425th BS B-24 "Cocky Bobby"

[Greebo]

Thanks to Lyric1 who found me the info for this bare metal and black B-24 skin. It is "Cocky Bobby" a B-24L of the 425th BS, 308th BG based in the CBI theater in 1944/45. This aircraft flew 39 bombing missions and a further 50 transport missions to China over "the hump", hence the camel on the nose art. The black undersides were painted on to make Japanese searchlights less effective during night missions. There is a photo of this plane on the B24BestWeb site here.

This aircraft should not have the rubber de-icing strips on the leading edges of the control surfaces. However the AH B-24 has an annoying feature where the de-icing strips are applied as patches over the skin, and the way this is done means there is no allowable way of removing them from this skin.

[The Fugitive]

I have a question for you. While the plane looks awesome, the lines and rivets are unbelievable and the metal finish is very realistic looking I was wondering about the nose art. The demarcation line between the painted under belly and metal skin as well as the emblems is crisp, while the nose art all looks washed out. Do you hand paint the art, or do you copy paste pictures? I would think the paint of the art would be much the same as the paint of the camouflage, and not faded and washed out so badly, unless the rest of the plane looked like that as well.   

[Volron]

Oooooo...  I want to fly that.

As for the de-icing strips, maybe with an update to her, you'll be able to leave them out?

[lyric1]

 

[Greebo]

For the Cocky Bobby noseart I made a double sized separate multi-layer image, merged the layers, shrunk it 50% and pasted that into the B-24 skin. On the close-up screenshot I think it looks washed out because it is in the centre of the sun's reflective glare. However looking at a close-up photo of the nose on this plane it looks like the wavy black demarcation line should be blurred, not sharp as I have it, so I will correct that.

I suppose I could ask HTC to remove the de-icing strips from the B-24. The strips could be painted directly onto the leading edges of any skin that needs them and the new spec map effects would allow them to have a less shiny finish than bare metal. The main problem I see with that is that any current B-24 skins of aircraft that had those strips in RL would then lack them unless the skin was rewritten. There is also the possibility that parts of the skin would be slightly stretched where the edges of the strips are and this would make them appear blurry. I don't think that would be the case though.

[The Fugitive]

I looked pretty closely at the linked picture you have posted. The demarcation line looks good when compared to that. Compare the rivets and panel lines in your screen shots of your skin with the art work. The lines look crisp and you can count the rivets even in that area so I don't think it is a "sun reflective glare" that is causing it. I was just curious if you had "painted" the nose art and then added it, or used a picture to basically "cut and paste" it in. It just seems to have lost some of the shapness I would think you should see as compared with the rest of the skin....tail line colors and such.

[Greebo]

The demarcation looks pretty sharp in that photo but not in close up photos like this. You can see a difference between that wavy line and the top edge of the mouth.

I had another look at the noseart and have sharpened it up by doing some hand editing.

Megalodon sent me a photo of this plane that showed the main wheel centres were painted black, so I have redone the wheels to match. I also repainted the aerials on the bottom of the fuselage black.

I'll finish it up and post another screenshot with the changes tonight when I get back from work.

[Greebo]

Screenshot of the skin with the above changes:

[ink]

looks damn good, you do very nice work.

[The Fugitive]

That does look better, but I think your right about the SS being right at the sun flare. With the new picture the plane is rolled over a bit more and even the underbelly color looks washed out some. Almost like the opacity is turned down too much.

Great job as usual Greebo  <S>

[B4Buster]

I like it!

[obus44]

My dad flew on the Cocky Bobby in Luliang and Cheng Du China. I have pics of him in front of the real Cocky Bobby...does anyone want me to post them here?

Dennis L Oberer
Green Bay WI

[lyric1]

My dad flew on the Cocky Bobby in Luliang and Cheng Du China. I have pics of him in front of the real Cocky Bobby...does anyone want me to post them here?

Dennis L Oberer
Green Bay WI

Sure we all like to see that. 

[Greebo]

Yes, please post them obus44.