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Soon will be the updated version with more real cockpit and cuts in the fuselage, and exhaust effects. Sorry my bad english

NATO F-84F Thunderstreaks (The Mirage Factory's F-84F with updated lines, rivets, etc. Original skins by Pappychksix, Thierry-As, Sony Tuckson, USAFMTL, Carlo ´´Soulfreak`` Vecchi, WhiteKnight06604)

Vought A-7B Corsair - 57th Fighter Weapons Wing, Tactical Air Command, USAF, 1966 In early 1961, the United States Navy announced a development study for a replacement for the Douglas A-4 Skyhawk announcing the VAL (Heavier-than-air, Attack, Light) competition stipulating that all proposals had to be based on existing designs and with increased range and payload when compared to the A-4 plus increased accuracy in the delivery of weapons. This coincided with the appointment of Robert McNamara as the new Secretary of Defense for the incoming John F. Kennedy presidency and McNamara wasted no time in directing the Air Force to adopt both the Navy's F-4 Phantom and the Navy's new VAL program. Vought's VAL proposal to the Navy was based on their F-8 Crusader fighter, having a broadly similar configuration but noticeably shorter and without the variable incidence wing feature. To achieve the required range, Vought's proposal was powered by a single Pratt & Whitney TF30-P-6 turbofan producing over 11,000 lbs thrust and growth/export potential was built in thanks to a modular engine bay designed to also accept the promising Rolls-Royce RB.168 (Spey) turbofan. In addition, Vought squeezed in an impressive array of cutting-edge avionics including the AN/APQ-116 radar, the ILAAS digital navigation system, a digital weapons computer, a Marconi-Elliott HUD and an innovative projected map display system. Unsurprisingly, Vought's design was selected as the winner on February 11th,1963 and they soon received a production contract for an initial batch of 400 aircraft designated A-7 and consisting of 200 A-7A's for the Navy and 200 A-7B's for the Air Force. In early 1964, the aircraft received the name Corsair II (after Vought's successful F4U Corsair of World War 2 and Korea fame) and the A-7 had an incredibly fast and smooth development with the YA-7A making it's first flight on October 31st, 1964. Whilst some priorty was given to the production of the A-7A for the Navy, the A-7B first entered service in August 1966 with the 57th Fighter Weapons Wing based at Luke AFB Arizona and they were soon followed by the 354th Tactical Fighter Wing based at Myrtle Beach AFB, South Carolina with the 354th later deploying to Korat Royal Thai AFB, Thailand in April 1967.

As for Bleriot XI’s, we have one (original, from 1909) at Old Rhinebeck where I have the great good fortune to serve as volunteer groundcrew during the summer airshows. (Depending on the weather) it still gets daylight under the wheels at every Saturday show.

Deterrent

Been fooling around with a Berg D.1 - I've always loved the hexagonal camo.

..yes I wrote I wouldn't do one. But since Geezer is back and we'll get a Bleriot XI shortly (just kidding) I decided to go back into business. All the aces will be there no matter if it's historical correct or not: Arigi, Barracchini, Scaroni, Baracca, Fulvio Ruffo di Calabria, Brumowski. If you've a wish, e.g. a special ace that should be included, I'll do the skin and adapt the campaign rgds gt

Found the Bleriot XI in my backup discs, so I'm dusting off the old model and thinking about what is needed to finish it. The kingpost structure seems the most common, not the trestle. I've not been able to find any closeups of the bracing and warping wire pulleys that were mounted at the apex of the kingpost. These will be VERY visible to anyone "flying" the model so it is important to get them right. Can anyone assist with closeup drawings or photos?

tonight on ini dancing with the stars, precision adjustments to 4 decimal places (and a random 180 degree rotation to get it to work) or "if the fan blades arent in the model i'll just sticker them in myself!"

Somewhere over England, November, 1940.

Excellent news Gterl! May I make a plea for the (admittedly ahistorical) inclusion of the fictional Linienschiffsleutnant Otto Ritter von Prohaska? Yes yes I know this would be equivalent to including Biggles in a Western Front campaign*, but by coincidence I'm currently re-reading "The Two-Headed Eagle" by John Biggins. This is a fictional account of the adventures and misadventures of said Otto Prohaska, an Austro-Czech naval officer attached to the KuK Fliegertruppe on the Isonzo Front in 1916. Clearly grounded upon solid research into the period, it gives a dramatized but authentic picture of the Hapsburg Empire in its waning days. It is very far from dry though, with moments of high farce and moments of deep tragedy, all narrated by the protagonist with a stong sense of irony. It is the third of four novels in the Prohaska series, all very highly recommended! Cheers Mike *and why not? Biggles was quite “real” to generations of British schoolboys, inspiring many** to careers in the RAF. **Including this one.

Now you see them, now you don't... Unfamiliar with how to get the best from BoB2’s radio command menus, I had ordered everybody to get stuck in, of their own accord. As by that time our four vics - three Hurricanes each - was closing with the German raid from behind, I sort of expected they might open out a bit. But – the shortest distance between two points being the straight line I was flying – that the boys would stay more or less with me. My plan, such as it was, being that we would all wade into the enemy formations ahead, more or less together, just not in rigid formation. Alas, a quick look behind revealed that this plan had pretty well evaporated. I was alone. The rest of 242 had spread out behind me, the dispersed specks and white contrails indicating that the escorting 109s had arrived and that a general melée was in full swing. The airwaves had already begun to fill with the usual excited chatter. What to do? I don’t think there’s a way of recalling just your own section (3-plane vic), BoB2 not having the nested commands enabling you to choose whether the order you want to give is to your wingman/section. to a particular flight, or to the whole squadron. And anyhow, it looked a bit late to recall anybody. Either I rejoined them, and pitched into the air fight behind, or I took the opportunity to carry on and come in behind the now possibly unescorted bombers. I considered briefly, then chose to carry on. Keeping a wary eye on my tail. I edged out towards the right of the mass of contrailing enemy aircraft, picking out the right-hand Stuka for my attack, from below and behind out of his gunner’s field of fire. As I closed in, I noticed that my chosen Stuka had neither fixed undercarriage nor cranked wings. I was closing in on a bunch of snappers – Me 109s to be precise. All on my own. Well they hadn’t seen me, so I decided I’d press on and try to clobber one of them before the rest woke up to what was going on. My target first knew I was behind and below him only when I pressed the t*t and let fly with a short burst at eight times a thousand rounds a minute. Evidently somewhat put out by this, the 109 broke down and right towards some clouds, with me hard on his heels. The cloud cover didn’t save him but it may have saved me from his friends, whose reaction I could not see. After some more hits, the 109 went down towards the North Sea minus a significant part of his outer right wing. No need to follow that one down, he’s out of the fight if not doomed. In the circumstances, it’s more important that I avoid target fixation. That need was sharply brought home when, looking around, I suddenly saw a falling Spitfire, just above and to my right, emitting gouts of burning fuel as down he went. I hadn’t seen any Spits to that point, nor did I see his attacker. Not wanting to be the next victim, I pulled up and broke hard right and towards the nearest clouds. Finding myself alone again, I pulled clear of the clouds. Heading south again, I saw ahead of me that the rest of 242 was still hotly engaged, about where I last saw them. I could still hear their radio calls, including a few reporting that they were pretty well out of fuel. They must have been my boys, as I think that in BoB2, as in Fighter Command at that period, it’s one squadron per radio net. But how could they possibly be low on fuel? Damaged, perhaps? Either way, hopefully they tried to get down onto terra firma somewhere, while they could. Catching a call for help, I raced over to the scene of the action; but broke hard when sharp plinking sounds indicated hits on my airframe, from an unseen 109 behind me. He must have been moving a lot faster because he promptly overshot me and turned left. With me now after him. I got a couple of good bursts into him before he drew out of range and saw what might have been his canopy fly off, before he too went down somewhere below. Again, on my own in a dangerous place, I had better things to do that try to confirm his fate. Soon after, I spotted a second lone 109 over on my left, headed towards the coast, and again tried to catch him. He was too far away and going too fast - I could not gain any ground. I don’t have manual engine control active, but nevertheless I was trying to keep my engine boost gauge in the red only for short periods, concerned at seeing my oil temps up near that gauge’s limit. Eventually the 109, now just a speck, joined up with three or four others headed south. Together, they disappeared into the upper reaches of a cloudbank and I grabbed this opportunity to take my leave of them. I levelled off and came back onto a northerly course, just out to sea, now much lower of course from where I’d started. Where was everybody? The airwaves seemed to have gone quiet, no more cries of ‘Shoot him!’ or calls for help. At this lower level, all this bloody cloud very much limited one’s field of view. Where indeed was everybody? After a bit, I spotted a bunch of distant specks, which looked to be the raid making its way back down to the south, perhaps a little diminished in numbers and with one machine trailing smoke. No point going after them, I was low on ammo and my concern now was for my boys. Time to order a recall, which I did. I orbited, but no-one showed up. A request to report in produced a response from Blue 2…then silence. ‘Go home’ I ordered, and then set my own course back to Coltishall, up to the north-west.It wasn’t a long flight but it gave me plenty of time to wonder what I had done with the rest of the Squadron. I made a careful half-circuit on arrival... ... and, as if in mockery of my recent, lamentable performance as a squadron leader, I made the best landing I had ever managed in BoB or BoB2, in which getting down without lots of rattling, bouncing and maybe even a nose-over is much more difficult than in about any other sim I have played. On the ground as I came in, I could see Blue 2, rolling very slowly towards the hangars amidst a cloud of smoke, with no help from the fire truck or blood wagon. So that was it, just two out of twelve had got back. Crikey! And all I’d got in return was a couple of Probables. The debrief confirmed we had lost ten aircraft and nine pilots, all for claims of three Destroyed and another three Damaged, all 109s. BoB2 provides other status reports and I consulted the Squadron Diary for 242, which added the shocking detail that we reckoned we'd been up against over a hundred 109s, more than seventy 110s (which I for one never even identified) and thirty Stukas. That’s a really big fighter escort, especially for such an early phase of the Battle – equal numbers of fighters and bombers might be more usual in July. No wonder we got hammered! Goodness knows what happened to the convoy. Worse still, a look at the overall summary of claims and losses (‘Review’) indicated that in the first three days – it was actually July 12th, not the 11th as I mentioned originally – we had lost over 120 fighters, nearly four times what we’d claimed shot down! Such extremes seem to indicate I had messed up more than merely running the campaign or a squadron. It’s as if I have invoked hidden AI skill settings so the Luftwaffe are all set to ‘Nazi Superman’, while the RAF are all at ‘English Nanny’ – a bad illustration perhaps since though unable to speak from experience, by repute one English nanny is a match for any number of supermen, Nazi or otherwise J Apparently older versions of BoB2 had a bug whereby 2d (campaign) results might not match what was experienced in 3d (flying), but that was fixed and seems not the issue here anyway. Odd things can happen if you load a campaign from an old version of Bob2 into a more recent one, which I don’t think I did, although I confess to restarting the campaign at least once, not following the manual’s advice on naming conventions when saving, and loading saves indiscriminately between the two default names offered (BoB and Savegame). Anyhow, disaster after days via massively lopsided losses not being commonly reported from players, there’s something amiss here which I will need to troubleshoot and fix. Perhaps deleting my saved campaign files and starting one afresh would be worth trying. I’ll make some enquiries over at A2A, before I resume campaigning. In the meantime, there is plenty for me to do flying BoB2’s historical and training missions. And as experienced players have advised, that’s really the best way to build up before you pitch into the deep end, actually flying the Battle itself.

De Havilland Vulture S.1 - No.17 Squadron, RAF Germany, 1969 De Havilland's submission to GOR.339 came from their Christchurch team under the leadership of W.A. Tamblin who proposed the De Havilland Vulture, a radical design featuring a variable incidence wing with podded Rolls-Royce RB.142R Medway turbofan engines. Tamblin's design was slightly smaller than most of the other submissions to GOR.339 and, apart from the variable incidence wing, it featured supersonic drop tanks and a bulged conformal belly tank to help it achieve the range requirement. In addition, De havilland's experience of 'buddy' refuelling techniques with the Sea Vixen were incorporated into their design from the outset and the company pitched a minimum change version at the Admiralty for carrier-based interception and strike. Air Ministry officials were delighted at De Havilland's claimed 70,000lb all-up-weight and with a general correlation between an aircraft's all-up-weight and cost their design soon became favourite to win the GOR.339 competition and in early 1959 they were awarded a contract for 220 aircraft for the RAF and 80 aircraft for the Royal Navy. Entering service in early 1968 with No.6 Squadron in the UK the aircraft soon spread it's wings to become the backbone of RAF Germany with the Vulture S.1 eventually replacing all remaining Canberra and Hunter squadrons and reaching a peak strength of eleven squadrons in RAF Germany by 1973. Nice One Cocas!

Excellent rendition! I love the more colorful one too, and great work on the others! Mandatory pic, WIP Donbass fighting...

My whack at turning Cocas's fantastic "Blackburn Shark F.1" back into a Me-262 HGIII. My first time re-texturing. I may try giving it some camo later.

This is a sneak preview of my airbase, I will try to do my best to have everything that airbase needs (hopefully all-new models) I just hope I will be able to complete it in the coming months.

Here is a CR-42 package for ETO use. It represents the CR-42's that were based in Belgium for a couple of months in late 1940. The date range is very tight, just the month of November, 1940. To avoid potential issues the nation name has been set to Nazi Germany. The skin looks "near finished" but is missing numbers on the right fuselage. [?] To keep the file size small, the Lods are not included. You will have to copy and paste the 4 Lods from the CR-42 linked on the first page. There is a very nice Italian Euro pilot included in this pack. Here it is: CR-42eto.7z On the hard drive I found a CR-42 model with bomb racks so will try and get that one sorted out next. Also a Gladiator Mk1 with multi lods and what looks like a finished skin.

Hello, Interesting drawing... Edit : http://www.pilotes-prives.fr/viewtopic.php?f=2&p=72931 http://bleriotxib.canalblog.com/archives/2009/02/12/12508832.html

There's a field "SF2 Installation Directory" in the "CAT File Access" field of the "Extra/Settings" tab of the LOD Viewer, than when it's set to your... drumroll... SF2 Installation Directory (that is, by default "C:/Program Files (x86)/ThirdWire/Strike Fighters 2" of course, and should be pre-set) and the checkbox is Enabled, allows the LOD Viewer to read LODs inside CAT files (for that you read not the LOD file obviously, but the main object INI, so for the A-1H, you'd read AH-1.INI using the LOD Viewer).

Have you added the FAC callouts to the Missionsummary ini?....

If there is no name, just write "Credit goes to the unknown guy"

... The Meteor family is growing !

Mod is soon to be released. It's not 100% perfect to my likings, so I might plan to update it in the future. Question; who made the SFP1 menu screens? I don't know who to credit. I know SFP1 is TK's property, but I want to credit the exact guy who made the screens, if possible.

That's what i was waiting for!

Thanks, but Gtrel's maps and Stephen1918's large stable of aircraft make the sim what it is today.

Brilliant!

Cool skins! Will they be made available for CUBA campaign?......................Hope so - Nice work! Mandatory pic & Credits: Thanks Wrench for the outstanding F-80C and Soulfreak for the fantastic skins! (tweeked for the F-80 'What If')

Hawker Siddeley Aviation Sirocco FG.1 - 893 Naval Air Squadron

if you want the LODs to work in both SF1/FE1 and SF2/FE2, export as ANSI. The NextGen series of game reads both with no issues. The only real differences are statements in the data inis, relating to flight models.

Tally Ho! Here we are, on a vector to the bandits. When I say 'we', I realise that I mean both 242 Squadron which I'm leading in LE-D, but also the chaps down below and to our right. The eagle-eyed will have noticed that these Hurricanes carry larger fin flashes and fuselage roundels - and different squadron codes: GN, indicating they are from 249 Squadron. I had thought from the campaign map when I took over 242 that we were on our own, ahead of the pack of three or so squadrons scrambled to intercept the raid on the convoy off Folkestone. Must pay a bit more attention to that map in future, I told myself, like pausing and zooming in (to uncover markers hidden beneath other markers). Before I jump into the hot seat. The BDG manual does recommend that when taking over a flight about to hit contact, you pause the game once in the 3d to re-orient yourself. In fact there's a setting that does that by default. As with any new sim, I have a lot to learn, perhaps more than most as, like Steel Armour - Blaze of War, BoB2's sim-within-a-wargame approach repays taking time to learn the greater number of ropes. Not jumping straight in, like me. My first inkling that this very lesson was going to be mercilessly drummed into me came when I got my first clear view of the raid, coming up from the south. Gave me a right good sense of what Dowding's boys felt like, that did; scrambled in individual squadrons to intercept raids of a hundred or more. Yes there were almost certainly others on their way but the sense of being outnumbered was brought home with a bit of a shock, when I saw that little lot up there. OK I've got a fully functional rear view mirror, but do I miss the dynamic shadows or higher-res cockpit textures of more modern sims? They're nice to have, but no, not really. As in IL2 '46, you have much more pressing things to be aware of and indeed, appreciate. Not least the 'Now, THAT'S what I call a raid!' moments, coupled with the sense that you are not fighting in the Minor Skirmish of Britain. Much more important. For a while, I flew dumbly on. There was Jerry, and there was I, wondering what the Hell to do about it. For a while, I couldn't think of anything better to do, than take some more screenshots. So that's what I did. While I climbed hard and watched this armada go sailing past on a reciprocal course, up above us. Wisely, 249 seemed to have decided to do something different, for they were gone. Straight home, if they had any sense. I was fearful of being bounced of course, but I recalled enough of my WW2 air combat tactics to know that turning in under a higher enemy to force him to make a head on-steeply diving pass was a defence in this situation. Here, I didn't even need to turn. But no attack came. Perhaps wisely, Jerry resisted the temptation and ploughed on. Feeling a bit less scared, and still climbing, I began to lead 242 around and after them. Soon, we were coming up behind the beggars, still with a bit of catching up to do. The Huns looked like single seaters, possibly Stukas, but likely also with 109s for escort. Very likely, since I could see some contrails peeling off to the left of the main formation. Probably snappers (fighters) turning to come in on us from abeam or astern. It was at this point that I finally had to admit to myself that I had not practiced nearly enough squadron-leading using the BoB2 radio command system. This is different but quite sophisticated, coupled as it is with what they call an 'auto vectoring' AI which aids control - after giving certain combat orders, you can actually hear yourself on the R/T translating that into some sort of drill or tactical response, which might be 'Pick your own targets - there's dozens of them!' Or something a bit more sophisticated. But of course I had read and dabbled, but not practiced sufficiently. So I basically ordered a free for all, and that's what I got. ...to be continued!

If I understand you correctly, just install the Max2009 export module per instructions. That should be all you need. I use the export module for MaxR9 and have exported models for both FE2 and SF2 without any problems.

Worked on the skin somewhat

Thanks for the link, love to learn this curious facts about aviation history. Maybe the drawing I posted is a bit colorized in order to be more attractive? On the drawing you can see the VA-34 markings on the tail not completely covered, so the blue is still visible, same for black numbers in the nose, and even the canopy is painted blue! Also the grey used is much darker so it gives the impression of being painted more crudely lol. Mandatory screen: Refugee extraction mission...

Forging ahead My first flight in SF2 since 2017!

Experimenting with winter camo

You should look for a place to land right after takeoff or have a personal refueler on the way to your targets. ;)

but 1% will be extremely happy and will appreciate (even virtually) but still will appreciate. And thanks in advance!

It's been a while... and I still get that tingly feeling in my trousers when I do some toying around...

'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!

A couple from the 1940-41 East African terrain, a Savoia-Marchetti SM.81 and a Vickers Wellesley:

This sim never ceases to surprise me. I have never before been able to make a two-point landing, but here it is, a Bf-110C with one main wheel shot off, in North Africa:

Hi All. I made new skins for this amazing bird (A-4 version). Thank you torno.