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Something a little smaller. An A-4C of VA-93,circa 1965.

Today we are taking a trip back to 2004, a time when as you can see from the photo above featured PC CDROMs! Before Internet speeds for most were high enough to consider sending entire game files they had to distribute games to people using good old fashioned Compact Disks. The shiny CD came complete with its own (Jewel) case with cover and even a printed manual. As you can see a time when even Thirdwire had to distribute games and make them look like games used to - the manual even tells me to go to http://www.softwarehelpdesk.co.uk/ for technical support…………..ha looks like that domain is up for sale! Looking at the back we can see it even ran on Windows ME with 256MB of RAM! - Yes, I had to look back to remember what Win ME was – the very last of the Win 9x line before Microsoft thankfully ditched that and we got Win 2000 then Win XP. Of course, in 2004 or nearly all of that decade Win XP was the only game in town for home users and it was great for its time. For anybody who had bought Strike Fighters: Project 1, a Vietnam game was a logical and most welcome step forward….a game that recreates the intense air combat experience in the skies of North Vietnam at the height of the air campaign……………..what could be better! The manual lists the Player and AI aircraft, and although the VPAF selection looks fairly complete, the US selection was very limited compared to the later Strike Fighters 2: Vietnam. This was a time when there was hope for the future and many opportunities to modify the hell out of the game and start getting into place the absolute ton of things not included in the box. Terrain & Environment As you might see (from the case) the Terrain that came with WOV wasn’t much better than what comes with one of Thirdwires Phone & Tablet PC games – a pretty poor and unrealistic looking barren wasteland. Unsurprisingly it was not long before modders produced somewhat better tilesets - one of the first I remember and although free was used by Yankee Air Pirate later: The RA-5 Vigilante - does not come with WOV There was a payware tileset for sale at Razbams store at some point – but suffered from having obvious borders and tile edges – also 512 x 512 bitmap files were pretty big at the time but very low res by today’s standards. This later effort includes a version of Starys Green Hell which included a lot more trees for the first time: Vietnam was hell - Green hell! When released WOV also had no clouds either but they were added in a later patch: Low level clouds, gone but not forgotten Game play The North Vietnam Air Force (VPAF) and air defences were quite well set up as part of the terrain, with relevant SAM and AAA models for the era along with relevant AI. The MiGs varied in effectiveness from patch to patch whereas some of the SA-2s had a Kill probability of about 99% - this was rightly toned down somewhat in Strike Fighters 2 (SF2). WOV included an airbourne FAC (Forward Air Controller) role and this was usually represented by an 0-1E Birddog flying over the battlefield (Callsign Snoopy) – this was removed from SF2. The game added Carrier operations for the first time although the carrier was pretty lonely by itself most of the time, and players could only fly off it in campaigns and scripted single missions! The B-52s thought they were safe from Thirdwires lesser spotted MiG-17F Payware There were some options for payware – mostly from Razbam and Yankee Air Pirate – both had air of controversy that I won’t go into here. One of the very few payware aircraft was the A-1 skyraider pack Before the Mission Editor arrived in SF2 you had to create single missions using Notepad basically, quite a time consuming and difficult process. Yankee Air Pirate basically created single missions based on real missions from Vietnam and was quite an important addition for anyone with an interest in that subject. Populated carrier deck Landing and taking off in Hueys from smaller boats like this Shooting down Colts in Hueys Shooting the side gun in Hueys - Get some!. Of course, with scripted missions you can do quite a few things you cannot in auto generated single missions and campaigns! Advance clone army! The VPAF, masters of camouflage Looking back Wings Over Vietnam certainly started out as a fairly serious attempt to put together a decent standalone Vietnam war Air Combat simulator and in that respects, did a pretty decent job, but only if you took time to add a lot of the mods available and change the game yourself. Graphically it was using DX9.0c so was up to date in that regards although again you had to add mods to get it looking to what it should have perhaps been out of the box. F-111A - not included with WOV EB-66 - not included with WOV …………and Here we are at the tail end of 2017 and still no real alternative to WOV and SF2V on the Vietnam War flight sim front.

Ingame shots of Nieuport 17 progress.

Finally made it up the priority scale, so it's underway...and plan to also do a new cockpit for it. If you are interested in collaborating or participating in the project, all support is welcomed and encouraged - just drop me a PM!

BEST IN THE WEST

....WELL yes ...!! But for the moment ..is the only.....one !!!! anyway ..i just remember it ...because of this site....wreck...!! I do start a model...then ....like always ....experimental...etc....( still today...i do )) and I find it...so ..if someone is really good in animation ..etc...please..is welcome http://www.ww2wrecks.com/portfolio/found-salvaged-and-preserved-a-blenheim-shot-down-in-crete-by-friendly-fire-on-april-28-1941/

"Switch Box"

In the Med, 1973.... CAG's up! Stand by for launch!

Another Marine Corps Phantom...this one from VMFA-451 Warlords, out of MCAS Beaufort, South Carolina...circa 1975. One year before I joined.

Back in 2012, Thirdwire fans awaited with baited breath the latest release of the Strike Fighters 2 series and what new goodies it would bring to everyone. As it turned out the game was quite a departure from the previous four titles and wasn’t just the old engine with a new terrain and new objects. For most, many of the new features and changes added to the series and bought some hope for the future, whereas some features were less promising. Starting off with the good points then.......... The Setting The game takes place primarily over Iceland with its cold war airbases such as Keflavik NAS and perhaps gives us a bit more options for Cold War scenarios than doing the South Atlantic (Falklands) which some may have thought the obvious choice. The real Keflavik in real Iceland! (Wikipedia) New Terrain New with SF2NA came a bold new attempt at a more modern LOD based terrain engine utilising DX10 instead of the older DX9. The water looked amazing: Iceland's man made shoreline! And the runways are even shaped like the actual ones on Iceland instead of the generic bases from the previous four titles. More on this later…….. Fed up with the hot weather the RAAF decide to holiday in Iceland New music For a fresh new start, new menu music, that wasn’t too bad actually – I never replaced it! Yes I realise that is a post cold war shot! Fleet Defender With this release we got the first F-14A from Thirdwire, although this in itself was not ground breaking because there was a very good Mirage Factory F-14 set available as well. It was the Avionics this brought that was the big plus, including support for Active Radar missiles, and a TWS mode that could support multiple simultaneous shots. On the other hand Soviet bombers now came with a ton of anti-ship cruise missiles, jammers and countermeasures. Catch us if you can! Join the Navy Okay so a load of new ships and weapons in this release………and not just a set of new objects, but new ways they could be used in game: · Carrier groups and support groups in campaigns and single missions · Static aircraft on decks · Ships firing missiles and guns to shoot down cruise missiles and aircraft · More roles for aircraft including AWACs and Naval recon If you liked flying the TW A-4 then the TW F-14 is rather less agile and more difficult to fly in comparison Here is a list of the new objects the games came with: Ships: · CGN-36 California class Cruiser · CVN-68 Nimitz Class Aircraft Carrier · Gearing FRAM IB class Destroyer · Kashin class Destroyer · Kiev class Aircraft Carrier · Knox class Frigate · Krivak I class Frigate · Krivak II class Frigate · LCC-19 Blue Ridge class Amphibious Command Ship · LHA-1 Tarawa class Amphibious Assault Ship · LPD-4 Austin class Amphibious Transport Dock · Oliver Hazard Perry class Frigate · Oliver Hazard Perry (82) class Frigate · Spruance class Destroyer · Spruance (82) class Destroyer Weapons · AIM-54A Phoenix · SA-N-3 Goblet (M-11 Shtorm) SAM · SA-N-1B Goa SAM · SA-N-4 Gecko SAM · RIM-2F Terrier SAM · RIM-7E/H Sea Sparrow SAM · RIM-66B Standard SAM · K10S (AS-2 Kipper) Cruise Missile · KH22 (AS-4 Kitchen) Cruise Missile · KSR5 (AS-6 Kingfish) Cruise Missile Bears with Flares! The Campaign and missions A big change from the previous titles and perhaps more game like in some respects in the way it was essentially fleet verses fleet. The single missions were more limited due to engine changes and lack of relevant land based targets. If you like Naval intercept missions or ones where you attack the Soviet fleet then it should be right up your street. F-4K - More challenging in the intercept role than the F-14 A-4G - Even more challenging! New Aircraft with SF2 NA (Drool) Grumman F-14A Tomcat Grumman F-14A_77 Tomcat Vought A-7E_74 Corsair II Grumman A-6E Intruder (No Pit) Grumman A-6E_79 Intruder (No Pit) Grumman E-2C Hawkeye (No Pit) Grumman EA-6B Prowler (No Pit) Tu-16K-10-26 Badger C (No Pit) Tu-16K-26 Badger G (No Pit) Tu-16K-26_73 Badger G (No Pit) Tu-16P Badger J (No Pit) Tu-16P_72 Badger J (No Pit) Tu-16RM-1 Badger D (No Pit) Tu-22KD Blinder B (No Pit) Tu-22M2 Backfire B (No Pit) Tu-22M3 Backfire C (No Pit) Tu-22PD Blinder E (No Pit) Tu-22RD Blinder C (No Pit) Tu-95RT Bear D (No Pit) Yak-38 Forger A (No Pit Merging Yes the game can still be merged with the other 4 titles, expansion packs and DLCs! You may also find that a lot of my DLCs live in Iceland exclusively. That is a Yak-38 Forger landing on the Kiev don't you know Now lets look at some of the more controversial additions. Mr AWACs controller Rejoice for Red Crown woman has been replaced by Mr AWACs controller guy! I don’t know how many were pleased to see the E-2 AWACs get blown out of the sky on a regular basis (or even shot it down yourselves) – if they were it was probably down to the guys somewhat laid back voice. How exactly Thirdwire managed to find or even consider using this guys voice for this role is known only to them but it was not on any kind of professional level. Luckily there is a set of modded voice files to replace this blight on the series. We really don't care about your situation..... The Terrain Engine Despite DX10 and gorgeous sea there were a few issues with the terrain which you could surmise were due to having to release the game earlier than expected. · The frame rate was considerably worse. · You needed DX10 capability to run it. · The land was a barren wasteland with unrealistic looking terrain and coastlines – not befitting a sim or a game. · The files for modding it were locked away so potentially no more 3rd party terrains. Whether Thirdwire intended to sell us future Terrain DLCs is still an unknown. But the sea was nice. Luckily the game still supported the older terrain format so Gerwin did put out an old format Iceland terrain and Stary put out some enhanced tiles that I use to this day without the new sea. This mod worked in DX9 and had far better frame rates all round. Some related Mods:

The solution is simple. Plant less trees.

Most of the new Mod's have instruction's......Read me file. .................................EXAMPLE ================================================================================================================================ SF2 Boeing ............Pack 12/7/2017 = For SF2 (Any & All, Full-5 Merged Prefered) = This is a new ..........pack mod of .....................................d by the Spainish Air Force ................. ................................... If you don't have the aircraft already, it's available at the URL below:...... ............................................. ........................................................................ As always, fairly easy to follow, detailed install instructions are included. So, please READ them ... after unzipping but before installling, of course!! Happy Landings! Wrench Kevin Stein ----------------- = Install Instructions: As I always reccomend, unzip the "sf2_kc97l_spanish_af_pack.7z" to a temp folder or your desktop or somewhere else that's easy to find. Then, simply, copy/paste the /Objects folder supplied directly =OVER= your existing /Objects folder, in whichever game's mod folder you're installing it to. You'll probably be asked "OVERWRITE?", just say yes for both. ---------------------- Credits: .....................

Now if you want to put in the SF2 NA a plane or a ship that someone makes........ Then 1 you download and open your file .. in a temp ...place like a desktop.....and unzip the file. 2 take the file and put it in the SF2 NA file or in another like WW2...folder. Vista/Win7 C:\Users\<username>\Saved Games\ThirdWire\StrikeFighters2\ WW2 or SF2 NA ? WinXP: C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\My Documents\ThirdWire\StrikeFighters2 \WW2 or SF2 NA ? -------------------------------------You don't copy paste....the new mod that you download in the original ....folder of the GAME........as you see above ....!!!--------------------------------------------

The Game now make a new Folder ...with all the planes etc.......in the.... WinXP: C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\My Documents\ThirdWire\StrikeFighters2\ Vista/Win7 C:\Users\<username>\Saved Games\ThirdWire\StrikeFighters2\ with the name of your new Mod file....!!!!! The name is WW 2 !!!! THIS IS A MOD /NEW MOD FILE photo 06 Inside is all the planes ship's etc from the original install...........!! photo 07 08 most of us we [ - delete all...or keep some - ] and put only that we need or we want...to play.!.!You rename/remake etc the Menu files....etc...! For ww II ...you don't need the F-14........etc....jet's....!!

How to make a Mod file ? You must go to the original install folder..... Computer>Local Disk(C)>Program Files>Thirdwire copy paste the last install...(that's mean ..the SF2 NA for you )......and make a copy in the same folder. photo 02 Look's like in photo 3 the paste..... Rename that from strike fighter's NA2 -copy......to.. . WW 2 for example photo 03 photo 04 Now send that ww2 as a shortcut in the desktop. photo 05 Now from the Desktop START the game .....WW 2. When is start ....close it...with out play.....you don't need to play

Whrench is right. Capital letter's mean..... shouting .! I do make that mistake before. So I think you know......? ............ how to install the Game. The game install in the C ....disk..... Computer>Local Disk(C)>Program Files>Thirdwire ....but you can not find any ...plane..or ship...look ....LOCK photo 0 ...but the folder's with planes... ship .etc......is made ...in another position....!!!! Vista/Win7 C:\Users\<username>\Saved Games\ThirdWire\StrikeFighters2\ WinXP: C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\My Documents\ThirdWire\StrikeFighters2\ photo 01 Ok...until now ?

Mk.1s would be nice too. thanks for the link to the salvaged wreck! that reminds me, I'd started updating the FMs on all of our (Cocas & Co) Beaufighters over a year ago! ... must finish and upload them! It flys better now!

Good work! Love the Blenheim. Would be nice to have its cockpit as well.

Killerbee forwarded me max file..and ive reworked it here and there...as He requested and little my way.... but it is still work in progress...

beautiful.

Making slow but steady progress. This is going to be a high-polycount aircraft.

LOL! "Gas to Go" is my wife calls me too! --------------- Marine Phantoms out for a drive (VMFA-231)

Jason has posted 4 very nice WIP pics, all who loves the A-20, here is the show... Everyone, I just wanted to say thank you for your support this year and I hope you have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! This time of year we take a bit of a holiday break, but we'll be back at it with the new year. Also, this has been a unusually busy Q4 for us and I have fallen way behind in my correspondence. To anyone who has written me I apologize if you have not gotten a response. I get many emails and PMs and when I get busy I have to triage them and only respond to the most urgent. I will try to catch up over the Holiday break. So please don't take it personally if I have not responded to your message. I will try my best to respond shortly and if I don't please just write me again. 2017 was a super year in lots of ways, I hope we can top it in 2018! Here's some quick A-20 action i the Dev. Build. This plane is fun! Jason Link: https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/33128-merry-christmas-everyone-and-happy-new-year/

Base template for nose ...

Wings Over Israel Day...