Sport Cruiser processing. Which?

#1 or #2? What do you guys think?

1.

I want to like this but I feel like its just too dark. I like where you are going with it but you may have gone too far. Im curious as to what the original looks like.

Also I dont see a huge difference between them. No 1 looks a tad brighter.

There are actually 15, maybe 16, originals all stacked. I used 1 speedlight on a wireless trigger and walked around the plane aiming the flash where I wanted and triggering the camera and flash from my flash (I really like these Yongnuo RF603's).

It was more of an experiment to see how the speedlight could overpower the sun. I shot it around 3:00pm on a crystal clear day and the sun over my right shoulder about 45-50 degrees. I wanted something dramatic and I feel I got what I was after but I still appreciate your insight.

I PP'd the 2nd one with a little more gritty/edgey feel.

Added the SOOC for comparison. Well, the first layer at least.

I vote for the second version. The sky looks better in this image. In the first pic, I can see something around the upper prop blade, a shadow appearance that doesn't look completely realistic.

I like #2 also

I like #1 better because the color of the light on the wheels and under the plane looks more correct.