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Another one from me, this time work I did on commission from a very kind corsican. He is member of a diving club that found the wreck of a P-51B in a bay near Ajaccio, Corsica. The man approached the IL2/PF comunity at a website called Simmers Paintshop (great skinning/repainting reference page and comunity) asking for a profile of this particular plane whose details he already investigated. It was the plane of Lt. Don Taylor of the 31st FG, USAAF which crashed shortly after take-off in Ajaccio in summer 1944. In the end he got a great profile by Jesters-Ink and this artwork showing the plane in it's element just off of the Ajaccio airfield:



Many people helped to get this as accurate as possible and I want to name Sebastien, the diver. His comments and input was it that made it possible to create the environment as close to the 1944 Ajaccio bay as possible. Ralph "Monguse" Gimenez was a great help in getting the texture for thep lane done in his remarkable authentic style. He also carried together loads of information about the plane. The whole story goes still on as the artwork (and the profile and much more) will be published in a french magazin and the former pilot, Mr Taylor, will get copies of all of it including prints of the artwork in A3 size.

If you want to read more about it and maybe get some updates I recommend you to visit this two links:
SSP topic "Corsican... " including more info, links and a big version of the artwork
SPS topic, see how the whole story developed

It's been a pleasure to work on this piece and I hope you enjoy the result as much as I did enjoy the process.

WOW... . Nice one 9th! How do you make the aircraft look that realistic?

Very nice, water kinda sets it off though

Lol, I like the pilot smiling.

Very good edit.

This one is worth two replies!  :D Very well done m8!  ;)

Very nice, water kinda sets it off though

The water sets if off?? Did you read the story?  ::)

Thank you

Well, been tough to get the water right. Originally I wanted to use the IL2/PF water but eventually decided to give painting a go as I thought that would fit the rest of the background better. Seems I need to practice that a bit more.

Getting planes looking like that isn't that tough... Most important is to smooth out any polygonal edges (leading edges, spinner hub.. just make everything as round as it'S supposed to be) and work with contrasts. Adding shadows and highlights already adds a lot.

What? I love hte water!  :-*

Another great job Simplex, almost real, almost a photo, almost a painting..... and all together fully a great bit of screen art  :)

This is really one of the best FS edits I have ever seen... honestly talking!!

Don't know how you do it 9th....amazing work once again.  :)

:O :O :O

That SHINE!  And the mountains look great too.  Another outstanding edit .

- Kevin

Crikey!  :o

wow, the detailed paint and layering + layer blend styles really made this one stand out

Many many thanks!

Been some hard work and I have to give lots of credits to Mr. Ottavi whose comments made it possible to get especially the background as good as possible! He gave me loads of information (photos, sketches, comments) on the appearance of Corsica and Ajaccio in the 1940s.

For thos of you who can read french you should visit the diving club's homepage as the updated it with an interview with the pilot and some other interesting stuff:
http://www.wmaker.net/ARASM/

Kind regards
Simplex