LF Color equivalent

[Greenghost]

Hello,

 

I’m building a P-51D as one from the Blue nosed Bastards pf Bodney, 362nd FG 478th FS. 

 

Could you recommend the correct color equivalent or mix using Tamiya Acrilic colors or Gunze Sangyo Aqueous?

 

Tamiya recommenda X4 + XF8 in 1:1 relation. 

 

Is this correct?

 

Thank you

 

[seawinder]

1. It's the 352nd FG, but you probably knew that.

2. There were more than one shade of blue used, apparently lighter on earlier, camouflaged planes, and two darker on later -Ds.

3. I don't think there's conclusive documentation of the source of any of the colors. In a thread at Hyperscale, easily searched (hint hint), one poster states that they used RAF Deep Sky Blue. Here's the link to that thread, which also has a post recommending a couple of Testors colors:

https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/hyperscale/blue-color-for-352nd-fg-the-blue-nosed-bastards-fr-t152314.html

4. I found one (apparently) color photo here, although it's possible it is colorized b/w:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/352nd_Fighter_Group#/media/File:P-51_Mustang_42-106763_Snoot's_Sniper_FRE_006033.jpg

It does show a pretty strong, dark blue shade. I'd say Tamiya's mix recommendation ought to get you pretty close.

[Greenghost]

Hello Seawinder,

 

Thank you for your post and yes it was a typo. 

 

I also have the recommendation from Gunze using H-15 and that is straight out of thr bottle, so I guess will go with that. 

 

Regards

[caiotfjr]

Both colours are the same shade of blue, X-4 is gloss and XF-8 is flat. They followed the recipe in other kits, with other colours, for example, in the P-51B, one should mix equal parts of X7 (gloss red) and XF-7 (flat red). I think the purpose is to produce a satin finish. to the colours. In both kits I skipped the advice, prefering to adjust the sheen with clear finishes

[peter havriluk]

I'm going to make a guess here, that defining the precise colors used is unlikely.  There was a war on, and the airplanes in question were at the far end of a supply chain,  My guess is that folks did the best they could, and that would vary day to day depending on who mixed the paint out of what sources.  My military time was partly spent repainting our shop vehicles in Korea.  I mixed up what I thought was a decent OD and blew it on.  Nobody cared so long as the trucks were green.  I guarantee the paint mix was eyeballed, not mixed to a documented proportion.