Skins by Aelius

[aelius]

Originally Posted by JG26_EZ

Here lies the problem with the Bf110 Spinner...
There's no problem really.. It's just that there are two different locations for the spinner, moving and stationary (as suspected above).

Thanks for the welcome discovery!

I've not posted myself for awhile now but, when I finish installing some plank flooring, I'll be back online.

[aelius]

It's been months now since I last posted, and I still have not finished working on the house. But I did find some time to revise my essay on RLM colors, which provides a complete sampling of color hues for those members skinning their own planes.

Here's the link.

[JG26_EZ]

AAAHhhhhhh Most excellent RLMs

Many thanks

[aelius]

Looking at the date of my last post, I realize that it's been almost four years since I last contributed to this forum--which is an intolerable delay.

The Ju 87 "Snake" Stuka always has been my favorite plane and one on which I've worked hardest to skin properly. Returning to it after such a long hiatus, I realize that several things could be improved; indeed, they should have been properly addressed in the first place.

One is that the propeller hub appears differently at rest than when the plane is in flight. I've corrected this by adding mottling to the stationary hub, which is absent when it is spinning. In extending the slatted dive brakes, the design of the Balkenkreuz on the underside of the wings does repeat itself on the slats themselves. And this, after a considerable amount of time trying to discover where they were located on the template, has been corrected as well.

Finally, the snake motif has been slightly modified so that it accords more with the photographs on which it is based and less on the illustration by Egbert Friedl that accompanied the definitive article on the "Schlangen" Stukas in Luftwaffe im Focus (No. 7). There now is a ridge above the eye and a slight correction to the pattern and position of the tail. The aircraft code also has been enlarged and the paint scheme weathered more.

I hope that those who have flown the original will enjoy this revision of the Ju 87 T6+DP--and be certain to extend the dive brakes!

Another shot, this time situated above the Libyan desert, as it might have appeared in the summer of 1941.

The revised template can be found here.

[jamesdietz]

Thanks again for your efforts!

[checkmysix]

Originally Posted by aelius

Looking at the date of my last post, I realize that it's been almost four years since I last contributed to this forum--which is an intolerable delay.

The Ju 87 "Snake" Stuka always has been my favorite plane and one on which I've worked hardest to skin properly. Returning to it after such a long hiatus, I realize that several things could be improved; indeed, they should have been properly addressed in the first place.

One is that the propeller hub appears differently at rest than when the plane is in flight. I've corrected this by adding mottling to the stationary hub, which is absent when it is spinning. In extending the slatted dive brakes, the design of the Balkenkreuz on the underside of the wings does repeat itself on the slats themselves. And this, after a considerable amount of time trying to discover where they were located on the template, has been corrected as well.

Finally, the snake motif has been slightly modified so that it accords more with the photographs on which it is based and less on the illustration by Egbert Friedl that accompanied the definitive article on the "Schlangen" Stukas in Luftwaffe im Focus (No. 7). There now is a ridge above the eye and a slight correction to the pattern and position of the tail. The aircraft code also has been enlarged and the paint scheme weathered more.

I hope that those who have flown the original will enjoy this revision of the Ju 87 T6+DP--and be certain to extend the dive brakes!

Another shot, this time situated above the Libyan desert, as it might have appeared in the summer of 1941.

The revised template can be found here.

Hi aelius
WOW.. I have always loved your Ju 87 "Snake" Stuka Skin and as a Skinner
I can really appreciate how much effort has gone into such a complex
livery,finding all the panel cross over points so as to align Markings can be a Royal pain in the Arse(thank heavens for Panel Finder).
That B/W reconstruction Image set over Libya is Amazing I had to do a double take as it looks so real.
In regards to some of the comments Re: RLM Colours and how they are portrayed in painted illustrations,I think its almost impossible to know what the true colours would have looked like as RLM Colour swatches RGB/HEX value will vary slightly from different sources and the printing process will also throw up slight colour variations even in another copy of the same publication.
Also general wear and tear can also lighten the Hue of the paint so basically
its pretty much open to interpritation and no one can say that a representation is definitifly right or wrong even colour photo's from the time cant be taken at face value for the same reasons I have already metioned.
All we can do is as close as possible represent the subject as best we can.
Regards
Keith.

[aelius]

[CENTER][CENTER]

James, I remember your remark from several years ago that there was a newsreel clip of another snake Stuka, and I replied that I was working on the plane. It is the T6+AN, which I've revised as well. It, too, now has the properly marked dive brakes and stationary propeller hub. More importantly, I've added the plane's identification and unit code to the wheel spats. Its template can be found here.

Another shot of T6+AN, this time imagined over Malta in September 1941.

And Keith, you've commented on RLM colors and the impossibility of truly knowing how they would have appeared originally. I actually wrote an essay on this rather vexing topic, which can be read here.

Finally, in working on T6+AN, it occurred to me that the template for T6+DP could be improved a bit more, if only by a few pixels. With apologies, then, for yet another revision. Here is the final incarnation of that plane--unless I eventually can get the colored portion of the propeller hub to stop wobbling in flight!

And that's it for snakes on a plane.

[aelius]

It seems that the ghost of a deleted message remains behind to remind readers that it once existed, no doubt prompting some curiosity as to what might have been said. It simply was this--

To ensure that IL-2 templates are 2048 x 2048 pixels at 72 ppi, they are posted to my site on Roman history. (By comparison, an image uploaded to Photobucket is half that size.)

That site, in turn, is associated with another, larger one on Roman history hosted by the University of Chicago. Regrettably, it is subject to infrequent but periodic denial-of-service attacks (typically on a weekend).

Earlier today, when images on this thread were not displayed, I assumed that such an attack again had occurred. But when they reappeared, my explanation no longer seemed necessary--and so was deleted.

[aelius]

Having revised the "Snake" Stukas, it seems appropriate to revisit the Bf 110 Totenhand and finally correct its stationary propeller hubs. The bony fingers that extended to the top of the engine cowlings, which I originally omitted, are being added as well.

Until I can finish, I thought this Ju 88A-4 could serve in the interim. Both planes belonged to Sturzkampfgeschwader 77 (12./St.G 77), the emblem of which (aside from the Totenhand) was a profile of Oberst Günther Schwartzkopf, a former Kommodore, silhouetted on a heraldic shield. In early 1943, the Staffel was reorganized and the Bf 110 transferred to southern Russia. The unit itself was disbanded in May of that year.

This Ju 88 is coded S2+LA, the "A" signifying that it belonged to the Geschwader Stab. It is therefore likely that the "L," the plane's identifying letter, and the propeller hubs were colored blue.

The original photograph can be found at FalkeEins, a blog on the Luftwaffe and World War II aviation. The template derives from the exquisite construction by CheckMySix, (my having added only the airplane coding and emblems), and can be found here.

[BrainMan]

Hi,Auelius! Can You creat a new skins for Bf-109E4 and E4 of Hans-Joachim Marseille and Manfred von Richthofen plains? Thx You!