IL-2 Sturmovik: Pacific Fighters (2004) - P-40B Cockpit

The next release in the IL2 series in 2004 covered the Pacific and China-Burma-India theater. I had a close personal connection to the war's history through my Grandpa (P-38 reconnaissance pilot, 12th AF, Italy '44), but the P-38 was already built by a close friend of mine. I jumped on the asset list to snag my other major interest: the Flying Tigers, a group of American volunteers flying off-the-record American fighter aircraft under Chinese Nationalist flags. If you've ever seen a shark-mouth on a warplane - they started it.

What followed was a 3D art project that turned into a serious research effort - serious enough that I now own dozens of books on the Tigers, and several vintage WWII fighter plane parts.

The cockpit model was built modularly to cover five variants of the early P-40, including one unique to the Flying Tigers, and is accurate enough for real pilots who flew these to tick off checklists and point out subtle details.

3500 tris, max texture res 256x256