P-51D 361st FG "LOU IV" Adoption

[oboe]

Been waiting a long time to do this one, hoping for Fester to return and update it himself.   But I didn't want to wait any longer; I've always considered this skin among the finest in AH, and it deserves updating to the proper specular, power, environmental and normal maps.  I have tried to preserve Fester's original artwork wherever possible - I did have to darken the bare metal, the yellow nose and white invasion stripes and insignia stars.   I've added my pilot figure, canopy frame, tire treads and wheel rims.

[Devil 505]

Just stunning.

[lyric1]

 

[Nefarious]

Wow. That is the most realistic looking P-51 I have seen! Amazing work!

[FTJR]

Nice job Oboe

[Vraciu]

Nicely done, sir.   I can't add anything to what has already been said except to say that I know firsthand how tough it is to preserve someone else's work.    I think you've done splendidly.   Fester will be pleased with your effort. 

[oboe]

Thanks guys; wish there was a way to keep Fester's name on the skin.  Lots of detail and artistry to preserve.  To think this was an AH2-era skin- just incredible. 

Fester didn't have much of a write-up about the pilot, who had an interesting story.   I don't think the skins download page includes our little write-ups about the skins anymore, so I'll include, mine here:

P-51D-5-NA 361st FG 375th FS 44-13410 "LOU IV/Athlene", RAF Bottisham, England, July 1944

Colonel Thomas Jonathan Jackson “Jack” Christian, Jr., was the great-grandson of Stonewall” Jackson, one of the Confederacy’s outstanding commanders of the American Civil War.   He graduated from West Point in 1939 and choose first to follow his father into the Field Artillery branch of the U.S. Army.  However soon after making this decision, he changed his mind and joined the Army Air Corps.  On completion of pilot training in 1940, he was assigned as instructor at Randolph Field, Texas.

In March 1941, he was transferred to the 19th Bombardment Group at Clark Field in the Philippines, where he flew B-18's and B-17’s. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, he was reassigned to Bataan and then Australia where he ferried P-40 fighters and was later shot down and declared missing in action ‘somewhere’ in Timor Coast. He was able to return to the base after living with natives in the jungle.

Assigned in May 1942 to 67th Pursuit Squadron, Christian was the first US Army Air Corps pilot that landed on Guadalcanal on August 15, 1942. Flying P-400 from Henderson Field, he flew more than sixty hours of combat missions and was awarded the Silver Star for gallantry.

After being granted leave, he returned to the United States, where he formed and trained the 361st Fighter Group, the “Yellow Jackets”.   He took the unit to RAF Bottisham, England, for assignment to the 8th Air Force in November, 1943.

In a lasting tribute to his actions, in July 1944, a photographic section of the USAAF immortalized his personal aircraft, named “LOU IV / ATHELENE” in a famous set of photos called “Bottisham Four”. The photo seems to be the most moving tribute to all he accomplished at just twenty-eight years of age, but it is a tribute he never saw as he was killed just three weeks later on 12 August 1944, while bombing the station of Boisleux-au-Mont.

Col Jackson had flown more than seventy combat missions in the European war and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross with Oak Leaf Cluster, the Air Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters and the Purple Heart.





   

[Greebo]

Very nice job on the update Oboe, great work.

[Citabria]

https://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,202219.0.html

Found the original post to see how old the skin is.

March 31, 2007.

As Vraciu mentioned updating old artwork to viability with the constraints of the newest rendering software requires major under the hood balancing and polishing of pretty much everything to get it to look the way it did or better all those years ago in a virtual sky far far away.

And there she is a ghost from long ago looking better than ever.  Oboe deliberately retained the original work in a way that would make professional art restorers applaud and personally I am thrilled with the results.

Thank you Oboe for accomplishing this.

Thank you to Vraciu and Greebo also for generously and graciously sharing the original Fester P-51d bitmaps that even I no longer had. That kindness made this possible and Oboe’s kindness in preserving the original work so exquisitely makes my heart glow to know Oboe decided that the work I did all those years ago was worth saving for artistic and sentimental reasons.

Great write up too!

This really made my day.

Thanks again.

[Citabria]

Oboe you’re one of the first to comment on the original Lou IV P-51d skin thread from 2007. Greebo was there too!

Here I am getting sentimental myself.

[Vraciu]

https://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,202219.0.html

Found the original post to see how old the skin is.

March 31, 2007.

As Vraciu mentioned updating old artwork to viability with the constraints of the newest rendering software requires major under the hood balancing and polishing of pretty much everything to get it to look the way it did or better all those years ago in a virtual sky far far away.

And there she is a ghost from long ago looking better than ever.  Oboe deliberately retained the original work in a way that would make professional art restorers applaud and personally I am thrilled with the results.

Thank you Oboe for accomplishing this.

Thank you to Vraciu and Greebo also for generously and graciously sharing the original Fester P-51d bitmaps that even I no longer had. That kindness made this possible and Oboe’s kindness in preserving the original work so exquisitely makes my heart glow to know Oboe decided that the work I did all those years ago was worth saving for artistic and sentimental reasons.

Great write up too!

This really made my day.

Thanks again.

 

[oboe]

It was an honor and a pleasure to do the restoration work on this skin.     

[Citabria]

Rereading the old thread guppy noted the Lou IV p-51d-5 canopy handle is a square latch instead of the long rectangular handle of the later models.

[oboe]

Thanks for catching that, Citabria.  I examined your original and see the small square latch in the canopy frame.   The attention to detail is amazing!  I don't think I've seen any images of the small latch style, but I can use yours as the template.   I'm assuming the rivet pattern is the same between both styles.

I'll get it updated before the next skin release.

[Citabria]

http://village.photos/images/user/79be2e9a-36dc-44d5-b50f-cbe1bfc189bd/321013a9-ca7e-4700-a680-2fd95ba39fc5.jpg

Found this link to an image in a search of p-51d-5. The link is of a modified split canopy two seater p51d-5 but it shows the square latch which might actually be missing in the photo with just the square hole where it was on the mothballed modified d5 in the pic.

I vaguely recall fencer or guppy posting hires images in the original thread showing that canopy nuance in detail.