The 461st Bomb Group is open for business!

[tgycgijoes]

This is an open invitation to join us for a Training Mission from Torretta, Italy in WWII. Ed and I are at Torretta and anxiously awaiting the Flight Replicas B-24 package to be released. In the meantime, we are going to do some fun flying each Monday until that happens. We will be flying the IRIS P-40 "Kittyhawk"/"Warhawk" in 461st colors but you can join us flying any WWII Allied fighter in your hanger in FSX/SE/P3D[any version] in Join FS. We start in Teamspeak 3 in our dedicated 461st channel in the SOH server at 14:30 UTC for preflight briefing and check everyone's comm's. We are hoping that we'll get you to join us for a fun flight of an hour or so in the air. In this download is the PDF Mission Briefing as well as downloads of our aircraft so that we can see each other. If you are going to join us please PM me before Saturday 8 February 23:59 UTC with what aircraft you will be flying so that everyone can either match it exactly in JoinFS or get close to it so that we don't have a bunch of default C172's LOL as happens in "model-matching". Here is the download link:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/uio56n...ion_2.pdf/file

[tgycgijoes]

If you watched the SOTU last night, the highlight in my opinion was the promotion of the LAST surviving Tuskegee Airman, 100 years young to General. That was fantastic and long overdue. The 332nd FG, the Tuskegee Airmen escorted many flights of the 461st Bomb Group and you could honor them by flying with us as a Fighter Escort in either a P-40, P-47 or a P-51 payware OR freeware if you don't want to fly a B-24. Start this Monday. Download all you need above. See ya'all there.

Richard

[edakridge]

I flew along the whole route of the AI B-24's today while testing the FSCAI mission that I've written and it was a Hoot!

[awstub]

Does anyone know if there is any sort of bomb site that can be added to the Alphasim B-24J?

[tgycgijoes]

Gyspy Baron of the 91st BG created one on their site where I am a member for the A2A B17G Accusim for members only. He modified it for their Desert Campaign Alphasim/Virtavia B24 which I also flew with them. I sent him a special request and we were generously given permission to share it with our members of the 461st BG but it is not readily available for download.

[tgycgijoes]

Because of unexpected real life issues, the Mission Training #2 has been changed to Tuesday from Monday, 2/11 instead of 2/10. There is still a chance for you to fly it with us. Just follow the instructions in the download and see ya at Torretto at 15:00Z. Set your sim clock for 10:00 Italy Local Time. Weather is in the server when you join "Join FS".

[tgycgijoes]

We will have to cancel the fighter escort Mission #2 for this week. Sorry if you wanted to fly with us for any inconvenience this may have caused. I will post here again when we re-schedule this Mission Training #2. Hope you all have a good week.

[edakridge]

With help from Dutch and Chris I finally have the AI dropping bombs! if you look closely at the screenshot you can see them being dropped. And yes, these weapons have been incorporated into the 461st's FSX@War pack so that if they actually manage to hit anything it will damage/destroy the object. From what I've experienced so far they drop over the target, but most are misses. Kind of like my dumb bomb drops.

[awstub]

It looks like bombs were commonly released at altitudes between 18k and 25k. Does anyone know what the most common air speeds were used during drops?

I really like flying the Alpha Liberator. One of my great uncles was a B-24 pilot and flew on the Ploesti raids.

[tgycgijoes]

Hey Stubby,

Come and join us you can fly your Liberator OR download our Tackpack equipped Liberator in 461st "Colors" from our website. We would love to have you on board. I can send you the texture and aircraft.cfg entry for one of the noseart versions that Ed and I have not assigned.

[edakridge]

I have been working from this as a base line it's not real accurate for FSX/P3D, but it's a starting point.

[edakridge]

I'm getting better at plotting the AI's path!

[awstub]

I'm still sorting out my new PC, but I'm seriously considering joining in.

Back in the day I use to fly the online sim "Aces High" (and AirWarrior), and participated in some their online scenarios. There would be hundreds of participants in each event, as well as AI. I usually flew on the Axis side though, since I like to be the underdog.

Hey Stubby,

Come and join us you can fly your Liberator OR download our Tackpack equipped Liberator in 461st "Colors" from our website. We would love to have you on board. I can send you the texture and aircraft.cfg entry for one of the noseart versions that Ed and I have not assigned.

[mike_cyul]

Seeing as Richard and Ed have kindly shown interest in the upcoming Flight Replicas B-24, just thought that you might like to see the 461st paint scheme.

This aircraft was one of those that had two names - in this case, "She Wolf" and "Irish Angel II".

Mike

[tgycgijoes]

Hey Mike,
That looks great! She is one of the 765th BS "replacement" aircraft in natural metal replacing Arsenic and Lace lost on 17 Dec 1944 on Mission #151 to the Odertal Refinery in Germany.

I did the first 12 original aircraft noseart in OD finish on the Virtavia (Alphasim). I hope that your paintkit will have a layer for the OD so that when it is out I can redo all of the 12 originals from my artwork onto the FR B24J.

[edakridge]

It really does look great!

[tgycgijoes]

While we are waiting for Mike Cyul to finish and release the Flight Replicas B24, I decided to play around with some escorts. This is my repaint of the WOP II P51D that I installed from the Aircraft Powerpack from "ol' Shockwave" the predecessor of A2A. All in all its a nice aircraft and I was able to find the paintkit for it in their Forum. It was a challenge but I was pleased last night when I finished it. Interestingly, I painted it exactly as the profile below shows but towards the end I found a real photo that obviously shows it with a yellow nose like the stripes and empennage backgrounds NOT red like USAAF instructions say it should be for all 15th AF fighters. It shows that if you can find a REAL photo go with it even thought it contradicts directives. I may decide to repaint the drop tanks in gray with yellow noses in the future. Right now those squares got me kinda burned out. I am not the fastest repainter or the best so this took me 30 hours or so to do. I have some info for the P-47 which the 325th used in 1944 before transitioning to first the P51C and then this P51D so that when we begin flying our first mission the "Jug" is available. I believe that this repaint won't work with the WOP III P51D and it doesn't work with its Tacpack update (I tried). It will have to have its OWN tacpack update to fit with the model.

[jankees]

seeing that old A2A model made me think of my old B-24 paints, so I had a look, and lo and behold, I painted a 461st aircraft for the Alphasim B-24 as well:
14-1065


Richard, as for the nose of Squeezie being yellow, I'm not so sure. I have looked at lots of old Mustang shots for all my P-51 paints, and quite often, red will look really light in these old photographs.
Also, I don't think the droptanks have a yellow front, the darker part is dark because of the shadow of the wing, I'm sure the front of the tank is just bare metal. I've never seen painted drop tanks.
As for the checkers, I know they can be a pain to do! But if you look at the picture, you'll see they line up along the front of the tail, and I don't think yours do? The good news, if you decide to redo them, is that are less of them I think...

[tgycgijoes]

After all of them merging together in my old eyesight, LOL, I agree you are right. Photoshop is so cool!!! Each row or some individuals are each a layer so not difficult to correct. I counted the squares on the horizontal stab and will carefully count them on the vertical stab and the fuselage better. I thank you for your observation and I will be correcting this to be more accurate. I do not have ANY other reference that does not show the nose and spinner anything but red so will correct that too. My mentor when I was a shipmodeler and restorer of the Smithsonian Institute taught me that you do it right or you don't do it because you are preserving history. Your model (repaint) may be all that's left in the future. Again thanks and its back to the paintshed. At least I don't have to do the P-47. I just downloaded Tom Weiss repaint for the 325th at the A2A Forum. Great job on the Alphasim B-24 for the 461st, if you PM me a link, with your permission I will share it on the website.

[Bomber_12th]

With regard to the 325th FG P-51D "Squeezie", don't let black and white photos fool you. Take for instance this photo, which shows a 332nd FG P-51D in the background - both the nose and tail of that aircraft were red, but note how light it appears in the photo. The nose of "Double Zero" in the foreground was also red, but with a black stripe at the rear. It has been the subject of articles/research I've read in the past where a certain type of B&W film used at the time had some trouble with red tones. The tonal values are just ever so slightly different in this B&W photo from the red-painted nose to the yellow-painted tail checkers.




Here is another photo of "Squeezie". Note too the red gas cap and red circle around the gas cap on the drop tank in this photo also appears very light - just about the same tonal value as the yellow stripes on the wings.

[jankees]

if you're going to redo the checkers, notice that the plates on the fuselage where the horizontal stabilisers are attached are not painted.
And since you are interested in the 325th:
FX13364

FX13381

ss5499

[tgycgijoes]

The photo I have of Squeegie is the same photo you have on the bottom (which I downloaded) where it very apparent that the nose is red. Ignore my PM about contacting them. These photos are proof that they were all red. I do not have the Warbirdsim "B" only the WOP II "D" but the repaints are beautiful. This afternoon when I redid the tail, I redid the yellow as well not just squares so that that part is now natural metal where the horizontal stab is attached.
That's enough squares for one day LOL. I think I'll give my ol' eyes a rest and have a chocolate and some tea and call it. Thank you again for taking all the time to help me. I am going to wait for a sale somewhere and then pick the Warbirdsim P51B and C.

[Greenhouse357]

I also had painted some of these...

[tgycgijoes]

Hey Greenhouse357 when we start flying our missions with the FR B24J come and escort our formations with a 325th P47 or P51. If you are Tacpack equipped you will actually be able to dogfight with the ai Axis fighters in FSX@War/FSCAI. Ed Tackpacked equipped the Virtavia/Alphasim B24J too so you ARE welcome to fly that. Its available for download ready to fly in the 461st Colors and with the Tackpack Panel. If you don't own Tacpack you can still fly with us.

[Greenhouse357]

Thank you tgycgijoes, for the invite. This is a very busy time of the year for me. I also don't have tacpac, yet, anyway. I plan on re-doing this paint and another one I did for the FR B24J when its released. The mustangs are Johns' (Warbirdsim Mustang Tales), the only ones I fly. Years ago, I used to fly with the virtual 352nd in cfs1. Really enjoyed the missions we flew. When myself and a friend first joined the group, the first mission we flew, I shot the bomber we were supposed to protect. Got yelled at lol. I will be in touch.