Bomber_12th
SOH-CM-2025
I have uploaded this repaint to the file library here at SOH and at Flightsim.com, but rather than just leave it at that, I thought I would also make a special thread about it here. It's a big file, because I have included three different versions of the repaint, tailored to fit three different Warbirdsim products - you have the option to install it into either the "Little Friends", "Mustang Tales", or "Happy Jack's Go Buggy: Then and Now" products (the last of which is my personal preference). If you happen to own a Warbirdsim P-51D product, but neither of those three, and you still would like to use this repaint, please contact me and let me know which product version you have (each has their minor little differences). No matter which product you install the repaint into, the textures will all appear the same.
I have been working on this repaint, on and off, just as a little side project for some months now. I did this repaint for two reasons - one being that the real aircraft is one of my absolute favorite warbirds, having followed the restoration as close as possible for the three years it was at Aircorps Aviation - and secondly, I did this repaint as an experiment to continue to play around with different metal and paint effects, for a accurate result in the sim. I have provided some extensive documentation that I have put together with the repaint, and although I won't post it all here, I thought I'd share a bit of a background behind the real aircraft for which this repaint tries to faithfully depict.
'Sierra Sue II' is a rarity among surviving Mustangs, having been an actual documented WWII combat vet, having flown missions over Germany in April and May 1945 (it is one of only about 20 P-51D's, of roughly 170 Mustangs currently flying, that actually saw combat during WWII). After arriving in Europe in early 1945, the aircraft was assigned to the 402nd Fighter Squadron, 370th Fighter Group, of the 9th Air Force, and was stationed at the Advanced Landing Ground Y-32 Ophoven, near Zwartburg, Belgium. As soon as it arrived, the aircraft was assigned to Lt. Bob Bohna, who was in need of a replacement after having lost his P-51K 'Sierra Sue' due to combat damage (coolant leak and forced landing). The aircraft was immediately named 'Sierra Sue II', and nose art was applied over the course of a few days, consisting of a woman, covered by a "vanity bar", and a lightning bolt on each side of the fuselage. While the artwork that was applied was often believed to have been based on actress Fay McKenzie from the 1941 movie 'Sierra Sue' (or at least that is what the other pilots in the 402nd were allowed to believe), according to Bob Bohna's sister, the aircraft was named after a girl that Bohna liked back home, from his high school, named Suzanne Lang. The feelings weren't mutual between the two, however, and Suzanne Lang never knew that she had a P-51 named after her - she was already married to another USAAF pilot named Earl Holcomb, who named his B-17 the "Croix de Suzanne" (making Suzanne Lang possibly the only woman to have ever had two different aircraft named after her). The "vanity bar", in the form of a fence, featured in the nose art, has a unique symbol painted on it - as was also revealed by Bob Bohna's sister, this symbol is the brand marking that was and is still used today by the Bohna family on their cattle herd in Raymond, California.
When 'Sierra Sue II' entered combat, the war was already winding down, so while it did fly several missions over Germany, it never saw much action and never shot down any enemy planes (on one mission, Bohna did attempt to attack an Me-262, with this aircraft, but was too far out of range to get any hits from his bullets). In mid April the Squadron moved to Advanced Landing Ground Y-99 near Gütersloh, Germany, and on May 7, with the announcement of Germany's surrender, 'Sierra Sue II' and the rest of the 370th FG staged a formation flypast spelling out 'V E DAY'. The aircraft continued to be operated from Advanced Landing Grounds in Germany through the summer of '45, until it was placed into storage at Furth, Germany, pending disposal. The aircraft survives today, because it was considered to have low enough flying hours to be kept (200 or less), rather than scrapped. Following the end of WWII, the aircraft served with the Swedish AF as "Yellow K", and late with the Nicaraguan AF. (A more detailed history of its post-war years is included with the repaint files.)
In 2011, this aircraft was purchased by Paul Ehlen, and he had it sent to Aircorps Aviation to be restored to the exact way it was in April and May 1945, shortly after the nose art was applied. Through an unmatched level of research and dedication to accuracy, the result is this restoration, which took about 3 years to complete, is the most authentic and extensively researched P-51 ever restored. Every last detail is just as it would have been in April/May 1945. As written in the book Combat Vet P-51: The History of Sierra Sue II, WWII Survivor, by Chuck Cravens, "The decision for this restoration was to make her as close to what she was in Belgium and Germany in 1945 as safety and compliance with FAA directives allowed. The restoration goal is not a perfect, immaculately polished Mustang. That’s because she wouldn’t have been perfect at Inglewood, much less on duty. Production was rapid, scratches, zinc chromate and paint imperfections all happened as a matter of course."
Included with the repaint, I have written extensively about all of the authentic details of the restoration, and how this has all been reproduced in this repaint.
The main features of this repaint include:
- New from-scratch textures, including new normal maps.
- Accurate and varying levels of Alclad shine and reflectivity of each individual metal skin/panel - some shiny, some dull - matching the real aircraft.
- All markings were precisely laid-out using photographs aligned directly with panel lines and rivets or other features in the textures, and then all markings were hand-drawn to match, using accurately-matched colors. Each type of paint also has its own precise level and type of shine/reflective properties.
- Period-correct Alcoa aluminum watermarks are applied in the same manner and to the same specific skin surfaces as on the restored aircraft - some of these markings are still pristine, some are wearing away, and some are completely now worn off (following a year's worth of flying/cleaning).
- Three different rivet finishes - silver anodized, blue anodized, and yellow iridite - all applied matching the individual rivet finishes on the restored aircraft (on the real aircraft, this was done at random, mimicking the same random application at the factory, but for this repaint, the vast majority of the rivets match precisely each individual rivet on the restoration). All of the rivet finishes in the textures have shine and reflective properties matching the real rivets, creating different levels of contrast with the Alclad aluminum depending on angle of light and reflection.
- The wings are painted dull silver, with the first 1/3 of the wing filled with "Aerodynamic Smoothing Compound" (as NAA referred to it) and sanded smooth, covering all rivets, screws and panel lines in this region of the wings, as well as the outer most wing tip panel lines and screws, which were also filled and sanded over. In all of the areas where the rivets/screws/panel lines were not filled, that detail can still be seen. This is the way it was done from the factory, and the way it was done in the restoration.
- Matching in all of the same areas as on the real aircraft, bright sections on the aluminum surfaces denote areas where acid was hand-brushed onto the metal so as to etch/clean the surface, prior to spot welding taking place.
- The wheel wells, landing gear clamshell doors, and propeller textures have been customized to match all the details of the real aircraft, including the different primers and non-primered finishes, stencils, and Alcoa aluminum watermarks, from part to part.
- The textures for the machine guns in the wings have been customized with the application of the last three digits of Sierra Sue II's serial number, as per the real aircraft, and the placards in the cockpit have all been filled out with the correct numbers.
Furthermore, if you are not familiar with the real aircraft/restoration, please see the following links:
Restoration photo page: http://www.projects.aircorpsaviation.com/sierra-sue-ii/
Aircorps Aviation Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aircorpsaviation/
Wings of the North Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Wings-of-The-North-328055004063/?fref=ts
A 2-hr film covering the full restoration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BzGDUNgmL0
Video of the first post-restoration engine runs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwj-66GDS0A
Video from the cockpit of the first test flight - Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqM8qqIq_Ss and Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqSVllwMB_g
Also please be aware, as I have also provided instructions for in the repaint files, that you will need to install BoB Rivera's environment maps from Alternate_GlobalEnvTest.zip available from Avsim, into your main FSX Texture folder in order for the repaint to display as I have intended it.
I hope you enjoy it!
Here are some un-edited screenshots (no shade, hdr, or any other special effects or post-editing) - these screenshots come straight from FSX, with just some cropping.
I have been working on this repaint, on and off, just as a little side project for some months now. I did this repaint for two reasons - one being that the real aircraft is one of my absolute favorite warbirds, having followed the restoration as close as possible for the three years it was at Aircorps Aviation - and secondly, I did this repaint as an experiment to continue to play around with different metal and paint effects, for a accurate result in the sim. I have provided some extensive documentation that I have put together with the repaint, and although I won't post it all here, I thought I'd share a bit of a background behind the real aircraft for which this repaint tries to faithfully depict.
'Sierra Sue II' is a rarity among surviving Mustangs, having been an actual documented WWII combat vet, having flown missions over Germany in April and May 1945 (it is one of only about 20 P-51D's, of roughly 170 Mustangs currently flying, that actually saw combat during WWII). After arriving in Europe in early 1945, the aircraft was assigned to the 402nd Fighter Squadron, 370th Fighter Group, of the 9th Air Force, and was stationed at the Advanced Landing Ground Y-32 Ophoven, near Zwartburg, Belgium. As soon as it arrived, the aircraft was assigned to Lt. Bob Bohna, who was in need of a replacement after having lost his P-51K 'Sierra Sue' due to combat damage (coolant leak and forced landing). The aircraft was immediately named 'Sierra Sue II', and nose art was applied over the course of a few days, consisting of a woman, covered by a "vanity bar", and a lightning bolt on each side of the fuselage. While the artwork that was applied was often believed to have been based on actress Fay McKenzie from the 1941 movie 'Sierra Sue' (or at least that is what the other pilots in the 402nd were allowed to believe), according to Bob Bohna's sister, the aircraft was named after a girl that Bohna liked back home, from his high school, named Suzanne Lang. The feelings weren't mutual between the two, however, and Suzanne Lang never knew that she had a P-51 named after her - she was already married to another USAAF pilot named Earl Holcomb, who named his B-17 the "Croix de Suzanne" (making Suzanne Lang possibly the only woman to have ever had two different aircraft named after her). The "vanity bar", in the form of a fence, featured in the nose art, has a unique symbol painted on it - as was also revealed by Bob Bohna's sister, this symbol is the brand marking that was and is still used today by the Bohna family on their cattle herd in Raymond, California.
When 'Sierra Sue II' entered combat, the war was already winding down, so while it did fly several missions over Germany, it never saw much action and never shot down any enemy planes (on one mission, Bohna did attempt to attack an Me-262, with this aircraft, but was too far out of range to get any hits from his bullets). In mid April the Squadron moved to Advanced Landing Ground Y-99 near Gütersloh, Germany, and on May 7, with the announcement of Germany's surrender, 'Sierra Sue II' and the rest of the 370th FG staged a formation flypast spelling out 'V E DAY'. The aircraft continued to be operated from Advanced Landing Grounds in Germany through the summer of '45, until it was placed into storage at Furth, Germany, pending disposal. The aircraft survives today, because it was considered to have low enough flying hours to be kept (200 or less), rather than scrapped. Following the end of WWII, the aircraft served with the Swedish AF as "Yellow K", and late with the Nicaraguan AF. (A more detailed history of its post-war years is included with the repaint files.)
In 2011, this aircraft was purchased by Paul Ehlen, and he had it sent to Aircorps Aviation to be restored to the exact way it was in April and May 1945, shortly after the nose art was applied. Through an unmatched level of research and dedication to accuracy, the result is this restoration, which took about 3 years to complete, is the most authentic and extensively researched P-51 ever restored. Every last detail is just as it would have been in April/May 1945. As written in the book Combat Vet P-51: The History of Sierra Sue II, WWII Survivor, by Chuck Cravens, "The decision for this restoration was to make her as close to what she was in Belgium and Germany in 1945 as safety and compliance with FAA directives allowed. The restoration goal is not a perfect, immaculately polished Mustang. That’s because she wouldn’t have been perfect at Inglewood, much less on duty. Production was rapid, scratches, zinc chromate and paint imperfections all happened as a matter of course."
Included with the repaint, I have written extensively about all of the authentic details of the restoration, and how this has all been reproduced in this repaint.
The main features of this repaint include:
- New from-scratch textures, including new normal maps.
- Accurate and varying levels of Alclad shine and reflectivity of each individual metal skin/panel - some shiny, some dull - matching the real aircraft.
- All markings were precisely laid-out using photographs aligned directly with panel lines and rivets or other features in the textures, and then all markings were hand-drawn to match, using accurately-matched colors. Each type of paint also has its own precise level and type of shine/reflective properties.
- Period-correct Alcoa aluminum watermarks are applied in the same manner and to the same specific skin surfaces as on the restored aircraft - some of these markings are still pristine, some are wearing away, and some are completely now worn off (following a year's worth of flying/cleaning).
- Three different rivet finishes - silver anodized, blue anodized, and yellow iridite - all applied matching the individual rivet finishes on the restored aircraft (on the real aircraft, this was done at random, mimicking the same random application at the factory, but for this repaint, the vast majority of the rivets match precisely each individual rivet on the restoration). All of the rivet finishes in the textures have shine and reflective properties matching the real rivets, creating different levels of contrast with the Alclad aluminum depending on angle of light and reflection.
- The wings are painted dull silver, with the first 1/3 of the wing filled with "Aerodynamic Smoothing Compound" (as NAA referred to it) and sanded smooth, covering all rivets, screws and panel lines in this region of the wings, as well as the outer most wing tip panel lines and screws, which were also filled and sanded over. In all of the areas where the rivets/screws/panel lines were not filled, that detail can still be seen. This is the way it was done from the factory, and the way it was done in the restoration.
- Matching in all of the same areas as on the real aircraft, bright sections on the aluminum surfaces denote areas where acid was hand-brushed onto the metal so as to etch/clean the surface, prior to spot welding taking place.
- The wheel wells, landing gear clamshell doors, and propeller textures have been customized to match all the details of the real aircraft, including the different primers and non-primered finishes, stencils, and Alcoa aluminum watermarks, from part to part.
- The textures for the machine guns in the wings have been customized with the application of the last three digits of Sierra Sue II's serial number, as per the real aircraft, and the placards in the cockpit have all been filled out with the correct numbers.
Furthermore, if you are not familiar with the real aircraft/restoration, please see the following links:
Restoration photo page: http://www.projects.aircorpsaviation.com/sierra-sue-ii/
Aircorps Aviation Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aircorpsaviation/
Wings of the North Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Wings-of-The-North-328055004063/?fref=ts
A 2-hr film covering the full restoration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BzGDUNgmL0
Video of the first post-restoration engine runs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwj-66GDS0A
Video from the cockpit of the first test flight - Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqM8qqIq_Ss and Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqSVllwMB_g
Also please be aware, as I have also provided instructions for in the repaint files, that you will need to install BoB Rivera's environment maps from Alternate_GlobalEnvTest.zip available from Avsim, into your main FSX Texture folder in order for the repaint to display as I have intended it.
I hope you enjoy it!
Here are some un-edited screenshots (no shade, hdr, or any other special effects or post-editing) - these screenshots come straight from FSX, with just some cropping.
