See Dora's red bottom! Arty Stuff...

karrart · 1 August 2009, 07:00 PM

Hmmmmm....I've never been down here before- let me look around for a minute........hey- there's some good stuff in these parts!
Anyway, proving that I'm occasionally unfaithful to my first love- WW I aviation, here's the story of an old dalliance I recently revisited, and why. For the tale, see:
RK’s Pfalzhood - Pfalz, Halberstadt, Nieuport, CAMEL!!!
Oh yeah- you have to wade through a bit of pre-WW I first.
Robert Karr

Ginger. · 1 August 2009, 07:59 PM

That red and white barber's pole would make a nice snack for a roving Tempest!

drIace · 1 August 2009, 08:01 PM

Bob. nice work as usual ! The D-9, a very pretty, well balanced a/c. One of my favorites and 1 of the few I'll model in 1/32, although a different unit. Always thought how ironic that red bottom was necessary for their own AA to prevent them from shooting down thier own ( a fate that befell Geroge Preddy) a/c, due to the allied air supremacy at the time. How we love the toys of war.

Sreiko · 2 August 2009, 01:45 AM

Very nice art! Is this classic painting or digital?

MikkoH · 2 August 2009, 02:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ginger.

That red and white barber's pole would make a nice snack for a roving Tempest!

Well, Tempest was a good plane. But not that good that you could say Dora as a snack for it.

Great painting Robert!

Cheers Mikko

bristol scout · 2 August 2009, 06:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MikkoH

Well, Tempest was a good plane. But not that good that you could say Dora as a snack for it.

Great painting Robert!

Cheers Mikko

With it's 430+ m.p.h. at 17,500 ft.---about the best height for a Dora--I think a competently flown Tempest was the Nemesis of just about anything the Germans could regularly put in the air. Pilot skill, as so often, (but not always) would, i imagine, be the decider... 'snack' ---perhaps not quite, but I know of no instance when combat would have been avoided 'cos it was too much to swallow

Cheers,
Dave.

GarrardA · 2 August 2009, 07:24 AM

Hi Robert,

Nice view of the JG44 Dora. I ran into a gentleman last year at an IPMS show in Dayton that was floating a theory that the stripes were not white but rather the colors of the original undersurface (76, 74, and natural metal). Argument was that at that stage of the war, it made little sense to take the time to carefully apply white stripes rather than hastily mask the lines and spray red. He had a 1/32 Rutman FW190D-11 that, I must admit, looked very convicing. Interesting idea.

karrart · 4 August 2009, 11:04 AM

Thanks everybody.
The picture is a combination of finger painting and airbrush. Yeah- finger painting. I did the background that way with good ol' oil paint.So, yeah I guess you could say it's part digital....linseed oil soaked digits! The rest was airbrushed using Testors from the little glass bottles. The makeover was Ceramcoat craft acrylic.
I've heard various theories about those bottom colors including the possibilty that the red was really black. And if the stripes would've been whatever assortment of colors was already there it would've made a more interesting painting!
Robert Karr
taking up space:
RK’s Pfalzhood - Pfalz, Halberstadt, Nieuport, CAMEL!!!

karrart · 29 August 2009, 06:34 PM

Wonder of wonders- I actually got off my butt this last week and released some "new"product. Yep. Dora can now be had...and also that BE2 over Stonehenge thing.
I cleaned the file and sized and proofed several attempts.
And cleaning.........that's one thing this here new fangled digital scanning does- show every bit of junk on a picture. The Dora original was 24"x30" and scanned at 300dpi and when she came back from the scanners- whoo boy. Stuff that can't be seen with the naked eye suddenly pops out, plus any small bit of grit shows up as a small shadow. Back in the old days of large transparancies this wasn't nearly as great a problem. But when the painting itself is face to face to with that scanning platform- watch out! And 24"x30" makes an awfully large area to scrutinize. 184megs worth. 300dpi may not sound like a very hi-res thing- but for a painting like this it is. A single airbrushed micro-droplet will occupy several pixels. Anymore resolution would be overkill- big overkill.
So- there may be new stuff, but I'm still blind!
see:
The Fine Art of Aviation/Robert Karr, Artist/New Release Prints September -09 Special

Robert Karr
and the usual old place:
RK’s Pfalzhood - Pfalz, Halberstadt, Nieuport, CAMEL!!!

Tim West · 30 August 2009, 02:21 AM

The Dora is my fav LW plane. Sleek...and how I love red bottoms

Adding the 262 with gear down is a nice touch as well...

Awesome as always Robert =)