Fateful Morn IV

[Dej 17]

Howdy Folks,

 

Been a while since I did one of these, RL having interrupted the series, as it does everything else.

 

S.e. 5a models - Silver Wish Games; Trees - Free Download, all other 3D content (Bessoneau Hangars, Fuelling Cart, Chocks, et c.) mine, or native C4D. Rendered in Cinema 4D, post-processing in Paintshop Pro X2 (lamp highlight, dawn-tinting, grain filter, logo). Render time 6 hours 38 minutes. I'm particularly pleased with the camera angle.

 

Scenario is...

 

St. Omer Aerodrome, 05:45 hours, 26th July 1918.

 

As ‘rosy-fingered Dawn’ paints the Eastern sky with cliché, two S. E. 5a of No. 85 Squadron, illuminated by the light spilling from the open hangar behind them, are readied for a trip across the Lines.

 

The nearer machine is to be flown by Lt. Donald Inglis, a New Zealander and new member of the squadron, who has yet to open any score. The farther S. E. 5a, in which the armourer is double-checking the Lewis drum, is the mount of No. 85 Squadron’s Commanding Officer, Major Edward Corringham ‘Mick’ Mannock, DSO and two bars, MC and bar. Mannock is a superb leader and tactician and at this juncture a 60-victory ace.

Mannock has offered to take the newcomer up to the Front in order for Inglis to ‘bag a Hun’. This they will do, bringing down an Albatros near Lestrem, but it will prove to be Mannock’s last.

 

Shot down in flames - a fate that haunted his nightmares - by intense ground fire, Mannock’s body is found (it is said) 250 yards from the wreck of his machine. Inglis’ machine is also badly shot about and his fuel tank punctured, but he manages to bring his S. E. down safely on the Allied side of the Lines.

 

Buried by German troops close to where he fell, Mannock’s body was never formally recovered and has never been convincingly identified.

 

Mannock was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross in 1919, after intense lobbying by former comrades.

 

 

 

[EDIT] Typo [/EDIT]

Edited November 29, 2011 by Dej

[carrick58 23]

Nice

[Olham 164]

Again you created an intriguing atmosphere through the lighting and the colour of the sky, Dej.

A picture that transports quite the melancholy, which must be connected to the coming event,

but also an almost Royal purple in the haze of the sky.

[RAF_Louvert 101]

.

 

Another evocative work Dej. Very, very well done Sir. I like many things about it, but in particular the armourer's latern, serving as a ghostly foreboding of Mick's horrendous end. A poignant and sadly fitting focal point of the work, I think.

 

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[UK_Widowmaker 571]

I love all your work Dej..... you are up there with the greats of aviation art!....if these were released in a book...I would buy it!

[Dej 17]

I love all your work Dej..... you are up there with the greats of aviation art!....if these were released in a book...I would buy it!

 

That's praise indeed, that a body would part with hard cash for something I've created, thank you.

 

Lou, I hadn't considered that point about the lantern... but now it was, of course, deliberate

[Hauksbee 103]

S.e. 5a models - Silver Wish Games; Trees - Free Download, all other 3D content (Bessoneau Hangars, Fuelling Cart, Chocks, et c.) mine, or native C4D. Rendered in Cinema 4D, post-processing in Paintshop Pro X2 (lamp highlight, dawn-tinting, grain filter, logo). Render time 6 hours 38 minutes.

Indeed, a nice moody piece. But, a render time of 6 hrs, 38 min? What dpi are you rendering to?

[Dej 17]

Indeed, a nice moody piece. But, a render time of 6 hrs, 38 min? What dpi are you rendering to?

 

DPI of 72. But it's the MIP-hammering procedural grass, the caustics and the ambient occlusion that bang up the render time. If I turn those off it's 20 minutes!

[shredward 12]

Hi Dej,

Beautiful and evocative work.

I tried to find the letter for Inglis' machine, but came up empty. It isn't recorded in the Sturtivant bible, nor could I find it anywhere else. Inglis is associated with an earlier machine that carried the letter Y, but that is no guarantee that E1294 carried it.

Cheers,

shredward

 

ps - I just noticed that you have Y on the upper wing. A prudent choice!

Edited December 1, 2011 by shredward
I am an idiot

[Britisheh 0]

Hi there Dej,

 

Very nice work indeed, and that RAF would see the lantern........................fire....................flames........................

 

I dare say olde boy but the OFF DEV TEAM should surely request that you ply your exemplary talents with a opening scenes for the new P4?

 

Cheers,

 

Britisheh

 

formerly British_eh

[Dej 17]

Hi Dej,

Beautiful and evocative work.

I tried to find the letter for Inglis' machine, but came up empty. It isn't recorded in the Sturtivant bible, nor could I find it anywhere else. Inglis is associated with an earlier machine that carried the letter Y, but that is no guarantee that E1294 carried it.

Cheers,

shredward

 

ps - I just noticed that you have Y on the upper wing. A prudent choice!

 

Cheers Ted! I appreciate your looking. I tried to find hard evidence too, even asked at The Aerodrome. So I had to settle for 'Y' in the end.

 

Thanks Richard. If I were accorded that honour I'd be more than happy to help.

[RAF_Louvert 101]

.

 

Lou, I hadn't considered that point about the lantern... but now it was, of course, deliberate

 

Personally Dej, I think it WAS deliberate, perhaps just not consciously so.

 

 

Very nice work indeed, and that RAF would see the lantern........................fire....................flames........................

 

Britisheh, visually the latern is the focal point of the entire piece. Notice how the rest of the scene is cast in an early dawn glow; a cool, almost dreamlike illumination, with shadows and dark silhouettes hiding much of the details. But then, juxtaposed to that, is the light of the latern; not a warm, inviting light, but an intense, almost harsh blaze, demanding you look to where it has stripped away the darkness. Notice too where the sun is rising on the horizion, directly behind the nose of Mick's plane; almost, (but not quite), mimicking the blaze of the latern. The plane is quite literally bracketed by flames. Consciously intentional or not on Dej's part, that is a pretty potent image of the soon-to-be fate of Major Mannock, and the latern is the key to that image.

 

Just my opinion of course, art being subjective and all.

 

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