Bf109G14 Uffz. Herbert Maxis 13./JG53 Stuttgart Echterdingen Germany 1 Jan. 1945.

[SR603-Flowbee]

I wanted to do a late war green/brown camo as I had come across some pictures that looked interesting, like this one. The brown in this case was just poor colour reproduction.

 

Aftrer making a rough start I started to dig deeper to find period photos and also more profiles if they existed. This soon led me to discover the tragic story behind 'White 13'.

 

Herbert Maxis was born Nov. 20, 1920, in Berlin-Friedrichshagen, in the Treptow-Kopenick district of Berlin, Germany. When World War II came, he was married to Felicitas Maxis. He became a Luftwaffe pilot. On January 1st, 1945, he was flying as part of the German "Operation Bodenplatte" (Operation Baseplate), an attack on US and Allied airfields in France and Northern Europe. His group, IV/JG53, Squadron 13, was flying from the Stuttgart area of Germany, to attack the US airfield at Metz, France. He was flying an ME-109/G14/AS, tail number 784993, "White 13", for the large number painted on the side of the aircraft. In the early morning hours of that New Year's Day, he passed over the village of Ober-Felsberg, in the Uberherrn-Saarlouis district of the Saarland. For some reason, instead of proceeding on to the primary target airfield at Metz, some 20 miles further west, he peeled off to attack an American convoy traveling toward Ober-Felsberg from the nearly town of Ittersdorf. As he swung around into the attack, some 100 feet over the ground, American gunners began to fire at his plane and hits were scored. He also opened fire with his guns and wounded at least two American soldiers. Although men were firing machine guns and small arms fire at him from the ground and village, the credit for the shootdown went to Flenory Griggs of Battery 'A', gun crew #1, of the 455th AAA Bn., of Patton's Third Army, XX Corps. Maxis managed to make a perfect belly landing in the ME-109. Some say he was wounded as he opened his cockpit and stepped from the plane. Eyewitnesses say he stepped onto the wing, and raised his hands to surrender. Others say he reached into his flightsuit, as if to pull a pistol. Whatever the event, a nearby field artillery soldier shot Maxis in the head, killing him. He body lay across the wing of the plane. Many photos were taken of this aircraft. US soldiers came (from HQ) and removed the body. By that time, his flight gear had been taken as 'souvernirs'. Apparently, the dog tags (his ID # was 69-010-125) were taken as well. As a result, his grave has never been located and he is still listed as Missing in Action. He was 24 years old when he died...His plane, "White 13", was buried in a trench and re-discovered in 1987. The remaining parts of the airframe were restored with parts from other German aircraft and is currently on display in the AVIATICUM Museum in Werner Neustadt, Lower Austria.

 

The dark downward sloping slashes are not paint, mud or marks on the photo but shadows created by the folding and crumpling of the aluminium skin during the crash landing. A few artists thought they were dark paint but another of the many photos taken at the time, showed this detail quite clearly. From the many photos available it is also clear that this aircraft did not have a spiral on the spinner.

 

 

 

As usual I used various pictures etc. for this composite.

 

https://mega.nz/file/91s2AA4D#MzKdh2u1Klfo4pC3SHzvZMlbYAXmWCpYMf0n1WRMF0M

 

 

 

 

Edited September 12, 2021 by SR603-Flowbee

[BMA_FlyingShark]

Nice work again.

 

Have a nice day.

 

[easterling77]

The collection of your creations is getting bigger and bigger...

Keep up your work Sir!!!?

[Vig]

The moment of surrender to an enemy you have fired upon is dangerous and unpredictable.   

 

Pte Billy Taylor of the 739th FA Bn;

"..the pilot carried out a perfect belly landing. Before I could get to the aircraft the pilot was shot dead and his flight tunic pulled off the body. He was lying in a pool of blood across the port wing root, his arms stretched out over his head. He had thick black hair, looked about 20 years old, perhaps less, and bore a strange resemblance to one of my cousins. He had been shot by one of my friends, Smith, as he was getting out of the aircraft. A grave registration detail took away the body and the next day, officers from HQ came to question Smith - they didn't think much of the fact that a German pilot had been shot in cold blood and left lying in his underwear. There was talk of a courts martial but this idea was quickly abandoned when the brass learnt that the pilot had opened up on us at low altitude with everything he'd got.."

Edited September 11, 2021 by Vig

[Vig]

There are memorial pages up on Find A Grave both for the pilot and one of the wounded artilleryman {PFC Camile LeForte} that mention the incident.  

Edited September 11, 2021 by Vig

[Luger1969]

Beautiful skin and portrait (white 13 over airfield).  I really like the G14 and will enjoy flying this one. Unfortunately the happening of the day (and war itself) leads to no good ending.

[SR603-Flowbee]

I really liked the blue underside from the screenshot. It isn’t historically correct as Germany had a problem getting the blue pigment needed and switched to using a very pale colour for the underside in the final year of war. However I had already dumped the template and now working backwards is quite a task. I will share it when it is done as it really lifts the look of the plane. Just isn’t historically likely but certainly not impossible given that even in 1942 commanders would send their men to scavenge for household paint in local towns because of shortages in order to camouflage their aircraft. And that one is straight from the horses mouth, an autobiography by Wilhelm Johnen. Tank crew also used and mixed whatever they could get to match the terrain and conditions, this again is from personal accounts by those that were actually there. Naturally it would be misleading to recreate the flying circus but it did happen.

 

4 hours ago, Luger1969 said:

Unfortunately the happening of the day (and war itself) leads to no good ending.

Well put.

[Vig]

No good ending indeed.  Personally I can understand Smith shooting Maxis - which seems at first blush as a horrible aberration, a gross violation of the Geneva Convention - because there was passion involved.  This sort of crime happens every day.  Smith and his friends had just been shot at, people had been hurt, the blood was up and, people being the chimpanzees that they are, the fear and anger led to murder.  What is harder to understand is war itself, the organized, regimented mass killing of millions for - for what?  Humans behaving like ants in an ant war, reds killing blacks, blacks killing reds, coldly, unemotionally, methodically.  

 

The people-as-chimpanzees saddens me, but the people-as-ants bewilders me.  Yet if the people-as-ants phenomenon were not so riveting, so compelling to me personally, I would not be here in this forum.  So to be horrified at humanity is ultimately to be horrified at myself as well.

 

Sorry for going on so.

Edited September 12, 2021 by Vig
Postscript

[SR603-Flowbee]

Here is an alternative version of the skin as already mentioned and an attempt at depicting the event. As usual the infantry have legged it for the nearest cover.

 

 

 

 

https://mega.nz/file/N8EGSJbY#__wa1uXc8YaVhjlouR6psfpAbAiGvaBTFPtmrcrkNIw

[Vig]

Beautiful.

[MarcoPegase44]

Hello,

 

You make great skins, but it's a shame those are too shiny.
The Alpha layer is just to highlight the reflection of the light according to the different types of surface materials, metal or wood and stabilizer. it's my modest personal point of view, what do you think.

Edited September 14, 2021 by MarcoPegase44

[Reggie_Mental]

That profile is wrong. The rudder is hinge is vertical on a G14 not at 45deg.

[SR603-Flowbee]

"You make great skins, but it's a shame those are too shiny."

 

 I think the in game alphas are miles off. The first thing I do is to bring things inline where I believe it to be correct. The one thing I am confident of is that I can control the alpha just as I want. I am totally puzzled by your comment  Maybe something got lost in translation. If I thought the skin was too shiny I would have adjusted it. You are however perfectly entitled to have a personal preference. If you think it is wrong just adjust it until you think it is right for you. I make my skins with a balance that I like. The one thing I do prefer is metal that is shinier than aluminium which tends to be dull unless polished. I think this improves the skin and gives it a paint over metal look. That is my personal preference.
 

I think I might have misread your comment as it makes no sense. Your English is better than my French so that isn’t a criticism. Even the screenshot shows that I have range of reflection from shiny metal to matte paint and dirt. Maybe you could clarify what you actually mean. Are you perhaps talking about the wet look gloss in game skins when you refer to ‘those’ skins. Like I said I am puzzled.

 

Here are 3 alphas for a Stuka. Mine is on the left, yours is in the centre and the ingame alpha on the right. I chose these because it is one of your latest skins. Some of your earlier ones either had no alpha at all or were set to pure white which gives total matte for everything. 

The first thing that is noticeable is that the ingame alpha has lots of detail but in the game, because of the light grey colour, even the dirt will look shiny. All that detail will be lost in glare and reflection.

 

Your Alpha has virtually no variance or detail. Because of the dark grey colour it will result in an overall matte finish.

 

Finally my Alpha, although giving a matte paint finish, it also has details in it. Look close at the dirt and streaks they have variance between shades of grey that will stand out. Most noticeable are the light grey details as these will show the metal effects that I like. It seems to me that you are talking a good game but don't actually practice what you preach. Even your very latest skin has very little range in it other than matte and satin.

 

If anyone is interested in controlling and using the features of the Alpha layer I would be happy to explain further so that we can all enjoy better skins. Making a good skin takes time. It isn't just a case of moving a slider to change the brightness. Every material has it's own amount of reflectivity and this creates contrast that lets the details become noticeable and this gives the skin life and not just colour.

 

 

 

I know the profile isn’t great but it just happens to be the picture that got my interest. The profile isn’t wrong though as the tail construction on the G14 differed between aircraft as the Germans tried to standardise but failed. The b/W photos are not wrong that is why my skin is based on them and many other profiles online which show different opinions on the colours. I just try not to spam the post with every photo and profile I come across. This aircraft, because of the many photos, has been covered dozens of times. My favourite version is the one done by Pagani Zonda but I wanted to do my own impression working from the b/W photos. It is a pity Pagani Zonda doesn’t do more skins for this game as his use of colour is outstanding. Unfortunately he couldn’t get the Alpha layers working just right and went back to war thunder. Perhaps I will try to import one of his skins just to show what he does so well.

Edited September 15, 2021 by SR603-Flowbee

[Luger1969]

I like the blue. Reminds me of the Marseille F4

[SR603-Flowbee]

Yeah l like the that MTO blue as well. I just tell myself that the ground crew found a dusty tin of it and made use of it because they also thought it looked cool. ?

[-=[]=-little-Guardian]

Funny - one thing I like very much about your skins is that are not as shiny as the stock ones, which adds so much realism.

 

When I create skins for myself, the first thing I do is tuning down the alpha ( and then checking if I made any holes in it  ? )

 

Thanks for the skins flowbee

 

greetings

 

little Guardian