That really improved the HGW, but I'm still personally sold on the Eduard. (Everybody's got an opinion)

How did I allow myself to miss the first parts of this presentation? The mighty Mustang x2 ! Louis , your cockpits are beyond criticism , keep this way for the rest of this build and you will end up with two wonderfully purebreds .
If it matters, I prefer the belts from HGW (always judging by the photos, things may be different up close).

The offices, really have that lived in look. Everything but, the kitchen sink. Lookin Good Louis.

The Pandemic must of really put the breaks on Revell making more of these 1/32nd kits. Being the "Poor Mans" version of the Tamiya Uber Mustang, it still offers a lot of options and one doesn't have to mess around with a making the engine. Hopefully, Revell will release the later version with the fin fillet for the vertical tail . There will be a demand/ run on the first pressing for sure.

It has been almost a week since I have posted an update here. Things have been progressing smoothly and I have also been doing some research on both of these Mustangs.

Starting off with this cover plate: This was available in three different styles. All three styles are included in the kit. One is a solid cover plate, while the other two have a series of holes in them. I am within 99 percent certain with saying that I think the Mustang named "LOU IV" had the solid style. Her you can see another P-51 from the same group, serving roughly at the same time as these "Bottisham Four" did. This is "Detroit Miss", and I can remember building this very same plane as a Monogram 1/48 scale model as a kid. Notice how the cover is solid.

I ran across this picture while surfing the net. It shows "LOU IV" banking away from the camera plane.

I took the liberty of zooming in on the nose section. Here it definitely looks to be a solid cover in this picture too.
I circled the area in yellow crayon.

Here is the famous picture that was taken in color. It "kind of" looks like a solid cover here too. It also "could be" Black or a dark shade of Green in color. One thing for certain is that it is not yellow ! 🙂

While I had this picture zoomed on our computer, I noticed several other things about this particular Mustang. It seems as if the D Day Invasion stripes were not completely painted under the fuselage. If you have ever been around a real Mustang, when they are parked, there is not very much room between the bottom of the radiator housing and the ground. This area would be next to impossible to paint unless the tail was lifted and held suspended while the work was being performed.
Here I have circled the area that is "missing" these D Day stripes.

"But wait, there's more !" as I quote some television commercials. Take a closer look at the D Day stripes under the wings... Did you see it ?

It looks to me as if the center D Day stripe was actually left in an aluminum or bare metal finish, depending on the portion of the wing we are talking about. This area is partially obstructed by the drop tanks. It looks like they didn't have time to paint this area, justifying their actions because this are was well hidden by the tanks.

I happened to find another picture of a Mustang from this unit. I believe this is "TIKA" and here she is banking away from the camera ship just like "LOU IV" did in the previous picture. Here again you can see how the center strip, which "should" be painted in white, has the same appearance as it does on LOU IV. This looks to me as if it was left in bare metal / aluminum paint colors. It also looks as if the wing tips, and the tips of the horizontal stabilizer are also painted using a darker color. I'm guessing here, but I think they were painted in a darker color other than Black. The nearby stripes are Black, and they look darker than the wing tips and tips of the stabilizer do.

One more thing to take note of here: These D Day Invasion stripes were not painted nicely. They were done in a hurry and they are not nice and even, like the ones were try to paint on our models. Here is a case where being a little bit sloppy might actually work out to your advantage.

If you zoom in on the color picture showing "LOU IV" flying in formation with another Mustang, you can see this center stripe appears as if it was left unpainted. It does not look as if it was painted in White as it "should" have been. I can guarantee you that these Crew Chief's had other things to do that were more important that following the order to the letter.

Here are the kit instructions. They have most of it marked correctly, but it pays to day your homework. Am I saying with 100 percent certainty that what I just described is correct ? No I can't say that... but, I do THINK it is highly likely.

Here are the illustrations that came in the book along with the "Cripes A Mighty" decal set from Eagle Editions. They show how the appearance of this aircraft changed over time. This illustration is done with a lot of photographic documentation to back it up. I wanted to build my version of Major Preddy's Mustang as it looked when it was wearing a full set of D Day invasion stripes. I believe the illustrations in this book are very accurate.

Moving along to the landing flaps. The flaps are provided in two different configurations by Revell. This is a nice touch. Merlin powered Mustangs will always have the flaps AND the inner main landing gear clam shell doors droop as the hydraulic system bleeds off pressure when sitting parked. If you have been fortunate enough to watch a Merlin engine powered Mustang start after it has sat for any length of time, you will see the inner landing gear doors (and often the flaps) raise as soon as the hydraulic pressure has built back up sufficiently.

Because of this, I wanted to build both of these Mustangs with the flaps in the "DOWN" position. So I assembled the parts to do this. I also filled in the gaps and uneven panels around the machine gun ports using liquefied styrene filler. Once the filler had dried sufficiently, I sanded the wings smooth, and restored the missing panel lines that I inadvertently removed while sanding.

The Mustang has the flush rivets and some of the panel lines filled in on the leading 1/3 (or so) surfaces of the wing. This was done to keep the laminar flow properties and increase the performance in flight. However, the flaps have the rivets visible. I took these pictures that show the rivet patterns on the top side of the flap,

and also on the lower side of the flap. Notice how smooth the wing is... Granted this is a restored Mustang, but I can say with a vey high degree of confidence that it was done properly.

You can see the rivets are highly visible in these pictures. There is also a panel line. Using these pictures, along with some other drawings that I have, I then added the panel lines and rivets on the flaps. I added the rivets, using my "Rosie the Riveter" pounce wheel. If you look very close, you can see the results of several hours worth of work.

The flaps were held roughly in position, when I taped them in place as preparation for painting the base color "White", which will be part of the D Day Invasion stripes on the wings.

Once I was happy with the measurements, I sprayed the wings using "Flat White". This was chosen because it dries faster than gloss.

Here are a few close up pictures that show the rivet and panel line patterns.



Once the Mustangs are painted, I will bring out these rivets and lines using a light wash.

Overall I am very happy with the results of several days worth of researching and building.

As always, comments are encouraged.

@lgardner - Both your cockpits look great. I think my choice came from familiarity - I use a lot of Eduard. What you did with everything on both of these is turning out really remarkable.

Great catch on the underside stripes.

Louis, in studying your photos of the D-day stripes. Look at the leading edge of the wing from the underside where the Machine guns are located. Port side and Starboard. No paint. The stamped piece of the leading edge that covers the 50s is bare metal. The area behind it is much lighter. Note the contrast between the black stripe directly behind the 50s to the black stops at the stamped cover. However, on the top of the wing paint OD or Brit Grn they painted the top of the cover and ran it half way down. The 64.00 dollar question did they brush paint the D-Day stripes or a combination of spray painting the white and then brush painting the black? Folks where in a hurry. The missing stripes may have been partially painted? Hidden by the drop tanks and the discharge of fuel and lubricants too. Your photo of the complete underside shows the discharge in the area of that unpainted stripe. That aircraft is completely painted with D-Day stripes.

This is esoteric and more of a autopsy of a splendid corpse. More of a archeological dig. One thing if your correct and dig deep in your research it will add a little more truth to history. Maybe, help modelers from stop continuing some beliefs and myths.

From a mechanics view not painting things makes sense and using what is available to get a a/c in the air is common sense. Painting the fuselage Blue or slapping on a 50s cover that was bare metal and then painting later makes sense when keeping things in good working order. May not be to military specs but, it works.

Spiros, @fiveten
I enjoy doing the research just as much as I do the building. I was lucky to notice the difference with the stripes. I'm sure that others have made similar observations on these planes throughout the years. I was studying the photos and all of a sudden I realized what I was looking at with the stripes. Thanks again for the continued support.

Tom, @tcinla
I completely understand how you feel about using something that you are familiar with. The Eduard set is much easier to use, and is much less labor intensive. Thank you for the compliments. I do sincerely appreciate them.

John, @johnb
Thank you for the kind words on this build journal. I have been very impressed with you mutual build that you are doing with Spiros. Together you two are making considerable progress, and have also learned a lot from reading your postings. Thank you for making them as detailed as you have been. I plan on building mine up someday, and when I do, I will definitely be using your mutual build journal as a road map for mine.

Stephen, @stephen-w-towle
The other night I found another color picture of "TIKA IV", which was one of the Mustangs in the pictures I posted a few days ago, that shows the underside. It also was lacking the full D Day Invasion stripes under the radiator housing, but it appears as if it had a full set of wing stripes. Here is the picture of TIKA IV that shows the stripes, and you can see what I'm talking about. They are there, with the center white stripe being just dirty, likely from the ammunition brass casings and links as they were ejected from under the wings. The lubricant used on the .050 MG's likely streamed from this area too. When wiped down it was likely to cause discoloration of the center white stripe. It could also be caused when the drop tanks were jettisoned. The high octane AV gas probably was detrimental to the overall finish.

It seems to have all of the white stripes on the wings painted, where LOU IV seems to be missing most of the center white stripe, exactly as you mentioned. I also have been studying the MG opening panels. There are some things going on there too. I think you might be onto something there, and I'll definitely keep your thoughts in mind when it comes time to the final painting. I do plan on taking a picture of the completed model of "LOU IV" and then converting it to Black and White, just to see how close it looks to the original pictures.

One more thing I noticed about "TIKA IV", and it has a bluish / green color painted on the wing tips, the tips of the rudder and stabilizers.

If you look closely at the pictures of "LOU IV", it also has a similar feature, but only on the top side of the wings. This is an area that also deserves more attention before final paint.

Pedro, @holzhamer
Thank you for the compliments. I try to back up what I state with photographic proof when it's possible. I am also open to suggestions, as I don't claim to be a know it all. So if you have any thoughts please don't hesitate to share them with me. You can send me a PM if it makes you feel more comfortable. I also agree with you on the HGW seat harness sets. I really like them a lot, so much so, that I picked up a set for the 1/32 Revell Heinkel 219, and the 1/32 Revell of Germany 262's. I have a single seat fighter, and a twin seat night fighter that I had started working on about a year ago. Once I clear up some previously started kits, look for me to revive these as part of our Luftwaffe group. Also you can expect an update on the Heinkel Uhu tonight. I was spraying the Invasion stripes on the Mustangs earlier today, and I wanted to paint the underside of one wing on the Uhu... So please stay tuned. I think you will like what I have coming up next.

Take care my friends, and please stay tuned. I have another update coming right up.