That is a great shot.
It is especially exciting to see a picture you have never seen before.
I hope all these great shots don't disappear with time.

One more detail, I've noticed OvS...
IMHO the overpaint in Udet's Jasta 15, D.1941/16 should be more transparent, covering the fuselage crosses.
I also would have used the slightly tinted (gray-green) metal primer, the one you are using is too bright...
but again it's a matter of interpretation...

I can easily fade-out that cross, no problem.

The grey/green I have a few variations of it. some are more metal, some are more green. I took your swatch there, and will adjust to fit it as best possible. I have to say that's the first time I've seen a true sample of the paint on an original part.

Over the literally almost 2 decades I've been skinning and modding WWI sims, I'm still always the student.

All the best,

OvS

OvS and Elephant, here are the 4 main German metal primer colours.
These tones are still in use, and I would BET, that they never got changed
following any fashion - as they are just primers.
I'd also bet, that at least both lower ones had been used on the Albatros.

At your service sir!

You can see some unstained tiny bits of the primer, here and there...







I think that he D.III (OAW) needs the most attention in WOFF...
The basics are inaccurate by all means...

Thanks Low,

The OAW D.III is on my shoulders to get right, and I agree, it's all wrong in the game... blame me.

I did mos of those skins almost 10 years ago, and had varying sources to work with. The lozenge pattern is not right, the fuselage details are wrong, nor did I get the two-tone cammo correct. So, that's going to change.

Looking at the rudder picture above, the debate of the Albatros sticker rages on.. lol.

I've been using this from day 1... which doesn't match the one you have.




OvS

One other point is that WOFF has 3 D.III's (as you know), so what I did was to try to distinguish them from each other a little bit, in not only the fact that the radiator moved, but the use of different primers. The Early D.III has that keiselgrau (steel grey) color to it, that originates from the D.II. On some higher serial #'s I mixed in my version of the green/grey you posted. It's actually very close, using Paarma's D.V's as the base which I colored it from.

Once the D.III is in use, which not many Jasta's actually fly them, they all carry the green/grey primer.

Some D.III's will look field moded, as if they moved the radiator in the field, so you'll see a canvas patch where the old radiator was cut out. From what I read, this was an actual mod done on some of the units that had older D.III's.

Some Early D.III's will have rounded footholds, other square... others have the extra square foothold by the engine as well.

There are four different weight "stamps" that I used. This will cover many photos that I saw that seemed to vary the way the weight information looked.

Some have the rigging pouch, some do not... many don't.

There will be a huge variation of them even between pilots in their own Jasta.

I can only say, wait and see. I am doing all I can to knock these out as rapidly as possible with a higher degree of accuracy, based on what I had on hand and what others have been sending me. I do have to say though, that this will be the most definitive collection of Albatross skins that has ever been seen in any WWI game to date. I am able to activate many skins for pilots that have not been seen, other than in profiles by mixing and matching pilots. Meaning, if I have a profile, but that pilot is not active in the game... well... maybe someone else that is active in the game that I don't have a profile for gets to fly that other pilots plane.

My methods will be debatebale for historians... but when your flying against a full Jasta 2 from 1917... I don't think you're going to mind.

All the best,

OvS

OvS, the man to ask about almost EVERY little detail you wanna know about Albatros airplanes,
is right here around the corner: our forum member James F. Miller (JFM) has published several
books on Albatros, and there are more to come. The man is a cornucopia of knowledge, and he
would easily share it with everyone who wants to know.
He can tell, which Albs had rearward-facing logos, and which didn't, for example,
and he was always a helpful friend, when I had questions.

Thanks Olham,

We've talked a few times and no doubt you are correct. My only issue is that if I try and exact every single deatil of every plane, well as you can imagine, with a mound of some 600+ skins to do, I'd never get them done.

But if there are any pilot skins that have never been seen, or new ones discovered, by all means.. post!

OvS

James my old friend, so happy to see you back around the boards and the new skins look amazing! I'm very much looking forward to downloading them and adding them to my WOFF collection!

I thought the photo I quoted looked a bit familiar to some of your older work. And it turns out my memory was correct after all!




Talk about coming a LONG way! These are fantastic mate! I'm really enjoying just following the progress on these! Drop me a line sometime and we'll catch up.

Cheers!
Soppy

There's no debate for the Albatros rudder logo, or at least there shouldn't be! On all Albatros-built machines the bird almost universally flies toward the nose on both sides of the rudder. There are rare exceptions, of course, but as a rule you can say the bird flies toward the nose on both sides and you'll be right 99% of the time. Just as the port and starboard decals posted above indicate, under the Photoshopped logos on the B&W photo (which I made, btw ) of an Albatros-built machine. On Albs built by OAW, the bird usually flies toward the tail on the port side of the rudder, as seen on the rudder Elephant posted. It appears to mostly fly toward the nose on the starboard side of the rudder (I don't have as many clear photos of starboard rudders on which you can see the logo, but on those I can they face the nose). I.e., they used the same logo decal for both sides.

Great work again James,

Looking forward to see these new albs in the game.

Cheers

Arto

Thanks old friend... merely keeping the standard high that you have put in place. LOL!

JFM... that works! Thanks. At least there is some level of detail I can get right, which I have up to this point. All Albatros built D.III's have the logo as you state. For the OAW, I'll do the same as you suggest.

What about placement for the OAW? Do they predominantly sit as your rudder picture looks? Kinda tilted like that? I know the Albatros logos are slightly tilted, which mine all follow suit.

Best,

OvS

Thanks Cap, it's good to see you here and enjoying all the fun on this great forum.

WOW!! Talk about being consistent!! LOL! That's hysterical. That RB3D shot has to be what.. 12 years old now... maybe more? Wow... who would have thought. That's my old J23b squadron skin. As you remember back then, it was always something we wanted to do, to finally get the Albs right. Well hopefully we will.

It's funny seeing that old shot side-by-side with a most recent WOFF shot. How far this game has taken our beloved niche. I still get emails from people asking me for help with RB3D... my answer is always to delete it and get WOFF2. I hate to see people waste time getting something old like that to work on today's machines, when they could be enjoying a far deeper and more satisfying WWI sim like WOFF2 what we have all infused into it.

All the best,

James
'OvS'

Cool cool COOL pic, CaptSopwith!

Long live HASP!

Cheers, OvS.... hope you're a millionaire after all these years. I think that the time I spent playing RB3D with Hell's Angels could be measured in weeks instead of hours.

LOL! Definitely not a millionaire... still sitting at the same desk I was sitting when I made HASP... kinda scary..

Here's one for you Lehmann and the boys from Jasta 5 ...

Me on a test run with "Green Tails" Mai ("all-seeing eye"), Neisen (black/white bands), Nathanael (white cockpit band), Schneider (#5)




OvS

I wonder what you are thinking, how much the devs of WOFF earn with it?
I dare to guess, it isn't even half as much as they would wish...

@ OvS and Olham, regarding the millionaire thing, I just figured that if the many skins that Mr. Romano has painted over the years yielded a nickel each... he'd have is own Castle von Stachel, complete with a moat!

Awesome looking stuff there, OvS! I flew a mission yesterday where Schneider was the flight leader. His plane had a number two on the fuselage and a white rudder at the time of that mission. (Alb DVa 'uprated')

Really glad to see you still at it. I seem to vaguely recall flying with CaptSopwith somewhere in the mix too.
Otherwise, my apologies. It wasn't my intent to derail this thread.

Glad you liked the photo Lehmann! I found it over on OvS' archived Hell's Angels site! Used to frequent the place a lot back in my RB3D days. Even wrote a fairly abysmally composed history of the RB3D Community back in 2004. That was several lifetimes ago now. You can find it here: http://www.hellsangels.firstflare.com/history.htm

I still have RB3D on my new computer but, to be honest, I think the love affair has long since moved on to WOFF. It's a fun nostalgia trip though to fire up the old gal and see what guys like James were doing 12+ years ago now! God, has it been that long?

Those new Albatros skins are doing WOFF justice! Looking great mate, keep 'em coming!

PS: I also did some flying online back in the day, but, being on a dial up modem, it wasn't something I did very often. I think back then my handles were CaptSopwith, Prof, or Udet (when I was flying Central Powers).

Needs an update....

Just working on Jasta 28w... some nice, colorful stuff here... just after completing so many red planes from Jasta 11...

Karolus Bärenfänger


Karl Bolle


Karl Emil Schafer


Max Ritter von Muller


Paul Wagner



More to come...

OvS