Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Custom Skins => Topic started by: oboe on March 31, 2021, 07:30:13 PM
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We lost Chuck Yeager last December. He lead an incredible life and has to be considered one of America's greatest airmen. Thanks to Arlo for suggesting a memorial skin in honor of his passing, and thanks to Vraciu for his assistance in nailing down the red and yellow hues of the 357th's nose art. <S>
(https://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=402737.0;attach=33859)
(https://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=402737.0;attach=33861)
(https://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=402737.0;attach=33863)
Chuck Yeager enlisted as a private in the U.S. Army Air Force in September 1941, and initially became an aircraft mechanic. The entry of the U.S. into World War II however, prompted the USAAF to alter its recruiting standards, and Yeager, possessing exceptional eyesight, was accepted for pilot training. Receiving his pilot wings in March 1943, he was assigned to the 357th Fighter Group, flying Bell P-39 Airacobras (being grounded for seven days for clipping a farmer's tree during a training flight), and shipped overseas with the group on November 23, 1943.
Stationed at RAF Leiston, Yeager flew P-51 Mustangs in combat with the 363d Fighter Squadron. He named his aircraft Glamorous Glen after his girlfriend, Glennis Dickhouse, who became his wife in February 1945. He had gained one victory before he was shot down over France in his first aircraft (a P-51B) on March 5, 1944, on his eighth mission. He escaped to Spain on March 30, 1944 with the help of the French Resistance and returned to England on May 15, 1944.
Despite a regulation prohibiting "evaders" from flying over enemy territory again, Yeager was reinstated to flying combat. He had joined another evader, fellow P-51 pilot 1st Lt Fred Glover, in speaking directly to the Supreme Allied Commander, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, on June 12, 1944. "I raised so much hell that General Eisenhower finally let me go back to my squadron" Yeager said. "He cleared me for combat after D Day, because all the free Frenchmen — Maquis and people like that — had surfaced". Eisenhower, after gaining permission from the War Department to decide the requests, concurred with Yeager and Glover. In the meantime, Yeager shot down his second enemy aircraft, a German Junkers Ju 88 bomber, over the English Channel.
P-51D-20-NA, Glamorous Glen III, is the aircraft in which Yeager achieved most of his aerial victories. Yeager demonstrated outstanding flying skills and combat leadership. On October 12, 1944, he became the first pilot in his group to make "ace in a day," downing five enemy aircraft in a single mission. Two of these kills were scored without firing a single shot: when he flew into firing position against a Messerschmitt Bf 109, the pilot of the aircraft panicked, breaking to starboard and colliding with his wingman. Yeager said both pilots bailed out. He finished the war with 11.5 official victories, including one of the first air-to-air victories over a jet fighter, a German Messerschmitt Me 262 that he shot down as it was on final approach for landing.
Yeager remained in the U.S. Air Force after the war, becoming a test pilot. Yeager became the first person to break the sound barrier on October 14, 1947, in level flight while piloting the X-1 Glamorous Glennis at Mach 1.05 at an altitude of 45,000 ft over the Rogers Dry Lake of the Mojave Desert.
Yeager went on to break many other speed and altitude records. He was also one of the first American pilots to fly a Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15, after its pilot, No Kum-sok, defected to South Korea.
Yeager was foremost a fighter pilot and held several squadron and wing commands. From 1954 to 1957, he commanded the F-86H Sabre-equipped 417th Fighter-Bomber Squadron at Hahn AB, West Germany, and Toul-Rosieres Air Base, France; and from 1957 to 1960 the F-100D Super Sabre-equipped 1st Fighter Day Squadron at George Air Force Base, California, and Morón Air Base, Spain. In 1966, Yeager took command of the 405th Tactical Fighter Wing at Clark Air Base, the Philippines, whose squadrons were deployed on rotational temporary duty in South Vietnam and elsewhere in Southeast Asia. There he flew 127 missions. In February 1968, Yeager was assigned command of the 4th Tactical Fighter Wing at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, and led the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom wing in South Korea during the Pueblo crisis. He was promoted to brigadier general in July 1969 and was assigned as vice-commander of the Seventeenth Air Force.
In 1973, Yeager was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame, and in 1975, retired from the Air Force. He resided in Northern California until his death on December 7, 2020, at age 97.
EDIT: I'm now looking at these pics on a different computer, and it seems to me the red is too brown... anyone concur?
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That's spectacular!
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Thanks Devil, but I don't think the red looks right - too brown, do you agree?
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I don't think so. The red looks good to me.
Here's the red I use for Insignia Red. Feel free to try it. This will be a little less of a red-orange.
(https://i.postimg.cc/RFyFRCFN/Dull-Insignia-Red.png) (https://postimages.org/)
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:O
Maybe I spent too much time in front of the screen today. I swear on this MacBook, the red looks closer to Terracotta.
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:O
Maybe I spent too much time in front of the screen today. I swear on this MacBook, the red looks closer to Terracotta.
See my edited post above.
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Thanks. I better sleep on it before I touch it again. I see a couple of details to correct on the right side anyway. I always find something after I post the screenshots.
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Magnificent, Oboe. Really glad to see you finish this one. Just gorgeous.
The detail you put into the skin makes it fly off the screen. I tip my hat. Sure to be an absolute hit. Shuffler will be happy! Lol
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You MIGHT desaturate the red and yellow just a bit, say three to five percent, and see how your eye reacts. It's not far off if at all.
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Are the letters a tiny bit thin? Not trying to sound critical, just want to help you get it right.
(https://www.chuckyeager.com/wp-content/themes/Yeager/supersized/backgrounds/GlamorousGlenThree1800x1230.jpg)
https://www.chuckyeager.com/wp-content/themes/Yeager/supersized/backgrounds/GlamorousGlenThree1800x1230.jpg
All the paint looks truly painted on. Such a nice effect.
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:aok
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Are the letters a tiny bit thin? Not trying to sound critical, just want to help you get it right.
Good eye.
The "Y" also looks too splayed out also.
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I saw that, too, but didn't want to sound like I was piling on out of bitterness. Hopefully Oboe knows better as we compare notes privately all the time.
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I saw that, too, but didn't want to sound like I was piling on out of bitterness. Hopefully Oboe knows better as we compare notes privately all the time.
Yeah, it could be wide enough at the top but the narrowness of the letter makes it look wider than it should be.
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Yeah, it could be wide enough at the top but the narrowness of the letter makes it look wider than it should be.
The angle needs tweaking perhaps. He'll know when he looks at the photo what we mean.
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That's a beautiful looking skin Oboe, the red and yellow could be made a touch less saturated but they are in the acceptable range to my eyes. A minor criticism I have is that the horizontal light/shadow effect on the rudder stands out a bit too much against the red colour.
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Very nice Oboe.
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Fresher eyes this morning. Great points, all - thank you.
Vraciu the photo is excellent - this skin originally dates from 2017 and I was mostly going by art and profiles for the fuselage letter codes. Indeed, the Y needs some attention, and the B6 will need thickening no doubt. Greebo's point about the horizontal glare/shadow being too intense arises from changing the rudder color to darker red from the original lighter grey without rebalancing the glare/shadow layer. Needs to be backed off a bit on the new, darker rudder color.
I'll look at the saturation of the red/yellow colors also, and compare screenshots to the colors on the other 357th skins we have. I'd like to get this right and be consistent with the other yellow/orange-red checkerboard noses we have in game.
Thanks all!
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Here's a profile comparison I made of some of the color sources I had, plus the other 357th birds we have in game. I really think Vraciu nailed it with Horse's Itch, I'm guessing if I turned this color plate to B&W, his nose checkerboard would match closely to the B&W WWII photo shown earlier in this thread...
(https://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=402737.0;attach=33869)
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Oh man, that is so cool looking.
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Pretty much finished, thanks for help all. Will try to get it submitted later on today or tomorrow.
(https://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=402737.0;attach=33880)
(https://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=402737.0;attach=33882)
(https://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=402737.0;attach=33884)
(https://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=402737.0;attach=33886)
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Beautiful job, Oboe.
The revised red and yellow really work well.
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Amazing tribute to an amazing West Virginian. Excellent work and excellent contribution to our community.
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Beautiful job, Oboe.
The revised red and yellow really work well.
Agreed. The letters also look much better. A nice job. Well done.
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I wish Hitech could tweak the drop tank shape, though, and make them more metallic. Or let us modify them as part of the skin.
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:aok
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Its submitted now.
Thank you, especially for the help with the lettering details and colors. I have a gaming computer and 2 different laptops and its surprising how different the red-orange trim looks on each of them. Its the worst on the Lenovo S340; the red looks like a dull, brownish dusty pale pink. Looks much better on a MacBook, and the best of all on my gaming machine. I ran through Windows Color Calibration routine on the Lenovo, but it didn't help much.
<S> all.
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Outstanding work, sir. Maybe I'll finish Old Crow and we can fly them for a photo shoot. HA HA. :)
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Great work as always!