B-17 F Hires updated # 2 version for European Air War.

This skin represents "The Bearded Beauty", a B-17 F-10-BO, S/N 4124453, from the 91st BG, 322nd BS, based at Bassingbourn, 1943.  The 91st BG was first activated in Sept. 1942, and "The Bearded Beauty" was one of the original B-17's assigned to this group.  This aircraft was lost on the first Schweinfurt / Regensburg raid  of 17th August 1943.  

On this day the 8th AAF sent 230 bombers to Schweinfurt, with the 91st BG leading the first combat wing, and the 381st BG in the lower formation.  These two units suffered the brunt of the US losses, losing 10 and 11 fortresses respectively, out of the 36 forts and 370 men lost from the Schweinfurt force.  All up, 60 fortresses failed to return from both targets.

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This is the latest update for the High Resolution B-17 F, with the engine shutdown problems fixed.  The last HR B-17G mod I made had non mirror patches, which always pissed me off because inevitably the NM patches never covered the area I wanted, which meant doing most authentic B-17 skins was impossible, and some of my B-17 skins were thus abandoned.  +mia enquired about the possiblity of some 3dz changes for on of his projects, and things got back on track again.  Changes to the model include :-
- All engines now shut down correctly
- Fully non mirrored fuselage
- "Illu" type radio wires
- Transparent shadow.

In order to free up a 3dz to allow total non mirroring, I had to shift the Ball turret's textures from the B.3dz on the F.3dz.  This has worked out OK but there are still some minor rendering problems with the ball turret.  Hopefully you can put up with them.  Look for a fully non mirrored B-17 G sometime in the future!  Note that this model still has the prop shutdown problems associated with the HR-B17.

Instalation.
Extract all the .tpc and .3dz files to your EAW folder, or if using a skin/file manager, refer to it's instructions.  This zip has been optimized for OAW use - simply ensure winzip's "use folder path" is checked, then extract the files to your OAW folder, and the skin will be put in an "A-06 HR F 91st Bearded" folder.


Extras included but not needed for instalation -
I've included both the batchfiles for PCX to TPC, and TPC to PCX for any prospective skinners out there.  Also a screenie, and a jpg of the original "Bearded beauty"

Credits -
Thanks to Col. Gibbon for the original HR-B-17,
+mia for the use of some textures, and the BUMP I needed to finish this.
Mosi for another timely BUMP,
Migge and Redeyes for the starting MEX file,
Illu for the radio wire idea,
Charles, Andy + Pobs for the transparent shadow idea.
Sandbagger (in advance!) for hosting the skin.
Mr. Johnson for discovering how to fix the engine shutdown problems.
3dz mods and skin done by myself.

References-
"B-17 Flying Fortress" by David C. Isby.
"The Mighty Eighty" by Roger A. Freeman.

If you have any problems, questions, comments or hatemail don't hesitate to contact me, either at the SimHQ EAW message board, or by Email.
Enjoy!

John "Chompy" Masters,
3rd July 2005.
jdmasters@ozemail.com.au
http://www.sandbaggeruk.com/chompy.html
