Weathered P51B Mustang "Skylark II"

This Weathered P51B skin is based on an aircraft of the 376th.Fighter 
Squadron, 361st.Fighter Group of the 8th.USAAF stationed at Bottisham 
England during Allied Invasion of Europe: circa June 1944.

My objective for this first project was to create a skin of an aircraft that 
looked both battle worn and weary. Paint clipping, scuff metal, fuel and oil 
staining, exhaust and gun powder smudges, sun faded paint finish and 
undercarriage mud were all tried, to achieve this look.

The aircraft's colour scheme and Squadron markings where derived from a 
coloured aircraft profile plate found in a 1980 Jane's Publication "P51 
Mustang" aircraft series by Robert Grinsell and Rikyu Watanabe. The colours 
are as accurate as possible with the use of standard EAW Palette. Further 
reference material came from a 1982 Squadron/Signals Publication "Flying 
Colours- P51 Mustang in Color" by Larry Davis....

The P51B bare metal base model for this skin comes from Mr. Johnson's 
Sandbagger EAW Dispersal page. This bare metal skin is a 'ready to paint' 
model developed by Mr.Johnson with the contributions from Jeff 'Salty' 
Salter, Cord Hartmann and Claudio Wilches....

I have included in this download Migge's excellent P51B/C Virtual Cockpit 
because IMHO his instrument panel clusters are first rate....

Personally, I'd like to take a moment to thank Anthony, Gramps and Black12 
for their interest and encouragement.
Shadow Dragon and Mosi for their excellent Skinning Tutorials. Look, Mosi, 
I'm walking!
Mr.Johnson, Major Lee and Captain Kurt for coming to my rescue when I was 
lost in the 'muck and mire' of my first skinning project....Finally, special 
thanks to Alessandro Borges for his excellent EAW Batch File Converter V1.5 
Utility...

The download includes all *.tpc, *.3dz and *.pcx files. The latter begin 
included so you can review how the graphic weathering technique was done....
To install simple copy all the *.tpc and *.3dz files into your EAW main 
directory or as required by Stab or Skins & More....

One last comment, confession really, this skin is an attempt of an actuate 
portrayal of a P51B that flew with 376th.FS. However the name "Skylark II" 
is fictious. The original name of this particular P51B was "SLEEPY TYME 
GAL". I found that I couldn't get it to fit under the exhaust manifolds 
because of the limiting pixel sizes. Besides it's my first skin. I'm pleased 
with how it turned out. So I put my callsign name on it. Artist's 
license....

Enjoy and watch your six .... Skylark
