B-17 question

[jankees]

Can anyone tell me what is written on the data block on the left hand nose of the B-17.
Knowing the AAF, it's probably something like:
U.S. ARMY MODEL B17G-XX
AIR CORPS SERIAL NO 42-XXXXXX
CREW WEIGHT XXXX POUNDS
SERVICE THIS AIRCRAFT WITH
GRADE 100 FUEL
IF NOT AVAILABLE XXXXXXX

but what does it say exactly?

[Curtis P40]

:wavey: Quick search of "nose art" shows
U.S.Army Model xxxxxx
Air Forces Serial No. xxxx
Crew Weight xxxxx
Hope this helps
Curt

[stansdds]

This was on the nose of "Mary Alice" as photographed in 1944.

U.S. ARMY MODEL B-17G-35-BO
AIR FORCES SERIAL NO. 42-31983
CREW WEIGHT 1200 LBS 92469-H

SERVICE THIS AIRPLANE
WITH 100 OCTANE FUEL
...........ONLY

FUEL SYSTEM SUITABLE
FOR AROMATIC FUELS

The "Service this airplane" part was contained within a black outlined rectangle.

Placement of this information varied, but was always on the port side of the nose.

[jankees]

excellent, thank you!

[djscoo]

Here ya go :ernae:

[VCN-1]

Can anyone explain why it gives a crew weight of 1200 pounds considering the B-17 IIRC had a crew of 10?

VCN-1

[Bone]

Can anyone explain why it gives a crew weight of 1200 pounds considering the B-17 IIRC had a crew of 10?

VCN-1

They were all a bunch of skinny little kids when they went to war.

[stansdds]

Yes, they were quite lean and many were not as tall as the average man of today.

[kilo delta]

There weren't that many McDonalds fast food outlets back in WWII :kiss::costumes:

[jankees]

..and you didn't get a free soft drink with every meal..

[VCN-1]

I don't think they weighed 120 pounds each, that is very lite.

VCN-1

[Bone]

Yeah, it does seem kinda light. Especially when you consider all of the stuff they wore into battle and the cold.

[Cazzie]

My father weighed 138-lb when he was in the Navy in WW II, you'd be surprised how small those boys were back then. The late John Champion, who was a ball-turret gunner in a B-24 told me they would line you up and the shortest and smallest person was the ball-turret gunner. Cannot validate if that is a truism, but it sounded sensible to me at the time.

Caz

[Bomber_12th]

All single-seat fighter planes had a crew weight of 200 lbs. written in their data block, so that is what they measured an average crew person's weight at during WWII, with all equipment, etc. Six people would thus be recognized by the weight being 1200 lbs. This could very likely be a carry over from the earlier pre-war model B-17s, perhaps, or they factored in all but the four gunners - bombardier, navigator, pilot, co-pilot, flight engineer, radio operator.

[huub vink]

Can anyone explain why it gives a crew weight of 1200 pounds considering the B-17 IIRC had a crew of 10?

VCN-1

Most probably to mislead the Germans ;)

[jankees]

Here ya go:
better than default, because that was unreadable...
But is it too big now?
And the textures are way too big now, at 2048 x 2048 = 16Mb each. I think 80Mb for a repaint would be slightly over the top. We'll see where this ends...

[jankees]

a few more WiP shots:

[Bone]

Is that the WOP or FS-Cast B-17 you are painting?

[jankees]

Is that the WOP or FS-Cast B-17 you are painting?

It's the A2A WoP2 version

[Snuffy]

Not bad Jankees, but the squadron symbol Triangle S or Triangle C need to be the same on all places.

With the ID code of IN you're definately doing a 401st BG skin ... the triangle c on the wing needs to be a triangle S to match the tail.

[jankees]

Not bad Jankees, but the squadron symbol Triangle S or Triangle C need to be the same on all places.

With the ID code of IN you're definately doing a 401st BG skin ... the triangle c on the wing needs to be a triangle S to match the tail.

I know, I know, but it's Work in Progress. I haven't started on the wings yet, this is my first WoP2 B-17, so I'm going slowly, seeing how the paintkit works...

[2Low]

Glad you are onto the WoPII B-17, I have all your P-47's and am buying the B-17 on Friday. Thanks for doing these up for us, looking good so far.

[Snuffy]

I know, I know, but it's Work in Progress. I haven't started on the wings yet, this is my first WoP2 B-17, so I'm going slowly, seeing how the paintkit works...


:D

If you want a good reference work ... Book Number 5: "The Mighty Eighth, Warpaint and Heraldry" 160 pages of insignia, markings, paint schemes, squadron and group colors and much more. Some nose art included. (http://www.amazon.com/Mighty-Eighth-Warpaint-Heraldry/dp/1854093738/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1236108425&sr=1-1)

I happen to have all of Mr. Freeman's books regarding the 8th. :)

[Wittpilot]

Whoa...hold up... a 401st plane???? Oh c'mon thats a tease..... How much iwould it cost me for you to put a nice yellow stripe across the tail and change the nose art????? I'll give you whatever you want...

Money? Women? Puppies?

-witt

[jankees]

Whoa...hold up... a 401st plane???? Oh c'mon thats a tease..... How much iwould it cost me for you to put a nice yellow stripe across the tail and change the nose art????? I'll give you whatever you want...

Money? Women? Puppies?

-witt

This one doesn't have a yellow stripe on the pictures that I have of it, and it's special to me since I have a piece of it...

However, I could perhaps be persuaded to add some other things...lemme see...anything I want you say? It just so happens that the exhaust on my bike just broke off.....
What a/c are we talking about anyway?

[Wittpilot]

I couldn't possibly ask you to devote your time to a certain paint... but this is the plane I was refering to.

Check out these links too..

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/showthread.php?t=5060

www.b17project.com (http://www.b17project.com)

-witt

[jankees]

Well, if you give me some of the details, like noseart & squadron codes, I can always paint it. Shouldn't be too difficult.....eeeh...very difficult, could we make that a Laser exhaust?

[jankees]

meanwhile, back to Lady Jane, here's a few more WiP shots:
I've changed the triangle on the wing to it's proper letter and color. I don't know if it wasd white or natural metal on this aircraft, so I took the easy route: white.
I also got rid of a nasty reflection on the tail by redoing a new spec alpha file, but now I have different reflectivity on the front and the rear of the fuselage, so that still needs sorting.
I also want to try and make the join between the two textures less obvious, now there seems to be this dark grey line joining the two which I don't like.
Other than that, nearly done. At the moment, I use 2048 x 2048 textures for the fuselage, as I felt it was too blurry otherwise, but these make it a bit heavy of course. Wings are still 1024 though.
When I upload, would you prefer the bigger textures for the fuselage, or would that tax your system too much?

[jankees]

..and a bit more work
On one of the pics I have of this aircraft, you can see that the cowlings of no 1 and 3 engines have a much bigger anti glare panel, so I adjusted those too. No 2 is not visible, while no 4 has a small panel, so I gave no2 a bigger one too. I also made them a bit darker, though I'm not sure I have the correct color now (I'm color blind, remember?) so input there would be appreciated.
The line separating the fuselage parts has been toned down a bit, but there is still a slight difference in color between both parts (and, as it turns out, between the outer and inner wings), so I'm still trying to figure out what causes that..
Work continues...

[Snuffy]

As I said in the A2A forums ... I miss the diagonal yellow slash bordered by 2 black diagonals.

Other than that ... outstanding work. :)

Now that X1CM (http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/showthread.php?t=12416) is about finished, I better be looking into making a home for this beauty! X3DE on the way ... starting tonight.

[jankees]

Before more people start on this yellow stripe, "Lady Jane" didn't have one, at least for the first 20 missions.