Looking for a little feedback, P-40E skin

[Krusty]

Been on my list for a loooong time. I've given up on most of the other skins I've "called dibs" on due to no free time, but this little guy I'm going to attempt.

85FS, 79FG, Erwin Silsbee's P-40L (Merlin powered, but similar to the power/climb curves on AH's P-40E). According to a blurb from his son, he got bored in Italy and found some paint ("took" some paint) from a depot shed or something and painted his fuselage green.

He wanted better camouflage when making attack runs in steep Italian ravines.

It's rough for now, but just to mark out some colors:





I went with nonstandard green, and I think I have the browns down correctly (give or take), but there are a few things I don't know.

- did the green wrap under?

- Was any more of the canopy frame black? Rear windows? Windscreen?

- Anyone have a good upper camo reference? I was eyeballing it based on super-lo-res decal sheet scans.

EDIT: Yes, I forgot to add the "bar and outline" to the under-wing star... not sure if I even can, as a mater of fact...

[StokesAk]

That looks great Krusty. The camo looks ncie.

[5PointOh]

I love it...would fly that skin everytime!

[TonyJoey]

 

[oakranger]

Great Job.  Can you make it a little more dirty?

[Motherland]

- did the green wrap under?

I'm no expert on the P40, however if I were you I'd cut it off right before it wraps (and if the P40 is like other skins, starts to stretch) under the fuselage--- otherwise it looks kind of funky around where it has to merge with the undersurface color on the wings.
Also, just a suggestion, considering he painted it himself, perhaps you should slap a little bit on the roots of the horizontal stabs and the upper wings, if not only for the sake of giving the idea of a bit of a sloppy paint job, to kind of soften the very... I don't know how to say this, 'hard on the eyes', sudden merge between the browns and then the green.
Just some things I noticed, it looks great.

[Krusty]

Motherland, I don't have specific resources, but his son built a model plane of his father's P-40L mount, but at a later time. He kept painting it, and it changed over time. Eventually it was all-green with the group emblem on the intake side. However, the undersides on the son's model were left as-is, and if he was privvy to all the notes and details (as he says he was) I'd assume he got that part right.

So I went with grey undersides.

I too felt the color change was a bit harsh, but it was just a mockup to test things out.

Let me know if you think these are softer on the ol'e peepers!

Pretty near done. Going to give it a week and then another once-over (and any suggestions here I think are good) and then I'll submit it.

[Motherland]

Motherland, I don't have specific resources, but his son built a model plane of his father's P-40L mount, but at a later time. He kept painting it, and it changed over time. Eventually it was all-green with the group emblem on the intake side. However, the undersides on the son's model were left as-is, and if he was privvy to all the notes and details (as he says he was) I'd assume he got that part right.

So I went with grey undersides.

Sorry if I verbalized that poorly, but that's what I meant. It looks great
Although, the undersurface color looks a bit weird, purple almost? I don't know if that would be correct though.

[Guppy35]

You have photos Krusty?  Didn't see that one in the 79th history.  Did it get OK'd to skin Merlin Ls on to Allison E models?

[Stoney]

You can't adjust the specularity on the early models can you?  If you could, I'd suggest making the finish a lot flatter.  I'd also get rid of the gun soot, but that's simply my opinion.  I like the skin if its historical--very unique.  It needs a little weathering though to dirty it up a bit--again, my opinion.

[Motherland]

You can't adjust the specularity on the early models can you?  If you could, I'd suggest making the finish a lot flatter. 

Unfortunately, you can't

[Krusty]

That's with the default B-25 "materials.txt" -- just doesn't kick in without being designed to use it. Only new models use it.

Guppy: No photo per se, but reliable enough that multiple decals have been issued for it over time for plastic models, most notably a recent release (re-release?) by AMTech. I'm not too worried about its historic existence. Other planes from the same unit also seemed to have lax censorship about painting, one with a full sized nude taking up the entire rudder. If you run across any photos I would love to see them (to see if I got the skin right).

Motherland: It's RAF "Azure Blue", rather than light grey. The upper sides of tan/brown camo are RAF color tones, so I chose the RAF undersides color that went with those tones, as well as an RAF green (assuming they were stocked with RAF paints at whatever base Erwin Silsbee was stationed) to do the fuselage. I'm not 100% happy with the green tone. I may lighten it up a tad.

EDIT: Just as a thought on what I'll tweak in a week's time, I think I'll desaturate the colors juuuuuust a tad. I think that'll help lose some of the "bitmap" feel I can't shake.

[jocko-]

Cool paint scheme. I think the colours used would depend on where the aircraft was last painted. I know that the RAF received it's P-40s originally painted by Curtiss in the DuPont equivalent desert colours which were slightly different from the RAF ones. How it appeared in the field would depend on whether or not it was still using a factory paint job and who was supplying the paint to the squadron or local maintenance unit.

[Krusty]

That info I did not have. I could not find the equivelant colors in US paints, so I used the RAF names and found them. Assuming the US had the same colors of paint under whatever name was given, I just used the RAF label to find the samples I needed.

[Guppy35]

Couple things Krusty.

Did you check about skinning an Merlin P40L on an Allision P40E?  Kinda like putting Griffon Spit XII markings on a Merlin Spit 16.  Different birds even if performance is similar.

Regardless of that.

The later blue surround to the star and bar wouldn't have been coupled with the yellow surround to the fuselage star.  The yellow surround was an Operation Torch marking.  By Italy time you are talking either red surround to the star and bar or blue after that.  I don't see any photos in the 79th history or any of my P40 stuff showing that combo or markings.  Check the scale on your Star and Bar on the wing too.  It looks off.  Too big, and the blue outline to the bar too thin

The majority of photos of 79th P40s show the squadron marking on each side of the nose under the stacks.  Photos of 85th FS P40s show the Flying Skulls squadron badge in that spot.

An example of the standard practice on 85th P40s