SF2 Burma Banshees

80th Fighter Group

The Burma Banshees

This is a semi-historical skin of the 89th Fighter Squadron of the 80th Fighter Group for Raven's P-40N20-CU. It is semi-historical because I have used any skull I could find to create these, and some are from the 88th and 90th squadrons of the 80th FG. This doesn't make the skin totally inaccurate, because there were similarities between the skulls for all three P-40 squadrons of the group (the 459th flew P-38s).

Some skulls I've created are alterations of skulls I've found, but again this isn't totally inaccurate, because in photos found in the Philip Adair collection you'll see two P-40s sitting side by side with almost identical skulls. All the skulls here were painted by me, using decals or photos as a guide, altering the proportions where necessary to account for the fact they were on a curved surface. Some skulls don't cover the same area of the nose they did in real life, because of bending and stretching problems caused by the use of decals.

Where I could find photographic evidence of a skull/aircraft number/serial number combination, I've used it, the rest have generic serials derived from the Joe Baugher site.

I've included the following named aircraft. Some have accurate skull/number combos, if I could find complete information, some are best guesses:

Lulu Belle II

The Rough Cobb

Joe Aztec

Joanne

Butter Bean II

Miss Frances III

No matter what their flaws, I think they make a cool appearance in game. I know we don't have an updated CBI for them to operate in, but perhaps some day we will. I created them because they were one of the most unusual P-40 groups out there in a world that seemed dominated by shark mouths. I hope you enjoy them.

Simply unzip the enclosed .rar to a location on your computer and open the readme for complete installation instructions. Designed for a full five merged installation of SF2. You'll have to make your own alterations for SF1, and I cannot guarantee they'll work.

I've used Raven's wonderful template to create these. I've added my own weathering and dirt layers, so any flaws are solely my own.

I strongly recommend that you download and install Wrench's Southwest Pacific P-40N pack located here first:

http://combatace.com/files/file/14278-sf2-ww2-pto-p-40n-usaaf-swpa-skinpak/

It has some goodies in it that you'll want to have.

This skin is Freeware. It is not to be used in any Payware project, or file.

Credits:

Raven, for his P-40N and templates.

Wrench for his information and tips.

Jaypack44 for his USAAF insignia, found at Simmers Paint Shop.

The tutorials in the Knowledge Base here, especially Wrench's tutorial on decal creation.

Simmers Paint Shop for their weathering tutorials and color swatches.

Numerous web pages for pictures and information, too numerous to mention, but http://www.burmabanshees.com/ is a must for information, and links to photo collections.

All the members of CombatAce who gave a like to a screenshot, or a comment in a thread. I don't think people realize how important the encouragement of this wonderful community can be through the use of those simple measures.

For Lt. John Mateulevicz, who died before my time, but whose gaze from an old photo I could not forget. RIP