Pilot Project: P-51B Part 3
My pilot-painting skills need further development.
So do my photography skills.
The first thing you need to know to paint a guy is what he’s supposed to be wearing. This pilot is wearing a full leather ensemble from Dicker and Dicker of Beverly Hills. Flying over Germany in 1944 at 35000 feet was either cold or very cold.
But pilots of the time had learned to fly in open cockpits and understood how to dress warmly. Still, most U.S. pilots disliked the P-38 for high altitude missions over Germany because the heater didn’t work.
But even in the P-51 (which was either a “Cadillac” or a “Spam Can” depending upon who you talked to) fur and leather were required to avoid hypothermia. Ralph Hofer here is wearing “pink” pants, but the boots, gloves and jacket are fur or fleece (wool) lined. Fleece (or fur) shows at all the “edges” and that big “thing” near his neck is the fleece collar of the leather jacket.
All that brown and tan and khaki can blur together if you’re not very careful painting such a small figure. Did I succeed?
As Ronald Reagan once said: “Well…”
Fleece collars nice 🙂
That’s a good job for 1/72 Dan. And the pilot figure itself seems very well cast. Most of the pilot figures I have come across are in their standard uniform, with very few sporting leather jackets et al. Not to mention the various holes and heavy seam lines, alien heads, etc.