Another new stock OH B5N2 Kate Pearl skin uploaded: "AII-324", carrier Kaga!

[kelticheart]

Happy Easter to everybody! :wavey:

I just uploaded a new PearlH Kate repaint created by adding to the demirrored clean stock original skin new serial codes and a repainted vertical fin/rudder/tailplane.
The resulting skin depicts B5N2 "AII-324", carrier Kaga Torpedo Bomber Force. Flown by Petty Officer 1st class Hirotake Iwata, credited with a torpedo hit on the USS Oklahoma. One more time, from an historical Kate profile found at the Wings Palette website.

This repaint is meant to replace Kate "AI-325" (B5N2_Kate_Kaga) in your Pearl Harbour fleet. When SOH's member/administrator Jagdflieger posted a list of tailcodes and colour code fuselage bands, I realised Kate "AI-325" should be assigned to the Akagi fleet.

Akagi aircrafts, on Dec, 7th 1941, wore "AI" codes and single red fuselage bands, while Kaga aircrafts were identified by the "AII" tailcode and dual red fuselage bands. In my PHP setup, Kate "AI-325" became my Akagi level bomber (B5N2_Kate_Akagi_LB), with "AI-308" as torpedo bomber (B5N2_Kate_Akagi 2). This new skin will add variety to your Pearl missions, instead of having duplicated Kate liveries for torpedo and level bombers.

Enjoy!
KH :ernae:

[Rami]

Kelticheart,

Thank you so very much, yet another outstanding example! :wiggle:

[The B24 Guy]

Nice to see the old stockers getting some new suites.

Great work Kelti!

Regards,

B24Guy

[Jagdflieger]

Thanks KH!

You've now splashed at least as much paint as the maintenance crews for Carrier Divisions 1, 2 and 5 of the IJN.

[kelticheart]

Thank you my friends!

Next week I'll upload "AII-324" companion, that is "AII-376" of Kaga's Level Bomber Force.

Cheers!
KH :ernae:

[Talon]

Kelti,

If you can get in touch with Talos2005 he has all the paint schemes for the Kates,Vals and Zeroes involved in the Pearl attack. He sent them to me years ago but I lost them in a HD crash.

A little tidbit for you. The Kates were actually the same color (gray) as the Vals and Zeroes until the attack on Pearl. If I remember correctly they were painted on the way to Pearl but I won't swear by it. I did most of my research in 2003 & 2004.

I'm not real good at doing skins but I did 1 Zuikaku and I Shokaku skin for the Kates.
The Kaga skin was the stock skin from the b24guys over hauled kate.


Talon

[PomBee]

Beautiful, Kelti. Great work.

Thank you,

PomBee.:ernae:

[kelticheart]

Kelti,

If you can get in touch with Talos2005 he has all the paint schemes for the Kates,Vals and Zeroes involved in the Pearl attack. He sent them to me years ago but I lost them in a HD crash.

A little tidbit for you. The Kates were actually the same color (gray) as the Vals and Zeroes until the attack on Pearl. If I remember correctly they were painted on the way to Pearl but I won't swear by it. I did most of my research in 2003 & 2004.

I'm not real good at doing skins but I did 1 Zuikaku and I Shokaku skin for the Kates.
The Kaga skin was the stock skin from the b24guys over hauled kate.


Talon

Thanks Talon for your info!

I'll try getting in touch with Talos2005, I hope he didn't change his e-mail address and he's doing fine with all the grief Japan has been going through since the first major earthquake two months ago.

I am not good at repainting myself, as I stated several times I am good at cutting, copying and pasting and I keep going back to the stock liveries to produce new ones.

You might have noticed I haven't tried improving the grey/green mottled Shokaku and Zuikaku skins exactly because I haven't got a good plain grey skin without the upper green camo for the stock OH Kate. I could try copying the underside of the wings for the upper side and then correct rivets and paneling, as I did for the Hiryu "BII-307" skin, but I'd be in troubles for the fuselage and the green mottling.

I would be greatly in debt with anyone who could provide me with a blank, basic grey livery for the stock OH Kate, plus a green mottled one done with the spray paint effect that can only be found in sophisticated painting applications. So far, no one ever attempted to produce a early war grey skin for the stock OH Kate of the same detailed quality level as the stock ones.

Actually, I noticed that some early war stock Kate Shokaku/Zuikaku skins, uploaded in the past, made use of stock grey Val and Zero parts. That changes the shape of some Kate parts like engine, elevators and rudder, while tailplane/vertical fin rivets and panel lines are all wrong for a Kate.

I am about to upload level bomber "AII-376", I hope you and all SOH friends will enjoy it!

Cheers!
KH :ernae::USA-flag: