the photo. The older photo showing the nose with little yellow paint and a OD glare panel shows that older stamped panel as being painted over. It's surface is dull and has been in the environment awhile.

This is esoteric and a tad obsessive. There is seeing things and you can show people what you see so they can see and better understand what is before them "teach". While others will always be blind. The point being when doing research you come to understand that aircraft in theater where always changing in a changing environment and evolving. Ergo you have a better knowledge base and better understanding of our WWII Vets and their rides by observing those little details when modeling. Which is being done in your blog. Things our kind of organic and grow while you learn new things which the fun part of your 200 plus posts on the Mustang.

OK here we go.
I made some good progress with the "Cripes-A-Mighty" Mustang. I need to get it done in time to post on Christmas Day, as this is the day that Major Preddy was shot down and killed. Time has a way of passing us by all too quickly, and it happens even faster the older one gets. With this in mind, I decided to put all of my other projects on a temporary hold, until I can get these done.

I heard that before it seems... then a problem would show up, and I had to figure it out. This is what was keeping me from making regular progress on these builds.

I had a lot of trouble with how the wind screen fit on the top of the fuselage. It seems almost as if the clear part is way too small in two dimensions. It's too skinny (wish I had that problem), and it's too short. (I'm good on that one). 🙂

On Cripes A Mighty I used Tamiya putty, since I was concerned about using LQS that close to the clear parts. On "LOU IV", I used two small shims made of plastic. In hindsight, shimming the windscreen with plastic strips IS the best way to go. Note to self for the next Mustang build... check.