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Preview of things coming up for the ver. 9.7 FM update pack...the Roland D.6a FM has now been overhauled, will also do one for a D.6b (Benz-powered). Siemens-Schuckert D.III also now overhauled, and what an interceptor it is. Will also do an OAW and/or mid-cycle variant of the Fokk. D.VII (since we don't have one and it was the most prevalent of the Fokk. D.VII types, with the 180hp Mercedes au engine...should be around 195-6 kph top speed on that one)...and also will go over the Aviatik (first-generation) and Italian variant that Stephen posted recently, and the Anatra C.1. Ver. 9.7 will also include a newer FM for the Caproni bomber, plus a Halb. D.III variant (FM) of Geezer's Halb. D.V, and other modifications such as of the Longhorn and Shorthorn to reflect more realistic climb rates on those. The Sikorsky S-16 (version 3) and Pomilio FMs I'll leave for a later, ver. 10.0 of the update packs, including some two-seaters that I never got to so far. Happy flying gents, Von S

Greek Thunderchief over Cyprus, 1974

While testing Faroer terrain. MiG-17K squadron strikes british carrier A couple of hits with S-24 rockets sunk the ship. Further bomb attacks on escort vessels were not realy successfull Thatswhy the strike group headed home to the own carrier Home again

The N21 above includes a Lewis gun installation. Attached are the pdf artwork files, plus templates. N21 Art & Templates.rar

Geezer, It is great to have you back after your period of absence. Greatly appreciate all your efforts towards making FE and FE2 some of the most impressive abandonware on the planet. Someone way brighter than I said: "Better a diamond with a flaw, than a pebble with none". I guess he was saying everything reaches a point of diminishing returns. Most importantly, do what you enjoy. Thanks again.

Any real world professional knows that perfection is impossible, which is why - at some point - it is necessary to say "that's good enough." I've been slowly rebuilding my old files, as I had to clear my HD to make way for a contract job. Attached is a Russian Nieuport 21 armed with a Lewis gun, that needs file work to run ingame. Nieuport_21 Lewis Gun.rar EDIT: Crawford - I realize you have good intentions. I'm not trying to piss you off, because I appreciate your help. You must understand that I am busy with the Bleriot and interruptions disrupt my production flow.

Affirmative

Just a quick note to fellow FE/FE2 simmers that the data ini file located in the Nieu21 pack on page 18 (link is https://combatace.com/forums/topic/91066-new-aircraft/?page=18&tab=comments#comment-747561) may or may not be interchangeable with Geezer's Nieu21Lewis mod for the Russ. N21. The relevant data ini to try out with Geezer's N21Lewis Russ. model is the one located in the "N21DuxLewis" folder of the post on page 18. That one is my latest data ini from Sept. of 2018, while the one in Geezer's N21 Lewis folder is from June of 2018. It's possible that the "N21DuxLewis" uses the same aircraft files since, from a quick check of the lods/outs, they are dated July 13, 2018 in both that pack and Geezer's post. EDIT: Have now tested the files...Geezer's post contains the latest skin folder for the N21Dux...two variants work well therefore...either replace your old Russian skin folder in the N21DuxLewis folder with Geezer's skin folder, or rename his Nieuport_21 aircraft folder to N21DuxLewis and drop in the data ini and general ini files from the N21DuxLewis folder available on page 18 of this thread...results should be the same and will give you the latest variant of the N21 Dux Lewis-armed...pic included below (don't forget to include Stephen's Lewis gun in your Pilots folder as per instructions on page 18 for this to work). Happy flying, Von S LATEST EDIT: Recommended is to download the "consolidated" file posted below (page 25) in this thread, for all of the latest updates to Geezer's aircraft that were released on pages 17, 18, and 23 of this thread.

Ilyushin Il-28 Beagle - Grupo 1 de Bombardeo, Fuerza Aérea Argentina, 1961

This is what I have completed for the AB, some of the models Ideas are from the net and the other from the Kuwaiti AB that I am working near.

The gentlemen versus the players versus the Germans! Until a few days ago, having no interest in multiplayer, I had steered cleared of Cliffs of Dover. Until recently, I didn't have a system anywhere near the minimum spec of the current version on Steam, the Team Fusion 'Blitz Edition' (although it turns out to run smoothly, so far, at good-looking settings on a 1.5Gb GTX580, a lot less that the minimum 4Gb stated). So, how come this mission report? Well despite reports of poor AI, broken radio commands and limited single player content, I got it cheap enough to mitigate the limited satisfaction which I was resigned to expecting. First forays with my new toy confirmed the presence of several things I didn't like. Dispersion of effort into planes with little or no role in the Battle of Britain proper, which must be at the expense of something. Hedgerows replaced with 'tree-rows' and rather strong terrain colours (if not as cartoon-y as early versions). Over-weathered Hurricanes looking like ex-Japanese Army Airforce stock. Reasonable levels of radio traffic, but with some howlers like the boss being described as the Commander, instead of the Leader. Radio comms menu present but seemingly, much of it non-functional. Key commands a chore to set up, partly thanks to confusing duplicate labels in the settings table. Aircraft very hard to spot, without labels. RAF squadron codes vary from unit to unit, but are in too round a font. And that was before finding out whether the doubtless delectable but totally silly Spitfire Girl was still lurking in the wings (pun intended). However... ...if you can get over some quirks, the visuals are pretty good, especially the cockpits, and as I said performance was surprisingly smooth. I tried a few of the included single missions for the RAF, and found them passable fun, again apart from some more quirks mentioned here. So I decided to have a look at the current CloD single-player campaign, despite not having every last key properly set up, and in particular not having worked out how CloD's padlock works (I use mouselook but don't like head tracking systems). I soon found that the SP campaign is for an RAF fighter pilot, and apparently consists of a set of scripted missions, of unknown number so far. They have imaginatively-written briefings, which remind me of the best to be found in user-made campaigns for IL-2 '46, such as Blinding Sun and Faltspinman's Willi Jedermann series. Except that the briefings, creative though they be, are in some places bit twee - how do you say it in the US, 'cheesy'? The back-story is that you are a working class boy, or perhaps lower middle class, recently signed up in the RAF and posted to your Hurricane squadron, which is based at Tangmere, close to the Channel coast, at about the time the Battle of France ends. Your squadron is fictitious, but nicknamed the Fat Cats Squadron, because its pilots are basically rich kids. In this respect it sounds a bit like 501 Squadron, Royal Auxiliary Air Force, which really was like that, being known as 'the millionaire's squadron'. In this CloD equivalent, the first briefing puts you firmly in your place, socially-speaking. But you are taken under the wing of a friendly flight commander with a similar 'limited background' to yourself, also from the Manchester area, a 'northerner' not a proper chap from the jolly old Home Counties. Your first mission with this less than friendly lot involves a scramble against a sudden, low-level raid by three Dornier 215 bombers which catches you on the ground, followed closely by a larger wave of maybe another nine. Second time up, you are scrambled to protect a Channel convoy against an attack by a large-ish bunch of Stukas, apparently unescorted. There are some screnies and brief notes on both missions in the post linked to above. Tolerably good, I found both, and the briefings link the missions together quite well. This report is from mission number three. The briefing begins with you and your friendly flight commander having a rather sad bitching session about the toffs who won't accept the likes of you and he into their circle, and ends when he breaks off to point out a damaged German bomber he's just spotted, apparently making for the coast on its own, in an effort to get back to France. 'Our planes are ready to go, let's go get him and orders be dammed!' is the gist of what he says next. So here we are. The mission has loaded and I'm sitting, engine running (no complex engine management mouseclick madness for me), in FC-A, with my new-found friend-for-life the flight commander in FC-M. The Fat Cats probably have personalised number plates on their MGs and Aston Martins, so I suppose it's no wonder they have their own fictional squadron code. The grass colours are really a bit dark but the airfield detail, as you can see, is fairly decent. It includes moving vehicles, notably some idiot racing around at about 50 MPH in a fifteen hundredweight truck or the like, fortunately well clear of any aircraft. Probably, it's some bored fat cat whose MG is in for a service. But where is the Hun? No-where to be seen, is the answer, so, slightly deflated, I wait for something to happen. ...to be continued!

Just completed a low poly D-30 to add to the MT-LB model. I just need to make some ammo boxes to put on top of the MT-LB. I will have the D-30 as a separated model too.

Rusty, I don't have Win 10, but I have heard of few people having difficulty with it and IL-2 1946. Other older games seem to have various incompatibilities. Perhaps you should look through 33Lima's recent reviews of BoBII. Not only are they very entertaining in themselves, but he describes how he installed a seperate Win 7 boot into his Win 10 pc at very little cost, enabling him to have the best of both worlds.

Home...and tea! This was the last time I saw Picket, my friendly flight leader, shortly after the Heinkel went down. Had I turned on labels, I might have been able to keep track of him, but I didn't, probably because I haven't yet set up or memorised all the important keystrokes. Anyhow I knew roughly were I was in relation to our airfield, so I turned around in a wide sweep which took me away from the coast and then back to the west, slightly further inland than I judged base to be, so I could pick it up visually to port. This is what the inflight map looked like, fully zoomed out, during this manoeuvre. I'm not sure Gatwick deserves to be so prominently marked on it, as it was probably an insignificant village with a small commercial airfield in 1940. Tangmere being a grass airfield it wasn't the easiest to pick out at the low level at which I was flying, but I eventually spotted it, having slowed down and opened the canopy - which I see is common practice in multiplayer, for better visibility. Tut, tut. I usually land (and take off) from the external view - yes I know, tut, tut - but the lack of peripheral vision and the limits of MonitorVision make precise judging of height unpleasantly difficult, unlike the handful of Cessnas I have actually flown, where you could always pop open the flimsy little door, lean over a bit and look down (only kidding but you get my point). At this juncture, while sticking to the external view, I decided to do something different. Apparently WW2 fighter pilots often landed off a curving approach, so they could keep the landing ground in view the whole time, rather than lose it under the long nose during a conventional approach. So that's what I decided to to. Somebody had come up on the R/T telling me to join the circuit, which sort of thing I normally try to do since taking those flying lessons. But this time, I looked to be in a decent position to go straight in and my speed was already low enough to drop the undercart and commence my approach. So that's what I did. For a while, my first landing off a curved approach seemed to be going tolerably well, although not having done it before, it was hard to be sure. What caught me out in the end was pausing to take pictures and not picking up smoothly where I'd left off. So I bounced badly, failed to catch her in time, plonked down heavily and after a few more wobbles, pitched slowly over onto my back. Ooops! This seems to be the standard form of a CloD 'debriefing'. It looks like I'm getting the credit for the Heinkel, and that both Hurricanes were written off. How the boss's kite came to grief, I have no idea. However, looking at the results screen, it seems the show was rated as a win for the good guys. Even if Terry Tweed, the stuck-up squadron leader, was still clearly not best pleased. And the 'lawn chairs' should really be called 'deck chairs' (although I daresay pilots used whatever they could get hold off). Will future missions stay small scale, or will I see something more in line with the scale of the real Battle? If so, will my PC still be able to take the strain? Will duff AI let down the whole thing, especially when we meet the escorts? Will I become exasperated by the gaps in the comms menus? Will the storyline continue to hold my interest? I'm going to play on, so I'll find out in due course. So far, having started with the expectation that I'm not going to get a Battle of Britain experience as comprehensive or as authentic as BoB2, and not having been out a lot of money, I'm quite liking the experience and have found a couple more SP campaigns I may try. Incidentally, I see there's a pic in the Haynes 'Owner's Workshop Manual' for the Hurricane of a MkIIa, Z2487, coded FC-T, which the caption says is from the Station Flight at RAF Northolt in 1941; while Wikipedia says squadron code FC was carried by the same flight but from Kenley. At any rate, the code is not entirely fictional. That book and the excellent 'Gun Button to Fire' by 249 Squadron BoB Hurri pilot Tom Neil I have been encouraged to pick up through flying the virtual Hurricane in BoB2 and now concurrently in CloD. Tom, who was credited with no less than 13 victories during the Battle, including six 109s, passed away during 2018 and so this mission report is humbly and respectfully dedicated to him, and to all his comrades in RAF Fighter Command. Per ardua ad astra

I bought the updated Steam version a while back because it was cheap and I understood it was largely fixed compared to the original release. The graphics are nice. I like the plane set. For me, it is the one reason to fly CoD. The Beaufighter and Blenheim aren't flyable in any recent and/or mainstream WW2 combat flight sims. But I will hardly ever fly it. There are simply too many available options that are better, both newer and older.

Up and at 'em! After a bit, an interesting conversation developed on the airwaves between my flight leader and the CO, as you can see from the on-screen text. Must see if there's a way to zap this, or at least confine it to a single line, like you can do with a conf.ini edit in IL-2 '46. After a while, thinking that the Heinkel would be well away by the time we got off, I quit waiting for my boss to stop chatting and start flying, and took off on my own. The take-off itself reminds me, in general feel, of the original sim. I climbed away coastwards, wondering how the boss had spotted the Hun when I could not, but thinking that was the most likely direction in which he lay. You might just be able to make out the other Hurricane on the grass strip, towards the far end on the right. Incidentally I really like the engine and other sounds in CloD, though the R/T chatter is a bit low-volume with default settings. Why there is such a visible strip on a grass airfield, I'm not sure. In fact, come to think of it, there was a concrete runway in one of the two previous missions - here it is, in case you don't believe me... Perhaps we had changed bases, and I hadn't paid enough attention. Anyway, off I went. As you can see, my kite has the bulbous Rotol constant speed airscrew spinner which was designed for the Spitfire, with a backplate slightly too big in diameter for the Hurricane (the later Hurricane Rotol spinner, fitted to later MkIs and the MkII and onward, is the more elongated, bullet-shaped one). DeHaviland two-speed props had smaller, pointy spinners, the Spit version also being a bit big for the Hurri. CloD seems to model Spit Rotol and Hurricane DH props ie you can choose a plane with either. I flew out to sea for a bit... ...but seeing nothing, I decided that something was amiss. So I turned on the in-flight mini-map and noticed my 'flight plan' lay in the opposite direction. I swung around, speeded up and finally, well off to the east-north-east of Tangmere (and well beyond my flight-leader's legitimate range of vision, which must be Superman-class) I finally spotted him getting stuck into the Heinkel. That's him, zooming after an attack from astern. I would have missed them both had I not got aircraft icons turned on, in the mini-map. Calling Control for an enemy vector is one of the few things in the CloD Blitz comms menu that seems to work, but I haven't yet figured out such basics as whether the bearing he gives you is relative to your heading, or absolute, from North. So I opened the throttle and had a pop at the Hun. The boss had survived making a stern attack, and so did I. Gunnery seems not too hard but there's more smoke than tracer, besides which my rounds seemed to be consistently going high, so perhaps I need to adjust the range setting on my reflector sight, or learn to use it better. Anyhow I got some hits, seeing pieces fly off, which is always a good sign. But on the Hun flew. As I wheeled around for another attack, my boss made his next one. Then it was my turn again. The enemy air gunners were no snipers, though I think I heard one hit on my machine. But a bit of jinking as I came in - not all of which was deliberate - seemed to keep me from serious harm. As I was coming in for my third pass, I saw the boss make one from dead ahead... ...shortly after which, I clobbered Jerry from behind again. Note the additional bits flying. Surely that must be it, I thought. And so it was. When I Iooked back, the Heinkel had gone, down amongst some trees, but with no particular sign of a crash. Strange, like the wreck and any trace of it had 'de-spawned' almost instantly, faster even than they do in Rise of Flight. Oh well, job done. Now, back to Tangmere, to find out if our upper crust squadron leader would forgive us our youthful indiscretion. ...to be continued!

Flight test from the HMS Eagle !

Yes and not. Not everywhere. Polish Air Force (as part of Warsaw Pact) used part of the serial number as aircraft number. For example, 761901 - 1901 last four digits. It indicates Mig 21 PF tac no 1901 76 is - 'product 76' - Izdeliye76 - factory designation of Mig-21PF 1901 is production number - so in Polish service, it was numbered 1901 on the fuselage. Only first batch of MiG-21F-13 used last three digits. (I think 12 airframes) So for MiG-21 all serial numbers were constructed that way type number and production number usually, it looked like this : (example) MiG21F-13 - 74_ _ _ _ MiG21MF - 96A_ _ _ _ MiG-21PF - 76_ _ _ _ MiG-21PFM - 94A _ _ _ MiG-21R - 94R _ _ _ MiG-2PFM-N - 94N - - - but there are some exceptions for subtypes mostly U/Um/US versions things get complicated here but it is also standardized. Usually adding some dedicated prefix for the subtype. On Su-7 Polish Air force used two/three last digits of production number as aircraft tactical number - example Su-7BKL - S22KL 7806 - tac number 806 on a fuselage. MiG-1P is type izdeliye62 62210721 - side number 721... and so on... every aircraft in Soviet factory had its own designation / serial number - system is simple but encoding units based on tactical number might be hard. Finding serial number based on side number even harder. Although over the years the system is getting more complex. Enoc are you aiming in some particular aircraft or generally soviet.

Hunter over the Shetlands. (Faroe Islands terrain WIP)

This was only bulgarian. The soviets does not need such "maskirovka". In all squadrons with red tactical numbers were "red 10" or "red 12" planes. There were so many "red 10s" in the USSR that it would be enough to confuse the NATO analysts. The NATO developed a methode to analyse the numbers in size and distance between the digits. So it was possible to identify a single plane with a certain accuracy. BTW, the 2 digit tactical numbers were introduced during or short after the Korea War. In the time before the last 3 digits of the product identification number was used as tactical number. In my old military service the tactical number was given out randomly. It was no logical system in it. It could happen, that the number was used twice. As long the planes or helicopters were operated by different units it was no problem. Only when two planes with the same number came to the same unit one plane was renumbered. I know, that i have everywhere in my archiv an article about the soviet tactical number system. It was from early 90th. Perhaps i find it.

Adjusted the tints of the colors to simulate a vintage look. May fool around a bit more, but it is close to a balance between "accurate" color and atmospheric color.

It's been a while since I worked on the Caudron, and I forgot to delete two objects that should not have been part of the game LOD1. Below is new LOD1 that deletes the unwanted objects. On my rig, flying in FE2, the ventral gun does not display. 1-25-19 Caudron_R11.rar

The Devil & The Lightning

Attached is an updated Sea Gladiator FM. This includes some updates that were made to the Gladiator Mk1. One of the new things is a fixed pitch propeller advance table that I've been testing. It gives more realistic take off acceleration and presumably more realistic climb rates but I haven't checked that. Someone who knows told me the game over models propeller thrust at low speeds so I really don't pay much attention to climb rates. Hopefully, careful attention to engine tables and drag values make the prop FM's OK in a relative sense. The prop advance tables I included with the CR-32 and Gladiator Mk1 have a mistake so you may want to copy and paste the one from the Sea Gladiator. Here's what I'm talking about, in the engine section: PropEfficiencyAdvanceRatioTableNumData=17 PropEfficiencyAdvanceRatioTableDeltaX=0.1 PropEfficiencyAdvanceRatioTableStartX=0.0 PropEfficiencyAdvanceRatioTableData=0.041,0.183,0.348,0.468,0.554,0.616,0.684,0.742,0.763,0.781,0.797,0.870,0.870,0.870,0.702,0.457,0.000 Here's the updated Sea Gladiator FM: Sea_Gladiator_DATA0.95.zip Also, a link to a "no catapult take off" mod I did for the HMS Eagle: https://combatace.com/forums/topic/88913-hms-eagle-free-take-off-mod/?tab=comments#comment-718143

A Few Thoughts About ORBAT... I feel before I head into bed, I should write a bit about Order of Battle or ORBAT. With the possible exception of some Tu-22M3s... the below will be the Russian forces I use from WikiPedia... RUSSIAN AIR FORCE: 11th Air and Air Defence Forces Army (Khabarovsk) (Eastern Military District) 11th Aerospace Defense brigade (Komsomolsk-na-Amur) 12th Aerospace Defense brigade (Vladivostok) 6983rd aviation base (Komsomolsk-on-Amur Airport, Khabarovsk Krai) (Su-27SM, Su-30M2, Su-35S, Su-34) 6988th aviation base (Khurba, Khabarovsk Krai) (Su-24M, Su-24M2, Su-24MR) 6989th aviation base (Vladivostok International Airport) (Su-27SM) 265th transport aviation base (Khabarovsk) 4th Air and Air Defence Forces Army – Southern Military District (former 4th and 5th Armies of VVS and PVO) (Rostov-on-Don) RUSSIAN NAVAL AVIATION: Pacific Fleet Air Force – HQ Vladivostok 568th Independent Composite Aviation Regiment – HQ at Mongokhto - operating Tu-22M3, Tu-142MR/MZ; 865th Interceptor Aviation Regiment – HQ at Yelizovo-Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky Airport - MiG-31; 317th Composite Air Regiment – HQ at Yelizovo - Tu-142; 71st Independent Military Transport Air Squadron – HQ at Nikolayevka, Primorskaya - An-12, An-24, An-26; 175th Independent Shipborne Anti-submarine Helicopter Squadron – HQ at Yelizovo - Ka-27; 289th Independent Anti-submarine Air Regiment – HQ at Nikolayevka - Il-38, Ka-27, Ka-29; RUSSIAN PACIFIC FLEET: # Type Name Class Year 011 Cruiser Varyag Slava 1989 543 Destroyer Marshal Shaposhnikov Udaloy I 1985 564 Destroyer Admiral Tributs Udaloy I 1985 572 Destroyer Admiral Vinogradov Udaloy I 1988 548 Destroyer Admiral Panteleyev Udaloy I 1991 715 Destroyer Bystryy Sovremennyy 1989 333 Corvette Sovershennyy Steregushchy 2017 335 Corvette Gromky Steregushchy 2018 IF any of you have better ORBAT than WikiPedia, I'm all ears. Please advise sooner rather than later - remember my V1 due date is 25 March 2019 (helps when there's two late March events I'm attending and I need a good chunk of April to edit photos). Now obviously, I'm not going to include all these units on the assumption they all can't be there and clearly any competent military commander would want to save some ships, some aircraft for future skirmishes like when the JMSDF showed up in force. I'm also of the view the first attack will be premeditated, as Putin waits for a convenient casus belli to pick a fight with his neighbors. A few Japanese commercial ships that decided to hug the Kuril Islands hiding from a big but intermittent storm on their great circle route provoking a Su-30M2 (which you can get here) response which would prompt F-15Js (which you can get here) sitting northern Hokkaido alert would suffice... Oh and one last thing, I know it's tempting to try to write into the script US Forces either USN, USMC or USAF going rogue to honour treaties to help Japan out kinetically - but I think that would take away from the simulation and even if not, be highly difficult to predict. Plus take the focus away from the JASDF to the rogue US unit/s and by doing so turn this from wargaming into a Dale Brown novel (and I love Dale Brown novels!) with Megafortresses on the tarmac: Just figured some of you might want to see what's coming - and yes, you will get to take on the Varyag and Su-27SMs too. With that, another screenshot of what actually will 100% be in the single mission pak: Being my goal is realism, sorry to say the F-35A will be spare & rare in the 2020 mission pak. Used more as a Designated Hitter rather than a utility player like the F-15Js.

Relámpago Español

Boeing F-112J Thunderstrike - VMFA-232, United States Marine Corps, 1972

trainings mission at the range

Walleye II "Fat Albert" at the Range

Hunter over the Shetlands (Faeroer terrain WIP). Final approach Some second to tochdown at Tingwall Airfield (Shetlands)

'no guns' nose.

Looking to fill the aggressor requirement for USAF ,USN and possibly NATO customers , private companies investigated the purchase of modified JF-17 Thunder fighters . The US government agreed to the private purchase on condition that a US engine and avionics were fitted,and that no "live" weapons could be carried . The modified jet was known as the A-17 .

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Wild Seuld

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The battle of bulge continue...

amariani - simply marvellous. my dumb question: which is the best way to include pictures ? it used to be to link to photbucket ... thx for advice sokol