Author Topic: Vichy French DB-7  (Read 1962 times)

Offline Greebo

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Vichy French DB-7
« on: November 10, 2017, 05:37:06 AM »
Following its victory over France in 1940 Germany did not dismantle the French Air Force but did require it to be based French North Africa. In 1942 this collection of by then outdated French and American aircraft briefly opposed Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of the area, before being overrun. The best bomber available to the Vichy French forces at the time was the Douglas DB-7 which was an earlier variant of the Boston/A20 and so the Allies took pains to destroy many of these as possible on the ground in their initial assault.

This DB-7 was part of GBII/32 in 1942 and was painted with distinctive theater ID markings of red and yellow stripes on the tail surfaces, which were needed to prevent friendly fire from Axis forces. It also had red and yellow striped cowls but this is not possible to represent on the AH1-era Boston shape, due to its very weird texture mapping of the nacelle area.

« Last Edit: November 10, 2017, 05:39:50 AM by Greebo »

Offline Vraciu

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Re: Vichy French DB-7
« Reply #1 on: November 10, 2017, 07:57:47 AM »
Very cool. 
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Offline Devil 505

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Re: Vichy French DB-7
« Reply #2 on: November 10, 2017, 08:00:32 AM »
most excellent
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Offline DubiousKB

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Re: Vichy French DB-7
« Reply #3 on: November 10, 2017, 08:52:03 AM »
Too bright.  :devil


(very cool reasoning on the tail colors)
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Offline Skuzzy

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Re: Vichy French DB-7
« Reply #4 on: November 10, 2017, 09:15:01 AM »
I am thinking that AH1 model has never looked better, on the outside.
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Offline oboe

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Re: Vichy French DB-7
« Reply #5 on: November 10, 2017, 09:36:28 AM »
Amazing work, Greebo.  You do wonders with the Boston III.




Offline Nefarious

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Re: Vichy French DB-7
« Reply #6 on: November 10, 2017, 10:26:50 AM »
Very cool!
There must also be a flyable computer available for Nefarious to do FSO. So he doesn't keep talking about it for eight and a half hours on Friday night!

Offline Vraciu

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Re: Vichy French DB-7
« Reply #7 on: November 10, 2017, 10:50:20 AM »
I am thinking that AH1 model has never looked better, on the outside.

All the more impressive. 
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Offline lyric1

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Re: Vichy French DB-7
« Reply #8 on: November 10, 2017, 11:36:36 AM »


This DB-7 was part of GBII/32 in 1942 and was painted with distinctive theater ID markings of red and yellow stripes on the tail surfaces, which were needed to prevent friendly fire from Axis forces. It also had red and yellow striped cowls but this is not possible to represent on the AH1-era Boston shape, due to its very weird texture mapping of the nacelle area.

(Image removed from quote.)

Will be nice on the update of these old skins though so we can get all of what it should be.





Excellent work as usual Greebo.

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« Last Edit: November 10, 2017, 11:52:26 AM by lyric1 »

Offline Greebo

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Re: Vichy French DB-7
« Reply #9 on: November 10, 2017, 04:21:40 PM »
In terms of its actual shape the Boston and A-20G were probably the most accurate of all the AH1 aircraft. That they are each spread over three 1024 res bmps helps their pixel density too. Unfortunately the way the textures are mapped onto the shape makes them an utter pig to skin. Each nacelle is mapped in eight sections, half of which are little patches taken from the upper and lower wings, some of which are distorted and others of which overlap each other. Getting a camo scheme to work on both the wings and nacelles is bad enough, but if I wanted to skin those yellow and red cowlings it would also create lots of little yellow and red patches all over the wings. Hopefully we should get a new Boston/A-20G shape within the next year or so.

Offline Greebo

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Re: Vichy French DB-7
« Reply #10 on: November 12, 2017, 06:15:46 AM »
Too bright.  :devil

Lyric1 found me a colour photo of a similar DB-7 to this one which did look more muted so I had a look for a better source on Armee de l Air colours. I found the following colour chart and applied some of its colours to the skin. I think the skin looks more realistic now.

https://www.cybermodeler.com/color/faf_matrix.shtml


Offline Vraciu

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Re: Vichy French DB-7
« Reply #11 on: November 12, 2017, 09:03:47 AM »
Superb. 
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Offline FTJR

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Re: Vichy French DB-7
« Reply #12 on: November 15, 2017, 01:06:07 AM »
Beautiful
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Offline SirNuke

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Re: Vichy French DB-7
« Reply #13 on: November 17, 2017, 09:01:39 AM »
very nice, I was wondering how Boston's could've been in Vichy's air force, it looks like they weren't!

Offline Vraciu

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Re: Vichy French DB-7
« Reply #14 on: November 17, 2017, 03:23:11 PM »
very nice, I was wondering how Boston's could've been in Vichy's air force, it looks like they weren't!

????   :headscratch:
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