High Res B-17 G skin for European Air War by Microprose.  Version #2 with fixed props.

This aircraft represents "Arf & Arf", B-17G 75-BO s/n 42-38064, from the 457th BG, 751st BS, based at Glatton, November 1944.

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On Jul 23rd 1944, aircraft 42-38064 collided with another B-17 on the taxi strip.  The front half of the aircraft was salvaged, and when another B-17 (42-32084, Li'l Satan) was salvaged, it's rear half was joined onto 42-38064 - creating the distinctive "Arf & Arf"

Unfortunately this aircraft only lasted another 4 months before being cut in half again.

Mission No. 146
Date - November 08, 1944 
Target - Merseberg, Collided / 44-8418
On this date the Group put up 36 planes to bomb the Leuna oil facility at Merseberg, but due to the extremely bad weather the planes had great difficulty assembling and the mission was recalled. Fourteen of the aircraft that had assembled attempted to continue on to the target at infamous Merseberg but, with increasingly hazy weather conditions, they returned from the continent to Glatton. In the fog and haze two of the groups planes collided. One, s/n 42-38064, was cut in half by another plane, s/n 44-8418, and the pieces fell into the Channel. The other plane was able to return to the field. No parachutes were seen.
Plane s/n 42-38064, named "Arf & Arf," and piloted by LtArnet L. Furr, was returning on a "Recall" from a mission to Merseberg when it collided with another plane in the same formation and was cut in two by the rotating props of the other plane. The two pieces spun and fell away into the haze and clouds and crashed into the Channel. The other plane that collided with them, s/n 44-8418, though damaged, left the formation and dropped down to look for survivors. They spotted a man in a Mae West and made several futile attempts at dropping a dinghie to him. They had to leave him and safely returned to Glatton. When Air-Sea Rescue arrived they found the dinghie but no one was in it. All the crew of 42-38064 died. 
The crew was as follows:
     Plane s/n 42-38064      Pilot  Lt Arnet L. Furr    KIA   
Copilot  Lt Sterling R. Book. (Bock?) Jr.    KIA   
Navigator  Lt Joseph W. Andrews, Jr.    KIA   
Bombardier  Lt Leon D. Plagianos    KIA   
Aircraft Engineer  Sgt Donald D. Brunsvold    KIA   
Radio Operator  Sgt Richard C. Weaver    KIA   
Left Waist Gunner  Sgt Glenn M. Wisdom    KIA   
Ball Turret Gunner  Sgt Warren M. Rankin    KIA   
Tail Gunner  Sgt Leroy E. Wetzel    KIA

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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 G 457 Arf&arf" 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, and a screenie.  To use the Batchfiles, just place the files you want to convert, the Batchfiles, and the Picpac / gpmtpc2pcx.exe's all in the same folder, and double click the batchfile.  If you don't have Picpac.exe or gpmtpc2pcx.exe, they are available at my Ad-ons page at Sandbaggers.

The skin uses an experimental "dithered" base layer to achieve the faded olive drab look.  This will cause some rippling or 'moire' effect at certain angles, but I think it's not a huge problem, and the 'new' colour makes it worth some hassles.  Thanks to Andy, FreddyB, Skylark, Claudio, VonBeerhofen, Tachyon and Crashin Jack, who all helped with suggestions aiming to fix this problem.

Credits.  Big thanks go to -
Col. Gibbon for the original HR-B-17 3dz, and for some of it's textures.
+mia for the use of some textures, and the BUMP I needed to finish this.
Mosi for another timely BUMP,
Illu for the radio wire idea,
Charles, Andy + Pobs for the transparent shadow idea.
Sandbagger (in advance!) for hosting the skin.
RAF Dumoulin for putting me onto the book named below.
Mr. Johnson for discovering how to fix the prop shutdown problems.
3dz mods and skin done by myself.

References-
457th BG Website.
"Half a wing, three engines and a prayer" by Brian D. O'Neill.

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,
    