66misos

Hi John, I do not know whether cockpit + pilot + canopy are already glued together, but maybe you with to check following details: 1.) pilot seat should be green, not light blue: 2. rear part of the cockpit behind the headrest was combination of the wood and green paint: Regards, 66misos

John, superb built. (Dark) Brown RLM 81 seems to be lighter than Light Green RLM 82. Also some corrections/demarcation line between brown and late war RLM 76 seems to be darker. Did you lighten the original brown?

Yes, there a tons of the different interpretation of Brown 4, plus different interpretation of RLM 81, from green to brown. Here is a nice summary http://www.clubhyper.com/reference/luftcamdb_3.htm - exact shades of 81 and 82 were not defined from RLM level, neither real paint chips were provided. However, Focke-Wulf defined 81/82/76 scheme as "green" one. According to the http://www.letletlet-warplanes.com/2008/07/01/luftwaffe-paints-new-discoveries/ they found a can with the LW paint from WW2 - it was marked "81" and content was dark green. So combination lighter green (82) and darker/oliva green (81) seems to be more probable than light green (82) + dark brown/brownviolet. Several thought/inspirations regarding the upper surfaces: There were no significant dark blotches on the vertical stabilizer (from Ta-152) on 500647 and her a bit younger sister 500645: compare it to this: The whole vertical stabilizer is a bit darker than fuselage: here in artificial colors to make it more apparent: It looks like orignal 76 was oversprayed with thin layer of darker (green?) color. Upper surfaces on the horizontal stabilizers of "non-Mimetall" Doras and Tas had usually (?) low contrast colors at that time - darker and lighter green? while for Mimetall Doras the high contrast seems to be more typical: I do not know whether that patter is by accident or a result of the local habits or a result of the strict technological process. Any official painting instructions from Mimetall have not been found yet.

Super build. I really like your attention to details. Hope you don't mind if I post some pics for you inspiration. Note some panel lines on the bottom side of the wing are bright - looks like light grey putty (?) overpainted with thin layer of the camouflage color, in your case RLM 75: I am really curious for your interpretation of that panel - its color and the color of the line around the panel: What color are you going to use for the upper surfaces - RLM 81 of the brown shade or dark/olive green shade? Happy modeling. 66misos

Hi, right-click and Open link in new tab/window works for me - the shark/crocodile mouth painted on the Yak-9. Check also here 85 giap (former 2 iap)

Hi Miloslav, beautiful Cobra. This is the first one I see from you. Do you have a photo showing this particular aircraft? Kitty Hawk instructions & decals are not very correct. If you do not mind I would like to add some notes: - Soviets removed underwing guns from Q versions. Nose guns were considered powerful enough while underwing gun gondolas were considered a death mass having negative impact to maneuverability. - Q versions had silvergrey prop blades with black stencils and without yellow tips, - at the tip of the prop spinner the tubular cover of the cannon is missing, - check the position of the shorter part of the antena vire, This plane should belong to 213 giap (former 508 iap), Spring/Summer 1945. - at the port side door should be Alexander Nevskij Order emblem while Guard emblem was only at the starboard side door. - diagonal white stripe at the tail seems to be too wide. - every Cobra coming to SU had yellow serial number at the tail. At some regiments they repainted it with local paints - soviet green AMT-4 at the tail would be a nice detail. For those who interested more info & pictures is at Cobras from 213 giap Regards, 66misos

Some info could be here https://www.jg300.de/me109g-10erla.html

Hi, only a brief "Googling" and here Streig's "White 3" itself seems to have the cowling not pinned down at the top: and here are some others: regards, 66misos

Hi Miloslav, an excellent built again. I really like how you distinguish dark glossy sea blue vs. matt intermediate blue and white, not uniform semigloss surface. Hard to say whether surrounds on the Stars and Bars are still red or already repainted blue. According to the irregullar lines I would say that already blue: IMHO the cowling not pinned down at the top is not an error, it could be like that - the same type of the plane in the same unit: regards, 66misos

Hi CANicoll, seems the light at the end of the tunnel is already visible. I agree with you - planes look pretty clean for the staged photosession. May be you could make a difference between old OD (more matt) and newer blue color (a bit more glossy). That Mustang looks great! 66misos

Hi CANicoll, I am sorry I was not clear enough. I meant that LOU IV had originally white ETO stripes over OD upper surfaces (wings + horiz. stabilizer). Just prior D-Day the invasion stripes were added, while white ETO stripe on stabiler was (probably) left. And after another several months, at the time of the photosession, black&white invasion stripes on the upperwings together with white ETO stripes on stabilizer were all already repainted with the blue color. And your kit depicts LOU IV at this last stage with all stripes on the uppersurfaces (Invasion + ETO) repainted blue - as Quang wrote above "...stab ID bands are overpainted with the same color as the D-Day stripes..." EDIT: Underside surface in NMF had black ETO stripes.There is a lot of photos on the web showing Mustangs with NMF undersurfaces with black ETO stripes while uppersurfaces in OD with white ETO stripes. In case of LOU IV IMHO only upper originally white ETO stripes were repainted blue, while black ETO stripes on the NMF undersurafce were left black. 66misos

Hi CANicoll, Mustang of 354th FS, 355th FG, probably late 1944: Seems that there are overpainted invasion stripes - note darker area on the both upperwings. More important - panting OD over NMF is very similar to the Mustangs from 361st FG - and ETO marking is according to the instructions - white stripes over OD. And here is another one: So it seems that one can safely assume that if they left old or paint new ETO stripes over OD surface, the made them white, or they did not paint them at all, like here: Black ETO stripes were used only over NMF surface. Therefore I think that your Mustang LOU IV had also white stripes over OD upper surface on the horizontal stabilizer, that were together with invasion stripes latter repainted with the blue paint: I know, neverending story... 66misos

Hi CANicoll, that ATHELENE decal is basicaly pure white simple-shaped plate with pure black letters and frame. May be you wish to try to print black frame with text on laser printer on either clear or white decal sheet. Then mask original decal, airbrush white paint and apply home-made decal. Good luck with your excellent build. Regards, 66misos

According to this photo: panel around guns at wing leading edge looks like unpainted piece of metal, not yellow, or red or other color. More photos at http://www.clubhyper.com/reference/showandtell7db_1.htm

Hi, To get a "visual representation" of the Joerg's article you would wish to check this article http://massimotessitori.altervista.org/sovietwarplanes/pages/lagg3/57/white57.html I know, it is off-topic regarding P-51D, but there is a lot of b&w photos of the one LaGG-3 aircraft, once photographed by Soviets and latter photographed by Germans and/or Finns, all used different photographic materials and filters - and differences in the interpretation of red, green, blue etc. colors are almost unbelievable. Regards, 66misos