Geezer

A good looking plane over good looking terrain.

This is a really interesting thread. You guys have raised the bar.....again.

Well done!

Progress shots of weathering and details - access panels, seams, louvers, etc.

I have 3dsMax 9 and can't export bitmap or specular maps for TW models. IIRC, the first TW export module with these features was for Max 2008, maybe 2009?

I like your concept of a small map that is focused on just one campaign. With a few exceptions - such as the Zero - early WW2 aircraft generally had an operational radius of only a few hundred miles, so a large map really isn't necessary. The smaller map was less work, so you were probably able to make it faster than a large map? Sometimes, less is more.

Tidied up some loose ends, plus mapped/textured the night exhaust pipes.

Good job! The camo colors are nicely subdued. EDIT: A handful of Sea Gladiators, stored by the FAA in Alexandria as spares, were "borrowed" by the RAF during the 1940 desert war. While I've modeled the arrestor hook in my Gladiator model, I hadn't planned on painting Sea Gladiator skins. Maybe you would be interested?

Wow! Excellent info - thanks. After eyeballing the bombs with painted slogans and comparing them to the intelligence report, I think they may have been 70 or 100kg bombs. Interesting comment about the poor weight to explosive ratio - apparently due to thick walls of low grade (therefore heavy) metallurgy. Italian aircraft in general had a high structural weight due to a shortage of high grade aluminum alloys. That was the main reason for the small useful load of many Italian fighters, and why they were under armed. The weight of four to six 12.7mm machine guns would have penalized performance too much. Again - thanks.

Looks like some Italian bombs were klunkier than others? Shots below of what look like 50kg Italian bombs.

Good stuff. I have two refs that feature scale side views of the CR42 and Caproni Ca133 with bombs, but the bomb sizes/types are not identified. Do you have any information on Italian bombs? EDIT: I have scale drawings for the British WW1 Coopers bomb (still widely used in the 1940 desert war) and the British 250lb bomb, but can't find any scale drawings for the British 100lb or 500lb bombs. Does anyone have any info they could share?

Can also be used for night intruder missions - "bed check Charlie."

Nice paint job!

Thanks. Yep - shots of Gladiator cockpit below. Like most modelers, I really don't like making cockpits and view them as a necessary evil. What I hate most is all the fussy file work that is required. Maybe someone is willing to do that? If so, drop me a PM.