Lt. Cdr. Egusa's D3A1 Val, Soryu Hikotai, skin uploaded!

[kelticheart]

A good day to everybody! :wavey:

With the new year I started working again on some of the remaining stock skins for the aircrafts involved in the Pearl Harbour attack.

During the restful hours of Christmas Holydays I went back to my collection of historical documentaries recorded a while ago from Discovery Channel and other satellite TV channels. My ongoing project to transfer them on DVDs, since videotapes lifespan is rather short, gave me a nice surprise.

I hadn't paid much attention to the small details of a 45 minutes documentary dedicated to the Pearl Harbour attack, but it includes a specific carrier takeoff sequence, which I am sure all of you saw at one time or another, shot by Japanese camera operators. Now, Japanese WWII footage is extremely rare, carrier takeoff sequences all but a handful, this is why I am sure all of you are familiar with it.

I am talking about the sequence which starts showing a bunch of Vals turning their engines on at the back of the flight deck, followed by a scene showing Japanese crew signaling with flags and a Zero, equipped with droptank, takeoff from the beginning roll until she leaves the deck.

What jolted me on my chair was that this Zero's ID is clearly visible on her tail when she roars past the camera lens, and it's "AI-108". I shouted "I want this Zero!" and set to do a new Pearl scenario skin. I believe "AI" was the code identifying the carrier Akagi and I opted for a "Hinomaru" red fuselage band, since the Japanese film is in black and white. I hope I guessed it right!

Please find attached a preview of the completed skin, almost in the same flight deck position I saw it in the Pearl Harbour documentary. I am also attaching the completed new skin of the D3A1 Val flown by Ltnt. Cdr. Egusa, carrier Soryu Hikotai.

I obtained this new Val skin by combining Blue Devil's green Val repaint (...I pay homage to Blue Devil's very nice repaint :salute:) with cleaned up tail markings from Revev's repaint.

I will upload both skins as soon as damage texture files will be ready for both aircrafts.

Cheers!
KH :ernae:

[Rami]

Kelti,

Sorry I missed this, these look outstanding! Great work!

[PomBee]

Thank you, Kelti. Wonderful stuff.

Cheers,

PomBee.:salute::salute::salute:

[kelticheart]

Hi everybody! :wavey:

As anticipated, I just uploaded the cleaned up repaint, originally by Revev, of stock D3A1 Val "BI-231", Soryu Hikotai, flown by Ltnt. Cdr. Egusa during the Pearl Harbour attack. Released in the "PHP2-Vals.zip" pack by SOH's member Talon.

This time to the demirrored original stock underside skin I added the upper green camo skin repainted by SOH's member Blue Devil (ACM_Green_Val_2.zip) combined with Ltnt. Cdr. Egusa's personal insignias.

Enjoy!
KH :ernae:

[PomBee]

Lovely job, Kelti. Thank you.

Cheers,

PomBee.:ernae:

[Rami]

Kelti,

This is outstanding work, thank you so very much! :ernae:

[Talon]

The Zero you are talking about was flown by PO2c Sakae Mori from the Akagi-second wave.

The red stripe is correct for Akagi


Talon

[Jaxon]

Guys,
I am very sorry, but I have to correct you here:
This Val was NOT flying at Pearl Harbor - though many sources tell so.

The green Vals were introduced in 1942.
It was a commanders plane, but during the attack on Ceylon.

http://www.michael-reimer.com/CFS2/CFS2_Profiles/PTO_IJN_Aircraft_%5BCV%20SORYU%5D.html

[Jagdflieger]

You can read about Lt. Cdr. Egusa in "Fist from the Sky" by Peter Smith.

I got my copy from Amazon, but I'm sure you could order it from your local book store too. I plan to read it as soon as I finish "The Battle History of the Imperial Navy" by Mr. Dull.

Apparently Lt. Cdr Egusa flew a flame red Val at Pearl Harbor. Jaxon uploaded the "leader" textures for Pearl Harbor and they may still be available at his web site. These skins were pre B24 Guy updates, so they would need to be converted to the B24 Guy's non-mirrored format.

Kelti, Would this skin help with your current project of updating the Pearl Harbor skins? I can send the "Leader" skins to you for updates and I'm sure that Jaxon will OK the effort.

[dombral]

28666286652866428663
Guys,
I am very sorry, but I have to correct you here:
This Val was NOT flying at Pearl Harbor - though many sources tell so.

The green Vals were introduced in 1942.
It was a commanders plane, but during the attack on Ceylon.

http://www.michael-reimer.com/CFS2/CFS2_Profiles/PTO_IJN_Aircraft_%5BCV%20SORYU%5D.html

pics of the mission" CC Takashige Egusa over Pearl Harbor"

[kelticheart]

You can read about Lt. Cdr. Egusa in "Fist from the Sky" by Peter Smith.

I got my copy from Amazon, but I'm sure you could order it from your local book store too. I plan to read it as soon as I finish "The Battle History of the Imperial Navy" by Mr. Dull.

Apparently Lt. Cdr Egusa flew a flame red Val at Pearl Harbor. Jaxon uploaded the "leader" textures for Pearl Harbor and they may still be available at his web site. These skins were pre B24 Guy updates, so they would need to be converted to the B24 Guy's non-mirrored format.

Kelti, Would this skin help with your current project of updating the Pearl Harbor skins? I can send the "Leader" skins to you for updates and I'm sure that Jaxon will OK the effort.


:icon_eek:...................oh. my!

First of all:

yes, Jagdflieger, I am very willing to include this other skin in the Pearl Harbour project. I will check into Jaxon's website tomorrow at work, when I'll be able to enjoy wide-band extra fast connection. If I see other skins that might be nice to include in an historical collection of aircraft repaints which took part to the Pearl Harbour attack, I will download, update and re-upload them as well.

Jaxon knows he will receive from me proper credits for anything he did.

Second:
I am sorry I stated something incorrect with this repaint. I was not aware Egusa did not fly this aircraft at Pearl. I only assumed, since this skin was included in PHP2's Val skin pack, he was there.
For precision's sake, Talon does not say this plane was flown by Egusa.

I associated Egusa's name with this livery because Talos2005 repainted Akemi Mizoguchi's Val in the very same "BI-231" colours and wrote this plane was flown by Egusa, but never mentioned where. Talos2005 will always be the most precise information source for WWII Japanese military aviation we ever had, I used his Akemi's Val repaints as a guideline for this update project. But this also led me to the above mistake: I simply put the two pieces of information together. :redface:

Well, I hope you will enjoy this skin in other missions and theatres, since it took me a big effort grafting the tail stripes on Blue Devil's green camo repaint. Not only that, this repaint is the result of combining three/four skins: the stock one (underside), Blue Devil's (top) and Revev's + Talos2005's (the tail insignia). This was the first Val skin I started working on at the end of November and it took me two attempts before I came up with this. Revev's chose to do his repaint so battle-worn, even with bullet holes, that I practically re-did it from the ground up. Most of the paneling and rivets were missing, even placed in wrong places. I replaced them one by one, one pixel at a time. Then I applied some weathering, again pixel by pixel.

I promise next time I will not state something that is not backed-up by solid evidence in my possession. I usually do that, this time I just assumed wrongly.

I already edited out Egusa's info from the upload title and description, I will send Rami updated readme.txt and file_ID.diz to replace the incorrect ones included in the pack.

Cheers!
KH :ernae:

[kelticheart]

I just downloaded Jaxon's Pearl Val leaders skins. I will set to work on them right away.

Cheers!
KH :ernae:

[sc7500]

..I just downloaded Jaxon's Pearl Val leaders skins. I will set to work on them right away...

This is what happens when you combine a Cabin-Fevered Italian and 3 feet of Northern Italian SNOW !!!!!! :isadizzy:

I don't know whether to feel bad for poor old Stefano, or hope they get MORE weather...... But I sure am enjoying his work !

Keep after it, Senor ! :wavey:
SC
:kilroy:

[Jaxon]

Kelti, I have only one request: Make it better.
;-)

I was asked to unmirror it some time ago, too.
But I have too less time and too much other interests for that for nearly two years now.

Further, for Pearl Harbor missions, you need very frameratefriendly models due to the masses of them. So I thought, the unmirrored one should do it.
On the other hand, right THIS one was probably unique.

I am looking forward to your work!

Hey, didn`t I paint this one upon your request too back then?
Well, here is a round to all you thirsty simmers:

:guinness::guinness::guinness:


BTW: On my site, I had recoloured the legs` stripes to blue.
Today I tend to think again, these were red just as in the zip.

[kelticheart]

Kelti, I have only one request: Make it better.
;-).............

Aye, aye, sir! :salute:

So Michael, are you doing well these days? What do you think of the below as a viable demirrored replacement for "BI-231" in the Pearl Val fleet? After I took these shots, I touched up all panel lines + rivets in the tail markings and applied some weathering to them.

Paying a visit to your website after a long time made me rediscover some of the tricks you shared with us back then. Like the propeller texture placed in CFS2 root /TEXTURE folder instead of the aircraft own. I had forgotten about that, and as soon as I did it, I noticed an immediate gain in fps! Thank you for all the things you did for CFS2 in the early days! :wavey:

And what about you folks out there, am I making enough amends of my bubu.......? ;)

HEY, SC!

will ya stop describing me as some sort of a hermit? "Cabin fevered", I beg your pardon...eheheheh.... :p: I am just relaxing after school doing these skins, I have a couple of very tough classes this year. Even me lady says I am doing the right thing, a good mental relax is just as healthy as stopping by the local gymn every now and then. :naturesm:A rather harsh winter is helping also: more snow today!

Cheers!
KH :snowman: :ernae:

[dombral]

290012900329002
Aye, aye, sir! :salute:

So Michael, are you doing well these days? What do you think of the below as a viable demirrored replacement for "BI-231" in the Pearl Val fleet? After I took these shots, I touched up all panel lines + rivets in the tail markings and applied some weathering to them.

Paying a visit to your website after a long time made me rediscover some of the tricks you shared with us back then. Like the propeller texture placed in CFS2 root /TEXTURE folder instead of the aircraft own. I had forgotten about that, and as soon as I did it, I noticed an immediate gain in fps! Thank you for all the things you did for CFS2 in the early days! :wavey:

And what about you folks out there, am I making enough amends of my bubu.......? ;)

HEY, SC!

will ya stop describing me as some sort of a hermit? "Cabin fevered", I beg your pardon...eheheheh.... :p: I am just relaxing after school doing these skins, I have a couple of very tough classes this year. Even me lady says I am doing the right thing, a good mental relax is just as healthy as stopping by the local gymn every now and then. :naturesm:A rather harsh winter is helping also: more snow today!

Cheers!
KH :snowman: :ernae:
CC Egusa Soryu
LCdr Takashi Shokaku
LV Kakagawa Hiryu

[sc7500]

...will ya stop describing me as some sort of a hermit? "Cabin fevered", I beg your pardon...eheheheh....

I even CLEANED THAT UP for Public Consumption, ya old airbrush wielder..... :wavey:

Stay warm, check yer pulse when shoveling snow, and snuggle up to that GF of yours - it's only HALFWAY through Winter !

SC
:kilroy:

[Jaxon]

Very nice.
Maybe tone the blue a tiny bit down, nowadys I think it is somehow unnaturaly bright...
---

Kelti, I am doing fine. After nearly a year of unnatural boring time in my new job, by the end of 2010 it turned out to be, what I was hoping to find.
So at the moment it`s pretty OK.

And on some fine days, I even have the chance to get close to some birds of interest :-)

29008290092901029007

The only drawback is: I have very little time in the evening or at the weekend.
On the other hand, last summer I was on Malta - a beautiful and very interesting spot in the Med.
A melting pot of every culture there. It was really impressive for me.

BTW: Due to the many things happened there during WW2, I had a lot of museums to visit.
Including the Allied HQ during the Defense of Malta and the Invasion of Sicily which was placed deep under the earth.

Needless to say, that there are books and such for sale at nearly every second corner.
I spent easily €100+ just for books.

For CFS2, I still have soo many ideas. But then, there are my begun larger projects, and I barely can find the time to learn again, what I once did - until I get, where I let it stuck last time.

[kelticheart]

WOW, Dombral! :jump:

Where did you find Nakagawa's Val, carrier Hiryu, repaint?

Jaxon only did Egusa-Soryu and Takahashi-Shokaku skins!

JAXON:


Maybe tone the blue a tiny bit down, nowadys I think it is somehow unnaturaly bright...

Roger that! I'll see what I can do. Very nice pictures there, a Bf108 am I correct? I see in Germany the interest in preserving and restoring warbirds is raising. Excellent! Let me quote differently an old saying:

"Old aircrafts don't die: they just fly faster!"

which goes great with the other one:

"Radial engines are not leaking: they're marking their territory!"

SC:

:)



Cheers!
KH :snowman: :ernae:

[Jagdflieger]

For those of you following this thread, you can see that the airplanes have colored bands around the fuselage. These bands and the number of them were unit identification bands, much like the German "Reich defense bands" in 1944 and 1945. Aircraft from the first ship in the carrier division used a single band and aircraft from the second ship in the division used two bands.

At the time of Pearl Harbor, the Kido Butai (Mobile Fleet) sailed with three carrier divisions.

Carrier Division 1: Akagi (1 band) and Kaga (2 bands) (modified battlecruiser and battleship hulls)
Carrier Division 2: Soryu (1) and Hiryu (2) (Purpose built CVs)
Carrier Division 5: Shokaku (1) and Zuikaku (2) (Purpose built and the most modern IJN CVs)

Cardiv 1 used red bands, Cardiv 2 used blue bands and Cardiv 5 used the white band(s).

Horizontal bars on the tail or verticle stab indicated flight leaders.

[dombral]

WOW, Dombral! :jump:

Where did you find Nakagawa's Val, carrier Hiryu, repaint?

Jaxon only did Egusa-Soryu and Takahashi-Shokaku skins!

JAXON:



Roger that! I'll see what I can do. Very nice pictures there, a Bf108 am I correct? I see in Germany the interest in preserving and restoring warbirds is raising. Excellent! Let me quote differently an old saying:

"Old aircrafts don't die: they just fly faster!"

which goes great with the other one:

"Radial engines are not leaking: they're marking their territory!"

SC:

:)



Cheers!
KH :snowman: :ernae:
Le Val du LV Nakagawa est dans "SAMOURAI sur porte-avions" de Michel Ledet "Lela presse"
Le LV Nakagawa remplaçait le LV Kobayashi au commandement des Vals du Hiryu , le CC Egusa commandait les Vals du Soryu et de l'ensemble de la 2eme division .

2912729126

[kelticheart]

Le Val du LV Nakagawa est dans "SAMOURAI sur porte-avions" de Michel Ledet "Lela presse"
Le LV Nakagawa remplaçait le LV Kobayashi au commandement des Vals du Hiryu , le CC Egusa commandait les Vals du Soryu et de l'ensemble de la 2eme division .



Hi Dombral, unfortunately I do not speak French, does the above mean you painted it?

Then why don't you upload the skin? I would like to have it and I think many others would.

I am working on Egusa's Val damage textures, I hope to upload the new skin by Wednesday.

Jagdflieger:

Thank you for the info! It's a precious guide to identify repaints correctly.

Cheers!
KH :ernae:

[sc7500]

Stefano, I tried the ever-literal Google translate, and here's what it gave me:

"...Val LV Nakagawa is in "Samurai on aircraft carriers" by Michel Ledet "Lela release" The LV Nakagawa Kobayashi replaced the LV at the command of Valleys of Hiryu, CC Egusi commanded the Valleys of Soryu and the entire 2nd division..."

Does that help ?
SC
:kilroy:

[kelticheart]

Stefano, I tried the ever-literal Google translate, and here's what it gave me:

"...Val LV Nakagawa is in "Samurai on aircraft carriers" by Michel Ledet "Lela release" The LV Nakagawa Kobayashi replaced the LV at the command of Valleys of Hiryu, CC Egusi commanded the Valleys of Soryu and the entire 2nd division..."

Does that help ?
SC
:kilroy:

Where was I when they were handing out brains?.......Sure! Google translate! Thanks, SC!

Unfortunately this does not help anyone because we don't know where Nagawa's repaint can be downloaded....:crybaby:

A question for Jagdflieger:

What about the Kido Butai tail letter codes ids? We have BI, AI, AII, BII, etc. Have they the same meaning as in the RAF fuselage letters where the first two identified the squadron and the last one was the individual aircraft code? If so, can you tell us which is which, as you did for the fuselage band colours? I am trying to place A6M2a Zero "AI-108" on the correct flight deck........


Cheers!
KH :ernae:

[Jagdflieger]

Kelti,

As I understand it, the tail codes were changed from time to time to confuse allied intelligence services. I think that at the time of Pearl Harbor, they were pretty strait forward and indicated the carrier division and sequence of the ships in the division. At Pear Harbor, the IJN used three carrier divisions (CARDIVs).

CARDIV I
Akagi: AI
Kaga: AII

CARDIV II
Soryu: BI
Hiryu: BII

CARDIV V
Shokaku: EI
Zuikaku: EII

While on my recent deployment, I read Shattered Sword. It is by far the best book that I've read concerning Japanese naval doctrine, stratagy and tactics. While it is about the Battle of Midway, its information is also relevent to the Pearl Harbor attack. If you can find or order this book, it is well worth reading. I could hardly put it down.

Talon may have more detail regarding the codes as his research is much more extensive than mine.

AI-108 probably flew from the Akagi.

[kelticheart]

Kelti,

As I understand it, the tail codes were changed from time to time to confuse allied intelligence services. I think that at the time of Pearl Harbor, they were pretty strait forward and indicated the carrier division and sequence of the ships in the division. At Pear Harbor, the IJN used three carrier divisions (CARDIVs).

CARDIV I
Akagi: AI
Kaga: AII

CARDIV II
Soryu: BI
Hiryu: BII

CARDIV V
Shokaku: EI
Zuikaku: EII

While on my recent deployment, I read Shattered Sword. It is by far the best book that I've read concerning Japanese naval doctrine, stratagy and tactics. While it is about the Battle of Midway, its information is also relevent to the Pearl Harbor attack. If you can find or order this book, it is well worth reading. I could hardly put it down.

Talon may have more detail regarding the codes as his research is much more extensive than mine.

AI-108 probably flew from the Akagi.

Thank you, Jagd! :jump:

This info is just great! As far as aviation history is concerned, SOH is better than Wikipedia!

Cheers!
KH :ernae:

[kelticheart]

The Zero you are talking about was flown by PO2c Sakae Mori from the Akagi-second wave.

The red stripe is correct for Akagi


Talon

Talon,

I am so sorry, but I missed entirely this reply! Probably because I felt so weird for having uploaded wrong information about my first Egusa's Val.

Thank you very very much, together with the info provided by Jagdflieger, I'll be able to upload the Zero "AI-108" livery including a nice, historical identification for this aircraft.

BTW: I just finished today painting the demirrored damage texture files. I'll upload it by this weekend.

I have been fighting with the computer trying to capture a shot from the takeoff sequence I talked about earlier. I want to use it as a thumbnail, instead of the usual shot from CFS2. I think it's really cool having an historical picture to upload with a repaint! So far, capturing the shot from the DVD really frustrated me, I hope to be more successful tomorrow!

Cheers!
KH :ernae: