Art gallery [Large pictures warning!!]

[Oberon]

A picture that I did back in 2008 depicting Jock Moffats Swordfish dropping its torpedo at the KMS Bismarck, with Navigator Miller looking over the side to see if they had a runner.

[Eichhörnchen]

Main colour areas very quickly and roughly applied in order to gauge composition.

[Aktungbby]

Originally Posted by Eichhörnchen

Main colour areas very quickly and roughly applied in order to gauge composition.

See if you can work "Big Yank' into the work!

On a March day in 1945, Babe Broyhill was the tail gunner on "Big Yank," a B-17 Flying Fortress over Berlin. He saw Luftwaffe ME-262 jet fighters swarm toward Big Yank`s tail. "I saw four jets attacking a lone B-17 from another group. The B-17 knocked down one of the enemy fighters before it flew in a crippled manner towards the Russian lines. The remaining three fighters came at our plane. Two of them came right behind each other at my position. They were about 1000 yards away when I started cutting loose with my guns. The first (Me 262) made a pass at 200 yards and my tracers were going right into its fuselage. Suddenly it went down in flames. The second came into my sights after the first had dropped. I kept shooting away because he was getting into my hair. Suddenly, it also spiraled down. Upon hitting the ground, it burst into flames. Because I had my guns spitting lead so rapidly, they jammed." The Big Yank crew set a record for the number of ME-262 jets destroyed by one crew on one mission (3) and Broyhill set two records: most German jets destroyed by a gunner in one mission (2) and most German jets destroyed by a gunner during the war (2).

< Broyhill second from leaf fron row. http://www.warbirdsresourcegroup.org/URG/bigyank.html

[Eichhörnchen]

Unfortunately that's a natural metal finish on "Big Yank", but I'll keep it in mind for later.

[Aktungbby]

What a psychological ploy though: U know your not winning when your enemy bombs in daylight and doesn't bother with camo paint schemes any more!

[Eichhörnchen]

The "Edit" buttons are missing from this thread again, so here is an update:



The sky is almost done and I've started working on the various aircraft. Still very early stages.

[Jimbuna]

Everything appears normal at this end.

[fireftr18]

Originally Posted by Aktungbby

What a psychological ploy though: U know your not winning when your enemy bombs in daylight and doesn't bother with camo paint schemes any more!

I read an article about that in Popular Mechanics. During WW2, there was a lot of research about aircraft camouflage color. Basically, they found out that the dark upper surfaces didn't help hide the aircraft while in the air. They also found out that it actually made the aircraft easier to see from the ground.
There was also the need to get aircraft over to the war as soon as possible, so the Army agreed to accept the aircraft unpainted, then paint them when they could.
It didn't take long for the Army to figure out to simply not paint the aircraft.
I don't know how well the change worked, but the polished aluminum remained for many years. Now just about everyone the world over paints their aircraft some shade of gray. Yes, I know, there are exceptions.

[Eichhörnchen]

That's interesting, the point that they were actually more visible from above while in flight... it makes perfect sense: the higher they flew, cloud, also simply density of atmosphere below, would cause them them stand out.

Also, it was known that a coat of matte paint slowed an aircraft by a considerable amount (especially a big one) owing to weight of the paint and the drag. The RAF continued to paint their bombers because they flew mainly at night but I don't know why they didn't also return to natural metal for their fighters.

The Luftwaffe began painting their fighters in more 'earthy' colours such as "braunviolette" right down their flanks and over the tailfins (often previously left light grey) in the later stages of then war because they were having to spend far more time on the ground, at which times a top camouflage would indeed be best.

Luftwaffe camouflage just by itself is a vast, fascinating and often controversial subject.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Oberon

A picture that I did back in 2008 depicting Jock Moffats Swordfish dropping its torpedo at the KMS Bismarck, with Navigator Miller looking over the side to see if they had a runner.

Most fitting considering recent events Jamie