Wow! you nailed Cripes,what a beautiful build. Can't wait to see Lou. That has to be one of most discussed paint jobs in history. She's going to be a stunner as well

Jim

Here is what I accomplished on LOU IV last night.

First off, I added the air intake for the belly scoop. I also installed the radiator and oil cooler air exit doors.

Once this was done, I masked off the MG panels on the leading edge of the wings. Previously I had sprayed these with Molotow, but I used a tape that was too aggressive when I was masking off the wings to paint the Aluminum Plate color on the lower sections. The tape's strong adhesive pulled up part of the finish and it just looked bad. I know this will get a light coat of Dark Blue on the top sides, but the bottom was also affected, so I had no choice but to fix things.

Since I was going to be spraying on Molotow anyway, I decided to give this area another try.

Here you can see the results after spraying. I tried to allow some of the Molotow Chrome to blow over the lower edges of the D Day Invasion Stripes, to give them the look I was after. Chances are I will have to come back and do a little touching up, especially on the White areas. This is good, because I also have to pre paint the areas where the US Star National insignias go on the sides of the fuselage. I'll be using a White paint to do this. If I don't, then the decals will show through some of the D Day stripes in the "star" portion of the decal, because the decals are thin and thus they conform well, but this also makes them a bit translucent.

I experienced this with the decals for "Cripes-A-Mighty III", and now I'm trying to avoid it from happening again.

Once all of the tape was removed, it looks like this.

I will have to let this dry for several days now. Otherwise I could damage the Molotow chrome if I rush things.

Next step will be to paint the Dark Green and Dark Blue camouflage paint on the top sides. Things are starting to get to the fun part now ! The part where it all starts coming together. Hopefully there will not be any more set backs. Time will tell.

Merry Christmas, and as always, comments are encouraged.

Thanks for stopping by.

Echoing Spiros' comments, Louis @lgardner
You are clearly using your experience gained on the already excellent "Cripes-A-Mighty III" to even further improve "Lou IV"

Looking awesome, my friend @lgardner!

I hadn't realized so much time has passed, Louis (@lgardner). Looking forward to the completion.

Looking forward to this additional Mustang, Louis @lgardner

OK, let's get this party back on the road ! I just finished spraying on the Black and Dark Blue colors. I'm also changing it up a little, because since the year long pause I have learned a few things about this plane, and some peculiarities of the products I will be using to finish it up.

Last night I sprayed on the Dark Green home brew for OD-41. I'm not sure exactly what color it was originally, so I mixed this color up using the original wartime color photos as a reference that Dana Bell had posted on another website about the "Bottisham Blues", and these Blue Mustangs...

I sprayed over the top of the previously sprayed D Day style invasion stripes. After some serious study I believe this is exactly how the real plane was done too. I put myself in the mindset as if I was the crew chief and I had to somehow cover up the upper stripes... and do it in a hurry !

I really don't think they would have taken the time to strip or sand off the existing stripes because the wings were puttied from the factory. Instead, I think they would have simply painted right over the top of them like I have done here. More about this in a second...

I also wanted the original stripes to be "ghosted" or slightly visible under the Blue.

The Blue was sprayed on in several light coats, ensuring the stripes would still be partially visible. If you look very close at the pictures, you can see how the White areas are a little bit lighter than the Black stripes are, since I left the Blue slightly transparent.

If you look closely at this picture, taken early before the entire nose was painted in a Yellow, you can faintly see the stripes showing through the top color. I tried to replicate this feature.

The flaps were also painted this way. The Dark Blue was sprayed on just enough to get the job done. I think this is how it was done in real life too. I still have to come back with some Bare metal Foil and cover a small portion of the flaps before they are installed permanently.

Then I masked off the Dark Blue, and sprayed on some Black on the wing root area,



...trying to mimic what I saw in the original pictures. I will be trying to make this one as accurate as I can, so the invasion stripes will not be perfect either. My hope is to make it look as realistic as possible. Time will tell if I am successful or not.

I'm glad I saved these photos from all of those years ago when I started this build journal. I believe it's been almost 5 years since it was originally started.. Crazy how the time has flown by. Yes I just checked... 4 years and 11 months since I started these two Ponies...

It's about time I wrap this one up.

I just noticed something else... I have to go back and repaint the Port side of the fuselage. It looks as if the Dark Green area I have painted on should actually be a Dark Blue. What I mistook for a color change is probably nothing more than a fuel stain. Unfortunately it didn't dawn on me until after I started looking at this entry on our home computer... Then the light bulb went off, dim as it was... 😉

I'm thinking they used the Dark Blue paint to hide the upper stripes. This would make sense as this area was previously striped... So look for change # 157 to come up soon... 😉

Here is one thing that I think is not entirely correct about Mr. Bells color conclusions. I stated earlier in this post, how I believe the upper D Day invasion stripes were painted over using a Dark Blue paint of unknown origin. I believe the color Blue that was used was most likely ANA 502 "Insignia Blue" color , or possibly ANA 501 "Light Blue". I'm leaning towards the ANA 501 Light Blue color, simply because the Blue looks to be a little bit lighter than the actual Blue that is used on the US Star and Bar insignia.

I think the color change was made here, just ahead of the horizontal stabilizer, and not so far back on the mid fin section as he indicated in his photos. This would also line up perfectly with the last section of the stripes. They would have been trying to cover up the last White stripe using the Dark Blue paint in this location.

This would make sense, since these areas on the rudder / fin were already painted in a Dark Green color. This is my two cents worth, using a bit of common sense. (At least it makes sense to me.)

It also corresponds with this Black and White picture, where we can see a difference between two colors. It's noticeable just above the letter "C" and is slightly ahead of the stabilizer and fin.

As always, comments are encouraged. Thanks for stopping by everyone.

The next time you see LOU IV it will have the mistake fixed on the fuselage... Change #158 coming right up. I also have to do something to the MG cover on the leading edge of the wings. It is lighter in appearance than the rest of the wing.

Very interesting research done, Louis @lgardner
The blue paint looks nice and your thoughts on covering the invasion stripes sound very plausible.