This one I’ve been working on and off at work during lunch or as a morning warmup since last November. Obviously it was really slow going working on it sporadically so I took it home to finish up! It’s based on American ace William Beyer’s account of his dogfight with German ace Klaus Mietusch, which I read in high school and always stuck with me: "....we made many violent high-G maneuvers with wide open throttle. When I started to close and fire, I noticed that his plane seemed to have stopped in the air. I had to decide whether to shoot and run, or to try to stop my plane. I cut throttle, lowered flaps, and dropped my wheels- I still kept closing. I had to fishtail and do flat weaves to stay behind him. This maneuver was repeated three times, and on one occasion I almost cut his tail off, we were so close. Then we started into steep dives. The last one was at around 1,000 feet with flaps down. This last maneuver was deadly and nerve-wracking. He went straight down toward the ground, hoping I couldn't pull out. If I pulled out early, he could have come in behind me, so I stayed with him. If we had had our wheels down when we pulled out, we would have been on the ground. It was after this pullout that I finally was able to get my sights lined up and fire at him. I must have hit him with the first burst, because he kept turning and went into the ground and broke up. Knowing the caliber of this German pilot, I am sure that if I had taken the time to get off some shots when he was slowing down he could have possibly shot me down or made a getaway." #p51 #p51mustang #bf109 #warbird #warbirds #aircombat #ww2fighter #acepilot #usairforce #luftwaffe #aviationart #aviationartist #artistsofinstagram #wacomcintiq #ww2history #worldwar2 #secondworldwar https://www.instagram.com/p/Bx1S-nal719/?igshid=5trep6cnxv66