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  • Please see the most recent updates in the "Where did the .com name go?" thread. Posts number 16 and 17.

    Post 16 Update

    Post 17 Warning

Warbirdsim P-51D-5-NA Little Friends II OUT NOW! (Pay-ware)

I may never purchase the Warbirdsim P-51 packages simply because of price.

But I can tell you have read every post that has been made.
The information that has been provided about the different variants has been a real learning experience.

I am amazed about the research and knowledge of the developers.

That alone is worth a salute.:salute:

VCN-1
 
these two are now on OZx, hope you like them...

FX13663-1.jpg


Martin's Gloria

FX13756-1.jpg


the Flying Dutchman
 
Jankees,

thanks for the Flying Dutchman.. Im using it on a later variant but it looks great..

Thanks,

Creeps..
 
DaveQ said:
You'll need to create your own alpha, spec and spec_alpha when you're 110% happy with the basic paint scheme on the P-51D_2_T file. Use John's .psd files from the paint kit as your basis and copy in your layers from P-51D_2_T. Then follow John's colours to get the shine and reflection you want. Lots of work but worth it!!

DaveQ
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice Dave but after a few hours of trying i have given up on this one. I just cant be bleeped.

I can only say i admire all the real expert painter who really have the know how, talent and patience :applause:
:applause::applause:
:applause::applause::applause::applause:
 
Miss Ruth - Work in Progress

Hi, Just thought I'd post a WIP screenshot of a repaint I'm working on. It's "MISS Ruth" of the 4th FS 52nd FG. Still a bit to do and not up to the standards of the expert painters but what the heck I'm enjoying myself and welcome the opportunity to give something back to this fantastic community of ours. While I'm at it I'd appreciate any info or additional reference material in relation to this particular aircraft that anyone can supply. I'm working from a single starboard side photo. Strangely enough I've found a port side photo of the same aircraft on the web but it bears the name "PENDAJA." I'm not sure if the photos are from the same period and relate to the same aircraft/pilot (i.e. with different names on each side of the plane) or if the plane changed hands and was renamed. Any info would be much appreciated. Thanks PS it's be said many times already but I'll say it again "Thank you Warbirdsim for such a great aircraft" :applause:
 
G'day John,

I have a couple of questions for you.

1. I am doing a repaint of the P-51D VH-AUB in an all red schem it carried in the 60s and 70s. At various time it carried either the 108 Gallon or 70 Gallon drop tanks. The paintkit contains both of these tanks. I would like to have the aircraft cfg file to show it in either clean, 108 gallon tanks or the 70 gallon tanks. The only problem is that it needs to be entered into the "Little Friends" Fillet folder but there is only the one model to choose from. Is there another folder with the filleted aircraft that models the drop tanks?

2. Can you please tell me the RGB combinations you use to get the metal or aluminium finish. Also the combinations for the other colours would help also. I do have copies of colour swatches from the Simmers Paint Shop Forum but they dont seem to work for me. I would appreciate the formular so my paints will blend in with your original work.

Answers will be much appreciated.

EDIT: Took me forever to work out how to get the large rego letters on the sides of the fuselage and the wings but finally got it with much perserverance.
 
AussieMan said:
G'day John,

I have a couple of questions for you.

1. I am doing a repaint of the P-51D VH-AUB in an all red schem it carried in the 60s and 70s. At various time it carried either the 108 Gallon or 70 Gallon drop tanks. The paintkit contains both of these tanks. I would like to have the aircraft cfg file to show it in either clean, 108 gallon tanks or the 70 gallon tanks. The only problem is that it needs to be entered into the "Little Friends" Fillet folder but there is only the one model to choose from. Is there another folder with the filleted aircraft that models the drop tanks?

2. Can you please tell me the RGB combinations you use to get the metal or aluminium finish. Also the combinations for the other colours would help also. I do have copies of colour swatches from the Simmers Paint Shop Forum but they dont seem to work for me. I would appreciate the formular so my paints will blend in with your original work.

Answers will be much appreciated.

EDIT: Took me forever to work out how to get the large rego letters on the sides of the fuselage and the wings but finally got it with much perserverance.
Click to expand...

Pat,

The only paintkit that has both 108-gallon paper tanks and 75-gallon metal tanks, is the one for "Little Friends I". The "Little Friends II" product only has 75-gallon metal tanks (the earliest of the two) on all of the variants included. So if you are making a repaint with the "Little Friends I" paintkit, it needs to be applied to a model in the "Little Friends I" product (and just the same for the the "Little Friends II" paintkit only being applicable for the "Little Friends II" models). There are other problems that will occur as well, if you try using the "Little Friends I" paintkit for the "Little Friends II" product, or the "Little Friends II" paintkit for the "Little Friends I" product. For instance, even the ports in the wings, for where the drop tanks are plumbed into, are different, because they changed over the development of the P-51D, and thus those are different as well as the plumbing itself (so by using the wrong template, the plumbing won't look to be going into the proper ports in the wings). This is not to mention different panel lines, rivets and fastener layouts, etc., depending on which paintkit-to-model combination you select.

When making a repaint for the "Little Friends I" product, there is a folder for all models with 108-gallon drop tanks, and there is another folder for only models with 75-gallon drop tanks. The Aircraft configuration files are set up differently to match, one with 108-gallon external tank entries, and the other with 75-gallon external tank entries.

(BTW, you may be thinking of a different 108-gallon drop tank type than those that were modeled for the "Little Friends I" product, as the 108-gallon paper tanks were extremely temporary. Within 5-7 hours of putting gas in them, the laminants in the paper would break-down, and the tanks would turn into mush - so they were of one-time use only, and not something you would want to invest in, unless in time of war. I seem to recall that they were limited to English-based Fighter Groups as well, being manufactured in England, so they never found their way out of the UK, and they were never sold surplus after the war, but most all of them were destroyed in the immediate years following the war. The mass-destruction of them came after some English children had begun taking them and cutting them in half, and using them as canoes. Because of the paper laminant, they would start to break-down within several hours of use, and a few kids ended up drowning because of this. Today, it is extremely rare to find any of these still around, with perhaps as many as 4-5 known originals in the world today. There were 110 gallon metal tanks, as depicted on the Iwo Jima model, and there might have been 108-gallon metal tanks after the war, but they weren't anything like the 108-gal paper tanks modeled as per the original WWII-types).

Also, all of the models display cleanly, without drop tanks, from the get-go, though they each have them (either 75-gallon metal, 108-gallon paper, or 110-gallon metal, depending on which variant(s)). You need to look over the user guide that comes with each of the "Little Friends" products, which shows how to add/remove the drop tanks from within the cockpit, by using a couple of switches that were used originally to start the arming process for the drop tanks. By using the other arming switch, or switches, depending on which model of P-51D you're flying, you can then release the tanks using the manual release levers, or the button on top of the control stick.

On the last part, I would suggest for you to use all of the various alpha channel, specular map, and specular map alpha channels to guide you toward using the RGB color values, for instance taking the color finder/dropper, and identifying the color values that way, for the metal and the markings, which are all within the ballpark of what I used on each paint scheme in the recently released "Little Friends II", and the soon to be released revised textures for "Little Friends I".
 
Thank you for that information John. The reason I asked this question because during the period between the 50s and late 70s several Australian Mustangs were used as target tugs for the Royal Australian Navy. In this role they were fitted with external fuel tanks. Looking at the size of the tanks they probably were 110 gallon metal tanks.

Now to be able to get my hands on a book about Aussie 'stangs in private hands from the 50s onwards. I used to own such a book until I loaned it to a workmate who got sacked and left town before I had a chance to get it back. It contained numerous colour photos of various aircraft in different paint schemes. Some have been through as many as 4 sets of hands each obtaining a different colour schems. Some aircraft have been sold overseas while some have met a sad end when they argued with the terrain. One I am extremely interested is the one painted in the Castrol Oils colours. It crashed near Athens while on its way to London to take part in an England - Australia air race in the early 70s.

As I am making good progress on VH-AUB I now have the bug and if anyone has photos (colour) could they please post them so I can use them as a guide.
 
coming back to "Miss Ruth", I am assuming you based your paint on that nice color pic of three Mustangs, with "miss Ruth " in front?
View attachment 52859
According to my information ("Spitfires and Yellow tail Mustangs" by Tom Ivie and Paul Ludwig), 44-13287 WD-M was the aircraft assigned to lt. William Parent, and it has several pictures of the right side to show that it carried his name just below and in front of the cockpit, and the name "Pendaja" just below and behind the exhaust. It seems it was used in the rescue of Lt. Wilson, who was shot down on september 1 1944, and consequently picked up under enemy fire by Major Exum, flying 287. It has pictures of the two pilots squeezed in the cockpit of Pendaja. So, it carried both names. But did it do so at the same time?
The pic showing "Miss Ruth" s a color pic, the pics in the book are b/w, so they could have been taken at different times. But I also found this pic:
View attachment 52858

another air-to-air shot in color! And no fillet either, so this was taken somewhere around the same time as your pic, after the application of the yellow tails, but before the installment of the fillets. This could very well have been taken during the same photosession the other pic was taken, so my suggestion would be that it carried two different names on either side of the aircraft. Am I certain? No. But it seems logical to assume that it did, especially since I have found no evidence that another pilot flew this aircraft.
Another point in favor: one side shows just the pilots name, the other side the names of the crew chief and armorer. It quite often happened that the crew chief would name the aircraft as well, but on the other side. So my suggestion would be: paint names on both sides! More fun too.
btw, do you notice that the 'WD' consists of stencilled letters, and that the white outline is not an true outline, but more a displaced background? It would be nice if you can incorporate that too. Also, the letters look more like black to me, rather than red.

Hope this helps?
 
Jan,

Thanks for the feedback and guidance, much appreciated. The two pictures are the same as I've been using. I had done some digging for myself whilst waiting for your reply and had, pretty much, come to the same conclusion. However, it's nice to have it verified by such an established repaint artist.

I realise that the WD lettering is not quite correct. I've been trying to find a suitable font but haven't, as yet, found and exact match. I also realise that the white is more of a shadow than an outline but rest assured I'm working on it. I live and learn :icon_lol:

Best regards,

Richard.


jankees said:
coming back to "Miss Ruth", I am assuming you based your paint on that nice color pic of three Mustangs, with "miss Ruth " in front?
View attachment 52859
According to my information ("Spitfires and Yellow tail Mustangs" by Tom Ivie and Paul Ludwig), 44-13287 WD-M was the aircraft assigned to lt. William Parent, and it has several pictures of the right side to show that it carried his name just below and in front of the cockpit, and the name "Pendaja" just below and behind the exhaust. It seems it was used in the rescue of Lt. Wilson, who was shot down on september 1 1944, and consequently picked up under enemy fire by Major Exum, flying 287. It has pictures of the two pilots squeezed in the cockpit of Pendaja. So, it carried both names. But did it do so at the same time?
The pic showing "Miss Ruth" s a color pic, the pics in the book are b/w, so they could have been taken at different times. But I also found this pic:
View attachment 52858

another air-to-air shot in color! And no fillet either, so this was taken somewhere around the same time as your pic, after the application of the yellow tails, but before the installment of the fillets. This could very well have been taken during the same photosession the other pic was taken, so my suggestion would be that it carried two different names on either side of the aircraft. Am I certain? No. But it seems logical to assume that it did, especially since I have found no evidence that another pilot flew this aircraft.
Another point in favor: one side shows just the pilots name, the other side the names of the crew chief and armorer. It quite often happened that the crew chief would name the aircraft as well, but on the other side. So my suggestion would be: paint names on both sides! More fun too.
btw, do you notice that the 'WD' consists of stencilled letters, and that the white outline is not an true outline, but more a displaced background? It would be nice if you can incorporate that too. Also, the letters look more like black to me, rather than red.

Hope this helps?
Click to expand...
 
you can always draw the letters by hand, shouldn't be too difficult. I don't think you'll find a suitable font, though you never know
 
here's a couple of wip shots of my next paint project: Still with the 20th FG, but now in the late war nose markings, for the 79th FG, and for the D-5 with fillet.
Fuselage is nearly done, and then it's on to the wings...

FX13910.jpg


FX13916.jpg


FX13917.jpg


44-13873 was the assigned aircraft of Lt Thomas 'Tom' M. Gardner of Atlanta, Georgia. He flew with the 79th between 7 july 1944 and 15 jan 1945, when his tour was complete.
The aircraft crashed and was destroyed during a training flight on 6 march 1945, unfortunately killing its pilot, Lt. Mark F. Smith.
 
not sure anybody cares, but I think these were my last modifications on this paint, I hope to upload soonish..

FX13979.jpg


FX13986.jpg


FX13987.jpg
 
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