1/48 Hasegawa P-51D

Gallery Article by Jean-Paul Delfosse

This is Hasegawa's P-51D Mustang.  I decided to do my Mustang in the heavily weathered peeling paint look of a Mustang as seen in Reims during the Operation Bodenplatte on New Years day 1945.  This was when the Germans launched a pre-dawn attack against the Allied bases in Europe in an attempt to catch the Allied planes on the ground and the Allied crews recovering from the previous evenings' party.  At least one if not more Allied Squadron Leaders had their men limit their merriment to be in the air and prepared for just such a surprise attack. 

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For the paint job, I first sprayed on Model Master enamels for the aluminum color on the entire plane. The Aluminium paint wasn't polished.......the desired effect is to make the aluminium looked dull and weathered. The peeled paint effect was achieved by applying a VERY little coat (irregular) of Maskol (liquid masking agent) around the areas that were to be left as natural metal only (this application of Maskol had to be as irregular possible) and after a normal coat of Maskol IN the aluminium zone. I applied the Maskol to the aluminium with a large flat brush while holding the model vertically and with very little Maskol, you will see after that there are many little holes on the Maskol surfaces. Then I painted the olive drab, a darker shade of olive drab was applied along the structural lines and some pastel chalk in the panel lines.