My New IL2 Video Research Thread...

[lesofprimus]

Mornin guys.....

Bill, we really need to try and find a decent pic of Johnson for his pilot skin.... If its gonna be he and Bert in the closeup department, we gotta try and find a shot of him we can use, cause the one of him in the deck chair wont cut it....

Any hope??? I searched Little Friends to no avail...

 

[lesofprimus]

Couple screen shots of the first combat action, the dive/bounce.... I still have yet to get a kill on the dive Bill, but I've been able to get some strikes in....

How he blew that one 109 up is beyond me, musta hit em right in the tank...

 

[drgondog]

Couple screen shots of the first combat action, the dive/bounce.... I still have yet to get a kill on the dive Bill, but I've been able to get some strikes in....

How he blew that one 109 up is beyond me, musta hit em right in the tank...

i went through 1500 photos to find that one of johnson but i will go back one more time.

In dad's encounter report he said he started shooting at 350 yards/20 degrees deflection and got immediate strikes all over him. He could have hit ammo or fuel or both from that angle..

Great looking shot and composition - the empty casings almost look like 7.62x39 or 7.62x51 with that stubby look - but very cool and realistic looking.

One thing - that Mustang in final form for 9/11 will have white rudder and 1/2 invasion stripes on fuse.

The one depicted would have been Jane VII in Spring 1945 - with 472953 serial number - only surviving Jane

 

[lesofprimus]

Yea Bill, thats the only one I got right now, just to get in the mood.... Hopefully u can get a shot of Johnson, somewhere... It will really add to the realism, watchin what Bert does from his cockpit.....

I worked some on the 2nd shootdown and subsequent strafe.... Not gonna be easy.... Still alot of tweakin for that part....

 

[drgondog]

Yea Bill, thats the only one I got right now, just to get in the mood.... Hopefully u can get a shot of Johnson, somewhere... It will really add to the realism, watchin what Bert does from his cockpit.....

I worked some on the 2nd shootdown and subsequent strafe.... Not gonna be easy.... Still alot of tweakin for that part....

That looks good. I don't have a clue how you can the 109 wing actually on the ground.. what can you do about getting rid of prop and raising manuever flap?

Oh BTW, I found out after review of all the encounter reports I have that I screwed up the flights - not the Order of Battle, not the airplanes or pilots assigned - but Henry was leading BLUE and Peglar was leading YELLOW..
so if any narrative is used swap Blue for Yellow. Red and Blue were first section, Yellow and Green were second section

Priest's encounter is particularly interesting as it was a low speed, low altitude manuevering fight with an apparently pretty good 109 pilot.

 

[lesofprimus]

Damn, sure glad u caught that Bill, excellent researchin Brother.... With the extra reports, it clears up some questions regarding the formation run up to the B-24 Box.....

Yellow Flight was at 8'oclock to the -24's
Blue Flight was 9'oclock
Red Flight was 7'oclock

Perfect Bill... I gotta move the formation around some to get Red and Blue flights in the correct spots, but it'll be worth it to get the accuracy down....

 

[drgondog]

Damn, sure glad u caught that Bill, excellent researchin Brother.... With the extra reports, it clears up some questions regarding the formation run up to the B-24 Box.....

Yellow Flight was at 8'oclock to the -24's
Blue Flight was 9'oclock
Red Flight was 7'oclock

Perfect Bill... I gotta move the formation around some to get Red and Blue flights in the correct spots, but it'll be worth it to get the accuracy down....

I would think about one thing here. Red is in lead of the Red/Blue section and Yellow is in lead of the Yellow Green.. but what it really means is that 354 was sweeping the topside/backside as near as I can tell.

One of the escort tactics for trail squadron and top squadron was an Ess like a Thatch Weave where the two sections were somewhat spread out with say Blue flying high cover to Red, and Green flying high cover to Yellow.

With Yellow 'between' Red and Blue relative to the B-24s, the Yellow/Green section could have sweeping over Red/Blue going the other way

 

[lesofprimus]

But since Im only modeling Red and Blue Sections, all I need to know is that the -51's were at 7 and 9'oclock and above the -24's, with the 109's above them coming from 11'oclock and essing into the -24's from 5'oclock, diving straight down.....

 

[GrauGeist]

This entire weekend has been a POS...nothing but difficulties...blah

The skins have been no exception, I went to add weathering layers, and it started changing the over-all skin's appearance when I finalized/converted the skin file...talk about a effin' pain in the a**...wanted to beat my Grafix PC with a baseball bat (numerous times), but I managed to talk myself out of it...I think...

I had to completely re-do the weathering/environmental layers and naturally I found a few flaws here and there, so those had to be fixed as well...

I also scrounged around the 'net some to find any sort of actual images that would show me a good photo that revealed chipped paint, and I didn't see any ETO P-51 crates that were chipped, though I did see a few that were pretty filthy. I tried a little "freehand" chipping, and the poor thing looked like it flew out of Rabual for a year or so, so I nixed that idea...lol

The finalized skins will be rolling in now, the first is Woolard's WR-W in a three-view screenshot-fest...

 

[lesofprimus]

Sorry to hear about the weekend Dave, they happen every now and then, and they do indeed suck ass...

Thanks for goin through the weathering pickle... Woolards crate looks great.... Bill, does it pass the muster????

Dave, can u post up the file or do u need to email it????

Also, what u think abou the pilot skins??? Can we utilize the pics above??? Im not sure quite how to do it....

 

[GrauGeist]

Well, you know...there'll be days, and then there'll be days...

I'll email the skins to you as they roll off the presses, and I think we can do the pilots, I was actually considering doing Bert's anyway...so you were sorta thinking along the same lines I was

I'm finishing the weathering on WR-P (Rafferty) at the moment.

Here is Spencer's WR-Y in a three view:

 

[GrauGeist]

Here's three views of Rafferty's WR-P...

Not sure why, but Rafferty's ride looks alot cleaner than it really is...

We can compare it to the earlier screenshots, but I think the time of day is causing the sun's reflection to shine-up the dirt soil, because this crate is filthy!!

 

[lesofprimus]

Looks pretty damn good Dave..... The time of the video is gonna be around noontime and slightly after....

 

[drgondog]

Sorry to hear about the weekend Dave, they happen every now and then, and they do indeed suck ass...

Thanks for goin through the weathering pickle... Woolards crate looks great.... Bill, does it pass the muster????

Dave, can u post up the file or do u need to email it????

Also, what u think abou the pilot skins??? Can we utilize the pics above??? Im not sure quite how to do it....

First - I found a pic of Johnson and will scan. Not great but not terrible.

Second - the firing sequence on WRY has the 50's too far apart. I have attached photos to show but essentially the 51B had center and outboard 50s and both were ~ 7-8" apart. Three gun battery fit inside one white invasion stripe (~15") starting just outboard of landing gear cover out to just inside the bomb/drop tank shackle.

Included a plan view of a 51 with horizontal stabilizer stripe. My sense is that Dave is very close.

Dave, if you have a scale elevator trim tab, the inner edge bisects the stripe.

 

[lesofprimus]

The gun location is going to be un-changeable Bill, but Dave should be able to relocate the stripes to line them up where they need to be if they're not where they're supposed to be....

Hopefully the shot of Johnson will be a keeper.....

 

[drgondog]

The gun location is going to be un-changeable Bill, but Dave should be able to relocate the stripes to line them up where they need to be if they're not where they're supposed to be....

Hopefully the shot of Johnson will be a keeper.....

Keep the stripes where they are, very few will pick up on gun locations.

Johnson's pic will be ok is small scale.. it's only a little fuzzy in 4x5

 

[lesofprimus]

Small is ok Bill, as long as he's lookin at the camera.....

Heres a sample of what a pilot skin looks like....

 

[drgondog]

Small is ok Bill, as long as he's lookin at the camera.....

Heres a sample of what a pilot skin looks like....

Nope - it's not full face. I'll get to it (scan) later when I get home from a trip. I'm in Portland airport now. This pic is taken from maybe 1030 instead of 1200.

 

[Chocks away!]

The face can be presumably distorted in photoshop to look right...

Les be aware that Bf-109 G-6 and Bf-109 G-6 late skins are not compatible because of the different tail.

I'm amazed at the events you manage to set up! Is it just trial and error until the Bf-109 crash lands and you can record it, or do you have another pilot online?

 

[drgondog]

Small is ok Bill, as long as he's lookin at the camera.....

Heres a sample of what a pilot skin looks like....

Dan - this is it. It is a copy of a copy but the only one I can find in 1500 photos