Paul,
another excellent P-51 build. Really most impressive. Your painting and weathering is just outstanding. One thing that I did, or should I say didn't seer in the finished pictures is much of a difference in shading of those wing panels you pre-shaded with different colors. The overall weathering really depicts a well worn aircraft.

Don't know if you've seen it as yet, but Academy has re-released the Accurate Miniature's P-51B, this time as the "Blue Nose". I'm really thinking hard about adding it to my stash.
Joel

Thanks Joel. I really appreciated all of the input as I went as well. I agree, my pre-shading disappeared under the weathering. There is still some visible along the panel lines but the colored panels totally blended in in the end. Oh well, I will probably try it again on a finish where I don't intend to do as much weathering. I think the idea has merit, I just chose a bad example to use it on.

I did see the Academy rebox of the P-51B, Joel. I'm glad to see someone keeping AM's molds alive, I'm just not thrilled with the prices. I picked up an original AM boxing of the kit on eBay a while back for $15 shipped; Sprue Brothers has the Academy boxing listed at $43 while Tamiya's is $26. I'm not sure if Academy will sell many with that kind of price disparity, even with Cartograf decals. Regardless, it's a nice kit.

Paul,

I really enjoyed following along from start to finish. Many of your techniques and ideas are new to me, and I'm confessing right now that I kind of borrowed a few for down the road. Your idea of different color panels in pre-shading really looked like a solid idea.

I was going to try it myself, which is a major change in direction for me, as I don't like pre-shading as a general rule. Most end up too stark in color, and look like a checker board. Those done more softly and without a pattern look so much more realistic. That's why I'm trying to do it as post shading but before weathering. Your method seems to me to be the perfect solution for full panels that I would want as a different shade of the same color for whatever reason.

Yeah, I saw the price on Sprue Bothers, but the AM kits even after all this time seem like cutting edge to me. The Tamiya kit on the other hand isn't in the same class detail wise. Sure wish they would upgrade it to the level of their P-47s and F4Us.

Joel