By
Trotski
Heinkel He 51
Birth of the Luftwaffe
I present you with my latest collection of skins, this time for the Heinkel He 51, one of the first Luftwaffe aircraft to see active service, in a air war, the first time for Germany since the end of WWI. The He 51 was a biplane fighter, which was to see service in the Spanish Civil War. It however was found to be very un suited for use as a fighter, as , to be honest, there wasn't much really ground breaking, and there were certainly far better biplane types in service around the world, than the Heinkel turned out to be. Where it was found to shine however, was in the light ground attack role, in which it was quite successful. Several future Luftwaffe aces cut their teeth flying this aircraft, before transitioning across to the BF 109 , which swiftly replaced the biplane in the Jagd role.
It was however, an attractive aircraft, and was as I mentioned before, quite a successful recon and ground attack aircraft. I was used by the Luftwaffe, probably as a squadron hack, until the middle of the war. It was only exported to 2 countries, those being Bulgaria, and Spain, The Spanish had these old girls still in service until the mid 50's. It appears the Bulgarians used them until around 1942 -43.
So, on with the blurb. I have included 3 skins for aircraft of JG 88 Condor Legion, from different JagdGruppe ( 2, 3, 4 ) Also I have 4 colourful examples from around 1936 or so, in Luftwaffe colours of the time, with their colourful markings. next there are 2 variations on the Bulgarian machines, pre Communist, and post Communist, the final real skin is a Spanish post 1939 scheme. The last 2 I have thrown in for fun. The first is a Parani one because I KNOW some of you lot do play Paran Dhimar. and finally, An Imperial Elbonian Air Service skin, just because, SO THERE !!
This aircraft is a model made by Stephen 1918. I have completely redone the skin , panels, rivets etc. etc. All the files you need are included in this upload EXCEPT for the LOD's. For those, please be kind enough to download Stephens original model FIRST Before attempting to fly the beastie !! I have however included all the .INI files, that are pertinent to these skins, so please, after you have downloaded the aircraft from the FE 2 Golden age download section, you ensure that the files I have included , replace the ones you will get with Stephens original aircraft. There are reasons for this, such as gunsights, sounds, weapons, pilots etc. etc. So please rename stephens .INI files just in case you want to use those instead of mine. I cannot see that you shall want or need to though.
I have included everything else all in their respective folders, so you should be able to drop it into your save file, wherever that may be. So Sounds, guns, bombs and tank, sounds, and pilots, and of course Decals are all here for you. Just please follow the directions I have stated here. and you will be good to go. As a side note, I have found that a good terrain to utilise for this aircraft is the Finland one, seems to work well. However if you are wanting this aircraft to use in FE2 then wait as I shall be doing a separate upload for First Eagles Spanish Civil War, these skins in this format WILL NOT WORK IN FE !!
Anyhow, that about wraps it up. Thanks to Stephen, who is very kind to me, and allows me to bugger up his lovely aeroplanes. So major kudos to him for making the model in the first place. Any glitches, problems, gripes, whinges, or moans, please contact my P.A. Mrs Ramsbottom. She will occupy you and deflect ALL your woes, with her rather nice Victoria sponge cake and a nice cup of Tea ........failing that, message me and I shall see about correcting any bugger ups
Finally, as ever, ENJOY (I have enjoyed flying around in this rather attractive aircraft, I even got 2 kills in her )
By Trotski