RAF_Louvert

. Greetings All, The next episode of Leutnant Ritter von Blum's tale has been added: Paul Blum's Story Enjoy! Lou .

. AbeBooks always has copies of "No Parachute" listed, and in all price ranges. And I agree, it is one of the outstanding firsthand accounts on the subject. .

. Welcome to our forums Andy, and our virtual skies! Always great to have another fan of OFF in our midst. I'd say your English is just fine Sir, far better than anything I could attempt in German. Our own Herr Olham will no doubt be welcoming you soon as well and he lives in your fair country. I am an old RB3D player myself and I love how OFF has taken the best elements of that sim and brought it into the next generation. I like that paint you are showing in your sig picture, did you do that one yourself? And yes, we are all awaiting P4 with our wish list of things we hope to see arriving in that. As Slarti has pointed out, new guys buy the drinks! I'll have a coffee as well with cream, and a nice single malt shot on the side if you please. Cheers! Lou .

. Very cool von Baur. I am a big fan of the long B/R flights through the night and into the wee hours of the morning. Made a few night raids on Berlin in Strutters and Fees myself and caught the sunrise on the way home. Quite moving really. .

. I'll take whatever improvements our super team of devs magically come up with, but if I were forced to pick just one feature for P4 it would be the Italian and Eastern Fronts and all that those would entail. It's a small thing to ask I know. I don't wish to appear greedy. .

. Hasse Wind wrote: Wow! High praise indeed HW. Thank you Sir. The cowl design is one I fought with for a full day to ultimately work around the wrap distortion when I was building Belgian ace Jan Olieslagers' Camel. The tulip design comes from a very old quilt which I used a clip from and traced over to create the template. Elephant, you may not care for the repetition of the initials but historically that is how the Brits marked many of their aircraft in the Great War. But as I say often, to each their own. Cheers! Lou .

. Javito, I am glad to know you like your new kite Sir. May she serve you well. Thanks to all for the kind comments, and I again want to add my own personal"Thank You" to our great dev team who made all the original skins available to us in the first place. .

. I'm glad you were able to sort it out Carrick. Enjoy your new rides Sir. .

. Rugbyfan, Balfour's book is a good little read and deals almost completely with his WWI career. The book was first published in 1923 and it's really only the last couple of chapters where he talks about his time in Cairo in 1919 and points beyond. It is his own account so it is well worth going through for his personal insights and feelings. .

. Many thanks RC. And as you and I and Ras all know ... Minnesota ROCKS! .

. A good team indeed I dare say! And Olham, if ever you find yourself in the "Land of 10,000 Lakes" be sure and let me know. I'll show you round the place and we'll have a day of swapping war stories. .

. Mr_Dirt wrote: You honour me Sir, and I am so glad to learn that you too are enjoying Paul's story. I am hoping this weekend will allow me time to add the next installment. Cheers! Lou .

. Oh yes thanks Olham, forgot to mention DTXBmp. You'll need that no matter which image editor you use, and that download is available via the following link: DTXBmp Converter .

. Here you go Carrick. I had some time this AM and since I'd never painted a Spad VII before and since yours was a very easy request I thought I'd give it a go, (many thanks as always to the devs for their beautiful skins which we get to work from): Just grab the following RAR file and you should be ready to have at the Hun Sir: off_spadVII_t_Esc LaF Carrick58 1918.rar Enjoy! .

. Also, Gous' OFF skinning primer is very, very helpful, and that is available here: OFF Advanced Skinning Tutorial Have fun. .

. Stratos, you will want to use an image editor that allows you to work in layers and save them. If you don't have something like Photoshop and do not wish to purchase that program there is a very nice free editor called Paint.NET and here is the link: Paint.NET v3.5.6 This is the program I use for all my OFF painting tasks and it works great. Cheers! Lou .

. Hellshade, for the list of US squadrons involved and all the info pertaining to that side you will want to go to Mauer's "The U.S. Air Service In World War One, Volume III: The Battle of St. Mihiel" which, luckily for you, is online in full view form: CLICK HERE Go to page 127 for the complete U.S. listing at the start of the operations. And for those who may not know, St. Mihiel is pronounced San'-mee-yel. Cheers! Lou .

. Thanks for the update Rugbyfan. Glad to know HB is still among us and doing well. .

. Seeing as how we are talking about WWI aviation books here, and since I am rather fond of the collection I've managed to scrape together over the years and take pleasure in showing it off a bit, (please forgive my indulgence), here again are the tomes in my personal Great War library: Personal Narratives and Biographies: "A Flying Fighter", E.M. Roberts, (1918 1st Edition) "Airmen O' War", Boyd Cable, (1918 1st Edition) "An Airman Marches", Harold Balfour, (Vintage Aviation Library Edition) "An Aviator’s Field-Book", Oswald Bolcke, English Translation, (1917 1st Edition) "A Rattle Of Pebbles: The First World War Diaries Of Two Canadian Airmen", Brereton Greenhous, (1987 1st Edition) "Cavalry of the Clouds", Alan ‘Contact’ Bott, (1918 1st Edition) "Cloud Country", Jimmie Mattern, (1936 Pure Oil 1st Edition) 3-volume set "Days on the Wing", Willy Coppens, English Translation, (1931 1st Edition) "Death in the Air", William Heinemann, (1933 Edition) (famous faked aerial photos) "Double-Decker C.666", Haupt Heydemarck, English Translation, (1931 1st Edition) "En L’air!", Bert Hall, (1918 1st Edition) "Fighting the Flying Circus", Edward Rickenbacker, (1919 1st Edition) "Five Years in the Royal Flying Corps", James McCudden, (1918 1st Edition) "Flying for France", James McConnell, (1917 1st Edition) "Go Get 'Em!", William Wellman, (1918 1st Edition) "Guynemer, Knight of the Air", Henry Bordeaux, English Translation, (1918 1st Edition) "Heaven High, Hell Deep", Norman Archibald, (1935 Signed 1st Edition) "High Adventure", James Norman Hall, (1918 1st Edition) "Immelmann: The Eagle of Lille", Franz Immelmann, English Translation, (1930 1st Edition) "In The Clouds Above Bagdad", J.E. Tennant, (1920 1st Edition) "Kitchener's Mob", James Norman Hall, (1916 1st Edition) "Letters From a Flying Officer", Rothsay Stuart Wortlrey, (1928 1st Edition) "Memories of World War 1", William Mitchell, (1960 Edition) "Night Bombing with the Bedouins", Robert Reece, (Battery Press Edition) "Nocturne Militaire", Elliot White Springs, (1934 Edition) "Rovers of the Night Sky", W.J. ‘Night-Hawk’ Harvey, (Vintage Aviation Library Edition) "Sagittarius Rising", Cecil Lewis, (1936 Edition, 1st US printing) "Stepchild Pilot", Joseph Doerflinger, (1959 1st Edition) "The Flying Poilu", Marcel Nadaud, English Translation (1918 1st Edition) "The Red Knight of Germany", Floyd Gibbons, (1927 1st Edition) "The Way of the Eagle", Charles Biddle, (1919 1st Edition) "True Stories of the Great War", (1918 1st Edition) 6-volume set "Up And At 'Em", Harold Hartney, (1940 1st Edition) "War Birds; Diary of an Unknown Aviator", Elliot White Springs, (1926 1st Edition) "Whom The Gods Love", Lewis C. Merrill, (1953 1st Edition) "Wind in the Wires", Duncan Grinnell-Milne, (1918 1st Edition) "Winged Warfare", William Bishop, (1918 1st Edition) "Winged Peace", William Bishop, (1940 1st Edition) "With the Earth Beneath", A.R. Kingsford, (1936 1st Edition) History, Reference, and General Interest Books: "Air Aces of the 1914-1918 War", Bruce Robertson, (1964 Edition) "Aircraft of Today", Charles Turner, (1917 1st Edition) "Aviation in Canada 1917-18", Alan Sullivan, (1919 1st Edition) "Colliers New Photographic History of the World War", (1917 Edition) "Decisive Air Battles of the First World War", Arch Whitehouse, (1963 1st Edition) "Fighter Aircraft of the 1914-1918 War", W.M. Lamberton, (1964 Edition) "Flying The Old Planes", Frank Tallman, (1973 Edition) "Fragments From France", Bruce Bairnsfather, (1917 1st Edition) (Great War cartoons by the master of the genre) "Heros of Aviation", Laurence La Tourette Driggs, (1919 1st Edition) "Historic Airships", Rupert Holland, (1928 1st Edition) "History and Rhymes of the Lost Battalion", L.C. McCollum, (1929 Edition) "History of the World War", Francis March, (1918 1st Edition) "History of the Great World War", Rolt-Wheeler and Drinker, (1919 1st Edition) "Land and Water" Magazine, (entire April through September 1917 series, hard bound, ex-library copy) "National Geographic" Magazine, (entire 1918 series, hard bound, ex-library copy) "Reconnaissance & Bomber Aircraft of the 1914-1918 War", W.M. Lamberton, (1962 Edition) "Source Records of the Great War", (1923 1st Edition) 7-volume set "The First War Planes", William Barrett, (1960 Edition) (the one that started it all for me) "The Great Air War", Aaron Norman, (1968 Edition) "The Great War", George H. Allen, (1919 1st Edition) 5-volume set "The Great War in the Air", Edgar Middleton, (1920 1st Edition) 4-volume set "The Lafayette Flying Corps", by James Hall and Charles Nordhoff, (1964 Kennikat Press limited edition two-volume set) "The United States in the Great War", Willis Abbot, (1919 1st Edition) "The U.S. Air Service in World War I", Maurer Maurer, (1978 1st Edition) 4-volume set "True Stories of the Great War", (1918 1st Edition) 6-volume set "U.S. Official Pictures of the World War", Moore and Russell, (1924 1st Edition) 4-volume set 1920 World Book Encyclopedia, (entire set with addendums, great for cross-referencing in an historical context) "Time-Life Epic of Flight", 23-volume set, (not old and not strictly WWI but still a lot of good info and photos) "The War in the Air", Raleigh and Jones, (1st Edition) 9-volume set including map cases, (originally in the military library at Whitehall; my personal Jewel of the Crown) Instructional Books: "Aeroplane Construction and Operation", John Rathbun, (1918 1st Edition) "English-French War Guide for Americans in France", Eugene Maloubier, (1918 Edition) "Learning to Fly in the U.S. Army", E.N. Fales, (1917 1st Edition) "Lewis Machine Gun ‘Airplane Type’ Service and Operation Manual", (1918 Edition) "Manual Of Rigging Notes Technical Data", (1918, possible reprint) "Practical Flying", W.G. Minnies, (1918 1st Edition) "The Art of Reconnaissance", David Henderson, (1916 1st Edition) "Science of Pre-Flight Aeronautics", (1942 Edition) "Self-Help for the Citizen Soldier", Moss and Stewart, (1915 1st Edition) And yes, I have read them all at least once, and quite a few more than that. I dearly love old books. Cheers! Lou .

. Sound advice and insight Uncleal, as usual Sir. I nearly always fly as leader myself. BTW Javito, you have a PM. .

. For the movie it would be the 1938 classic "Dawn Patrol". The book is much, much tougher as I have many that I consider my favorites, but I believe at this moment I will go with "Sagittarius Rising" by Cecil Lewis. .

. She is a wonder Olham, I just wonder what she sees in me. As for me being what I am, I'm quite good at that. Better than I am at being anything else really. .

. Awwww shucks...I'm speechless... .

. AGREED 100% WM! And God Bless right back at you Sir. You are without doubt one of those who makes this place priceless. Cheers! Lou .

. Rather! Best defense is a strong offense and all that. When in doubt, charge! Just ask the Light Brigade. .