Capt. Roscoe C. Brown - P-51D "BUNNIE" / "MISS KEN..." (7) - 332nd FG, 100th FS

[Vraciu]

This is P-51D-5-NA "BUNNIE" / "MISS KENTUCKY STATE"* of the 100th FS, 332nd FG, 15th AF based in Italy, coded No. 7. It was the mount of Capt. Roscoe C. Brown who flew 68 missions, scoring two victories (1 FW-190, 1 ME-262) and served as the unit's Squadron Commander.  He earned the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Congressional Gold Medal, and a Doctorate Degree.

Known as "The Red Tails" and "The Red-Tailed Angels" due to their distinictive markings, the 332nd served with distinction in World War Two as the first aviation unit in which black aviators saw combat action.

This skin was originally created by MachNix for AH2.   I wound up doing the entire thing over, but kept some of the red paint on part of the tail and carried over the use of the rudder trim tab actuator as a salute to the original skinner.

—
*The name "BUNNIE" is on the left side of the cowling and "MISS KENTUCKY STATE" on the right.

[Vraciu]

As it was and how it is...

I hate the axis lines (they are a new feature of the Skin Viewer and I can't turn them off) but I am not going to worry about removing them--I'm tired. 




I had neglected the kill markings on the pic above.  The second file below has them.

[Devil 505]

Excellent job.

[Vraciu]

Excellent job.

Thank you, bud.  I will give it another look later then submit it.  A lot of these 51s need help.  Wish you and Greebo would take a crack at one each.   

[Vraciu]

This is P-51D-5-NA "BUNNIE" / "MISS KENTUCKY STATE"* of the 100th FS, 332nd FG, 15th AF based in Italy...

This is a mistake.  I did not intend to say it was a D-5 as it was a P-51D-15-NA.

[Vraciu]

With Shadows enabled.   I posted it without originally.  Also a sizing test for how things appear on the forums.   Im trying mods for size (75%) and sharpness.   I still can't decide what looks good.   I think 75% size does best on the forums if the original shot is large enough.  Not sure if running a sharpness filter is a help or a harm though.

EDIT IN: These are at 75% size, one has a sharpness filter run through it.  No idea which one looks better.   I took the large ones out of the auto-preview so as to reduce page load time per Greebo's comment below.

[Vraciu]

I also managed to draw Capt. Brown onto the pilot.  It's less than perfect as I'm still learning (and there is some bug that causes the goggles to disappear except the part that touches the eybrow) but it's a start.

[Greebo]

It looks really good Vraciu, a big improvement over what's in the game currently. One thing though, could you save your screenshots as jpgs rather than bmps next time? The page would load a lot quicker.

[Vraciu]

It looks really good Vraciu, a big improvement over what's in the game currently. One thing though, could you save your screenshots as jpgs rather than bmps next time? The page would load a lot quicker.

Thank you, Sensei.  I will try that.   Does it affect image quality at all?

[Greebo]

In theory jpegs may have slightly lower quality but it is not significant in my experience. Some software offers a quality/size adjustment you can set when doing jpeg conversions. If so just set it at the quality end of the range. The resultant image is likely to be much smaller and therefore load a lot quicker though.

[Vraciu]

I have mine set to max.  I started using bitmaps in the hope they wouldn’t be compressed by the bbs as much as a jpg is.  I guess it does more harm than good.   (On my end they load instantly with either type though.)


Will I get more upvotes?   

JK. 

[Volron]

The red and yellow appear "stronger" than in the original.  Is this intentional, a side effect of the update?   I also noticed that on the original, the gear covers are striped yellow, but red in your update.  Will that fly?  Last bit; I am wondering if you'll be adding the weathering or not.

Either way, looks nice so far.

[Vraciu]

The red and yellow appear "stronger" than in the original.   Is this intentional, a side effect of the update?

I can always desaturate the colors, but these seem to work best in a variety of conditions.  I can adjust them as necessary of course.   Sadly, the only color photo I have is very faded.   These are updated colors as the original skin's were inaccurate.   The original skin also did not have nose art on either side, had the nose cowling paint wrong, and did not have the red borders around the No. 7 side number nor the aft fuselage three digit code.

I also noticed that on the original, the gear covers are striped yellow, but red in your update.  Will that fly? 

This was a judgment call on my part based on profiles of the airplane.   I have a number of photos but none clearly show all of the gear doors.  One thing they do show is the inboards are NMF not red so I changed that.   For now the outboards are-all red unless I can find a photo to the contrary.   I will keep looking for definitive evidence either way.

Last bit; I am wondering if you'll be adding the weathering or not.

It is about as weathered as I am going to make it.   The photos of the airplane show it fairly clean overall.   I may go back and add some paint chips here and there--definitely will do it for the leading edges where the stripes are as I forgot.  Good catch.

Either way, looks nice so far.

Thanks for the feedback.   Now off to do more research.  LOL  

[lyric1]

 

[Vraciu]

Thanks brother.  If you have any insight into the colors for the gear doors I'll take it.   I don't know if the theater band went all the way across the bottom of the wing or was painted over on the outboard doors.