The Colour Scheme
The serial number on this aircraft is unknown (I used a made up serial number from the kit decals) but it was flown by FO James Montgomery of 4FS/52FG, Corsica, in early 1944. This is the second `Impatient Virgin` of FO Montgomery and the only photo reference to it can be found in `Classic Warbirds Series 44`by Paul Ludwig & M. Laird, Ventura Publications 2000.
Once dry the lower blue was hard masked of using Tamiya masking tape and the lighter Middle Stone was applied. The camouflage scheme was then masked of with Blu-Tack and the inner sections with tape. This gave a nice ‘feathered’ effect between the middle stone and dark earth colours.
Next stage was to give everything a gloss coat and apply a combination of the kit and aftermarket decals. The kit decals were used for the stencilling and the aftermarkets for the main markings. The aftermarket decals went on with no problems in general except that the lower wing US insignia need quite a bit of Micro Sol to get it to conform to a ‘bulge’. The kit ones on the other hand were quite thick and did have a tendency to silver so watch out if you use these. Once all the decals were in place and fully dry everything was sealed in with a coat of Klear and a panel was of Promodeller Dark Wash was added to highlight the panel lining. The final part of this stage was a matt varnish to dull everything down and the model was left to dry overnight.
Whilst the main assembly was drying off I painted and assembled the propeller/spinner. The spinner shape look fine but the propeller blades do look a bit on the thin side when compared to both reference photos and the Tamiya ones. Again I could be wrong but I`ll just stick to them as they are.