Bullethead

Gunrunner, I 1st encounted the term "2 weeks" on discussion boards dealing with the ancient DOS version of Kesmai's Air Warrior MMOFS. That was back in the early 1990's.... But regardless of how "2 weeks" is measured, I think it safe to say that it's beem more than "2 weeks" since we got a new batch of WOFF screenshots. Last night I went back through the sticky thread above, marveling at all the cool stuff, and noticed that the last shots are from November 2011. IOW, we haven't gotten any all year.

If you want to see old tanks, you definitely must visit the Tank Museum at Bovington Camp in southern England. This museum has at least 1 specimen of practically every type of tank ever built, including the very 1st tank ever, "Little Willy". I've been there twice and found it quite difficult to leave. Anyway, the WW1 wing of the museum has an extensive colletion, including a tank that participated in the 1st tank attack on the Somme in 1916 (and has the scars to prove it). Most of the vehicles at the museum are in working condition and they have "ground shows" where they drive them around the yard for spectators. http://www.tankmuseum.org/

Don't blame me for pulling this thread off course. Not once have I mentioned absinthe. I agree that all this absinthe talk has prevented discussion of the very important point I was trying to make in my post. Aparently nobody looked closely at the TT2 in my picture. If they had, they'd have seen that it was attached to the strut with what appear to be spare rib tapes from squadron stores. This is important in reference to the OP's quote from the AWM, who said an exhaustive search for screw holes came up empty on the struts. All these strut-mounted anemometers, whether the German "propeller beanie" type or the Austrian Teddybär, were self-contained devices. They were powered by the passing wind and incorporated their own display for their data, so they needed no wiring. It was simply a matter of attaching them to the airplane somehow; thus, they could easily be swapped between aircraft. At least in the Austrian case, the primary means of attachment seems to have to lash them to the strut with fabric strips, leaving no screw holes. Thus, on surviving examples of KuK planes, an absence of screw holes does not imply that the plane never had a TT2 installed. So, I was trying to suggest that the Germans might also have used fabric lashings instead of screws and brackets.

Hey, I've got to do something to maintain my membership in the BOC

Very nice job, Lou. Already on my HD :)

Thanks for the info, guys. I note that Udet's ride only has 1 hubcap. I guess he must have left it parked in a bad neighborhood one night :). As to strut-mounted anemometers, the Austrians suffered from critical shortages there as they did in all other high-tech stuff, especially as the war progressed and the need for such things became more urgent. Thus, they were forced to resort to less effective devices. Here we see Aviatik D.I(Th) 101.12, completed in early 1918, with the standard KuK strut-mounted anemometer. This is a TT2 (Teddybär Tachometer, Mk 2), serial number 3724, built by Hlvinka & Perelli of Cattaro. The pilot could, with experience, judge his airspeed fairly accurately by observing the positions of the bear's various limbs, which contained lead weights of different sizes. There were never enough of these instruments to satisfy demand, however, and the archives are full of heated correspondence between Flars and Hlvinka & Perelli concerning increasing production. The more advanced TT4, under development in late 1918, contained an intricate clockwork mechanism. As air passed through the bear's head from ear to ear, it spun a turbine that activated the bear's mechanical arms, with which the bear signaled the airspeed to the pilot using semaphore. Test results were promising but the war ended before the TT4 could go into production. The Teddybär series of instruments, like many Austro-Hungarian aviation advances, grew out of expedient tinkering by personnel in the field. In this case, Offizierstellvertreter Zoli Thoth of Flik 3/D lashed a stray cat to one of the struts of his Lohner B.VII in early 1916. The faster he flew, the louder the cat howled. While this idea worked well enough for such slow, low-powered aircraft, it was not successful on later machines. This led Flars to seek an instrument designed for the purpose. (photo from Grosz, Haddow, and Schiemer)

Here's what little I know about Austro-Hungarian camouflage. If you're interested in this subject, please take a look. And PLEASE, if you think I'm wrong or have something I didn't include, please tell me so I can fix it.Bottom line: take this with a tablespoon of salt and don't cite me as a reference in your arguments with people who know more about it :). Notes on Austro-Hungarian Camouflage v1.zip

Howdy Stumpjumper, good to hear from you. I figure you've done more KuK skins than any of us. I'd really appreciate your feedback on this.

@Olham That's a legit interpretation. There are those who say the base fabric color was a light yellow. Maybe they're both right in that the fabric came in 2 versions. The thing is, I'd say the majority of all KuK planes ever in service were totally unpainted except for national markings and stencils. By the end of the war, most planes were painted one way or another but quite a few still weren't. Thus, having an overall yellowish pattern would not be out of character.

Thanks, Lou. I should have the paper done fairly soon and look forward to getting contributions and corrections :). And thanks for the info on the pre-printed fabric. It does seem to have evolved from a hand-painted original idea, however. At least that's what I gathered from the thread you linked.

Brilliant, Lou! Can't wait to give it a go. I'm thinking that this camo pattern must have been something done in the field. Do you know how many planes were painted this way? If this was done in the field, I think it speaks volumes for the KuK air force having a rather low sortie rate. I'm sure it must have taken ages to paint a plane that way. Maybe they did this during long periods of being grounded by Alpine winters? BTW, I'm writing a paper summing up my very limited knowledge of KuK camouflage, which I intend to toss out for others to pick apart, correct, and add to. May I use this pic to illustrate my paper?

I wouldn't worry too much about WOFF being on Steam. It's not a stand-alone game, it's a total conversion mod, and the last I heard, the underlying game (CFS3) isn't on Steam. FWIW, things like Steam (and the competing Storm Powered--shameless plug) are actually GOOD overall because they allow small developers to get products out that would otherwise never see the light of day. This is because they make games directly available from developer to consumer, cutting out the publishing and retailing middlemen. Those evil slugs are responsible for today's video game market utterly dominated by low-brow console games, and they intend to keep it that way because that's how they make money. So if you EVER want to see another PC game for a niche market like flightsims, you'll probably only see it on Steam, Storm Powered (RoF anyone?), or whatever similar system comes out in the future.

Last night I was experimenting with conjuring up demons and asking them questions about history. All went well until one of them, in a typical devilish trick, showed me a horrible photograph. It's a single-seat BE2c with an exceptionally weird paintjob, plus all sorts of strange aftermarket attachments. The mere sight of it gave me a new patch of gray hair WARNING: The attached pic is extremely shocking. Viewers risk permanent damage to their sanity just from looking at it. Please have your children leave the room.... See? Didn't I warn you? Take as long as you need to get your heartrate back to normal. Deep breaths. Perhaps an icebag for the head? I'll wait. OK, now that you've recovered from the shock, and if you're not to traumatized to remember some of the graphic details, what do you think? Is this the product of a madman who cracked under the strain of having to fly the Quirk in combat? Or is it some nalicious psychological weapon intended to make German pilots gouge their own eyes out and leap from their cockpits upon seeing it? Or, worst of all, was this something from the post-war airshow circuit, whose effects, when unleashed on the general public, triggered the Great Depression?

I thought the whole problem with the NORMAL Quirk was that it flew TOO well. As in nice and steady, an ideal training plane :).

I wouldn't call it psychedelic, I'd call it what you see when you treat malaria with a mixture of laudanum and absinthe :).

Excellent job on the "flying sofa" pattern, Lou! I'll be sure to download it once it's finished. I expect you'll have a Hell of a time getting the pattern to match up on the various fuselage pieces, though. Have fun :). Olham, apart from the missing tip, that wing structure looks pretty much intact. I can't hazard a guess as to how that happened, or if it has something to do with the plane being nose-first into a rail fence. It might just be that the plane was skinned by Italian troops; there are a lot of pics of Austrian planes in such condition immediately after the war.

You're a truly sick man :). Now that I've managed to suppress my gag reflex and can stand to look it it for longer than a few seconds at a time, the weirder it gets. It looks like the struts have some dark fabric loosely and randomly attached. But what's that huge strut running from the cockpit through the upper wing? What's that tumorous growth on the fuselage just ahead of the fin? Why does it look like the left wings are rigged with back-stagger? And what's all that up on the upper wing? A 2nd set of wheels so it can land inverted? But then why put a weathercock there that sticks up higher than the 2nd set of wheels? This is plane definitely belongs in the Museum of Diseased Imaginings.....

According to British Tank Markings and Names, by BT White, the red and white stripes were nationality recognition markings introduced in 1918, probably after the Germans started fielding tanks of their own. I guess they served the same purpose as the chevrons we painted on all our vehicles in the Gulf War, where the Iragis had some of the same exact vehicles as the US and Brits.

First off ITI, that's a fabulous texture for the Dr.I. You should do more skins for OFF :). Second, to my own inexpert eye, I think the Dr.I could do with a bit more shininess to better match the Camel, but also tone the Camel down somewhat, if that's possible given it's a screenshot. From what I can tell, WW1 planes were in general pretty shiny. Even when they had drab fabric colors, the fabric was always painted over with clear dope. Even if this was more matte than gloss, it still filled in all the irregularities of the fabric and provided a very smooth, and therefore reflective, surface. For instance, in pics of planes taken on sunny days, it's not uncommon to see markings or objects on the lower wing's upper surface reflected onto the natural linen of the upper wing's lower surface. This makes for a rather tricky look to duplicate with a computer. There's more reflection and shine off surfaces than their color alone would lead you to expect. I've never managed to pull it off very well. Either I get the colors right but they're not shiny enough, or I distort the colors and overall look by trying for the amount of gloss.

Mine's 2002

Hmmm. Maybe this confusion came about because the 1st engines (steam) were stationary powerplants for mills, factories, mines, etc. As such, the only speed that mattered was RPM, so the inventers coined the word "tachometer" for that. Then, when steamboats, trains, and other motor vehicles came along, it became important to know how fast the vehicle was moving. But the word "tachometer" was already being used for RPM so they had to invent "speedometer". This is all just a guess, but I could see it happening.

Here's the link for the skin: http://combatace.com/files/file/11116-fokker-dvii-hells-jester/

I'm quite flattered! I uploaded it to the data base here when I made it some time ago. It's called "Hell's Jester". If you can't find it, let me know and I'll send it to you. But anyway, there's an historical problem.... The Austrians never had any operational D.VIIs, although they have a few dozen in the final stages of assembly when the war ended. Are they even available on the Italian Front? See, I just wanted to make an Austrian camo skin. An Albatros would have been more appropriate but I've never sat down and made a template for that plane and I wanted to get right into the paintjob. But I had a D.VII template already so I just used that. I figured the Austrians would have sent some pilots to Flanders to gain experience on D.VIIs while waiting for Austrian production, and one of them might have felt homesick and painted his plane in Austrian style.

Whoops, never mind. Asked and answered already.... Well, whatever you call it, for God's sake be sure to glance at it before pulling the trigger ;)