P-38J "Happy Jack's Go Buggy" Capt Jack Ilfrey, 20thFG 79thFS

[LCADolby]

https://youtu.be/AG4mCvUfpsk

Ominous seeing Big Beautiful Doll in the foreground of the crash footage.

[Vraciu]

Yeah.   Believe it or not there were two in that paint job.  Both crashed.   One was salvageable the other not, sadly, as you know.

[Vraciu]

Oboe, I would darken the insides of the chin scoops.   The game doesn't quite pull it off on its own.   Needs a tiny bit of help, especially with lighter colors.   

[Devil 505]

Excellent job, Oboe.

[oboe]

Thanks, Devil505.   

Oboe, I would darken the insides of the chin scoops.   The game doesn't quite pull it off on its own.   Needs a tiny bit of help, especially with lighter colors.   

Thanks, Vraciu - I have darkened and faded the yellow to dark grey going from front to back on that part of the diffuse map.   I'll double-check and make sure its noticeable.  You can actually see the RL effect looking in the intake in the color autographed photo with Ilfrey standing in front of the restored aircraft.

I watched that video again and its still disturbing and heartbreaking seeing that crash.

I just noticed from the B&W closeup of Jack in the cockpit, there is no red painted box with "NO STEP" inside on the inner wing fillet - its just the text, I assume printed in red.   It doesn't look like that red box is painted on the top portion of the sliding window frame, either.   Maybe on bare aluminum aircraft, they just used red text rather than white surrounded by a red box?

[Vraciu]

Thanks, Devil505.   

Thanks, Vraciu - I have darkened and faded the yellow to dark grey going from front to back on that part of the diffuse map.   I'll double-check and make sure its noticeable.  You can actually see the RL effect looking in the intake in the color autographed photo with Ilfrey standing in front of the restored aircraft.

I watched that video again and its still disturbing and heartbreaking seeing that crash.

I just noticed from the B&W closeup of Jack in the cockpit, there is no red painted box with "NO STEP" inside on the inner wing fillet - its just the text, I assume printed in red.   It doesn't look like that red box is painted on the top portion of the sliding window frame, either.   Maybe on bare aluminum aircraft, they just used red text rather than white surrounded by a red box?

I know that CURLY SIX has the NO STEP stencil on the window frame in BLACK with letters-only.  I think this is something that evolved over time.   I will look at  the book I have by Ilfrey unless Lyric beats me to it.

Edit In: Yeah, that crash is sickening.  I wonder if he had a control jam or something.   He got that sucker rolling and never came out of it.

[lyric1]

Thanks, fellas.   Appreciate the kind words.  I've had a bare metal P-38 in my work pile since AH3 came out, but got stuck and dropped working on it and moved on to P-51s.  When I came back after a hiatus I was determined to figure it out best I could and get it done. 

I think I need to reduce the dark panel lines in my Specular file, too - I maxed them dark, but it looks like in glare the panel lines stick out too much.  Also, the yellow nacelle trim extends back a bit too far.

Thanks for posting those photos, Lyric.  Is that your autographed photo?  I did not know the name of the plane was highlighted with yellow - I wonder if that restoration is correct - in the B&W photos, the lettering highlight appears to be a different shade from the nacelle/spinner trim color.  But I assume yellow is correct.

Ilfrey was quite a character - does anyone know how his wingtip was damaged?   My guess is collision with another aircraft, or maybe a tree or pole on a strafing run that got too low?   

I think I read a story about him becoming lost during a flight from England to North Africa in 1943?, and landing in Lisbon, Portugal.  He was going to be interred for the duration since Portugal was neutral.  A interested crowd gathered around his P-38 and while he was giving them a demonstration of the engine startup procedure, he gunned the engines and blew them off the wing and proceeded to take off and finish his flight to North Africa.  That story is probably straight out of a Martin Caidin book - it sounds like something he'd write.   

EDIT:   Very interesting, Vraciu.  I have seen that footage before.  Terrible about the crash.  I envy you being able to climb all over a P-38 as a kid.   When I was a young adult in MN, there was a great air museum called "Planes of Fame" at a local airport.  They had a '38 called "Joltin' Josie" but I never did see it fly at any of their air shows.   I finally saw a P-38 fly a couple of years ago in Colorado Springs when I went to see White 33's first flight with Steve Hinton at the controls.

Cool story about the Lisbon getaway.   Thanks for confirming.

He had a mid air collision with a 109. The signed photo was online not mine.

[Vraciu]

I just noticed from the B&W closeup of Jack in the cockpit, there is no red painted box with "NO STEP" inside on the inner wing fillet - its just the text, I assume printed in red.   It doesn't look like that red box is painted on the top portion of the sliding window frame, either.   Maybe on bare aluminum aircraft, they just used red text rather than white surrounded by a red box?

Okay, so I just dug through my copy of Ilfrey's book and I don't find anything enlightening beyond what Lyric has already provided.    I am thinking that the NO STEP stencil is absent from the side window frame.   Another of the group's P-38s is shown in the book and appears to lack it as well.   

I don't think this was a hard and fast thing.   I'm thinking it evolved over time.   The other thing being that maybe Ilfrey's Lightning was originally OD and then was stripped of paint.  If that is the case then they didn't bother to repaint the NO STEP, perhaps.  (???)

[oboe]

Thanks for checking that, V.   I found one other image that seems to corroborate the lack of the red box-white lettering, and instead just red lettering.  The profile of the fuselage at the bottom of the image below:



I'll redo that as I complete my final tweaking today.

   

[Vraciu]

Yeah, it's either letters-only hidden by his elbow or it's not there at all.

This will make you laugh: the profile in his book has the red box.   

[oboe]

Arrrgh!   

Have to go with photo evidence I think.   Once I make the change, I can vary which scheme I use depending on the skin, to add some variety in my skins.

I had a theory that the red boxed white lettering was used on olive drab / green painted aircraft, since plain black or red lettering alone wouldn't be as visible.  As production ramped up in '44 and planes were no longer being painted green, it was may have been an acceptable time-saver to just use a red stencil for the lettering...

[Vraciu]

Arrrgh!   

Have to go with photo evidence I think.   Once I make the change, I can vary which scheme I use depending on the skin, to add some variety in my skins.

I had a theory that the red boxed white lettering was used on olive drab / green painted aircraft, since plain black or red lettering alone wouldn't be as visible.  As production ramped up in '44 and planes were no longer being painted green, it was may have been an acceptable time-saver to just use a red stencil for the lettering...

You might be right.  I assumed this was black but it may very well be red.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/dougsheley/6310932423

[oboe]

Done, ready for submission.

P-38J-15 43-28431 "Happy Jack's Go Buggy", Capt Jack Ilfrey, 20thFG/79thFS
Kingscliffe, May 1944

From "P-38 Lightning Aces of the ETO/MTO" by John Stanaway, Osprey Publishing:

Although a brilliant pilot, Jack Ilfrey also had a reputation for recklessness both on the ground and in the air.  Despite a spell in America after the completion of his first tour  in May 1943, his "history" followed him from the MTO to the ETO when he started his second tour in England with the 79th Fighter Squadron, 20th Fighter Group in April 1944.  Ilfrey tried to live up to his colorful reputation as often as possible, finding his various escapades (and subsequent punishments) the best release from the tension of daily air combat.  His two aerial victories with the 79th FS came while flying this J-15 on 24 May 1944 during a bomber escort to Berlin.  Ilfrey climbed into the Bf109 top cover and shot one down at 30,000 ft before inadvertently ramming a second, losing about four feet of wing and sending the German fighter down in flames.  Although he survived this mission, Ilfrey went down in this same fighter on 13 Jun 1944 when he was hit by fire during a strafing mission on the airfield at Angers, France.  He managed to evade capture and returned to his squadron at Kingscliffe, where he served first as Operations Officer, then CO from 27 September to 9 December 1944.

[Vraciu]

Looks really nice.   The intake shading was just the touch it needed.   Very well done.   

Did you use Normal Mapping for any of the waves or rivet dimples?

The one thing I noticed is that to get that anti-glare panel to look right you have to angle it down starting about 2/3 of the way forward.   I don't know if you have time to try that, but it can take that bend out of it.   I experimented with it for awhile and Greebo also sent me one of his Diffuses to study how to tame it.   Not a perfect solution but worth a try.

[Vraciu]

Here's a shot of it.