A Baker's Dozen of Stearman Repaints

[Bomber_12th]

I'm uploading these now to our library here at SOH, as well as Flightsim.com and Avsim. These repaints are all for the Vertigo Studios Stearman Vol.1 set and depict restored Stearmans that are currently flying or have flown in recent years. They all feature a number of texture modifications/improvements as well as each having their own custom specular textures, new engine textures (redid the ambient occlusion of the main engine core for better/correct appearance), new prop textures and customized pilot textures. (They all conform to the restrictions of the model - for instance, the diffuse alpha effects (glossiness) is all hard-wired into the model materials themselves, so there is nothing I could do with that - fortunately, however, with all of these particular paint schemes, that doesn't really matter). All of the repaints also have all of the stencils and dope codes (of various types) applied as per the real-world aircraft, with the dope codes time-stamped to match each individual aircraft/restoration (the dates themselves properly differentiating from one assembly/part to another).

Stearman PT-13 ZK-XAF, owned/operated by Stearman 03 Ltd. at the Classic Flyers museum based at Tauranga Airport, Mount Maunganui, New Zealand. The aircraft, originally manufactured as USAAF 42-17744, was imported to Australia in 1988, and later to New Zealand in 1996, then registered to Bay of Plenty Classic Aircraft Company Ltd. and based with the Classic Flyers Museum. The aircraft is painted in colorful pre-WWII U.S. Naval Fighting Squadron markings and is used to provide scenic flights and flight training to paying customers.


Stearman PT-17 N59293, owned/operated by Andrew and Mike Porter, based at Spring Lake, New Jersey. The aircraft was manufactured as USAAF 41-25714 and was used continually from June 1942 until June 1945. During WWII the aircraft had multiple assignments, one of which included Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas, home of the WASP (Women's Airforce Service Pilots), where it was based from February 1943 until August 1944. Sold surplus after the war, the aircraft was used as a crop duster in New Mexico all the way until 1981. Starting in 2006, the aircraft was restored to factory-original award-winning condition, and painted in the same markings it wore while stationed at Avenger Field, flying as a tribute to all of the WASP pilots. (In one of the aircraft's other WWII training assignments, Donald Strait flew this aircraft during flight training and would go on to become a double-ace flying P-51's with the 361st Fighter Squadron).


Stearman PT-27 N56233, owned/operated by Chris Prevost/Vintage Aircraft Co., based at Sonoma Valley/Schellville Airport in California. The aircraft was manufactured as USAAF 42-15720 and later utilized by the Royal Air Force as Kaydet I FJ859, as it is painted today. The aircraft is one of three Stearmans which are put to use regularly selling rides through Vintage Aircraft Co.


Stearman N2S-5 N53549, owned/operated by Vanessa Jago, based at Oshkosh, Wisconsin. The aircraft, originally manufactured as U.S. Navy BuNo. 38575, was purchased by Charles F. Wright in 2001 and restored to factory-original award-winning condition. The number '75' on the side of the aircraft symbolic of the aircraft being the Model 75 (or A75). Vanessa Jago, who began flying at the age of 16 and is currently an airline pilot flying 747's with over 12,000 hrs of flight time, acquired the aircraft in 2015. The aircraft won "Best N2S" at the 2016 National Stearman Fly-In.

[Bomber_12th]

Stearman PT-17 F-AZMZ, owned/operated by Edifience SARL, based at La Ferte-Alais, France. This aircraft has a history of film work as part of the Jean Salis collection, including use in the movies "Saint Exupery: the Last Mission" and "A Very Long Engagement", where it was modified to portray a WWI German aircraft. Currently F-AZMZ is painted in a stylish 1930's U.S. Air Mail scheme.


Stearman PT-13 N36360, "Spirit of Tuskegee", owned/operated by Matt Quy up until 2011. The aircraft was manufactured as USAAF 42-17724 and in 1944 and 1945 it was based at Moton Field, Tuskegee, Alabama, where it was used to train the famed Tuskegee Airmen pilots. Matt Quy purchased the aircraft as a wreck and while restoring it back to flight discovered its connection to the Tuskegee Airmen while researching its history/WWII-assignments. With the restoration complete and painted as a tribute to the Tuskegee Airmen, Matt Quy spent a few years touring the country with the aircraft, helping to spread the story of the Tuskegee Airmen and providing rides to the original wartime pilots. In 2011, upon request by the Smithsonian, Matt Quy donated the aircraft for display at the National Museum of African American History and Culture.


Stearman PT-13 N4672V, registered to San Benito Land & Cattle Co. and operated by the Hugh's Vintage Aircraft Museum, based at Hollister, California. The aircraft was manufactured as USAAF 42-17343 and following WWII enterred civilian life as early as 1955. The aircraft is painted in the markings of an early pre-war Stearman trainer, based at Rankin Field/Rankin Academy, Tulare, California. (Major Richard Bong, the highest-scoring American ace of WWII, is one of the noted pilots to have trained at Rankin during WWII.)


Stearman PT-17 G-BAVO, owned/operated by Rory Clement McCarthey, based at Enstone Airfield, England. The aircraft's last military service was with the Israeli Air Force, prior to being imported to England in 1980. For a time, the aircraft was owned by the actor Martin Shaw. The aircraft is painted in early-WWII U.S. Army Air Corps trainer colors.

[Bomber_12th]

Stearman PT-17 N38940, owned/operated by Paul Bennett, based at Priory Farm, Norfolk, England. The aircraft was manufactured as USAAF 41-8263, and from 1941 until February 1944 the aircraft was used continually, despite being involved in 4 separate training accidents, with a 5th accident taking it out of service althogether. The remains of the aircraft were restored, with the aircraft first flying again in 1977, and later, sold to Paul Bennett in 1992, the aircraft was restored again, to factory-original award-winning condition and finished in the same all-silver color scheme it would have had in 1944. The contrast between the metal and fabric surfaces on this aircraft is period-authentic, as although the fabric surfaces were coated in silver dope, the metal panels were anodized and left bare. Two versions of the repaint are included, with one featuring the temporary 445th Bomb Group tail markings the aircraft sported in 2006.




Stearman PT-17 N49739, owned/operated by John Mohr of Vadnais Heights, Minnesota. The aircraft was manufactured as USAAF 42-16299 and has been owned by John Mohr since 1975. With this stock Stearman, of only 220 hp, John Mohr crafted an aerobatic routine unmatched by anything else (as witnessed first-hand by the author of this repaint on several occasions). Winner of the Bill Barber and ICAS Art Scholl Memorial Showmanship Awards, John Mohr, seemingly able to defy the laws of physics with his flying abilities and patented maneuvers, thrilled airshow crowds for 25 years in classic barnstormer-style aerobatics, until quietly retiring at the end of the 2013 airshow season.


Stearman PT-13 N17384, "Stearman Fury", currently registered to Bright J. Tobias of Seattle, Washington. The aircraft was originally manufactured as 42-17578 and enterred civilian life in 1961. In 1971, the aircraft was purchased by Jim Williams of Sonoma, California, where it was operated from the Schellville Airport up until being sold in 2014. Williams painted the aircraft to look like one of his favorites, a pre-WWII RAF Hawker Fury biplane fighter (No.43 Squadron markings to be exact). While owned by Jim Williams, the aircraft was flown in an aerobatic routine at numerous airshows over the years.

[Bomber_12th]

Stearman N2S-3, N44JP, owned/operated by John Parish of St. Louis, Missouri. The aircraft, originally manufactured as U.S. Navy BuNo. 43576, was based (at least for a time) at NAS Ottumwa, Iowa in 1944 and 1945. The aircraft was acquired by the Parish family in 1980 and was sent to RARE Aircraft for restoration around 2009, where it was completely restored to award-winning condition, completed in 2011. The aircraft is painted in authentic U.S. Navy markings circa early 1943.


And this is the only one I really wanted to do at the start of it all, back in October...

Stearman N2S-1, N50061, owned/operated by Paul Ehlen and based at the Wings of the North Museum at Flying Cloud Airport, Eden Prairie, Minnesota. The aircraft, originally manufactured as U.S. Navy BuNo. 3347, is one of five Stearmans known to still exist that were flown by President George H. W. Bush as a cadet in the Navy. He flew this aircraft while training in the cold Minnesota winter at Wold-Chamberlain Airfield, Naval Air Station Minneapolis (modern-day KMSP), in January and early February 1943. The aircraft was sent to AirCorps Aviation for ground-up restoration in 2014, and emerged in 2015 as one of, if not the most period-authentic restored Stearmans to-date, restored to just as it was in 1943 (no electric starter (only hand-crank start) and no radios of any sort). The aircraft won "Best Stearman" at Oshkosh 2015.

[Roger]

A great selection John

Do you know if there is a way to change the modelled nav lights as this is my main gripe with the model?

[PeteHam]

Magnificent textures of a classic aircraft

" Stearman PT-13 ZK-XAF, owned/operated by Stearman 03 Ltd. at the Classic Flyers museum based at Tauranga Airport, Mount Maunganui, New Zealand "

Here it is in real life. I fly this primarily doing local scenic flights. This is me hard at work

Pete.

[MustangL2W]

Bomber_12th... You have taken the Vertigo Stearman to a completely new level! Those are indeed some of the finest representatives of the type in existence. Can't thank you enough for adding these to the "Must" Haves to our Warbird Collections!!

[WarHorse47]

Wow. Thanks John. Looking forward to these...

Had to get the stopwatch out to make sure each was downloaded outside the 60 second constraint.

[docjohnson]

Very nice work! Thanks!

[Bomber_12th]

Thank you guys for the compliments - I hope you will enjoy the repaints in the sim.

Roger, I have yet to look at the textures for the nav light effects, but I'm sure something can be done with them (I just never use them).

Pete, I hope XAF will meet your approval! It was a late addition, but it has quickly become a favorite. Of course I made it with the updated/current tail markings.

[Bomber_12th]

Some more screenshots:

[Bomber_12th]

[Flyboy208]

Really magnificent repaints John can only imagine the time and effort that went into their creation. I have a Friend who owns A Stearman and a Stinson at my local airport ... here's a real pic for you. Mike

[ryanbatc]

I love that US Mail scheme, very nice!

[MustangL2W]

Christmas came late this year..... Wow, What a gift!!!! THANK YOU again for these magnificent Stearman's. Love all the subtle little details on each one of them. I feel like I just walked the Trainer area of Warbirds at OSHKOSH!

[wombat666]

Superb work as usual John.
I was considering reloading the aircraft and now I will have to do so!

And a BTW to any insiders.
Interested to know what Vertigo are doing, checked out their Facebook page and they appear to be dabbling in several odd areas.
PaK37 anti tank guns, trucks, naval shipping and such, with a lone Nieuport N17 looking rather abandoned.
Their 'official' website has been 'undergoing maintenance' for quite some time as well.

[DaveB]

Cheers John. These have dragged an unused model from the darkest parts of an inactive hangar back to flying service once more!!








RW wasn't much cop this morning!!
ATB
DaveB:-)

[dhasdell]

Very nice indeed. I especially like the Navy Yellow Perils.

[Crusader]

Outstanding work as usual Bomber_12th ! Downloaded all as someone else commented you have taken the Vertigo Stearman to a new level !

Rich

[Chuck_Jodry-VJPL]

Nice Work B, 12 Ill need to reinstall that and the floats addon package so as to make use of them, it'l be a nice break from fast movers .

Regarding the navigation lights , you can modify their alpha channel to have less transparency and have solid color's , I would add cfg based lights along with the material versions or turn on bloom. . At the time I used the sims bloom capacity to brighten these but most users do not have bloom turned on so these are not at their best. As time went on the number of bitmaps we use to make modelled nav lights has gone from 1 to 9 and give a more sparkling result but this was an earlier production and predates that methodology.

Best CJ

[DaveB]

I think I swapped the originals out (including the rudder nav white) using MCX/Notepad++ CJ.. a relatively straight forward job taking only a few minutes. The only downside (on some models) is the lack of positional control which, had these all been in the cfg, could have been tightened up a bit more. The nav red/green aren't too bad but the nav white could do with coming back a wee bit.
Didn't realise adding bloom would kill the 'oversize' look.. I never have it on.

ATB
DaveB

[Tim-HH]

Hi John,

thank you very much for these excellent repaints!

Greetings
Tim

[Bomber_12th]

Thank you all again for the replies/feedback!

My initial interest in doing a repaint for the Vertigo Stearman was in making a repaint of the N2S-1 BuNo. 3347, as restored to full original factory specifications by AirCorps Aviation, owned/operated by Paul Ehlen. Fortunately, thanks to Robert41, I was able to get some great detail shots of the aircraft from Oshkosh 2015, and then back in October, I actually got to visit AirCorps Aviation, where the Stearman was undergoing its annual inspection, and I was able to photograph every last stencil and other detail I could find (such as the stenciled numbering system for the strut mountings). During most of the year, when not flying, the aircraft can be seen publicly displayed at the new Wings of the North Museum, at Flying Cloud Airport, in Eden Prairie, Minnesota (where Paul Ehlen also keeps his P-51D "Sierra Sue II" (the most period-authentic flying P-51D), his Craig Army Air Field AT-6D (the most period-authentic flying AT-6D), his TBM Avenger, and soon to be added, his F4U-4 Corsair). Having already made repaints of Ehlen's Mustang and T-6, by doing the Stearman too, I thought I'd be able to cover the full collection (only that it keeps getting bigger!).

This particular aircraft was assigned to Naval Air Station Minneapolis, which consisted of "A Base" Wold-Chamberlain Field (which is today KMSP-International, named after two Minnesota pilots killed in WWI) and "B Base" Fleming Field (the South St. Paul airport, named after a Navy pilot from South St. Paul who was posthumously awarded the congressional medal of honor for his actions in the Battle of Midway). One of the Naval aviators to train here during WWII was former president George H. W. Bush. His first introductory flight was in an NP-1, from Minneapolis, on November 21, 1942, and by February 9, 1943, he completed his primary flight training in Minneapolis, having logged 82.5 hours in that span of time and passed all checks with no extra time or rechecks.

(Some sources will only state that Bush trained at Wold-Chamberlain Field/Minneapolis, while some other sources state that he trained at Fleming Field - since it was all-encompassing, he could very well have flown from both locations. I grew up visiting Fleming Field just about every weekend, which is also where the Minnesota Wing of the Commemorative Air Force is based (with their B-25 and other WWII warbirds), and being told as a small child that a former president trained there during WWII, only added to the lore/attraction.)




One of the aircraft he flew during that time was Stearman 3347. George H. W. Bush flew this aircraft on January 28, 1943, and again on February 5th, 1943. This span of time took his open-cockpit flight training right through much of the coldest portion of a Minnesota winter - the average temperature on January 28, 1943 was only 16-degrees Fahrenheit. Two other Stearmans he flew during his flight training are on display at the Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola and at the Pearl Harbor National WWII Museum. (George H. W. Bush logbook scans courtesy of AirCorps Aviation)

[Bomber_12th]

This is the way the Minneapolis International Airport/Wold-Chamberlain Field looked during WWII when Bush was a Navy cadet. (At the time, Northwest Airlines also had its main base of operations here (which is also where the Doolittle Raiders B-25's were sent for their top secret modifications prior to the mission). During WWII, it was a hub for Naval aviator training, and post-war was a combined base of operations for both Naval Reserve and Air Force Reserve units. In 1938, Howard Hughes made a stop here during his around the world flight.)




This is a classic photo of the South St. Paul/Fleming Field airport ("B Base"), taken in 1942, as the last of the Navy hangars were still being completed (hangars which still stand today). (My childhood home would be built, a couple decades later, somewhere in the background of this photo.)



And another photo taken of Fleming Field, in the 50's, illustrates all of the WWII-era hangars, control tower and barracks. (Unfortunately, in more recent years, the barracks were torn down (in my eyes, and absolute crime), as well as the hangar that is closest in this photo (which pre-dated WWII), where as the 7 main Navy hangars still remain in use today - the third nearest hangar is used today by the Minnesota Wing of the Commemorative Air Force.)



If you install the freeware ORBX North American airports addon, it includes a very well done, very accurate depiction of the way the airport looks as of today.

[Bomber_12th]