Tiger's Revenge & the pilot's story behind air combat art
 

Hi all! Here is my latest artwork: "Tiger's Revenge"

http://skyraider3d.military-meshes.c...ge_800_web.jpg

Earlier this year I was commissioned to make an artwork for veteran P-51 Mustang pilot Lt. William S. "Tiger" Lyons, who flew with the 357th FS/355th FG during World War 2. I had the pleasure of interviewing Mr Lyons over the telephone and pick his brain on his experiences over Germany during 1944/45. He told me about several air battles in which he took part, and I decided to portray the one in which he scored his second victory, on 9 February 1945. Rather than telling you what happened, I have added a cropped sound recording from this interview, in which Mr Lyons vividly describes his air battle with a German Messerschmitt 109! On this day he was flying wingman for Lt. Edward J. Moroney. Click the image below to download or listen to the sound recording.

http://skyraider3d.military-meshes.c...enge_audio.jpg

The "Tiger's Revenge" artwork was presented to Mr Lyons during the 355th Fighter Group reunion by Peter Randall of the Little Friends website, last October in Philadelphia. Here is a photo of Mr Lyons signing the prints. Below a photo of Mr Lyons holding one of the prints:

http://skyraider3d.military-meshes.c...enge_Lyons.jpg

Mr Lyons signed twenty large canvas prints for me, which are available here:
http://www.digitalaviationart.com/tigersrevenge_le.html
The prints are museum-quality giclee canvas prints at approximately A2 size.
If interested, don't wait too long - there are only seven pilot-signed prints left!
For those interested in a more affordable print, normal prints are available here as well:
http://www.digitalaviationart.com/tigersrevenge.html


For those interested in seeing how "Tiger's Revenge" was made, I have created a video which shows the buildup of the layers, which resulted in the final artwork. A high and low quality Quicktime has been uploaded. Hopefully it will be of interest:

http://skyraider3d.military-meshes.c...ge_QT_high.jpg http://skyraider3d.military-meshes.c...nge_QT_low.jpg


Last but definitely not least, "Tiger's Revenge" is currently exhibited in the Military Aviation Museum in Soesterberg, The Netherlands, amongst more aviation art by Wiek Luijken, John Wallin and myself. For the three of us this is our first exhibition, and needless to say we're very proud of this milestone in our aviation art careers! Many thanks to Wiek and the museum for making this possible.

http://skyraider3d.military-meshes.c...MLM_expo01.jpg

http://skyraider3d.military-meshes.c...MLM_expo02.jpg

Re: Tiger's Revenge & the pilot's story behind air combat art
 

Ronnie - I saw this at the reunion - very nice work!

Bill

Re: Tiger's Revenge & the pilot's story behind air combat art
 

Thanks for taking the time to reply Bill. Much appreciated.

I was expecting some more people would find at least the interview recording of interest...?

Re: Tiger's Revenge & the pilot's story behind air combat art
 

Ronnie - I couldn't open the video and very much interested - do you have it via your website?

Regards,

Bill

PS were you able to get the WZI pics you needed for 2 March mission?

Re: Tiger's Revenge & the pilot's story behind air combat art
 

Did the videos refuse to open (you'll need the free Quicktime 7 player) or did the link not work at all? In the latter case, perhaps the server was temporarily down (it's somewhat unreliable at times!) - although then the images wouldn't show either.

More or less! :)

Re: Tiger's Revenge & the pilot's story behind air combat art
 

Great piece of aviation art, as usual Ronnie!

As for the Quicktime movie, it worked fine - at least the hires version I tried.

At 4mb it may just be a slow connection?

Re: Tiger's Revenge & the pilot's story behind air combat art
 

Ronnie -I tried again and it worked.. very nice.

Question - I want to do about 30 side elevations for ABD-vol II. Is there a public source where I could find same scale side elevations for P-47D, P-51B and D?

Regards,

Bill

Re: Tiger's Revenge & the pilot's story behind air combat art
 

Thanks Ruy! :)
I'm glad you and Bill took the time to reply, or else I'd be having a monologue here! :rolleyes:



Bill, how accurate do you need them? I have yet to come across accurate drawings of the P-51B, although I believe Charles Neely made a set, based on the factory drawings.
I can get you decent drawings for the P-51D as well as the razorback P-47D.
A good online source for drawings is http://www.airwar.ru/other/draw_fw.html#7 but beware that these are most likely all copyrighted and often not entirely accurate. For instance none of the Corsair drawings are close enough...

Silly question perhaps, but what does ABD stand for?

Re: Tiger's Revenge & the pilot's story behind air combat art
 

ABD = Angels, Bulldogs and Dragons, of course, although I suspect Bill means 2nd Edition, not Vol. 2.

Frank.

Re: Tiger's Revenge & the pilot's story behind air combat art
 

Ah yes I could've guessed :)

Re: Tiger's Revenge & the pilot's story behind air combat art
 

Frank is a perceptive devil. Yes Angels Bulldogs and Dragons - haven't decided actually on what I will call it but leaning toward Angels, Bulldogs, Dragons and Scouts - History of the 355thFG and 2nd Scout Force'

Frank - I think I've misplaced your email address - I have something for you.. and a question... maybe several.

Ronnie - I have some spare time and want to attempt to 'roll my own' so a profile I can use with permission would form the basis and then I would struggle through (or try to) from there. It doesn't have to be perfect but prefer a 51 whose nose doesn't look like a supercilious spinster with overly 'drooped' nose profile. This stuff will be all about accurate colors and serial numbers for modellers that care. What software would you recommend for a novice like me?

Ronnie - I have wrapped up all the corrections and additions to the 355th Honor Roll that Father Thuring and Ray Shewfelt did such a good job on. If I send a copy to Father Thuring and ask him to give you a copy - would you like the data?

Warm Regards to you both.

Re: Tiger's Revenge & the pilot's story behind air combat art
 

If it is just the markings you're after, then I would suggest a vector drawing program like Adobe Illustrator (or Corel DRAW! - but Illustrator is better). If you want to make them look realistic (shading, highlights , reflections, etc) then you'd need a bitmap editing program - something like Adobe Photoshop or JASC/Corel Paint Shop Pro.


That would be great. Peter Randall recently gave me a copy of the 1998 revision of the honour roll. Any corrections since then are most welcome.


PS. Are you aware of this site:
http://www.wwiiaircraftperformance.o...t-reports.html
It contains many combat reports of the 355th FG and 2nd SF, which may be of interest (if you don't have them already).
Mike Williams probably has more than those on the site.

Re: Tiger's Revenge & the pilot's story behind air combat art
 

Ronnie,

I've been meaning to tell you how much I enjoyed the animation - very cool!

Keep up the great work! :)

Wade

Re: Tiger's Revenge & the pilot's story behind air combat art
 

Many thanks for your reply, mate, glad you liked it :)

Re: Tiger's Revenge & the pilot's story behind air combat art
 

Actually Frank - it will have ABD as the core but I will add a lot more detail on key missions, very extensive tail number and Squadron code data, complete awards records for each pilot and unit by day, Honor Roll of all the KIA/POW/Evade pilots, squadron rosters, and as many phots of my 2000+ collection as permissable.. plus side elevations

I will have a lot more on the scouts but focus only on Experimental and 2nd

thanks for all your help in the past

Bill

Re: Tiger's Revenge & the pilot's story behind air combat art
 

Update: there are only TWO pilot-signed prints left! So hurry if you want one! :D
Tiger's Revenge Limited Edition

NB. Some of you may have seen "Tiger" Lyons on the TV as he appeared in the History Channel "Battle Stations" program about the P-51 Mustang.


Happy new year!