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General Forums => Custom Skins => Topic started by: Karnak on December 02, 2005, 10:55:30 AM

Title: Spitfire Mk VIII request: 152 Sqdn SEAC UM-E
Post by: Karnak on December 02, 2005, 10:55:30 AM: I would like to see the SEAC Spit VIII with the leaping panther around the fuselage rondel. Code UM-E.

Crude photo of profile:
(http://members.arstechnica.com/x/karnak/Spit8profile.JPG)

Do you have a profile of this aircraft Dan?

I like how it has the white wing bands, the white band on both the verticle and horizontal stabilizers of the tail, the leaping panther and the red cannon barrels. Particularly the wing bands and red cannon would make it different from within the cockpit.

This would be a distinctive Spitfire scheme, which is hard to find due to the standardization of RAF camo.
Title: Spitfire Mk VIII request: 152 Sqdn SEAC UM-E
Post by: Guppy35 on December 02, 2005, 12:04:05 PM: Kev did the Spit XIV in those squadron markings on the last 14 we had.

This would be the place to go and guy to ask about 152 Squadron

http://www.152hyderabad.co.uk/
Title: Spitfire Mk VIII request: 152 Sqdn SEAC UM-E
Post by: Karnak on December 02, 2005, 12:33:36 PM: Thanks Dan.
Title: Spitfire Mk VIII request: 152 Sqdn SEAC UM-E
Post by: Kev367th on December 02, 2005, 01:23:11 PM: I will get round to doing the Spit XIV again, as you can imagine I have a lot of Spit requests in the pipeline.
Title: Spitfire Mk VIII request: 152 Sqdn SEAC UM-E
Post by: Karnak on December 02, 2005, 02:27:35 PM: Kev,

Any chance of you doing this Spitfire Mk VIII?
Title: Spitfire Mk VIII request: 152 Sqdn SEAC UM-E
Post by: Kev367th on December 02, 2005, 07:42:25 PM: Lets see thats -

XVI - Raymond Baxter - completed
XVI - With red/white/blue nose - 97% complete
IX - Pink one - 95% complete
IX - Brown/Grey camo, another request
VIII - UP*S for Dan
VIII - With Panther for Karnak
VIII - Hi alt camo (really a VII)
V - Blue malta one, another request.
V - Metal finish
XIV - With panther

erm, could be a while but will get round to them (not neccessarily in the above order).
All beer and prozac donations welcomed lol.
Title: Spitfire Mk VIII request: 152 Sqdn SEAC UM-E
Post by: Krusty on December 02, 2005, 08:21:39 PM: Prozac's your problem! Some sort of amphetamine would help you churn those skins out faster!!

:aok :rofl :lol
Title: Spitfire Mk VIII request: 152 Sqdn SEAC UM-E
Post by: Kev367th on December 03, 2005, 11:35:15 AM: LOL

Thought I'd try a quick test, see what it looks like minus weathering and all the little 'touches'.

(http://www.cyberonic.com/~kreed/ume.jpg)
Title: Spitfire Mk VIII request: 152 Sqdn SEAC UM-E
Post by: Krusty on December 03, 2005, 12:12:09 PM: That would be my Spit8 skin exclusively! :aok
Title: Spitfire Mk VIII request: 152 Sqdn SEAC UM-E
Post by: Karnak on December 03, 2005, 12:34:51 PM: That looks very nice Kev. Thank you for looking at it. :D

Kev, I assume you have "Spitfire: The History"? The photo I posted is from that book at the very top of the seventh page of profiles.

A couple of things that don't really show up well in that blurry photo are the white bands on the wings wrapping around under the wing, all the way back to the flap, but not onto the flap. Another thing is there seems to be a black ring around the empty cannon bay just behind the rounded cap.

I know you were just doing a quick mockup, but I want to be helpful in whatever way I can.
Title: Spitfire Mk VIII request: 152 Sqdn SEAC UM-E
Post by: Kev367th on December 03, 2005, 01:48:52 PM: Don't have it Karnak :( .
Some pics would be handy if you get itme.

A little weathering goes a long long way -

(http://www.cyberonic.com/~kreed/ume2.jpg)
Title: Spitfire Mk VIII request: 152 Sqdn SEAC UM-E
Post by: Karnak on December 03, 2005, 02:45:40 PM: I'll see what I can do. I may have to do up some crude drawing by hand the show what I mean.

First I'll try to get a clearer picture though.
Title: Spitfire Mk VIII request: 152 Sqdn SEAC UM-E
Post by: Karnak on December 03, 2005, 10:22:59 PM: I managed to get some clearer photos of the page.

In the first image I doubled the photo and on the lower one I out lined the white band under the wing with a green outline and put a green box around the cannon bay marking I'd mentioned.
(http://members.arstechnica.com/x/karnak/Spit81.jpg)
(http://members.arstechnica.com/x/karnak/Spit82.jpg)
(http://members.arstechnica.com/x/karnak/Spit83.jpg)

Hopefully that helps a bit.
Title: Spitfire Mk VIII request: 152 Sqdn SEAC UM-E
Post by: Karnak on December 04, 2005, 02:35:10 PM: Looking closer at the profile it looks like the white bands on the tail also wrap around underneath. I would guess they stop at the elevator on the bottom like they do with the flap on the wing.

Also I am guessing that the white bands are the same width and position as on the top. I think the band under the wing looks narrower due to errors in the profile's perspective. The white band under the wing comes right up to the wheel well, but still looks like it is outboard of the cannon bays, somthing that doesn't make snese. I am thinking the cannon bays just appear further inboard on the profile than they should.
Title: Spitfire Mk VIII request: 152 Sqdn SEAC UM-E
Post by: Kev367th on December 04, 2005, 02:47:44 PM: Bands upper and lower will be the same width.
They are different widths on the wings and tailplane though.
I have made the tail stripe same width as the tailplane stripes.

I actually think they have put the profile on a Mk IX spit, only early Mk IX's had the large bulge over the cannon bays.
Also going to assume the standard roundels on the lower wings are incorrect also and should be SEAC roundels.
Title: Spitfire Mk VIII request: 152 Sqdn SEAC UM-E
Post by: Karnak on December 04, 2005, 03:24:56 PM: Quote
Originally posted by Kev367th
Bands upper and lower will be the same width.
They are different widths on the wings and tailplane though.
I have made the tail stripe same width as the tailplane stripes.

I actually think they have put the profile on a Mk IX spit, only early Mk IX's had the large bulge over the cannon bays.
Also going to assume the standard roundels on the lower wings are incorrect also and should be SEAC roundels.

That all sounds correct to me.
Title: Spitfire Mk VIII request: 152 Sqdn SEAC UM-E
Post by: Kev367th on December 04, 2005, 04:01:55 PM: Well got the port side done, stbd won't take long, then I do the bottom in one go (it's easier).

(http://www.cyberonic.com/~kreed/ume3.jpg)
Title: Spitfire Mk VIII request: 152 Sqdn SEAC UM-E
Post by: Karnak on December 04, 2005, 04:11:25 PM: Looks good with one possible comment. The white bands might be a bit too dirty. They're looking more like a light grey that is dirty than a white that is dirty.

Thanks for doing this one.
Title: Spitfire Mk VIII request: 152 Sqdn SEAC UM-E
Post by: Krusty on December 04, 2005, 05:05:33 PM: I'm looking forward to this one!
Title: Spitfire Mk VIII request: 152 Sqdn SEAC UM-E
Post by: Karnak on December 04, 2005, 07:12:50 PM: Quote
Originally posted by Krusty
I'm looking forward to this one!

It is hard to find Spitfires that deviate much from RAF standard. Usually when they do it is some small detail that isn't visible from the cockpit or from other aircraft at any sort of distance.

The big white bands on the wings of this one will meet both of those requirements and the red cannon will also be visible from the cockpit.

I will admit that I am curious about why the white bands and red cannon were done.

What Spitfire:The History lists for MT557 is as follows:

MT557 KEE 9MU 3-6-44 83MU 15-6 Clan Camp 16-7 Ind 14-8 SOC 23-8-45

All I can make out from that is that it first went to Maintainance Unit 9, then to Maintainance Unit 83 and, I am pretty sure, was Struck Off on Charge on August 23rd, 1945. More specific than that I can't make out as I am not really familiar with tracking individual aircraft. Dan might be able to tell us more.

A couple of things I am seeing is that 1) MT557 is not listed in the Spitfire Mk VIII serials on that 152 Squadron's webpage that Dan provided a link to, 2) on Il-2's forums (http://forums.ubi.com/groupee/forums/a/tpc/f/45410763/m/3741000833/r/3741000833) this skin is shown with the pilot being W/O G. R. Duval flying in 152 Squadron and W/O Duval is listed in the personel section of the 152 Squadron page. This EAW skin page (http://www.factbites.com/topics/No-302-Wing-RAF) lists it as being flown by W/O Duval in 175 'Hyderabad' Squadron. That can't be right though. I just did a search on 175 Squadron and it was a Tiffie unit based in England and wasn't even 'Hyderabad', that was 152 Squadron. RAF history pages for 152 (http://www.raf.mod.uk/history/h152.html) and 175 (http://www.raf.mod.uk/history/h175.html) Squadrons.

Hard to pin it down.

My guess at this point would be that the 152 website's list of Mk VIII serials is incomplete and that MT557 was flown by W/O G. R. Duval in No. 152 'Hyderabad' Squadron in 1944 and 1945.
Title: Spitfire Mk VIII request: 152 Sqdn SEAC UM-E
Post by: Guppy35 on December 05, 2005, 12:12:04 AM: Definately 152 Squadron.

Looks great Kev
Title: Spitfire Mk VIII request: 152 Sqdn SEAC UM-E
Post by: Kev367th on December 05, 2005, 03:15:21 AM: Re: White - I didn't use pure white (RGB 255,255,255), instead I used RAF Ident White (RGB 242,241,234).
Maybe someone who has a reference can say whether it should be one or the other?
Title: Spitfire Mk VIII request: 152 Sqdn SEAC UM-E
Post by: Kev367th on December 05, 2005, 02:07:09 PM: OK.
Tried the stipes using RGB 255,255,255
Also added an overall lightening layer to the camo only, seems though AH renders skins slightly darker than what the bitmap is at.

(http://www.cyberonic.com/~kreed/ume4.jpg)
Title: Spitfire Mk VIII request: 152 Sqdn SEAC UM-E
Post by: Karnak on December 05, 2005, 03:48:40 PM: That is looking really good Kev. :aok
Title: Spitfire Mk VIII request: 152 Sqdn SEAC UM-E
Post by: Kev367th on December 06, 2005, 10:09:09 AM: Uppers complete, view of stbd side -

(http://www.cyberonic.com/~kreed/ume5.jpg)
Title: Spitfire Mk VIII request: 152 Sqdn SEAC UM-E
Post by: Karnak on December 06, 2005, 12:44:23 PM: :aok
Title: Spitfire Mk VIII request: 152 Sqdn SEAC UM-E
Post by: Kev367th on December 06, 2005, 02:05:05 PM: Gonna finish up the bottom weathering, then it will be ready.

Next project will be (with new weathering/chipping layers to be done yet).
Will also get a changed tail camo layout.

31st FG "Fargo Express"
(http://www.cyberonic.com/~kreed/fargo.jpg)

The MA is CRYING OUT for a desert map again.
Title: Spitfire Mk VIII request: 152 Sqdn SEAC UM-E
Post by: Guppy35 on December 06, 2005, 02:43:56 PM: That's some beautiful work Kev.

Any chance of you doing one of the standard MTO gray/green Spit VIIIs to fill out the set?

It would look good alongside the standard camo IXs and XVIs

(http://www.furballunderground.com/freehost/files/27/43Spit8.jpg)
Title: Spitfire Mk VIII request: 152 Sqdn SEAC UM-E
Post by: Kev367th on December 06, 2005, 04:23:41 PM: Will have a look Dan, but I don't want to 'hog' the VIII's. If it looks like not too many people doing Spits, sure.

The SEAC one is done - view of underside:

(http://www.cyberonic.com/~kreed/ume6.jpg)
Title: Spitfire Mk VIII request: 152 Sqdn SEAC UM-E
Post by: Guppy35 on December 06, 2005, 04:31:25 PM: You make it really hard not to be a Spit driver :)
Title: Spitfire Mk VIII request: 152 Sqdn SEAC UM-E
Post by: Karnak on December 06, 2005, 04:32:06 PM: Very nice Kev. Thank you for doing this one. I look forward to using it online.
Title: Spitfire Mk VIII request: 152 Sqdn SEAC UM-E
Post by: Kev367th on December 07, 2005, 11:21:26 AM: Sent to HTC today :) .

Starting new layers for "Fargo Express".
Title: Spitfire Mk VIII request: 152 Sqdn SEAC UM-E
Post by: United on December 07, 2005, 07:27:18 PM: Gonna post it on ah-skins?

Looks great
Title: Spitfire Mk VIII request: 152 Sqdn SEAC UM-E
Post by: Kev367th on December 07, 2005, 09:03:03 PM: It's there now under Spitfire IX, no Mk VIII category yet.
Title: Spitfire Mk VIII request: 152 Sqdn SEAC UM-E
Post by: Karnak on December 07, 2005, 11:11:48 PM: It looks good Kev. The red cannon barrels and white bands are visible from quite aways out. It is much more of a depature from standard than most Spitfires.