This is an ultimate soldier 1/32 P-51B which I painstakingly painted and modified. I motorized the prop with a small DC battery and put a switch and battery (very tightly) in itâs underbelly. It has a pretty nice detailed cockpit and landing gear, so I spent more time painting then I did building. My original theme was shark teeth and bars on the wings but I felt like that is kinda played out on mustangs at this point. So I went around and found some crazy artwork that would make good decals and since I finally got the hang of printing out really good looking testors decals of my own I was ini business. The felix the cat holding the bomb I just found somewhere and it looks great on a white panel. The other panel is black and white bars with a crossbones in it. The spade that looks like a cat I found on a google search. It looks really neat when you view the aircraft head on from below. It looks like a cat is peering down on you.
Airbrushing black and white aircraft and not losing sleep\hair over it is a challenge. I had to go back and forth touching up the black, then the white, then the black, then the white, over and over just because a single speck or mishap of overspray of black or of white shows on the other one so immensely as to make you insane. I also started this 51 with flat black and then I realized flat black just looks terrible as anything will mar it and change itâs color. Flat black is just one of those colors that everything shows on it, from dust, to lint, to a fingernail scratch, etc. even if you flat gloss coat it still doesnt help much. So I just high glossed the black at the end. Fug it ;p
I put stars under the wing and painted the airscoop as well as flaps, tail, and nose in high gloss classic white. The theme I was going for here was something like Crimson Skies, black hat fighters or air-pirate fighter. Although building a zeppelin to fit these would be enormous! Iâve started to like the turboprop look of the P-51âs (and although itâs hard to improve on perfection) and if I make another P-51 type itâll be something more like a EMB Super Tacano (a sandy).
Anyways thought iâd try and make you all a little jealous.
This is, without a doubt, one of the coolest âwhat ifsâ I have seen on the Forum! Your photography excels, as does your modeling skill! I hear you about the âtuxedoâ color scheme, and you did it brilliantly! I agree with you on the flat black aspect, it would not have done this scheme justice at all. I will be looking forward to seeing more builds like this, thanks for sharing!
On a slightly related subject: Has anyone else ever seen photos of A/C with a â?â in place of a Buno on the tail? I have a shot of a P-39 in the Pacific that was cobbled together from various wrecks (hence the question mark), named âSpare Partsâ and was dressed in all black with white name and question mark and used as a nightfighter. No other insignia visible in the pic. But she is cool looking!
My pic is in the S/S P-39 In-Action book.
I have been wondering if there were more of these âFrankensteinâ A/C pics around?
Thank you for the kind words Brain44 and Porkbits the photography just seems to come together on a black cloth and some decent photo lights I got off of ebay. They have light tents for dirt cheap there. Von Alfalfa you should come up with a Pirate scheme, then we can have a dogfight or at least a contest lol. Thanks guys! [oX)]
I forgot to que the âFlight of the Valkyriesâ Music for this thread lol
Black and white aircraft always look great imo because the eye values contrast. The problem is that black and white are as polar in contrast as one can get. Contrasts of this magnitude are technically challenging because each color is so unforgiving of its opposite. If you spray white any overspray on the black will be ridicuously noticable and vice versa for black overspray on any white. If your masks arenât very pressed down the white will bleed into panel lines and mess up your black paint, and ditto for the black bleeding into your white. So when you do your mask make sure you really rub it down and can even push a toothpick into larger panel lines or creases. Trust me, youâll be glad you did. Otherwise youâll have to run around with your black and white color and touch up brush after each coat you lay down
Of course Iâll do that! Now Im thinking which airplane to choose⌠and the scheme⌠I have a P-61 in my pile to-do planes⌠but Im thinking to get another one just to make one air pirate with it⌠since it have such a bad-ass looking (besides its a cheap kit) I think it would be work⌠anyways⌠you will be the first to know whenâs done! Thanks again for such cool idea!
