P-47D-25 405thFG 511thFS "Dottie Mae"

[oboe]

Well this is what the bare metal template looks like with some paint applied.  My first Thunderbolt skin for AH III.  Pretty close to complete; I hope to submit today.  Thanks to Greebo for an excellent default skin to follow as a guide.  Strange, but my standard method for building the Spec, Power and Env maps just didn't look right to me so I came up with a more simplified version of the maps.  I may have to darken the yellow trim more-- the lightness of the shade causes problems.  The canopy trim is already a few shades darker than the cowl trim.     

(Click images for full-size version)








Pretty interesting story behind this aircraft.  She was the last USAAF aircraft to be lost in action in the ETO.  Her serial number indicates she was built in 1942, but to me that seems to early for a bubbletop -28 version.  If true, it would have taken two years from her construction to her deployment, and that also seems suspicious to me.

From a webpage about her restoration: (https://theairshowguy.com/2022/08/14/the-history-in-an-image-dottie-mae/)

“Dotttie Mae” has a story to her with a touch of history to go along with it. She is a P-47D Thunderbolt (P47D-28-RA), serial number 42-29150, and manufactured in 1944 at the Republic factory in Evansville, Indiana. She was assigned to the USAAF’s 9th Air Force on December 16, 1944, and served with the 405th Fighter Group, 511th Fighter Squadron.

Lt. Lawrence Kuhl had 17 combat missions in his log book when he was assigned a new P-47 airframe. To honor his wife, he named the plane “Dottie Mae” and had the Roberto Vargas pin up calendar artwork piece titled “Santa’s Little Helper” painted on the side.

After flying in 90 combat missions, Dottie’s flying career came to an end on May 8, 1945 when she crashed into a lake near Ebensee, Austria. Sadly, the incident was not related to combat, but instead as a celebration. The pilot that day, Lt. Henry Mohr, was flying low over a recently liberated concentration camp to boost the morale of the prisoners. However, he came down too low and the propeller blades clipped the water causing the aircraft to crash into the lake. The airframe sank, but luckily Lt. Mohr survived the incident and exited the aircraft. Dottie remained at the bottom of the lake for over 60 years. With the crash, Dottie Mae made history as the last USAAF aircraft lost “in action” in the European Theatre of Operations (ETO) during World War II.

In the summer of 2005, Dottie was raised from the lake in Austria, and in 2010 she brought to Idaho for restoration by Vintage Airframes, LLC.

[Devil 505]

Fantastic job, Oboe.

Definitely darken the yellow some, it's very "glowey". Yellows also tend to shift green in the game's sunlight, so maybe you can shift your base shade a bit towards orange to compensate.

Regarding the serial number, I know for a fact that P-39 production never used serials beginning with 43-for planes built in 1943. Serials jump right from 42-21250 to 44-2001 for the P-39Q-10-BE. Not sure the reason, but maybe the same thing happens in the P-47 line.

[Greebo]

Really nice job on your first Jug skin Oboe, look forward to seeing more.

[nopoop]

Oh I am going to fly that !!

[lyric1]

 

[Vraciu]

Pretty.  The yellow is a tad bold.   It's the hardest color to get right so I don't fault you.

That aside a striking scheme.    Well done. 

[oboe]

Pretty.  The yellow is a tad bold.   It's the hardest color to get right so I don't fault you.

That aside a striking scheme.    Well done.

Thank you, guys.  Always feel a little trepidation showing something built with a brand new method.  Wish I could get the same kind of shine from the wing tops as I am getting on the fuselage, but the game engine is very picky about illumination angle and just won't light up both surfaces beautifully at the same time. 

The yellow I've used is a darkened version of the restoration's yellow cowl, but I agree it is still way-yonder too bright.  I'm going to try the yellow used in Devil's profile pic - the JG 54 Devil badge gif.  That's dark with an orangish hue.   Actually its one of my favorite colors - similar to traffic warning sign yellow.  We'll see how that looks...

I've got a couple more skins that are close in the hopper but won't have them ready for a few more days.

[Devil 505]

Thank you, guys.  Always feel a little trepidation showing something built with a brand new method.  Wish I could get the same kind of shine from the wing tops as I am getting on the fuselage, but the game engine is very picky about illumination angle and just won't light up both surfaces beautifully at the same time. 

The yellow I've used is a darkened version of the restoration's yellow cowl, but I agree it is still way-yonder too bright.  I'm going to try the yellow used in Devil's profile pic - the JG 54 Devil badge gif.  That's dark with an orangish hue.   Actually its one of my favorite colors - similar to traffic warning sign yellow.  We'll see how that looks...

I've got a couple more skins that are close in the hopper but won't have them ready for a few more days.

The yellow in my BBS emblem will be too bright in game. It's not dark enough, trust me. That was the RLM 04 from my AH2 era skins. It will glow like the frikkin Sun.

Try the yellow I used for the marking on my "Eloise" P-39: RGB 164,123,32

[oboe]

You weren't lyin'!   That yellow in your JG badge turned out is brighter than what I had used originally!

I've made a couple test shots because I'd like to get this right.  I think the yellow-orange in the P-39 trim is too dark and orange for Dottie's scheme, but I made these before I saw you last post:

Original:




The canopy and cowl are the same, but at light values and critical angles, the sun just blows up the yellow:


Here's a good shot of what I'm trying to match:

[Devil 505]

184,164,15 definitely looks better. Still a bit too glowey in my opinion.

Maybe you'd like this yellow I used on the Jg 11 K-4 and 190A-8?





RGB 177,135,37

[oboe]

Maybe I should try some desaturation as well?  I've just been playing with the RGB values, not the saturation levels.

Other questions that came up in researching this aircraft is the color of the tail stripes.  They have been shown as yellow, which would correspond to the squadron's ID color, so a reasonable assumpition - but I've seen pics of the plane as it was lifted out of the lake where it had sunk, and you could still see the red of the tail stripes.

Another question relates to the presence of fuselage D-Day stripes.  I can't verify with any photos I've seen, but some color profiles show her with D-Day stripes on the bottom of the fuselage.  I think this is unlikely, as she arrived to the unit in December 1944, right about the time of the directive that came down ordering the stripes removed from aircraft.  So I doubt they ever would have been applied.  And the restoration does not have them.   My own preference would be to show them, they add a nice detail and bit of color - but maybe that's what the profile artists thought too...

[Devil 505]

Maybe I should try some desaturation as well?  I've just been playing with the RGB values, not the saturation levels.

Adjusting the saturation actually does change the RGB, since all digitally represented colors are just a combination of red, green, and blue.

If you desaturate the yellows you have, they will become grayer and you will need to darken them to compensate. The end result will be yellows closer to the yellows I've been suggesting. 

Another question relates to the presence of fuselage D-Day stripes.  I can't verify with any photos I've seen, but some color profiles show her with D-Day stripes on the bottom of the fuselage.  I think this is unlikely, as she arrived to the unit in December 1944, right about the time of the directive that came down ordering the stripes removed from aircraft.  So I doubt they ever would have been applied.  And the restoration does not have them.   My own preference would be to show them, they add a nice detail and bit of color - but maybe that's what the profile artists thought too...

If there's no reference photos or documentation to the contrary, nobody can prove you wrong if you include the stripe. It could have been delivered to the unit and had the stripes applied just before the change in regulation. If no other plane had the stripes removed, then it stands to reason that they would stay on this on also.

[oboe]

Well here's what the real world sun does to Yellow, in and out of direct illumination:



The shade of Yellow is uniform across the surfaces, I assume; the difference is just the degree of reflected sunlight.  I'm guessing that the RGB value of the true color is closest to 253/196/3, which seems to be a midpoint between sunlit and shade?

So if I can come close to that that I should be satisfied...

[oboe]

And here's the in-game results, using a yellow shade I sampled around the midpoint of the yellows in the photo:



So, in shade, the brightness falls off too far, while in bright sunlight, the yellow appears too bright, even though its actual RGB value is less than the RGB value in the real world photo.  But I get fairly close.  Strange.  I can't help suspecting that the balance of indirect vs direct illumination in AH is skewed toward direct illumination.  And I think this would also explain why I can't get the metal outside of direct sunlight to have any shine, even though it does have at least some in the real world.

[Vraciu]

It's better to lean subtle...   It's STILL going to flare up but it looks better.






You could try desaturating your original color.