Piper L-4 Grasshopper Skin Sets by Mick
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Thread: Piper L-4 Grasshopper Skin Sets by Mick

  1. #1
    SOH-CM-2024 Mick's Avatar
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    Piper L-4 Grasshopper Skin Sets by Mick


    A new entry has been added to Add-Ons Library, category FS 2004 Military skins - General

    Description: Four skins for Allen's Piper L-4 Grasshopper on floats.

    To check it out, rate it or add comments, visit L-4 Grasshopper Floater Skin Set
    The comments you make there will appear in the posts below.

  2. #2
    Mick,

    Thanks for another great set on paints! A great addition to the cubs.

    normb

  3. #3
    Redding Army Airfield Allen's Avatar
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    Lovely textures!
    "Let Being Helpful Be More Important Than Being Right!" Some SOH Founder.

  4. #4
    Hint: What we need now is a clipped wing cub to complement the other Cub models. This model series and the paint schemes are great.

    Normb

  5. #5
    Redding Army Airfield Allen's Avatar
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    At lest on paper between the wheeled L-4 Cub and nose gear Cub I think I have everything but for the clipped wings in Blender and/or gMax for a CWC.

    I think I can use the nose gear Cub as the base but pull the engine and landing gear from the wheeled L-4. This will let me flip the gear the right way for a tail dagger without having to re-animate the main gear and patch the holes in the engine cowling.

    With that all that need to be done is cutting 40 inches or so off of each wing (times 3 or 4 thanks to LODs) and quick texture edits.
    "Let Being Helpful Be More Important Than Being Right!" Some SOH Founder.

  6. #6
    SOH-CM-2024 Mick's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Allen View Post
    Lovely textures!
    Thanks!

    Lovely model!



    I had it in mind to paint this plane this plane since you released it, and I think I said I was going to do that. But the B-45 started to grow like Topsy and soon after that my old computer died an I was without a real one that I could work on for the better part of a year. So now I'm playing catch up.

    I'm presently painting Grasshoppers on wheels. I have four wartime skins in mind and four post-war. As of this afternoon three skins are finished.

  7. #7
    Redding Army Airfield Allen's Avatar
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    I'm going to slip a thread jack under right here and *Yoink*

    I have successfully merged the L-4 gear and engine onto the J3 Tricycle Gear model and attached a new set of short wings. Now I have a basic exterior model of a Clipped Wing Cub.

    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	CWC Piper.png 
Views:	33 
Size:	2.21 MB 
ID:	90233

    Still quite basic as it is using axis driven animations for most of the model but hopeful I can yoink the ailerons, rudder and tail wheel animations from the TG-8 Glider Cub for the main LOD later.
    "Let Being Helpful Be More Important Than Being Right!" Some SOH Founder.

  8. #8
    SOH-CM-2024 Mick's Avatar
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    Looks great!

  9. #9
    Wow! That looks great! Thanks for the effort.

    normb

  10. #10
    Redding Army Airfield Allen's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by normb View Post
    Wow! That looks great! Thanks for the effort.

    normb
    Soon TM

    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	Soon TM.png 
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    "Let Being Helpful Be More Important Than Being Right!" Some SOH Founder.

  11. #11
    SOH-CM-2024 Mick's Avatar
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    Piper L-4 / NE-2 WW2 Skin Set Pt.1


    A new entry has been added to Add-Ons Library, category FS 2004 Military skins - World War II

    Description: Piper L-4 / NE-2 WW2 Skin Set Part 1

    Four skins for Allen's Piper L-4 Grasshopper.

    A desert camouflaged L-4 ased at Camp Camp Clipper, a desert training base in California, in 1943.

    An NE-1 that flew with the 1st Marine Air Wing of the U.S. Marine Corps in the Solomon Islands in the summer of 1944.

    One of the first L-4s with the enlarged side windows and roof transparency, as it appeared in early 1942.

    An L-4 that beonged to the 8th Photo Reconnaissance Squadron,based at Dulug, Leyte, P.I. in 1945. The 8th PRS's mission aircraft were the F-5 Lightning and the F-6 Mustang, and the absence of any trace of a serial number from this plane, with the oversized group insignia painted over the data block, suggests that is may have been a "midnight requisition" from a ground unit or a maintenance depot. Or perhaps it was a mash-up of parts from wrecks.

    To check it out, rate it or add comments, visit Piper L-4 / NE-2 WW2 Skin Set Pt.1
    The comments you make there will appear in the posts below.

  12. #12
    Senior Administrator huub vink's Avatar
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    Thanks Allen and Mick! Allen for the model, and Mick for the nice paint jobs.

    Cheers,
    Huub

  13. #13
    Thanks for continuing the historical documentation. Great paints. Interesting commentary about the "midnight requisition".

    normb

  14. #14
    SOH-CM-2024 Mick's Avatar
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    Oops!

    I put the wrong blurb in the description!

    The 8th PRG plane goes up with the second part of the WW2 skins, probably later today.

    I just edited the description to show that the fourth skin is a352ndFighter Group hack.

    The UI section in the ReadMe was correct from the beginning.

  15. #15
    Redding Army Airfield Allen's Avatar
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    So much Cub love lately
    "Let Being Helpful Be More Important Than Being Right!" Some SOH Founder.

  16. #16
    SOH-CM-2024 Mick's Avatar
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    Piper L-4 / NE-2 WW2 Skin Set Part 1


    A new entry has been added to Add-Ons Library, category FS 2004 Military skins - World War II

    Description: Four skins for Allen's Piper L-4 Grasshopper.

    - An L-4 of No. 4 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force based at Nadzab, New Guinea in early 1944

    - An L-4 that was used to test the Brodie system for launching and landing light aircraft using an overhead cable and a hook attached to the airplane. The system worked but only in in perfect conditions and wasn't adopted for service use.

    - An NE-2 that was transferred from the Army in 1944 or '45 and retained the Army's Olive Drab upper surfaced over neutral gray undersides with dark green splotches along the edges of the flying surfaces, but had the national insignia on the fuselage in the white-only style generally used on Navy aircraft with the overall dark sea blue livery.

    - An L-4 that belonged to the 8th Photo Reconnaissance Squadron, based at Dulug, Leyte, P.I. in 1945. The 8th PRS's mission aircraft were the F-5 Lightning and the F-6 Mustang, and the absence of any trace of a serial number from this plane, with the oversized group insignia painted over the data block, suggests that is may have been a "midnight requisition" from a ground unit or a maintenance depot. Or perhaps it was a mash-up of parts from wrecks.

    To check it out, rate it or add comments, visit Piper L-4 / NE-2 WW2 Skin Set Part 1
    The comments you make there will appear in the posts below.

  17. #17
    SOH-CM-2024 Mick's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Allen View Post
    So much Cub love lately
    If you feel like mixing and matching parts once more, while looking for images of L-4s and NE-2s to paint I came upon several good prospects for skins for an O-59 / NE-1 model.

    That earliest of military Grasshoppers would have the extended roof transparency of the L-4 but the D-shaped rear side windows of a regular Cub.

  18. #18
    Redding Army Airfield Allen's Avatar
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    Not sure I will get to that any time soon but will keep it in mind for later.
    "Let Being Helpful Be More Important Than Being Right!" Some SOH Founder.

  19. #19
    SOH-CM-2024 Mick's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Allen View Post
    Not sure I will get to that any time soon but will keep it in mind for later.
    I shall keep my references at hand.

  20. #20
    SOH-CM-2024 Mick's Avatar
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    L-4 Grasshopper Post-WW2 Skin Set


    A new entry has been added to Add-Ons Library, category FS 2004 Military skins - Cold War

    Description: Five skins for Allen's Piper L-4 Grasshopper

    - An L-4 of the New Mexico Army National Guard in the late 1940s.

    - An L-4 that was based at Tinker Field (later Tinker AFB) around 1946 or 1947.

    - A French L-4 warbird that's dressed up as a Korean War era U.S. Marines Stinson OY Sentinel.

    - A Swiss L-4 that's dressed up as a J-3 Cub.

    - An L-4 of the Alaska Air Command. This is the same plane that's included in the Grashopper floatplane set but these textures have the hucaps and landing gear leg bottoms painted the correct colors.

    To check it out, rate it or add comments, visit L-4 Grasshopper Post-WW2 Skin Set
    The comments you make there will appear in the posts below.

  21. #21
    SOH-CM-2024 Mick's Avatar
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    Researching post war Grasshoppers was interesting. I could only find solid evidence for three U.S. military planes, if you discount half a dozen other silver ones with just slightly different markings than the Tinker Field plane. But that's better than I did for the WW2 sets, where hardly any of the references I could find were really reliable. Aside from a vintage photo of the very early plane with the meatball stars it was mostly plastic model decal sheets likely based on black & white photos, and sometimes artists who painted the same plane interpreted the colors very differently.

    I wasn't surprised to see that quite a few owners of regular J-3 Cubs have painted their planes to look like L-4s and NEs. I was surprised to see that a number of L-4owners have painted their planes to look like regular J-3 Cubs. Most of them look exactly alike except for their registrations. I picked the Swiss one because of the tail band. And I couldn't resist the one dressed as a Marine Corps Stinson. It's bogus but it's pretty! So the plane might not be authentic as a real L-4 but the skin is an authentic reproduction of the warbird.

    If you happened to put the Alaska Air Command plane from the floatplane set on wheels you may have noticed that the hubcaps weren't white to match the main color of the plane, and the bottoms of the landing gear legs were dark OD. You can just substitute the two main fuselage textures to make everything the right color.

  22. #22
    Mick,
    Thanks for the great repaints and background info. You turned up lots of interesting info. There were once so many Cubs flying post war and being rebuilt or recovered that you might see almost any combination. Some interesting free-style mods cropped up. Feds were a bit more liberal about approvals.

    I once flew a cream Cub with a red stripe that had a glider (TG-8?) serial number. A lot of the glider birds were converted to powered Cubs. Piper had an extensive service instruction on how to cut the glider front end off and fab/weld a new front end to it.

    Thanks again,
    normb

  23. #23
    SOH-CM-2024 Mick's Avatar
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    Piper L-4 "Lil' Mo IV"


    A new entry has been added to Add-Ons Library, category FS 2004 Military skins - World War II

    Description: A skin for Allen's Piper L-4 Grashopper

    I thought I was finished painting L-4s until I stumbled onto a photo of Lil' Mo IV, a Grasshopper warbird with an attractive livery that surely never appeared on an L-4 over Normandy on D-Day.

    To check it out, rate it or add comments, visit Piper L-4 "Lil' Mo IV"
    The comments you make there will appear in the posts below.

  24. #24
    Thanks another great paint job. In my world you can never have enough Cubs (or other "L-Birds")!

    How about the Bazooka Charlie Cub? Flown against tanks and transporters with bazookas attached to the wing struts. Collins Foundation has had the original bird restored. I forget the pilots name but he had quite a war record. Now that there are CFS2 L-4's available maybe someone could fab a weapons file (?) add the bazookas or mod an Allen bird.

    Thanks again.
    normb

  25. #25
    Redding Army Airfield Allen's Avatar
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    "Rosie the Rocketer" is one of the "stock" texture for my L-4.
    "Let Being Helpful Be More Important Than Being Right!" Some SOH Founder.

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