Norseman CF-HGO "Captains of the Clouds" repaint

[Wild Bill Kelso]

Hi, folks!

Flight Ontario's recent release of the awesome British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP) stations was the kick in the butt I needed to finish and upload this paint:









It's "CF-HGO" from the marvellous 1942 movie "Captains of the Clouds", starring James Cagney as bush pilot joining the RCAF with the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP).







Prior installation of Brian Gladden's Norseman, filename NORSEFV2.ZIP, is required. Textures will fit float and wheeled version. This repaint was made using master templates by Henry William. Tusen takk Henry for granting me permission to use your files!
Custom panel included.

Upload to SOH, AVSIM and Flightsim.com done.

Enjoy!
Cheers,
Markus.

[edmoore235]

Wonderful job, Sir. Great work, thanks! Take care.

Ed

[Naismith]

Wonderful job, Sir. Great work, thanks! Take care.

Ed

Seconded

[Flyboy208]

And thirded !

[Mick]

Fourthed !!!

Excellent paint job !!!

Excellent movie, too! One of the best flying films from an era chock full of fine flying films.

It's available on DVD for those who might be interested. And if you like old airplanes and don't already have it, you should be interested!

[srgalahad]

Nice job Markus!
The airplane/movie has quite a story behind it too... looking at the clip I noticed the a/c looked a bit 'different' from most Norsemen (Mk IV & V) that we see today -notably the cowl shape, so I started a bit of research.

THERE NEVER WAS SUCH AN AIRCRAFT AS CF-HGO! (Ahhhh Hollywood!!!) but the aircraft truly was one-of-a-kind anyway --the sole Norseman Mk I

"CF-AYO was the first Norseman aircraft manufactured by Noorduyn Aviation. This Mk I prototype first flew in November of 1935. Built for tough bush work it was sold the following January after a brief period of testing, to Dominion Skyways Limited.
DND photo
During the summer of 1941, and with RCAF approval, Warner Brothers Pictures negotiated the use of AYO for the movie, Captains of the Clouds . The link will take you to a 39 second clip from the movie scene that was shot August 2, 1941.

Brenda Marshall watches as the Black Norseman, with wings and tail painted a Technicolor-compatible orange, and re-lettered HGO, lands in the lake. Director Michael Curtiz wanted some spectacular splash and bounce for Jimmy Cagney’s landing and the video is the final take. Warner’s pilot, Jerry Philips literally drove the plane into the water so hard it bounced four times, catching the stabiliser in the process.

Two reports were filed on the incident. One stated that, other than the damaged elevator, there was a broken lower left pontoon fitting. That, and a buckle in the left float. Damage to the elevator was repaired and the fitting was wrapped with metal. The airplane was flown for 30 more hours to finish the movie shoot.

Later, it turned out that both floats had buckled at the front spreader bar, the back spreader was bent. Both wing struts were bowed and later had to be replaced. When word of the incident got out, Department of Transport, obviously slighted by the violations, stepped in and mandated the aircraft be sent to Noorduyn in Montreal for a complete dismantling before it would issue a new Certificate of Airworthiness. Noorduyn’s bill for parts and a thorough inspection came to $1,212.60."



http://www.edzaruk.com/Norseman.aspx

Rob

EDIT: here's a link to a photo of AYO in the factory ready for delivery to Dominion Skyways
http://www.norsemanhistory.ca/Photos/CN1.jpg

[Desert Rat]

Markus,

very nice indeed, great colour scheme, reminds me of Lindbergh's Lockheed Sirius.


Jamie

[aeronca1]

Very nice! Another bird I can now move out of my "Awaiting nice repaint" hanger!!

[Wild Bill Kelso]

Thanks a lot for your kind comments, guys! :salute:
Some interesting details too, Rob.

Please keep one important thing in mind:
All I did was to throw some (more-or-less...) black and orange colour upon this airplane. All the praise concerning the textures must be addressed to Odd Henry Spjøtvold aka Henry William who has created the terrific master templates and was so kind to share them!
Biggest part for me was to get the registration letters coming as close as possible to the screen version.

And it's of course not least Brian Gladden's great Norseman which so well-behaved kept still when making it up for the big movie...

Cheers,
Markus.