DC Comics 1/72 - Johnny Cloud, the Navajo Ace (P-51D Mustang)

[strobez]

Alright, 2021 seems like a good time to kick off a new era in my personal modelling career.  It's been a long few months after moving back to Canada from Korea at the end of August. New responsibilities at work, lots of home renos at our new/old house (after renting it out for the past seven years), oh... and that pesky little global pandemic business.

Anyway, as part of the home renos, I was able to raise some walls, put in a floor, and generally make a small portion of the basement habitable.  Dubbed the "Monkey Business Room" by my lovely wife... the monkey business has begun!

It's a bit strange having so much space compared to my tiny little workshop behind the bar in our apartment in Seoul.  However, I had to give up much of my paint and glues and whatnot during the move. So finding my groove has been a bit of a challenge - I either don't have what I'm looking for... or it's now int a totally different spot than it used to be.

Of course, instead of trying to find my old groove, I decided to just create a new one.  So, symbolically at least, why not kick off a new project "line" in the process. One thing about being back in Canada - I was reunited with my rather large comic book collection. Pouring over the books made me realize I could open up a new branch of modelling subjects (alongside, not replacing, Tintin and Area 88) - DC Comics War Heroes. So, to kick it off, I pulled one of the cheaper (and strangely plentiful) kits from my stash - the Academy P-51 Mustang.  I'm not sure why I have so many Mustangs in my stash, I'm not particularly a fan, but why not.

Johnny "Flying" Cloud, aka the Navajo Ace is a Native American pilot that first appeared in the 1960's in DC Comics All-American Men of War.  A moderate success, after is series was cancelled, he popped up numerous times in G.I. Combat as a guest star in The Haunted Tank stories, before landing a supporting role in the group of misfits known as The Losers.

Oh, and if this one looks a bit familiar to you and you're not sure why... Roy Lichtenstein's famous pop art painting "Whaam!" is based off a panel from All-American Men of War #89... by Irv Novick and my reference panel is from All-American Men of War #86.

You can read all about it here - comicsvault.blogspot.com/201..ic-youve-never-heard_07.html

Since this is a model project I just recently completed, I'll skip the pic-by-pic commentary... it's all pretty self explanatory. I'll save that for the other two DC Comics projects I'm currently working on - stay tuned!

[PR19_Kit]

Good to see you back Greg, moving house, countries AND continents at this time can't have been much fun, well done you. 

And I'm glad to see you haven't lost your touch with the electrical gizmos, but you'll have to re-print those dummy Tamiya paint pots in a different scale to keep us all guessing...........

[chrisonord]

Very nice  build Strobez
Here's to your  new life 
Chris

[zenrat]

Whamm is one of my favourite art works.  It's a surprisingly large painting.


Good to see you going large scale now you have more room.

[kitbasher]

Visited Tate Modern in the summer for the first time in a while.  Had seen 'Whaam!' before but only on this visit did I spot that it's a 'blue on blue' engagement.  Had always assumed it was F-51D v MiG-15 but it isn't! 
Unless my eyes failed me it's F-51D v F-86E.

[tigercat]

Reminds me very much of all those War comics they used to have , Victor , Warlord , Battle , Commando etc.

Warlord was by another D.C this time D C Thomson

[Dizzyfugu]

Hmm, that could even work as a full diorama, re-enacting the painting's scene?

[kitbasher]

Reminds me very much of all those War comics they used to have , Victor , Warlord , Battle , Commando etc.

Warlord was by another D.C this time D C Thomson

Comics GB theme, perhaps?  Inspired by covers, characters, etc.  Matt Braddock VC could inspire a lot of aircraft builds, for example.

[tigercat]

Very randomly there is a whole series of Biggles Graphic novels in french

[NARSES2]

That's really come out well 

[Flyer]

Not familiar with the comic but the model look's great!

Regarding what you said about how many P-51's are strangely plentiful in your stash made me think I have found the same thing with Spitfire's, I don't dislike the Spitfire but I don't go looking for them either, in my small stash there are 8 Spitfire's (could be more if there are any forgotten ones in storage) in it. I don't have any more than 4 of two aircraft types I do like and have searched for, most others are only 1 maybe 2 of, it's weird...

[tigercat]

Maybe they breed when you're not looking

[strobez]

I would LOVE a comic book GB... I have plans for several more DC Comics ones alone.

I fixed the link in the first post, but in case you didn't see it, here's some good background - comicsvault.blogspot.com/201..ic-youve-never-heard_07.html

Interestingly, in the story itself Johnny Cloud flies his Mustang into a magic cloud and it comes out as an F-86 and blows up a MiG-15 in the famous panel. However, Lichtenstein's version of it inserts the F-86 as the victim and uses the P-51D from earlier in the story as the aggressor.  Here's the pages in question:

[PR19_Kit]

Shouldn't he have been flying an F-80 if he wanted to be a 'Shooting Star'?