B-17G “Swamp Fire”, 379th BG, 524th BS, Kimbolton, Cambridgeshire Dec 1944. (FULLY UPDATED 16/09/23)

3 skins. Swamp Fire 99th Mission, Swamp Fire 100th Mission and 379th Generic.

UPDATED 16/09/23 – This is a totally redone skin from my previous version (which is still up as it’s a competition entry – I will remove once the competition winners are announced). The markings have been redone with the tally marks re-made from scratch to better match the real aircraft. Also included is the 100th mission skin. This chalked marking has been made from scratch by tracing contemporary images and adjusting to the skin. There are many other improvements over the first skin most notably around the finish on the tail and stabs and the more accurate depiction of the field mods such as the waist and cheek gun positions.

B-17G-35-BO 42-32024 WA – L, “Swamp Fire”,524th Squadron, 379th BG, 41st Combat Wing of the 8th USAAF based at Kimbolton, Cambridgeshire Dec 1944.
UPDATED 16/09/23 – This is a totally redone skin fr om my previous version (which is still up as it’s a competition entry – I will remove once the competition winners are announced). The markings have been redone with the tally marks re-made from scratch to better match the real aircraft. Also included is the 100th mission skin. This chalked marking has been made from scratch by tracing contemporary images and adjusting to the skin. There are many other improvements over the first skin most notably around the finish on the tail and stabs and the more accurate depiction of the field mods such as the waste and cheek gun positions.

About Swamp Fire

Completed on 15th January 1944, she was flown to England on Valentine’s Day and 1 week later began her active service. In just short of 10 months, Swamp Fire completed 117 missions, becoming the first 8th AF aircraft to achieve 100 missions without an abort on 1st November 1944. In December 1944 she was damaged in a landing incident by a rookie crew and struck off. But her service wasn’t over and she went onto fly a further 30 weather observation missions before finally returning to the US on 12th July 1945 wh ere she was sold for scrap in December 1945.

In her time with the 379th, Swamp fire had 20 engine changes, a new tail, 3 wing replacements, large sections of a new nose and over 1000 patch repairs. The feat of keeping her flying without fail earned her crew chief, M/Sgt Dominic DeSalvo, the Legion of Merit.

As Depicted

Swamp fire is now depicted with two skins representing her 99th mission and 100th mission (the latter being a more “obvious” version with the former perhaps better fitting into general missions). This episode of her life is well documented photographically enabling me to match wear and tear quite accurately to the real deal across many parts of the airframe. She’s depicted with a replacement tail, the new outer port wing installed after her 69th mission and replacement port cheek turret (something, along with the tail that was replaced within her first 25 missions). De-icing boots have been removed and the bare metal overpainted. The bare metal cowl shutters match what I can glean from images.

Wear and Tear

The skin uses several wear layers that I’ve created just for it including:

Service wear on the wings and over the saddle of the plane just behind the dorsal turret. This is referenced from photos of Swamp fire.
Chips and scratches. Quite subtle. I have attempted to match these to photos of the real thing, especially around No2 engine and the port side nose and port horizontal stabiliser.
Patches. As above, Ive tried to match the patches seen on the real thing to the skin. Patches are also given some depth through their inclusion in the custom Normal DDS. These also some Duct Tape in there too as it appears to have been used on the most obvious patch on the nose. Also added is some additional armour plate and other modifications
Mud and grime around the undercarriage.

Stencils and nose art.

The nose art and stencils have been re- created from scratch. The additional “graffiti” is based on what I could make out in the photos and what I deemed highly likely. Some decal and colour plate references have additional art but I can find no evidence elsewhere so have not included it. The name “Emma” on the chin turret is a guess based on 2 images that I found.  The centreless Swastika  is deliberately poorly drawn and back to front replacing the equally shonky original to better suite modern sensibilities.

Generic Skin

This retains the old, overpainted code triangle. An image of Swamp Fire after mission 69 shows the larger yellow Code triangle still absent so indicates it was a later addition to all BG aircraft. I’ve assumed that Swamp Fire isn’t showing this marking because of a tail refit and that it was likely a widespread feature on many original/older aircraft in the BG.

Template alterations and corrections

Not a full list but this includes:

Editing the bright highlights intended for bare metal finishes present on the engine cowls, cheek turrets and saddle joints.
Editing the baked part layers to suit the painted scheme and correcting rogue shading (on the starboard lower aileron for instance)
Editing many of the general and weathering texture layers to reduce rogue elements near skin joints.
Correcting the Seam layer on the wings that is combined with a general texture treatment in the stock template. This eliminates the effect that makes the starboard wing look darker in game.
Created the missing identification lights under the fuselage using edited lighting elements from the template.
Editing some of the pant layers (clack mainly) into components to better control representation.

WARLORD64’s JSON mod.
The skin is a compromise between what is standard and this mod. Spec maps are adjusted to tame the effect of the mod if used but not so much the aircraft appears completely flat in the standard game. Much of the chipping has been given a matte treatment in the Spec as I don’t like the in-game darkening effect in certain lights and am not convinced those areas would be so reflective in any case. So it really only affects larger, factory present, bare metal areas.

THANKS
To everyone for the help and advice.
Special thanks to Helles Belle for sharing his Hex code for the Olive Drab and Warlord64 (keefy) for the years of supporting and encouraging skinners.