I put the finishing touches on the ols 'stang today. I wanted to finish it on Sunday (a P-51 on birthday 51), but you know how things like that go.

In case you haven't seen the in-progress pics, here's the info:

The kit is 1/48 Hasegawa, built OOB except for Eduard belts. Camo is Gunze acrylics, sprayed freehand. Roundels and stripes were masked and painted. Light weathering done with pastels and Prismacolor pencil. This is one of four "Soccer War" aircraft I'm building for a customer.

The aircraft is from the 1969 "Soccer War" between El Salvador and Hindouras. A disputed call during a soccer match lead to a 100 hour "war," with neither side being able to claim victory. Some civilian Mustangs were taken by El Salvador, armed, and pressed into service. I have depicted one of those aircraft (hopefully).














Two down, two to go !

Beautiful!!! One question though: the wheelbay doors are closed, is that correct when the wheels are down?

Lovely job as usual Bill, especially that camouflage scheme, wow. How the heck did you do it, was it freehand or did you use some kind of "soft" mask?

Cheers
Darren

Thank you Petri and Darren !

Petri - hydraulic pressure kept the flaps up and the wheel covers closed when the Mustang was parked. The pressure would bleed, so the flaps & covers would drop. The "rule" is: flaps up = gear covers closed, and flaps down = wheel covers open. The Hasegawa kit is molded with the flaps raised, so I made new wheel covers from sheet styrene (the kit parts don't fit in the closed position).

Darren - yes, the camouflage was painted freehand. I included the particulars in the text above the photos.

Thanks again !

Thanks for the info Bill, and also: DOH!!! Got to fix my mustang.

Excellent work Bill.
Are the panel lines done with the pencil ?
Andy

Thanks Andy !

The panel lines are washes. I just explained my technique on another forum, so I'll just copy & paste it here:

I do all my washes the same way. I paint (usually enamels), then apply several light coats of Future. I then mix each enamel color with black oil paint until I reach a shade that matches the shadows on the model under a light. Each wash color is thinned with Model Master airbrush thinner. I mix it a little thick, so that it will stop where I want it. In the case of the Mustang, I had to darken MM wood and RAF dark green enamels (I painted with Gunze acrylics). The lower surface wash was a mix of black & white oil paint. Each color wash is applied to it's respective area. I do it this way because a wash dark enough to look like shadows on the dark green will be waaaaaaay too dark (IMHO) for the light gray undersurfaces. The darkness of the panel lines is relative to the surrounding color, rather the absolute darkness of a single-color wash. It's a little more work, but I don't mind, since I prefer the results to any other method. Once each was color has been applied to the panel lines with a #000 brush, I let it sit for about an hour. I then take a paper towel and gently wipe the surface from front to back. The excess wash is removed, and no solvents are necessary.
For Alcad, I paint and Future as above. The wash is a dark gray, using black & white oils. Every area of every kit I build gets the same treatment. I just use an old #000 brush to pick up the excess wash in tight areas like cockpits, wheel wells, landing gear, gear doors, etc.
Sorry for the long-winded response, but that's the only way to explain it.

Thanks again !

Oops sorry about Bill, I'm afraid I was so busy looking at the pretty pictures I forgot to read the text

Cheers
Darren