Prelim work on 'What If' Maelstrom F/A.4

[Chaser617 0]

As everyone who was about when I was a lot more active knows, I had an interest in the 'What If' scenario of the Fleet Air Arm keeping their 'Big Deck' carriers and what the different aircraft they would have flown from their decks. One of the ones I had been planning for a while had been a competitor to my original 'Hornet FRS' mod, the 'Maelstrom' basically a 'Sea Tornado.' Unfortunately I never could make that aircraft because the plan was to make it a 'multi-role' and for that, I needed a good ADV model. Well, two years later, enter Babrock and his excellent ADV, and I've decided to try to give the project another shot . Unlike my other mods (the Tomcat FR.2 with Wrench leading the way, the Corsair II GR.1 the Hornet FRS and the Skyhawk FG.3a that was inspired by Dave and skins provided by Sundowner) this project is going to be a lot more than simple INI tweaks. I wanted to show some prelim work I've done so far in just initial testing, and maybe get some input from the mod community on the 'Maelstrom F/A.4':

 

Anti-shipping loadout:

 

Original Strike loadout with GBU-10s:

 

Bomb-placement test with the GBU-12:

 

These are just very preliminary test shots, and they show there is a lot of work to do to bring this mod to the quality I'd like. If you notice, the GBU-10s need re-spacing in order to prevent 'merging' with each other. Also you notice there are only three bombs being carried, that's because the forward left sparrow station I need to 'separate' from the others because that was where the targeting pod was suppose to go.

 

Things to do (its a long list):

 

~Re-space the bomb hard-points to prevent 'bomb merging', this will probably require 'adding' brand new hardpoints specifically for bombs on the aircraft's belly

 

~Separating the forward-left Skyflash well from its companions to allow for the loading of a laser designator pod (still to be determined which pod)

 

~Deciding on what to do about fuel tanks with weapons loaded on the wing stations. Right now its an 'either or' you either get your fuel-tanks, or you get your missiles such as the Sea Eagle, ALARM and BRIMSTONE or Mavericks. I'd like to see if there is a way to add two tanks on the belly but I doubt there is clearance for that. My ideal solution would be to add a second wing pylon further out for the mounting of missiles. However to do this properly would require Babrock to actually modify the the model to provide that pylon on the wing, and to be honest? The man did a great job with the model, I don't want to ask him to go do more work on it. The solution may simply be mounting missiles in the fuselage spaces though that is my least desired solution.

 

~Air-to-Ground HUD symbology, this I may simply take from the other British HUDs (the Jaguar and such) but I'm also considering a custom design to fit the Tornado HUD

 

~Air-to-Ground Radar Modes: This is a simple INI plug in

 

~Custom Skins: The biggy, the one I have the most problems with, when the mod comes closer to completion I might ask if there are any skinners available to do FAA skins for this model. We don't want repeats of my original FAA Hornet Skins before Mike1 jumped at the chance to do some really good ones.

 

Like I said, pretty long list, and again anyone who is willing to chime in and provide some support or help I'm more than willing to have it.

[+EricJ 3,935]

The IDS had the capability to mount tanks on the belly pylons. The issue is putting pylons, or a centerline pylon to accomodate that. Nice idea though.

[+SkippyBing 8]

I'd say the main problem with under-fuselage stores is deck clearance on recovery. There's a good tale on a Buccaneer thread over at Pprune, someone was doing trials in fairly rough weather, now bear in mind with the wheels deflated and the undercarriage in the full compressed position there's a couple of inches clearance between the bottom of the main gear doors and the deck. They managed to get sparks off the bottom of the doors and the deck doing a bolter before going round to land on and call it a day.

So I'd say belly tanks probably aren't an option, much like the RN Buccs never got the bomb bay door fuel tank. Obviously ideally you'd have the outer pylons, I'm just wondering if there's some way to model them as a weapon or some such, rather than having to amend the original LOD?

[Chaser617 0]

Unfortunately, actual 3d modeling is far outside my areas of expertise. I can do the INI dance, but I don't know, I don't want the weapons just 'hanging' mid air with no pylon though.

[Wrench 9,429]

Instead of Sea EAgles, with thier gynormus fins, what about American Harpoons, mounted on the belly like the Alarms' on the ECR variant?? Ground clearence would still need checking, of course

 

I LIKE this idea!!

 

Wrench

kevin stein

[Chaser617 0]

From what I can tell, neither RAF nor FAA purchased the air-launched varient of the Harpoon, I don't know how much difference there is between the sea-launched and air launched variants so it might be possible. Again the big problem is that the spacing for the Skyflashes aren't as big as one might expect (see the GBU-10 spacing). I'm going to try a few tests with the Harpoon, the ALARMs are too big to fit with the current spacing.

[fallenphoenix1986 603]

Cool, always a fan of What If FAA projects. Actually did a naval Tornado myself a few months ago though nothing as in depth as this, just ini edits and decal edits in much the same way as Spinners works his magic. Also had an FAA Jag M more or less ready to release if anyone wants it, kinda hopping someone does a Jaguar IM so I can do one with a radome.

 

Craig

[Chaser617 0]

I've tried to do some measurements and I think I'm going to have to come up with seperate air-to-ground stations to preserve the spacing for the skyflashes. The rear ones need to be moved back about two to three feet, the forward moved back about six inches to clear the forward gear door. Now, the question is how would be the least complcated way of going about this?

[Wrench 9,429]

Duplicate the stations; it works better, and you can dial in the positions a lot tighter

 

Wrench

kevin stein

[Chaser617 0]

would they be linked in the loadout screen or would they be completely seperate?

[Wrench 9,429]

Yes;

you use the same GroupID= but a different StationID=

Same position, just for use ONLY with a certain type of weapon.

Look at the stock F-4E or F-4J, in particular the outboard wing station. #1 & 2 are for weapons, while stations #14 & 15 while is the same physical positions (outer wing stations) are for fuel tanks only

Then, you just number or renumber, you loadout ini accordingly

 

super easy!!!

 

btw, glad your back!!

 

Wrench

kevin stein

[Chaser617 0]

Annnnd of coarse, this project hits a snarl, my computer crashed... AGAIN over the weekend and while I didn't loose any of my actual flying files, all the INI work that I had been doing on this and a couple other ideas (mainly an update to the Hornet to make it more SP4 friendly) went up in smoke. I got to start from scratch.