Anyone like B-57s

Mick

Mick

SOH-CM-2025
Once again I've distracted myself from the tedious work of setting up my sims on my present computer by painting a plane (two, actually) that's been around for quite a while, but is new to me due to my hiatus from the hobby.

Before I upload my paints I'm asking if anyone's still interested in the plane, partly because I'd like to know that someone is interested before I upload the repaints, but more because a similar thread about my PBY paints led to an interesting conversation and some very interesting tales and pics of real PBYs.

This time I started with another Alpha Simulations product, their Martin B-57 Canberra (known as the Intruder to the USAF.) I was happy to see that painting the B-57 presented none of the trickiness that the PBY did.

As with the PBY, I started with an attempt to correct a couple of errors in the stock paint jobs. And as with the PBY, once I got started I went a bit overboard.

Here's a shot of one of the corrected stock paints:


View attachment 10480

AlphaSims put the correct markings on the wrong base - they painted the plane Aircraft Gray and it was really natural metal. So with a little help from Henry William, I transposed AlphaSims' markings onto a natural metal finish.

Then I got going on things like those lovely pink and silver target tugs:

View attachment 10481

And something to show the fighter-like sleekness of the Intruder without tip tanks:

View attachment 10482

Then some black ones in the early night intruder scheme:

View attachment 10483

The list goes on and on.

Once I did a bunch of B-57B variants I wanted some early B-57As, so I dug out Bill Holker's old Canberra B.2 and made a series of paints of that. Here's an early RB-57A with non-standard national insignia:

View attachment 10484

And a silver one:

View attachment 10485

And one without tip tanks:

View attachment 10486

Again, the list goes on, but this should give an idea of what I've been up to.

Anyone interested?
 
Strange! Just before I went online I was thinking "B-57s".
I like that metal finish! Looking good! I am interested!
 
They've been uploaded. There are ten sets of paints, with two to five paints per set, representing the service of the Intruder from the earliest pattern aircraft supplied by English Electric to the end of their career as electronic aggressors. I didn't do any camouflage schemes because the type's Vietnam War service has been well covered by other painters and modelers. (I'm not very good at camo schemes anyway.)

I know I went a little bit overboard. For example, we probably don't really need five B-57E target tugs with three of them differing only in the color of their tip tanks. But they look good with tanks of all those colors, and the type was in fact photographed with tanks of all those colors, so rather than decide among them I just did them all.

I also went overboard on the Vermont Air National Guard. I have fond memories of their B-57s. When The Green Mountain Boys flew the B-57 in the electronic aggressor role they painted their planes in some very spiffy variations on the "ADC Gray" livery, and they painted several planes in variations on the old gloss black night intruder scheme. In those days I used to vacation at Lake George, New York, a long narrow glacial lake (32 miles long, one to two and a half miles wide) with steep, high mountains rising a couple thousand feet above lake level on both sides, and dotted with hundreds of tiny islands. I often watched those planes as they ran the lake at ultra-low level, coming up from the southern end flying so low sometimes that they had to pull up to clear the trees when they approached an island, or even to clear the masts of sailboats. At the northern end of the lake they'd climb up to transit the pass at Ticonderoga, then continue up Lake Champlain to their base at Burlington International Airport. I also got many close up looks at those planes on the ground at various air shows and open houses in the New York & New England area. Painting those planes really took me back to those happy days.
 
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Vermont ANG

Here's one of their more standard paint jobs:

View attachment 10516

And a somewhat fancier one:

View attachment 10517

One in the "retro" scheme with red lettering:

View attachment 10518

And one with white lettering:

View attachment 10519

AlphaSims gave us one of their C models in a fancy version of the "ADC Gray" livery, that I made a couple minor corrections to:

View attachment 10520

And there's a very nice camouflaged EB of this unit painted by Russel R. Smith, available at FlightSim.com, to "complete the set."
 
Mick I am interested in every single one you can crank out. You couldn't paint enough.

My interest in this aircraft began as an adolescent when I inherited from someone else in the family a model of a B-57, black in color, with red markings on it (Revell?). I didn't make the actual acquaintance of the aircraft until I was assigned by the AF to Forbes AFB, Kansas in March, 1973. The 190th Bomb Group (Light) of the Kansas Air National Guard was stationed at Forbes and flew B-57Gs in SEA camo. They had one "A" model in the inventory they kept in immaculate natural metal finish. I was privileged to be allowed to go out on the flight line several times and get to look at them up close. What was even more interesting was watching them come back to Forbes after heading to Smoky Hill, or wherever their air-to-ground range was, and make their breaks over the numbers to get into the landing pattern. They always tipped themselves right up on their sides so you got a full plan-form view of the underside. Accompanying this was a long drawn-out unearthly howl from the engines. I never heard anything like that before or since.

This would have been the perfect "Batplane" for Batman, with that wing shape - and the all-black paint.

PS Mick - I think if you look closely at one or two of those AS B-57s, or some of the repaints available before you did your thing, there are a couple of discrepancies re: the paint jobs, in particular the placement of national insignia (i.e., underside of wrong wing). Do you think you can correct these? If you did please disregard.
 
SSI01 said:
... there are a couple of discrepancies re: the paint jobs, in particular the placement of national insignia (i.e., underside of wrong wing)...
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AUUGGGHHHH !!! You're right, and I should've spotted it!

The error originated in one of the Alpha Sims paints and was propagated twice, once by me directly and once by Henry William and then further by me. Most of the AlphaSims paints had the insignia on the correct wings, top and bottom, but just one had it on the wrong side on the bottom. That was their Aircraft Gray paint of the EB-57E, which I worked on without ever spotting the mistake.

I took those markings and put them onto a natural metal finish without noticing the error. Then, making use of those original textures, I turned them into the Kansas and Vermont ANG paints I made, carrying the error through.

Some time ago, way back when, Henry William apparently did the same thing I did - he took the markings from that paint and put them onto his natural metal finish without noticing the error. (If you have his paint of a silver 8th TBS Vietnam War B-57B, you'll see the error repeated there. It was that paint I copied the natural metal finish from, and I kept the national insignia and USAF markings without noticing the error and carried it forward onto all my natural metal paint jobs.

No less than fifteen of my paints are affected, in six of the seven B-57B repaint packs I uploaded.

I have already written to Remi and asked him to delete the six affected paint packs from the library and the download list. Today's project will be to make the fixed and re-upload the files.

It's a simple fix; I just have to reverse the bottom wing textures on each paint. But there are fifteen paints to do it on, plus my copy of Henry's Vietnam War paint. Then I have to update my backup copies and the upload packages and get them up the pipe.

I expect to have it done later today. As it happens, I had oral surgery yesterday and the surgeon advised me to avoid exercise today. So I will sit at my computer by the open double windows, enjoying the delightful summer weather, flipping graphics, copying and pasting texture files, enjoying the effect of the pain meds and being delayed only by the need to constantly reach around and over the cats as they do their best to remind me that they need my attention far more than the computer does. And one of them, Rowdy (aka "My Little Helper,") is firmly convinced that I could never get anything done without a hefty dollop of his "help."

Thanks for the tip! It's such a glaring error that I can't believe I never noticed it. Knowing that neither AlphaSims nor Henry noticed it either is small comfort.

It goes to show that there's karma in the world of flightsim. If I hadn't shared these paints I probably never would have found the error and fixed it.

Watch this space. Updates should appear before the day is out. Just how long it takes will depend on the cats.

BTW, re: the Kansas paint, my research showed that the ANG units that flew the B-57 had a lot of variation in their basic paint jobs and in their unit markings. The photo included with the download shows a KS ANG EB in ADC Gray with that colorful flash on the ECM pods. I like that flash, and it influenced my decision to paint the plane.
 
No sweat, Mick. Jeez, if I knew it was going to be that much trouble I'm not sure I'd have submitted that msg to begin with.

All of us here do appreciate - really do - the effort you put into these.

That posting to FAFB was right out of basic training, and most people w/service experience will tell you their first base/unit was their best. This B-57 just serves to remind me of that.

My biggest kitty, Goodnight, is an elbow-prodder, sitting behind one's elbow while typing so every now and then my left hand and arm move of their own volition. Makes you stay on the ball.
 
SSI01 said:
No sweat, Mick. Jeez, if I knew it was going to be that much trouble I'm not sure I'd have submitted that msg to begin with.

All of us here do appreciate - really do - the effort you put into these.

That posting to FAFB was right out of basic training, and most people w/service experience will tell you their first base/unit was their best. This B-57 just serves to remind me of that.

My biggest kitty, Goodnight, is an elbow-prodder, sitting behind one's elbow while typing so every now and then my left hand and arm move of their own volition. Makes you stay on the ball.
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Oh, I'm glad you did post that message! I never would've caught the error unless someone pointed it out. Or maybe some day I'd spot it when I was flying one of the planes, and wasn't in the mood to make the correction but would've felt compelled to end the flight and fix the textures. I'm glad it's done!

I didn't have to modify every single paint job. Just the ones that have the "ADC Gray" scheme and the silver ones based on Henry's natural metal finish. The black ones weren't affected, nor the white one, and none of the B-57A paints.

The corrected files just went up the pipe and should appear on the download list presently. The pictures are the same, but they all have "CORRECTED" on them in big white letters to make them easy to spot.

My little helper does more than nudge my elbow, though he will do that sometimes. He'll head-butt my hand on the mouse, or sprawl across my hand with the mouse in it. He will sit directly in front of the monitor, between me and the screen, to check my work up close. He lays down on the keyboard to make sure I get breaks from my work, and he makes sure I get plenty of smooch breaks. Lots and lots of smooch breaks! And if he thinks it's time for treats, he gnaws on my arm to let me know he's hungry. I get so much help, it's a wonder that I get anything done.
 
Reply...

Mick.

I THINK I approved the right ones and deleted the correct flawed skins. I put "v3" in the file name to differentiate them. Please check me by making sure that I did what you requested of me. :mixed-smiley-010:
 
Rami said:
Mick.

I THINK I approved the right ones and deleted the correct flawed skins. I put "v3" in the file name to differentiate them. Please check me by making sure that I did what you requested of me. :mixed-smiley-010:
Click to expand...

Yep, all is exactly as it should be. The new pictures and the new files are all there. I clicked each download link to make sure that the zip file name was correct and they all are.

Once again, thank you for your trouble.
 
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