Marek raises the bar with Mustangs!

[3Turner]

Oh yeah...these two Mustangs are great! I want to build P-51A "Barbie" soon....well one day after a couple other builds...or the same time as others.

I hope to see a P-51D from Marek following these. :D

[modelerjimg]

I know that I won't get to it for a while, but I did buy it. I'm amazed at the detail, and looking forward to tackling it (if it doesn't tackle me first!) Beautiful work and design.

[Leif Ohlsson]

In a previous post I set out in the hope of finding evidence and a rationale for making a brown- and green-coloured RAF Mustang, of the new Marek P51A model. After a deep plunge into the available historical material, I think I've found good grounds for such a repaint. Here's my argument, starting actually at the tail end of the story, with the unique, October 1942 photo from the outside yard of the North American Inglewood (Ca.) factory:


The Library of Congress original caption of this photo states: "P-51 ('Mustang') fighter planes being prepared for test flight at the field of the North American Aviation, Inc., plant in Inglewood, Calif." But that's only part of the story. What we are seeing here is the perfect image of the USAAF waking up to the fact that the British had ordered, seen to that it was manufactured, and further developed the perhaps ultimate fighter aircraft of World War II.

In the background we see two khaki green Mustangs. They were in fact part of a batch of Mustangs ordered by the British under the Lend-Lease Act, but nine months after Pearl Harbour the USAAF woke up to the fact that they needed more fighter aircraft than the Lockheed Lightning they had concentrated on.

The wake-up call in fact came from US test pilot trying out the latest modification the British had ordered from North American - a substition of the six 0.50 cal machine guns for four Hispano-Suiza 20mm cannons. You can see the stubs for the these guns in the wings of these, as yet unarmed, Mustangs IA as they were designated by the British. The test pilots came back full of praise for the hot aircraft, instead of a cool appraisal of the gun installation they were supposed to evaluate.

The two aircraft in the foreground are painted in the brown-green-sky British camouflage still prevalent. The one slightly in rear has the RAF serial no. FD553, which puts it as one in the last NA-91 batch of 60 Mustang IA. You can see how the insignia is mixed between the US roundel and British fin marking. This is not so quaint as one might think - the Mustangs for the RAF seem to have been finished with in US markings for their test flights. Compare for this photo:


The Library of Congress original caption of this photo states: "North American's P-51 Mustang Fighter is in service with Britain's Royal Air Force, N[orth] A[merican] Aviation, Inc., Inglewood, Calif."

A blow-up of a high-resolution copy of this photo shows that the aircraft is AL958, a Mustang I, part of the second NA-83 batch of 200 Mustangs ordered by, and delivered to, the RAF:


In the photo from the test flight you can also see that it has none of its six 0.50 machine guns were mounted at this test flight. This is particularly apparent for the nose guns. You can just sort of guess were the taped over muzzle opening is. This is the version modeled by Marek. For comparison, here's how the later Mustang IA looked, as delivered to the USAAF instead of the RAF:


The Library of Congress original caption of this photo states: "P-51 'Mustang' fighter in flight, Inglewood, Calif. The 'Mustang', built by North American Aviation, Incorporated, is the only American-built fighter used by the Royal Air Force of Great Britain."

The serial number has been retouched in this publicity photo. But it is a Mustang IA, with four Hispano-Suiza 20mm cannons and no other guns. I think I can sort of guess were the original British camouflage has been painted over with the USAAF khaki green. But that may just be wishful thinking.

The point, from my point of view, is that the early British colour scheme really was the one photographed at the Inglewood yard. Marek's model depicts AM214, a Mustang MkI of the second NA-83 batch, numbering 200; out of those 320 + 200 + 100 independently bought by Britain.

The 150 Mustang Ia in the Inglewood photo were part of the lend-lease act. Of these only 111 were serialized for British use, and probably less than that received. But FD553 in the top photo belonged to these.

So, in conclusion, Marek's AM214 is modeled after the later camouflage scheme for all RAF aircraft, of blue & gray, with duck-egg stripe & spinner. But it is equally historically correct to repaint it into the earlier brown and green colour scheme shown in the first photos of this post. Those were the colours in which it originally went to war.

Leif

Useful sources:
• P-51 Mustang Production Count
• Modeller's Guide to Early P-51 Mustang Variants
• Library of Congress search for "Mustang P-51" photos

[Leif Ohlsson]

You may have wondered why everybody in this photo is so busy with the wheels of the Mustangs. (In fact this is another photo, almost similar to the one in the previous post, but we can't have too many original 1942 colour slides, can we?):


The answer is that they are changing them - from provisional wooden wheels in fact! Here's what they looked like until just before the photos were taken:


The Library of Congress captions for these two photos (1, 2) say: "Wooden wheels are attached to a P-51 'Mustang' fighter plane, so it may be moved around the ramp at the Inglewood, California plant of North American Aviation, Incorportated. When it is ready for flight tests, regular landing wheels with rubber tires will be substituted."

I don't know if that's the whole explanation. In this photo from inside the factory, the wheels are already mounted:


And the versions being constructed are the same, late, Mustang IA with Hispano-Suiza guns. So it's not that the wheels weren't available until late in production. Temporary shortage of wheels then? Or what?

Leif

[Leif Ohlsson]

It seems hardly fair not to show the following photos of the women, and the men, who actually made the Mustangs (together with the B-25 Mitchell bomber manufactured at the same plant, at the same time):



The caption of this Library of Congress colour slide says: "A young woman employee of North American Aviation, Incorporated, working over the landing gear mechanism of a P-51 fighter plane, Inglewood, Calif. The mechanism resembles a small cannon."

Comparing this to the photos of the landing gear in the previous post, this must be a part of the upper main landing gear.



The caption of this Library of Congress colour slide says: "Two women employees of North American Aviation, Incorporated, assembling a section of a wing for a P-51 fighter plane."

I suppose this is what the spar looks like when it is not made out of paper…



The caption of this Library of Congress colour slide says: "On North American's outdoor assembly line, a painter cleans the tail section of a P-51 fighter prior to spraying the olive-drab camouflage of the U.S. Army, N[orth] A[merican] Aviation, Inc., Inglewood, Calif."

Talk about a repaint job...

In the background we can see one of the B-25s also made at the Inglewood plant.

Leif

[Don Boose]

Wonderful photos and photo/historical interpretation, Leif. Many thanks.

One minor, but possibly misleading, typo crept into Post #13, in which you say, "later camouflage scheme for all RAF aircraft, of blue & gray, with duck-egg stripe & spinner." Presumably, it should read "green & gray." Specifically, I think (I am at the office and without reference sources except for the Internet), dark green, ocean grey shadow pattern upper surfaces, with medium sea grey under surfaces and, as you note, sky (duck-egg green) fuselage stripe and spinner.

Don

[Leif Ohlsson]

Thank you, Don, for correcting my sloppiness! I should have taken the time to look up the correct designations for the colours, particularly since this is a discussion about recolouring. "Green and grey" would indeed be the appropriate short version for dark green, dark sea grey, and medium sea grey.

Incidentally, about the photos, did you notice that it seems to be the same person handling the wooden wheels in the black and white photos, as the person in the colour slide - but it is another occassion, since he has other clothes. The colour photos really make for a time travel experience. (I did some work on the in Photoshop to enhance the details - exposure wasn't dead on at all times!)

Here's what we are discussing:



In this palette I have tried to draw upon the experiences gained when recolouring Nobi's Spitfire. See particularly the technical discussion. The numbers for each swatch is the CMYK code.

I remembered this work, and thought I could use it for comparing with Marek's interpretation, and for recolouring it to the pre-1942 scheme. The tool will be the palette I quickly made up above [also attached as a pdf below, use that for recolouring]. I would like to underline that recolouring is a matter of interpretation. That said, I will stick by my choice of colours (and the sources for them, in the Spitfire thread), except possibly for the duck egg blue, which I think Marek made more apparent, and I'll gladly adopt his interpretation, when I get there.

It is really quite feasible to recolour a vector-made downloaded model. I opened the downloaded pdf in Illustrator (go with your own vector graphic programme), and isolated a wing part to demonstrate. Here's what it looks like in Marek's original colours:



For an immediate quick comparison, here's what the same part looks like in my choice of colours for the same scheme:


I should say that I have done one more thing, namely reduced the opacity of all the black lines to 50 percent. Once you have isolated the colours, you just group the rest together as "pattern", and can deal with it as a lump. Working this way, it is a matter of minutes until you can start recolouring and reducing the opacity of the pattern lines.

Finally, here's my personal goal, Marek's wing part recoloured into the pre-1942 scheme:



In this version I have reduced the black-and-white pattern lines further to just 25 percent. As you can see it still works just fine (better in my opinion).

Of course, this is just a quick test. For a real job, one would have to look over the camouflage pattern itself, compare it with photos, and see if and how it differs. Insignias and marking would have to be checked carefully as well. One thing was easy to fix - the yellow stripe which did not occur until the 1942 scheme. The trainer yellow is also the colour which, in my opinion, is most "off" in Marek's interpretation.

Leif

I attach a pdf of the colour palette. Use this pdf for recolouring, not the jpg used as illustration above. Open the pdf in your vector graphic programme, same as the original files, save in vector format, copy the relevant swatches to the pages you want to recolour. From there on in it's just a matter of clicking a couple of times with your colour pipette tool.

[cgutzmer]

WOW! Great references and pics guys

[Don Boose]

Excellent information, Leif!

I would love to have this model with the green-brown (sand and spinach) scheme that you have created, which to me evokes the early war years, even if most of the British Mustangs served in the grey-green (slime and sewage) scheme.

The wooden wheel matter is entirely new to me. I never heard of the use of wooden wheels in that manner before and I am glad that you unearthed that curious fragment of aviation history.

Don

[airdave]

I have been watching these discussions...with interest.

it sure is nice to see a new Marek update like this!
Hopefully the Mustang build (shown in another thread) goes without problems.

I am already in the process of redrawing this Kit, creating a repaint template
and I will hopefully be offering up some new versions in the near future.

One of the first things I will be doing is rearranging the kit to fit on Letter size paper.
I have already updated the (new 2011) Yak kit to be letter size format.
There was also a PDF issue that I think I fixed.

Anyway, keep up the discussion...at some point I would like to create a new Mustang thread where i can take some suggestions for possible repaints.

And if Leif doesn't mind, I will be saving some of this colour information!