Spain and Seaplanes

[daddyairplanes]

On 9/22/2026 at 8:47 PM, pagsab said:

Mue's programme is great, but as its name implies, it lets one view LOD files rather than edit them.  I think it could have helped me locate the prop textures on the bitmaps had I been more familiar with it, but I used 'seat of the pants' techniques instead as I did when repainting the planes' markings.  Proper 3D model editing is currently beyond me. 

are you trying to change the appearance of the prop while parked or in flight?

when parked teh prop is a part of the skin. however, when that fan starts spinning it is "skinned" by a seperate tga.

you want to control what it looks like in flight, you need to adjust teh tga, not the model

and the prop tga shows up along with the skin on model

the tga is the circley part

[Wrench]

don't forget, the OP is converting a STATIC model, not one really designed for flight.

[daddyairplanes]

sorry, i did in fact forget that 

[pagsab]

In an early experiment to see whether using the static seaplane models would work at all, I tried putting them into a cloned Fokker Eindecker folder in FE2 itself.  The result was that the entire engine block span disconcertingly around the vertical axis, clearly due to the rotary engine code in the Fokker files.  After that, it was a relief when my SF2 conversions showed up with just a static prop.  The only similar glitch I have encountered is that the Macchi M.41 tail fin pivots up and down like a railway signal when the rudder is used, but this is far less of a problem.

If I can get the Supermarine Walrus and my reduced scale EuroWW2 terrain to work in FE2 rather than just SF2, a long term hope is to create an enhanced North Sea terrain including the relevant coasts, in which seaplanes, airships, Zeppelins and big biplane bombers can fly to simulate the many maritime and strategic bombing missions which took place across the North Sea in WW1.

[pagsab]

Stephen1918's generic open bomber cockpit based on the AEG GIV cockpit makes a great accompaniment to his re-purposed static Lohner seaplane, as seen in the photo below of our Macchi M.18s during a routine patrol from La Ribera along the coast to San Carlos.  Tarragona harbour is visible on our right, with the Reus airfield beyond for less flexible aircraft than our own!

[pagsab]

I am still much more comfortable editing terrain than planes.  As I said earlier, my manual tileset benefits from having only 3 different types of tile edges (land, sea or a 50:50 split), giving enormous flexibility in tile placement compared to standard tilesets in which woods, towns, mountains and grassland must all be matched up across multiple tiles.  Some of my land and sea tile edges do have central channels or isthmuses respectively, but although these may link to similar features on neighbouring tiles, they may instead be cut off at the tile edge as shown below, without looking too conspicuous.  After further experiments with Photoshop, I decided to give my Mediterranean tiles a more sun-bleached appearance by lightening them and their accompanying TOD elements by 15% using Enhance - Adjust Color - Adjust Hue/Saturation.  As shown on the top row below, the result complements my earlier reddening of the tiles and distances them further from their northern European origins in Gepard's high resolution Battle of Britain terrain.  Photoshop lets TGA tiles be edited despite their alpha channels, and the Quick Selection tool lets one confine one's changes to the land without affecting the adjacent water.  The experience I have gained adjusting the tiles to portray Spain will allow me to add some basic seasonal variations when I return to my NW Europe terrain in due course.  My original tiles will suffice for spring and summer, but I can redden the tiles and trees for the rich colours of autumn and lighten them and the buildings by 30% to portray the bleak and frosty landscape of winter, as shown on the bottom row below.  (Persistent snow was much less frequent in the NW European lowlands than most seasonal SF2 and FE2 tilesets tend to suggest.)  A great advantage of using just 55 tile variants and 2 TOD bitmaps is that such tweaks are easy to apply, and I love the way that one can transform entire landscapes with just a few hours of effort.

      

[pagsab]

Wrench was right as usual – Mue's LOD viewer is indeed a great asset.  I discovered this when making flyable versions of Stephen1918's static seaplanes for use in the Caporetto FE2 terrain itself, as reported in https://combatace.com/forums/topic/101534-opening-the-adriatic/. To my surprise, the Lohner's lower wings appeared at the edge of my cockpit view, and I eventually realised that this was because the node name in his static model must have coincidentally matched that employed in the Vickers Gunbus model which I was using as a chassis for this painfully slow seaplane.  All I needed to do was to use the LOD viewer to discover Stephen's other node names, substitute these into the ModelNodeName lines of my parent data.inis, and re-expand my contracted arcs of cockpit vision now that the seaplanes' wings were visible in all their glory.  My chimeras are a nightmare of inconsistency, but getting them to work at all despite my modelling ignorance gives a wonderful sense of achievement. 

 

[pagsab]

The seaplane stand-in with which I was least satisfied was the Fokker T.IV, since it failed to mirror the biplane structure and open cockpits so characteristic of the Heinkel He 59 as shown in Stratos's  picture at the start of this thread.  Thankfully, I finally managed to create an alternative stand-in by successfully adding the separate Jake_Floats from an E13A1 model to a Vickers Vimy model from FE2.  By trial and error I adjusted the new generic weapon stations to the required positions in the Vimy's data.ini, and heightened the contact points of the plane's landing gear until it could land and take off safely.  I used the cockpit from the Halberstadt CLII, switching its ASI to MPH to accommodate my considerable increase in engine thrust and max speed.  While repainting the markings, I changed the now redundant wheels to the same neutral colour as the plane's under-surfaces.  As seen in the picture below over Pollenca bay, the resulting hybrid stand-in is far from ideal (and lacks the ventral gun present in the Fokker), but it gives a much better feel for these antiquated biplane floatplanes, thereby improving seaplane simulation in my SCW playset even further.  All I need now is for my copy of Herrera's book to arrive safely at long last to provide scenarios for me to refly...

[pagsab]

I blooded my new He 59 models in a low level 1937 recce over the nascent San Luis airfield on Menorca, as seen below with the enemy port and seaplane base of Mahon in the background.  The flight proved ill-advised, since flak caused my leader to explode outright a couple of seconds after this picture was taken, leaving me to return to Pollenca alone with my shocked crew.

[pagsab]

I use generic rather than random flak in my SF2 terrains, so that I may tweak its settings to give my missions just the right level of danger.  Automatic flak seems most effective when you fly right over it at close range, as my ill-fated leader did in the photo above.  I am currently trialling a reduction of the guns' speed of traverse in pitch and yaw, so that fast-crossing planes are not as vulnerable.  Longer ranged heavy flak guns by contrast tend to be much less successful, and I have boosted the effect radius of their bursts to stop them being entirely toothless.  They still rarely hit, but when they do, the results can be catastrophic, as seen in the picture below when we had left Menorca and were heading back across the sea to Pollenca.  An advantage of my wingman view is that I get to see terrible things happen to my colleagues without my own virtual flight coming to a sticky and premature end.