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Go Time! Call Me Ishmael MNF in Lebanon Bird of Prey Firebirds Egress with cover Taking in the view The Oldest and The Boldest

Excellent work. You put a lot of effort into those skins. For my part, I'm working on a cockpit for the Caudron R11.

Israeli Eagle

Hello, all the brothers-at-wings. I present to you a small selection of skins for a wonderful Nieuport-17 by Geezer. This is my first experience that I decided to publish, so please do not judge me very harshly. I do not think that this work deserves to be laid out in the Download section, but I hope someone will like them. In any case, all the credit belongs to Geezer, since I just used his works. So, what's in the archive? The "Dux" folder represents you the most correct type of the Russian Nieuport-17, built at the Moscow Dux Plant. The specific Russian roundels - a distinctive feature of the Dux-built aircraft - were applied in 14 positions. This generic scheme is also well suited for the Nieuport-21, although it needs a small correction (the 'leuvers' drawn on the sides of the aircraft and the elevator control wires do not match). The following three folders represent the 19th Air Squadron (19th Corps Air Detachment or 19th KAO) of the 1st Air Combat Group (1st BAG) - perhaps the most famous aviation detachment of old Russia. 1st BAG fighters had no marked external differences as far as markings were concerned, but the scull of the unit emblem was slightly different on each individual aircraft. A pair of Nieuport-17s represented a staff flight. Capitan (of cavalry) Alexander Kozakov, Commander of a 1st Air Combat Group, flew on a French-built Nieuport-17 in Summer-Autumn 1917. Kozakov’s assistant, pod’esaul (Cossacks sub-Capitan) Shanghin was using a Russian-made aircraft at the time. Since Shanghin kept aloof from his command duties, the actual commander of the 19th Air Squadron was Boris "Bob" Huber. In the "19th KAO" folder is the standard skin, typical of the aircraft of the 19th Air Squadron, where there were aircraft of both French and Russian production. The rudder bore the “Adam’s Head” - the emblem of the 19th KAO. This generic scheme can also be used for Nieuport-21. Finally, the "3rd KAO" folder contains an interesting paint scheme of another Russian aviation unit. It correctly represents the aircraft built in France for delivery to Russia. The Indian’s head was the emblem of the 3rd Air Squadron (3rd Corps Air Detachment). The serial number is fictitious; the colors of the squad emblem are supposedly given. All you need is to simply place the unzipped files in your Nieuport17c folder and start the game. New skins will be available for selection in the Loadout menu. https://oldbrowser.files.fm/u/ga6a2ywd

Thanks for the support, friends. I reviewed my yesterday’s link and found that I had dropped some wrong files there by mistake. So I uploaded an updated version. The skin of the 19th KAO represents a Dux-built aircraft, so the corresponding fuselage file was added. I also corrected some of the flaws found in earlier versions of the "Dux" and "3rd KAO" skins. For example, the problem with 'leuvers', which I mentioned above, has been fixed. Now the Dux skin is ideal for both Nieuport 17 and 21 (the folder "Dux 80HP" was added especially for it). Also slightly improved the skin of Kozakov's airplane and the skin of the Shanghin's airplane was significantly reworked. You can download updated files here: https://oldbrowser.files.fm/u/g8dyur7r

Ok, I tried working on the skin to make it look nicer, it is 90% completed.

I am not a good skin maker, therefore I use photos for texture and some time cartoon drawing, I will leave it for you all out there to improve on it. As I know my limits. I apologize for my limitation. PS file will be completed soon.

I can see you used a solid object for tracks. You can try making them much lighter if you map them on tga...

I understand. In case..i have max source files.

I like that guy!! Good work!

Love those old postcards with imitations of the Bleriot XI, Crawford - happy new year to you as well! Von S

Dropped by a website I had not visited in a while, and discovered an authentic replica of the Pfalz D.VIII is nearly complete. http://www.aerodrome.se/?page_id=98#

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:

I finally come to grips with a classic, and realise what all the fuss is about! For some reason, train simulators do not make good subjects for combat reports. Though getting into them at last has been a lot of fun, which together with stuff outside of sim-land have kept me from doing more than very casual air combat simming...until now. Hence the long gap in mission reports here at CombatAce. For World War 1, I'm back with First Eagles 2, not least for its combination of good looks, very wide scope when modded, many very good features, and being fast to get back into, thanks to some of those aformentioned good features. For World War 2, it was time for something I hadn't seriously tried before...which applies to more than it should of the titles I've accumulated over the years, the good, the not-so-good and the relatively awful - anyone else remember Nations - Fighter Command? Nice planeset, pity about the flight models...and a few other details. The recent launch of OBD's follow-on to Wings over Flanders Fields, namely the first installment of Wings over the Reich, got me interested anew in one of my pet subjects of many years, the Battle of Britain. But not sadly in WotR, due to issues like very small German raids, limited comms including little or nothing from ground controllers (big raids and ground control should really be de rigeur for any self-respecting simulation of the Battle) and various lesser niggles, like some unmilitary scripting of what R/T traffic there is. I still have European Air War on my system but while it covers the Battle, it's only fired up for very occasional nostalgia trips, these days. I actually moderately enjoyed the Warbirds-based History Channel Battle of Britain - ok it's not one of the greats, but as well as flying a reasonably historical mission-set campaign in many BoB types, you can shoot at the ones with crosses from a destroyer's Oerlikon Gun.... And of course, I have played some missions from the Battle in modded Il-2 '46, this one being from the Spitfire Scramble campaign... But I have so far not invested in IL-2 Cliffs of Dover, with its strange planeset, strange-looking landscapes and most of all, limited single player content - coupled with high system requirements for what there is So I decided it was time to make a serious effort to get into Rowan's Battle of Britain (I still have the original boxed version, printed manuals and all). Or rather its more recent incarnation, A2A formerly Shockwave's Battle of Britain II - Wings of Victory, or BoB2 to its friends - who naturally include the Battle (of Britain) Development Group, who have done a great job ironing out wrinkles and adding features in a series of patches. Despite making my own map-based Battle of Britain wargame in the 1970s, I never more than dabbled in BoB or BoB2. Not so much because of niggles like planes in close formation sort of jiggling at times, more because I wanted a conventional pilot career, not a combat sim within a wargame. Having since tried that approach with tanks in Steel Armour Blaze of War and found it not unrewarding, I decided it was time to give BoB2-WoV a serious go. And so I discovered two things. First that all the good things they say about BoB2 are true, notably that it captures the Battle like no other sim before or since. In other sims, a German raid might be a staffel, so you're fighting the Minor Skirmish of Brtiain. In BoB2, a raid is typically and realistically at least a gruppe in strength - 20-30 bombers, like these boys from I Gruppe, Kampfgeschwader 54, on their way to knock the spots off Portland Naval Dockyard, with II Gruppe for company and a large close escort of Bf110s. The latter about to be hit from behind by the Brylcreem Boys of the RAF. My second, less welcome discovery was that I'd chosen a bad time to make the first discovery - having just got a replacement PC with Windows 10, which is fine with about every other sim I've tried it with, but with which BoB2 suffers CTDs when ending a mission, and sometimes earlier. However, I have been able to play many training, historical and campaign missions up to the end, and so pleased am I with the experience that I plan a dual boot drive with Win 7. So that I can get proper debriefings and not have to re-start crashed campaign games every time I take to the air in one. And spend more time enjoying the authentic 1940s southern England landscapes and scenery, recreated with extreme attention to detail. For example the first time I saw Brighton Pier on a test flight in a Hurricane, I thought the 3d model had a problem, the pier head being unconnected with the coast. Then I remembered...they disconnected pier head from land during the invasion scare of 1940, so as not to provide the expected visitors with convenient ad hoc jetties. The graphics aren't stellar - there are no dynamic shadows for example - but they are still pretty good. What still sets BoB2's visuals apart is more of that attention to detail. For example, aircraft not only carry accurate camouflage patterns, and the proper squadron codes (JX seen above is No.1 Squadron), but Spits and Hurris have realistic variations, including different fin flashes and undersurface treatments. And the weathered Dark Earth and Dark Green 'shadow shading' RAF day fighter camouflage is to my eye more authentic than the efforts of the flashier competitors. I'm not sure how, but the rather blurry aircraft textures I recall from the first time I installed BoB2-WoV are now sharp and satisfying, complete with readable stencils. Notably, the air-to-air AI is the best (most human-like) I have ever encountered, the flight models feel good (including controls becoming heavier at high speeds). The radio traffic is simply best of breed, complete with the use of authentic radio codes and, it seems, also realistic radio voice procedure, for both sides. Planes rattle like they should when near the stall (I have in front of me a Spit Mk1 Pilot's Notes facsimilie and it describes just that '...there is a violent shudder and clattering noise throughout the aeroplane'), there are clickable cockpits if you like to fiddle with knobs, and as well as flying the four major fighters, you can also go dive-bombing in a Stuka or man and switch between nose, dorsal and ventral gun positions on the three types of German twin-engine bombers. Which is what I'm doing in the mission featured in this report - one of the included historical missions, the major Luftwaffe raid on the Filton aircraft factory near Bristol, on 25th September 1940. This caught out Fighter Command's 10 Group, who had deployed their interceptors to defend the Westland works at Yeovil, instead. As the mission intro describes, this let the attackers in unmolested and probably doomed many of the 200-plus victims who died when the raid hit its real target (my parents-to-be were in a city badly bombed by Goering's boys, and I well remember the 'bomb sites' in the streets where I was brought up, where gaps in rows of houses still marked the effects of the raids; so I don't say any of that lightly, lest anyone think otherwise). I could have opted to fly on any plane making, escorting or belatedly trying to catch the raid. But I opted to fly as an air gunner on the lead He111 of the second attacking gruppe, I/KG55. We had about fifteen aircraft - by mid September, some bomber gruppen were well below strength: the morning raid on London on Battle of Britain Day, 15th September, consisted of just 25 Dorniers which it took two gruppen to put up, an incredibly small number even allowing they were essentially lockvogel, bait to lure up 'the last fifty Spitfires'. Anyhow, here we are approaching Bristol, having just flown through a noisy but for now, ineffective flak barrage. As I was soon to find out, enjoying the ride, taking pics like a good war correspondent and actually defending my aircraft, did not mix terribly well. ...to be continued!

I think these values are quite unrealistic. Let me explain some things taking into account the russian wikipedia: https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Х-22 1. IAS/TAS Ratio has to do with the flight altitude, 0.86 is 10,000 feet (3000m). Maximum range for initial Kh-22 was 300 km when fired from 10-12 km altitude. Shortly after launch the missile climbs to 22 km (75000 ft) and at that altitude accelerates to 3700 km/h (3.5 Mach). So, reaching 585 km at 3000m level flight is even unrealistic for later variants Kh-22M/MA. 2. Maximum speed in your graph is 1447 m/s which is 5200 km/h at 3000m alt. Maximum speed for Kh-22M/MA was 4000 km/h at 22000m. I guess we all know that a missile can fly faster at higher altitudes due to thinner air. So according to this graph the Kh-22 should fly at about 5500-6000 km/h at high altitude! 3. Sonic speed must be set 343 m/s when the missile flies at surface level. The higher the altitude the lower the sonic speed. This changes at 18 km altitude. Higher than 18 km sonic speed starts increasing. This is my effort on how to tweak this missile: However keep in mind that the missile simulator tool calculates speed, range and time for level flight. So at this graph you have a missile reaching 300 km at 0.488 IAS/TAS (22.5 km) altitude. Practically game range should be shorter because Kh-22 is being launched at 10 km alt, climbs at 22 km alt and then at a certain distance from target starts diving. In general, determing the correct values for ASM missiles is more difficult and you need to test missile's performance in game again and again because flight profile of ASM missiles is more complicated. Personally when using this tool to determine values for surface to air missiles I test missile's performance in game again and again. Then according to what I have seen in game I keep working using the range tool until I have achieved the best combination between real values and realistic performance. Unfortunately it's an extremely time consuming process.

I will try to do that. Thanks for the tip

'Acthtung, Schpitfuer!' Here we go, the gruppe reversing direction in formation, with the Bristol Channel behind us and the smoking airfield and factory complex at Fillton somewhere below. The flak has died away and the Spitfires which attacked us from the front, on the bomb run, seem now to be otherwise occupied. We have a long way to go, however. And the intercom begins to come alive with fresh reports of Indianer, enemy fighters. The Spitfires are back, and the flak as well! A bunch of the former come in from astern, and I can't get a decent shot till they break away after hitting the boys behind. Even then, trying to man the camera as well as my MG, I end up mostly drilling empty skies, caught out by the speed and suddenness of the attack. The fighters seem to be queuing up to hit us, now. Next in are some Hurricanes. Tracers fly back and forth. Without warning, there's a shocking sight - an outer wing breaks clean off the Heinkel directly behind us. Down and away goes the plane. I can't see if anyone gets out. Was it flak or fighters? I can't tell. Where's our verdammter escort? No time to look for them, either. I snap off a series of short bursts at a Hurricane now coming up astern, more in the hope of putting him off than anything else. To my surprise, he breaks up and away early, trailing smoke. Who hit him, me or one of the others, I have no idea. But no matter, hopefully that one, at least, won't be back. Taking the opportunity to look out to my left, I can see an air fight going on, which seemingly answers my question as to the whereabouts of our absent kamaraden in the Bf110s. No help to be had from that quarter, then. More ominously, closer in, I can see a line of specks moving across left to right as if to come in behind us, to join the bunch that are already there. It seems that we must now face, alone, a constant stream of fighter attacks. Here they come! More Spitfires. Hits tinkle on our airframe, and my heart sinks as smoke begins to trail astern of us. But our fire returns the favour, sending one of our tormentors around and down in a sort of wide barrel roll. Got him! But he's got us, too! I get a nasty shock as, to the right of our fuselage, I get a sudden glimpse of a uniformed figure as he leaps from or past the plane and immediately slips down and away, out of my field of view. It was surreal and gone in a flash; did I imagine it? Where did he come from? Was it really from our plane? I look up and see that the bomb-bay doors of the Heinkel above and behind of us are open, and have the wild thought that somebody may have bailed from it through them. But then I realise they are overtaking us, all of them - hit hard in the last attack, we are dropping out of formation! I dread the thought that we will now straggle behind, easy pickings for the fighters queueing up back there to chop us down. But we're not even going to last that long. Our Heinkel's left wing dips, and down we go! Our downward spiral steepens. I try to bail out but nothing happens. The rest of the gruppe holds grimly on to its formation as more stern attacks come in. But we are done for; nobody gets out before our bomber, plunging ever more steeply, meets the ploughed fields of England. Crikey! That was an experience! And it is just one of the playable planes in just one of the many single missions that come with BoB2, on top of the many, many more that the campaign system generates as it takes you, day by day, through the various phases of the Battle, raid by raid, from start to end if you wish. Truly, this is some package, a credit to all concerned, from the original Rowan crew to the current publishers who brought it back to life, to the chaps in BDG who have truly polished the gem. Above all else, Battle of Britain 2 - Wings of Victory recreates the real Battle with a respect for and attention to its history which no other sim I have played or seen even approaches, let alone surpasses. And I'll be enjoying it to the full, now that I have made the very modest investment needed to get Windows 7 up and running. Expect further mission reports - if not, sadly, from this particular crew!

Hi and thanks Silberpfeil, yes I think I must have read everything I could find on BoB2 and Win 10 including that thread. There may be a few who are running fine in Win 10 but the most common experience seems to be that you have a good run and think you're done, until the CTDs start happening again. I found they didn't stop me flying all the instant action missions and apart from the odd early CTD, campaign missions too, but I got a cheap but legit copy of Win 7 and a second 120GB SSD for it, now joined there by BoB2, after all the usual fun getting everything working after a clean O/S install. Anyhow, the end of mission CTD niggles seem a thing of the past. Having opted for a separate drive dual boot I am currently using the UEFI/BIOS to choose O/S which is fine but I'm also looking at ways of making that even less of a chore eg NeoSmart's Easy BCD; but I'm happy already to have got BoB 2 fully operational for less than the cost of many a new sim.

I used these datas : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kh-22

F-104S ASA 36° Stormo XXII° Gruppo Caccia Intercettori

Any modder who deals with ballistics should use the missile range simulator which can be found here: https://combatace.com/files/file/10592-missile-range-simulator/ I have spent much time testing and trying to determine the best values to ensure that missiles will perform as realistic as possible (always taking into account game's egnine limitations). As for Kh-22, I suggest to use the real values in terms of diameter, weight, booster acceleration/time, sustainer acceleration/time etc and then after many simulations you can determine the combination of which subsonic and supersonic drag values best fit with weapon's profile. As far as I remember stock Kh-22 is capable of destroying ships at 400 km when fired from high altitude. The improved Kh-22M/MA had 600 km range according to wikipedia. As for the hit chance I'm not quite sure what values must be changed for ASM missiles.

If you want to build some specific version....let me know. meanwhile, I've uploaded 2 years ago some basic versions and then some updates... MT-LB, MT-LBu, MT-LB-ZU-23-2, 9P149, 9A34M, 9S80. Guess no one ever made skins for them..except gopher/ dog ear.

Questi sono "i miei". Anno 1990 A.D. sopra Albinia (GR) in un combattimento simulato ebbero la meglio sugli F-15 e Grosseto mantenne la Classe "A" tra le basi NATO ... bei tempi.

almost done.

Mig-21SM Cockpit view... can you spot the other aircraft?

That's right, "happy new year." Since this is a postcard of the beginning of the 20th century, the inscription on it was made according to the rules of Russian pre-revolutionary spelling. Taking this opportunity, once again I congratulate everyone with the new year)

For those who may be interested in the classic 1930s aircraft of the Sino-Japanese war of 1937-45, below are a few more WIPs to supplement the Chinese CR32. WIP Nakajima A4N.rar WIP Yokosuka B4Y.rar WIP Northrop 2E.rar

Happy New Year !!!