RAF_Louvert

. Nice to see so much action all of a sudden on the Italian Front. Looking forward to the missions HH. Also, a couple of books on the US flyers serving with the Italians that are well worth the read are Jack B. Hilliard's "CAPRONIs, FARMANs and SIAs: US Army aviation training and combat in Italy with Fiorello LaGuardia, 1917-1918" and "Dear Bert: An American pilot flying in World War I Italy", by Edward Lewis. .

. Oh I definitely sensed distress in your earlier post, iti. Double and triple exclamation points tend to be good indicators of intensity of feelings and a certain level of distress. Artists are just so touchy about their work, isn't that right Olham? By the way, if it makes you feel any better, I've gotten a tad bent out of shape myself on occasion when I'd posted some project thinking I had it all "just right" only to receive constructive criticism enlightening me to all my mistakes. How DARE they tell me I'm wrong!! Do they not understand ART!!! (see how I used those exclamation points to denote intensity of feeling and a level of distress) .

. Thank you for the refreshments my good man. Yes, the landmass is already there, you need only fly down to it. Actually, I grab map coordinates via the internet for the locale I wish to fly over at the Italian Front and enter those into the appropriate lines in the mission files. Your last question I cannot answer BH, I am not using that mod myself. .

. No Sir, that is not what I am saying at all. I am saying that a work of art which is still in the process of being created can be ammended to reflect new information and an altered interpretation of the subject matter because of that new information. I would never imagine a completed work of art to be changed after-the-fact. Also, I did not realize you were so married to the title of your piece. I will back away from this debate as it seems to be getting a bit too intense. Honestly, I was really just engaging in some lively discussion and was not attacking you. Sorry if my comments have caused you distress, it was certainly not my intention. .

. Since it seems I’ve taken the role of Devil’s Advocate in this discussion I may as well continue. Itifonhom, da Vinci was noted for doing a lot of research and preliminary work before he finally put brush to canvas, or in the case of ‘The Last Supper’, brush to plaster. Yes, of course he took artistic license with this masterpiece, not the least reason for this being that he was commissioned to paint the work and had a paying customer to keep happy. None-the-less, he was still attempting to present the event with some small learned historical perspective. Had he ignored the research and simply began painting, then suddenly had scholars present him with facts and evidence that the Last Supper had actually occurred in a small cottage by a lake and there were really fourteen disciples … well … I’m betting he would have made a revision or two. OK, have at it. Lou .

. Well, to find it, just jump in your kite and fly towards the Gulf of Venice. When you're over Trentino, look down. ... hee hee ... But seriously BH, you will need to load up the add-on aeroplanes you want to use into your 'aircraft' folder in your OFF install and then start building individual missions based on who you wish to fly for and where along the front you wish to fight. Oh, and two fingers of Tullamore Dew 43, if you'd be so kind. .

. Aaah yes, how well I remember this argument from my college days. And I’ve personally defended both sides of it over the years. Honestly though, I don’t see this as a case of artistic freedom since you have full freedom in that already. I see it more as an artistic mistake, made initially from a place of little knowledge about the subject, that is now being defended as artistic freedom. Had you said when you first posted the image that you knew LvR was flying a different kite but you just love how the DR1 looks and so you chose that instead I would be right with you on artistic license. However, as you yourself admit it was an error based on your own unfamiliarity with the incident it is now simply an error that you choose to let stand. The difference to the informed is that you created an artwork which was wrong in its conception rather than one created from an intentional, personal interpretation. To the uninformed it may well stand as ‘proof’ that LvR flew a DR1 when he claimed his 30th victory, and more’s the pity for that. I’ve learned, as time passes, never to underestimate just how ignorant some folks are and how comfortable they are in that ignorance, (and I am not referring to you, itifonhom). Don’t do your part to feed the ignorance Sir. Your artistic freedom will not be diminished in any way, shape, or form by correcting a mistake. Lou .

. Outstanding little plane there elephant, thanks for sharing the info and link. And thank you Jim as well for that great HQ photo, already grabbed it for my digital picture library. .

. You've got mail my friend. .

. Hate to tell you BH, but there is no Italian Front per se. You'll have to write your own missions one at a time and fly them. As to all the mods, JSGME is the way to go. Just install it by following the instructions and then place all the many OFF items into the 'MODS' folder you created when you installed JSGME and you will be good to go. Lothar's mod is very neat but you don't need to use it to run the other OFF mods if you just want to pick and choose them to suit your own tastes. .

. Itifonhom, while I dearly love the artwork you've created I am in full agreement with Jim on his point. By presenting your artwork as a representation of LvR's 30th victory you are creating and disseminating further misinformation on a subject that is already riddled with it. Someone googles Lothar von Richthofen's 30th victory and your digital painting pops up with no disclaimer to indicate the scene is purely fanciful in nature and "Bob's your uncle!" it is now being cited as proof that it was a DR1 he flew high above the sunlit clouds when he smoked that Camel, (pun intended). It would be akin to a painting entitled 'The First Battle of Bull Run' depicting Beauregard and his men tearing arse out of Manassas Junction being led by 1'000 Mark V tanks, and the work being presented as a somehow accurate rendering of the affair albeit with some artistic license. Now that you are aware of the mistake why not move away from your original intent of trying to show LvR's 30th victory and simply present it as a fine artistic interpretation of one of his many victories. Call it 'Death Waits In A Sunlit Sky' or some such and let it stand on it's own. .

. Jim, you do know that was a hyperbole on my part. I am all about historical accuracy, sometimes to the point of being tedious, and beyond. .

. BH, a bit like this Nieup then: .

. I'd lend a hand to that project myself. .

. Hey! That looks like a tool shed I shingled a few years ago. .

. Stumpjumper, do you mean this Lohner? I have your entire add-on plane pack if you'd like me to send it to you. In case you don't recall, it contains the Alb W4, Lohner M, Phoenix C1 and D1, HP 400, and Caproni G4. .

. BH, we have some of the same issues with things floating in the water around here as well, though not to the extent you describe. However, where these planes operated that was of much less concern I am sure. As to the drag those hydrofoils created in the air, I would see that as a non-issue when compared to that Rube Goldberg affair holding the pontoons onto the plane. I imagine it was more immediate to get the damned thing up out of the water first and I'm betting stepped pontoons would not have done the trick due to the same initial amount of drag against their surface, (more actually as you could have had more square inches of surface area in the water depending on the depth of the steps). If you can't get enough forward speed to actually start lifting the pontoons out of the water the stepped sides would offer no advantage. The hydrofoils must have been the ticket in this particular case. .

. Just had to post this screenie after my own comment in the swirl camo thread: Gawd! Doesn't it make you want the Italian Front in OFF just that much more? Again BH, a beautiful job on that Austrian random hex camo. Outstanding, Sir. .

. Hey Bullethead, I just noticed that your latest Austro-Hungarian entry and mine are tied for downloads. Oh, the excitement! I wonder when we'll see them start showing up in screenshots, apart from our own. .

. Wonderful gallery. I've not seen this collection before. Thanks for sharing, Hauksbee. .

. Yes Olham, that is a Lohner S, built for FSX and available as a free download over at the simnetwork http://www.simnetwork.com/SIMNETWORK/downloads.php?cat_id=25&rowstart=225 Hauksbee, the Lohner series are wonderful old seaplanes and I wish we had them in OFF, along with a host of other seaplanes. .

. Aaah Widowmaker, I can so identify with your parenting dilemma. I went through this with all three of my kids. The funniest was with my youngest, who I am sure had her first drink at around 14 or 15, (though I never had any proof of that). However, it was when she was 19, (Minnesota drinking age is 21, ridiculous IMHO), and back from her first year of college when we got the phone call at 2:00 in the morning from one of our local uniformed officials asking if we'd like to drive down the road to where the beer bust had been and pick up our daughter. The party, which was out in a cornfield, had been raided, and all the kids scattered into said corn. My daughter had taken cover in a small ditch and was home free, unitl her cell phone rang and the police zero'd in on her. Best part: It was one of her friends calling to see if she'd gotten away. It was all I could do not to bust out laughing when I heard that. And it was pretty tough to drop the hammer as I had been in exactly the same situation when I was sixteen. But, since that was long before cell phones I actually did escape. .

. Five million dollars? Phhht, chump change. I'll just write a check. You do take checks, right? Post-dated to 2054? .

. Beautiful plane. And you do have to hand it to them for creative thinking in handling that problem. .

. Very nice Olham. She's a beauty. .