RAF_Louvert

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. Thanks Stiffy, I will keep an eye on those Sir. The last several pair that came up on eBay ended at about 100 euros, which is well above what I want to pay for them, (though they are very neat). BTW, I have the collar flashes and tour stripes all sorted out and will post a picture of the additions soon. .

. "Once again we find ourselves in agreement," (to quote Ulysses Everett McGill). Happy New Year Everyone! Lou .

. On the second day of my road trip through North Dakota, (business, not pleasure), and I decided to snap a few digitals of the scenery. Here we see an open vista highlighted by miles of the local decorative fencing. Notice how the snow, and the barbed wire, sparkles in the crisp winter sunshine. This one features a fine example of the state tree. Here, a pristine landscape untouched by the hand of man. And here we see Lou, wondering why the hell anyone would choose to live here. Enjoy the photos, and the fact that I am the poor SOB who has to drive through the endless miles of this lunar...er...winter landscape. Beam me up Scotty, there's no intelligent life on this planet. Actually, I really do like North Dakota, just not so much in the dead of winter with the wind and the snow and the desolation and the feeling that I could go off the road and die and not be found until the spring thaw comes...in July. .

. Typhoon, South Dakota is my territory as well and I have driven across it in the winter more times than I care to remember. The main difference is that SoDak is 200 miles farther south and has the Corn Palace. .

. Duce, it depends. Those living south of Highway 200 say Mongolia, while those living north of it say Siberia. Also, a lot of folks don't know this, but Tolstoy actually wrote "War and Peace" while he was living in Minot. .

. LOL! BH, I think of that scene every time I drive through NoDak in the winter. Also, knowing how gullible some people can be it wouldn't surprise me a bit to learn several have frozen to death looking for the treasure. RC, I had little to lose so I don't really miss it all that much. Now then, how to get back to the Land of 10,000 Taxes? Oh yes, I remember now: Click my heels together three times and say, "There's no place like home...there's no place like home...there's no place like home..." .

. Yuppers, Pups are one of the best, and that is a nice looking one WM. And hey look, more snow! .

. Greetings All, I have finished up my latest skinning project, the Sopwith Camel belonging to Belgian ace Lt. Jan Olieslagers of 9me Escadrille de Chasse. I have placed it in our downloads section and it should be available there soon. I wish to thank Winder and rabu for their outstanding skins and graphics that provided me the starting point for this paint scheme. With the first-rate work that Red Dog has been doing as of late on some of the other Belgian planes from the Great War we should soon have an entire array to choose from. When I return from my road trip next weekend I will try get going on a few more kites to represent our brave Belgian flyers. Cheers! Lou .

. Thanks for the kudos Gents. Duce, I agree, it would be a boon if we could fly for Belgium and have a pilot page to represent that service as well. Italy and Russia would be two more I'd like to have on that list, since we're in a wishing mood. .

. I decided to try Jan Olieslagers' new Camel against Theo Osterkamp in his EV. Now, I'm not sure if it was a wing bump or the Allied flak that burst right on top of us during our initial gun pass, but either way this is what you would call a "Bad Merge". All is well as we turn to engage. Things are still fine during our line up. No longer fine or well. We both fell to earth in what remained of our kites. Miraculously, my test pilot survived the wreckage and I can only hope that Theo did too. .

. No Sir, not there yet. Sometimes it can take a while depending on how busy the forum admins are. .

. I am all for additional B/R planes and some early war kites being added to OFF's already impressive line-up. However, I do understand the point made by OvS about the fun factor when it comes to flying them. Johan's idea of including some of the heavy bombers as AI would be excellent just so we could have the opportunity to attack them in the campaigns, rather than only seeing them in the stand-alone missions. Same goes for the Zeppelin. But I am very content with the sim as it stands right now and I know the devs are busy with Phase 4, so I will take whatever happens to come down the pike...cough, cough...Snipe and SS DIII...cough, cough, cough...Morane Parasol and Voisin...cough... .

. That is a good looking Nieup WM, I will be adding it to my Belgian contingent as soon as possible. Johan, that Camel you show is on my list of additional Belgian planes to paint, and it should be a simple one now that I have a Camel template developed. Cheers! Lou .

File Name: Lt. Jan Olieslagers Belgian Camel File Submitter: RAF_Louvert File Submitted: 27 Dec 2009 File Category: Aircraft Skins Sopwith Camel belonging to Belgian ace Lt. Jan Olieslagers of 9me Escadrille de Chasse. I wish to thank Winder and rabu for their outstanding skins and graphics that provided me the starting point for this paint scheme. Click here to download this file

. TKS for the link Olham. WM, I'm sure you do Sir with all the skinning you have done. I will most definitely be sharing this and will make it available in our download section as soon as I have it finished. And, once it is done and you have the file in your possession you will be able to use the cowl I worked up as a pattern for any of your projects that might feature the same design in that area. Also, I found an excellent photo of Jan's actual kite and have made a couple of minor changes to my project to better follow the original. I am still hoping to wrap this up before I have to hit the road Monday, (out for the week at that point). Fingers crossed. Cheers! Lou .

. Thanks Olham, but most of the hard work was already done by our fabulous devs. I adapted the Belgian roundels from rabu's beautiful N11 skin and started my project with WM's Aussie Camel. Most of my efforts have been in creating the thistle emblem and painting the cowl so far. I also changed the basic color of the Camel to more of a drab green with an off-white linen color underside to try and match the photos of the actual plane. .

. Here are a few shots of Jan Olieslagers' Camel that I am currently agonizing over. For those of you who have ever tried to paint a design onto the cowl of an OFF Camel you will know all too well what I have gone through to get it to look like this: I still have the elevator design to sort out and numerous little tweaks and refinements, but it is getting close to done. I am not kidding about that damnable cowl, it has two area on either side towards that top that will not wrap properly no matter how much you try. Your only hope is to entirely surround the spots with a solid design in order to hide the distortion. Every time I do one of these custom paints I truly appreciate what the devs have gone through to create the thousands of plane skins for us to enjoy. .

. OUTSTANDING! Love that sepia photo of you Stiffy, very vintage. .

. Very good Dej! Thank you Sir. .

. Sweet! I of course will now go out and fly through some balloon wires to see what happens. .

. A great resource Olham. Thanks for bringing this to our attention again. .

. FD, sign up as a pilot with a French unit that flys the N11 and then choose it from the custom paint selections. .

. I'm not a slacker, Dog. I'm doing the steps. I'm working on the Camel. Baby steppin with the roundels, baby steppin with the thistle emblem, baby stepping with the elevator and cowl paint... .