Art gallery [Large pictures warning!!]

[Aktungbby]

Originally Posted by Commander Wallace

Service people from that time never thought they did anything special even though they did.

Some would disagree!
< in fact it was used to sell war bonds!

[Eichhörnchen]

Finished (probably)... F/O T. Szlenkier of 308 (Polish) Sqn watches a JG1 fighter go down over Sint Denijs airfield, 1 January 1945.

(detail)

Difficult job because there's not much colour in a Winter scene like this; "Colour is what sells pictures", a dealer once told me. I did consider putting some tracer fire in, coming up from the airfield (some of the Germans were shot down by AA) so I still may do this.

[Torplexed]

Superb work Eichhörnchen. It's got that January aerial ambience for sure.

[Eichhörnchen]

Thanks, Torp

[Jimbuna]

Aye, very nice indeed

[Eichhörnchen]

I dug out this old sketch of ideas I had years ago for two paintings: I'm going to start with the 1./KG51 Messerscmitt Me262 heading for the Ludendorff bridge at Remagen.

If I do it big then I might put another plane in. There'll probably be a mass of AA over the bridge, reacting to Ar-234 jet bombers which have swept over already.

[Eichhörnchen]

Now the rough sketch idea has been developed into a real drawing ready to begin painting, using my old Revell 1:72 scale model again:








Of course I'll 'repaint' the Me-262s to represent 1./KG51 aircraft; the models just give me the drawing and lighting information (they are travelling from an ESE direction on the morning of March 9 or 12, 1945)



Starting to feel my way around the landscape and sky...

[Commander Wallace]

Originally Posted by Eichhörnchen

Now the rough sketch idea has been developed into a real drawing ready to begin painting, using my old Revell 1:72 scale model again:








Of course I'll 'repaint' the Me-262s to represent 1./KG51 aircraft; the models just give me the drawing and lighting information (they are travelling from an ESE direction on the morning of March 9 or 12, 1945)

It's amazing to see the artistic process at work and see a painting go from conception to a " rough sketch " and eventually, a finished painting.

[Aktungbby]

Originally Posted by Commander Wallace

It's amazing to see the artistic process at work and see a painting go from conception to a " rough sketch " and eventually, a finished painting.

What's amazing is : you get inside the artist's head! One never see the original; that is inside the head of the artist....Here's Munch's rendition of "'waiting" for the M-262 attack on the Remagen Bridge" Sale price $119,922,600 USD!

[Eichhörnchen]

But I think the guys there weren't too worried: the AA barrage they put up was, I read somewhere, the densest of its kind in the entire war, and their commander told them not to worry about identification but to just blast anything that came near the bridge.

[Commander Wallace]

Originally Posted by Aktungbby

What's amazing is : you get inside the artist's head! One never see the original; that is inside the head of the artist....Here's Munch's rendition of "'waiting" for the M-262 attack on the Remagen Bridge" Sale price $119,922,600 USD!

Either that or " oh no, I left the stove and tea kettle on "

[Eichhörnchen]

I should've thought of that!

[Eichhörnchen]

For some unknown reason my "Edit" button has stopped appearing in this thread, so I have to display this progress update as a fresh post instead of adding it to the original (I'll alter things again if my button reappears).



Just started on painting the aircraft (nothing's finished yet, not the background nor the bridge or aircraft). I think I might call it "Remagen Strike".



My Edit button has reappeared; changed a/c to "White B" as this seems a reasonable idea... further research or comment welcome. Moving on to finish the background next, along with the bridge itself and some more FX! That will wake the picture up.

Finished

[Eichhörnchen]

Yes I toyed with the idea of putting the Arado jet bombers in the picture as well, but maybe in the future: I plan to revisit this subject in another painting.

[Aktungbby]

^Ignore my previous post! On closer inspection: those are the two-bomb fighter-bomber variant of the 262A2-2a if 'escorting' the Arados equipped with 2000 lb bombs, would they actually have also been carrying relatively ineffective 500 kg bombs in a superior Allied air cover situation especially in the all-out Remagen zone? The Me 262A-2a Sturmvogel (Stormbird) was built with bomb pylons capable of carrying either two 250 kg or 500 kg bombs or one bridgeworthy 1,000 kg bomb. Two upper Mk. 108 cannons were removed to make way for the bomb site. With bombs installed, this reduced the airspeed by 120 mph (193 km/h) bringing it within the speed of Allied piston-engine fighters until the bombs were dropped. The account in wiki is unclear:

In an indication of their dire military situation, Hermann Göring initially sought volunteers from among Messerschmitt 262A pilots for suicide missions to attack the bridge, but the aircraft's bomb targeting sight prevented their use in this way. To supplement the propeller-driven aircraft, Göring formed Gefechtsverband Kowalewski, which included about 40 Arado Ar 234 B-2 turbojet bombers of III./Kampfgeschwader 76 (76th Bomber Wing), normally based in Norway. The bombers were escorted by about 30 Messerschmitt 262A-2a jet fighter-bombers-4 guns 2 hardpoints> from II./Kampfgeschwader 51 (51st Bomber Wing) led by Hansgeorg Bätcher—formerly commanding officer of III./KG 76 — on their 7 March mission. This was the first time they were used to attack a tactical target. When fully loaded with external bombs, the bombers were capable of flying at over 660 kilometers (410 mi), faster than almost all Allied aircraft except the latest Tempest Mark V, and so fast that the American anti-aircraft units had trouble tracking them. Over six days, III Gruppe./KG 76 flew nine sorties against the bridges. While extremely fast for their time, they were not accurate and dropped 1,000-kilogram (2,200 lb) bombs without success. The Germans lost seven jet aircraft, two to Allied aircraft.The Americans estimated that from 7 to 17 March they shot down 109 planes and probably destroyed 36 others out of a total of 367 sent to attack the bridge. 33%+ casualties??!! does not win wars.

For sure the 262A-2A/U2 with bombardier prone in glazed nose to aim bombs....was not used at Remagen, nor was this prototype dragging the bomb behind on its own wooden wing! (looks big enough for Remagen though imho)