Maj. George E. Preddy, Jr. - P-51B "Cripes A'Mighty" (HO*P) - 352nd FG, 487th FS

[Devil 505]

4) I have question about the 'O' and 'P' partially within the white DDay stripes - these would've been typically repainted after the white stripe had been applied, or sometimes the white stripe had cutouts around the letters.   Also, with the profiles I've seen, the aircraft ID letter for the 352nd birds was on tail only and not reproduced on the fuselage behind the star...

Here is the reference photo provided by Perdweeb

[lyric1]

[oboe]

Boy she's one beat up ship.   I don't think its an 'R', IIRC Preddy's aircraft were always a 'P'?

I know what you mean about noise.   There does seem to be some fading on the panel section just forward of the wind screen?  The blue seems lighter there.

Seeing the photo, I think the portions of your 'O' and 'P' covered by the white stripe are too regular and well-defined - that is, it appears we can se too much of the perfect shape of the letters covered by the white stripe.  Not sure what to advise - maybe try a little blurring of the portion of the letters under the stripe?  Lightly erase variable portions of the letters so it doesn't show through the white stripe so cleanly?  subtle streaks/smudges so the edges aren't so regular?   Just brainstorming here.

Here's a sample of the dirty white texture I used for my P-39Q and for the white on Down for Double - use it if you want; the grunge seems to help:



You may want to lighten that 'P' on tail as well - I usually end up with markings layer items being 85-90% opacity rather than 100%.   It helps tone the image down a little, and allows any panel lines that cut through the image to show up a little better.

Fantastic stuff, lyric.  That blue really fades.

[lyric1]

[Greebo]

I've made this montage of the relevant sections of the blue nose photos in his thread together with a screenshot of Vraciu's skin. I left out "Barbara M IV" as the colour balance seems to be off in that photo. Going over all these blues with a colour picker there is a huge variation dependent on the amount of paint fade as well as the lighting level and angle of each photo. However all the photos show a fairly consistent relationship of red to green to blue, with a bit less of the red and a bit more of the blue compared to the green. Vraciu's colour also has this balance but spread out to a much greater degree, so a lot less red and a lot more blue than the green. So on the basis of this have to I agree with Devil and say the blue on the skin is too saturated.

I don't think it unlikely that Preddy's HO-P was re-lettered to HO-R when the plane changed ownership. It's even possible that the "P" was "retired" in the same way a ex-star player's number can be in a team. I agree that the parts of the squadron letters hidden below the D Day stripes are too clearly visible on the skin. Partially erasing these with a small diameter eraser tool to create a "brushed over" effect would work although I prefer to use a non-destructive method like a mask to do this sort of thing, it is just easier to edit later.

It's a great skin though Vraciu, well done.

[Vraciu]

I'll tweak the blue and fade the lettering some more.

Source material says the code was changed from P to R after Preddy handed it over.   The source photos after the handover still shows the victory board and a tail letter.   I just assumed it was still a P but it may be R.



I was using the opacity method for letters (paint) but then was told not to so I recently quit.   I'll go back to it.

Thanks everyone for the feedback and photos.   After staring at a screen all day one can have trouble seeing this kind of stuff.    Walking away from it for a bit sometimes freshens the eye. 

[oboe]

Its a great-looking skin V.  Agree with walking away and looking later with a fresh eye.  I have to do that with every skin.  I also miss details and errors until I post screenshots - then and only then do I see them.

Boy that blue is all over the map - and I didn't realize the paint would fade so much in the ETO, as compared to the CBI or North Africa - but there is some real fading evident in those photos.  I imagine the quality of paint they used wasn't so great compared to what we have today.

[Vraciu]

Its a great-looking skin V.  Agree with walking away and looking later with a fresh eye.  I have to do that with every skin.  I also miss details and errors until I post screenshots - then and only then do I see them.

Boy that blue is all over the map - and I didn't realize the paint would fade so much in the ETO, as compared to the CBI or North Africa - but there is some real fading evident in those photos.  I imagine the quality of paint they used wasn't so great compared to what we have today.

Thanks, man. 

Yeah, the color photos are eye-opening.  Amazing. 

I know that with modern natural metal finish warbirds they actually etch the metal before painting so it won't erode.   That's how they get away with it lasting so long.

[Hajo]

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Hey!  What's the Hairless Joe 56th M Jug doing in that lineup? 

[Hajo]

You’re an army of one, bro.   

Add me to the mix.  I like it.  How long would dark blue stay dark?  And from the pics the ship had seen considerable action. I'm not a skinner by a long shot.  Pretty sure the blue or any color would fade over time from the weather, sunlight and the elements.  That ain't Sherwin Williams house paint!   

[Devil 505]

I'm pretty sure in one of the previous 352nd discussions there was a pretty solid reference to their use of two distinct blue paints. There was a medium blue used at first - this is the shade that V is going for here. Sometime in autumn of 1944, they switched to a much darker blue.

First blue


Second blue

[oboe]

Very interesting - that explains it Devil505, thanks.

btw back at my workstation now, here is a swatch from "My Little Pig"s spinners.  The RGB values are 69/95/114:



The original base color I started with is 42/77/103:


These I think have too much green for the 352nd's blue noses.

[Devil 505]

Very interesting - that explains it Devil505, thanks.

btw back at my workstation now, here is a swatch from "My Little Pig"s spinners.  The RGB values are 69/95/114:

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Yeah, I figured the swatch would look strange when viewed by itself. The game's lighting really requires starting with dull colors to make them look right in the end.

[oboe]

Here's a detail from CyberModeler Online's ANA Color Chart.  What are the chances these are the two blues used by the 352nd?   The dark one seems to dark to me, there's not much room to desaturate before you hit black.  'Course as you say, it looks different under the game's lighting.



EDIT: One last thing - look at these blues in the email I just got from Zillow about homes for sale in my area:


Strange coincidence.  I’ll probably be noticing blues all day long now.

[Vraciu]

Okay, that's funny right there.