These 3 skins are only available on the Black Sea winter terrain and are accurate to the units being represented in the upcoming Cherkassy Pocket scenario. These skins are not eligible for submitting to HTC because they are substitutions of other aircraft or the markings are anachronistic representations of likely period/location accurate markings, but not based on any specific reference. There are two FW 190's done by me and a Tu-2S, which FTJR was kind enough to make for us.
FW 190A-5 of II/JG 54.
This skin was created because there is no reference to any II/Jg 54 aircraft in the winter of 1943-44. Marking are typical to reference photos of aircraft from this Gruppe both before and after this particular winter. A partial whitewash was chosen because it it most similar to the Jg 54 Bf 109's operating in the same area. I chose the #14 as a tribute to my squadmate, FBDragon, who recently passed away. He always chose 14 for his personal aircraft in scenario signature banners and profiles.
Fw 190F-8 of II/Sg 77
This skin was created because I could not find any photo reference of this unit's aircraft before the spring of 1945. Part of this could be explained because it was a fairly new designation for this unit in the winter of 1943-44. Until mid October 1943, this unit was I/Sch.G. 1. I chose to skin this aircraft markings typical of I/Sch.G. 1 assuming it had survived long enough to get a whitewash for the winter after the designation change. Also, at this time they were outfitted with 190F-2's and F-3's derived from the 190 A-5.
Tu-2S of 511 ORAP
This skin is a substitution for a Pe-2 of the same unit. 511 ORAP was a armed reconnaissance unit and photos of their planes in the winter of 1943-44 show them carrying underwing bombs. Their winter camouflage was unusual in that it was not applied to the engine nacelles, probably due to the engines being covered with warming blankets once parked.
