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Shadow Rhino

Iron Eagle II..................

Another update beard and mustache are there but not in the screenshot. I think I need to make the head a little bit bigger.

Sierra Hotel

War Journal – Lieutenant David Armstrong Hawkwood 23 Squadron, Royal Flying Corps Izel-lès-Hameau, France Part 28 "Quite by accident, we ended up alongside the Halberstadt and King hit it for six." By the beginning of August 1916, the first phase of the Somme push was over. Now high command directed a series of limited offensive actions, sometimes involving as few as one or two battalions. Our line would be pushed forward a few hundred yards here and a few hundred yards there at great cost. It was obvious that we intended to secure better jumping-off spots for a second great push. For us in 23 Squadron, this phase required day after day of photo reconnaissance shows. Meanwhile, the Hun beefed up his resistance in the air. We now met enemy aircraft about every second day. There were nearly as many of the new Halberstadt scouts in our sector as Fokker monoplanes. One or two of the lads had even encountered a new type of rotary-engined biplane whose appearance suggested it was built by Fokker. Price was promoted captain on 4 August and left to command a flight at 11 Squadron, taking with him his American observer, Sergeant Libby. 6 August began like any other day. King and I were excused duty in the morning thanks to a dense ground mist. We went up in the afternoon, shortly after two, bound for another photographic job around Flers, north of the river. Lieutenant Cochran and his Canadian observer, Sergeant Wells, flew with us. We climbed to 7000 feet before crossing the lines and turning south to our objective, a new trench line in a secondary defence position. Archie was noticeably lighter than normal and I circled about to ensure that no air Huns were hiding in the sun. King leaned over his camera and I began our first pass. A few greasy black puffs erupted with their deep “woof,” but they disturbed us only with a light jostle. We turned about and made a second pass from south to north. That done, King signalled for one more pass and I circled about until I was once again heading south. No sooner had King hunched over his camera than a yellow Halberstadt biplane appeared directly ahead and slightly above us. I did not wait for King’s signal this time but pulled the old Fee about in a sharply banked left hand turn. Poor old King gripped the side of the nacelle for dear life and turned to face me. I could not hear him over the engine, but his face suggested he was commenting on my mental inferiority and low birth. I pointed off to our left, where I suspected the Hun was turning to get behind us. Moments later King swung his Lewis gun about and began firing. The German machine now came into view. Instead of turning beneath us, the enemy pilot had made a serious error and tried to dive away. We dived beneath his tail, King finishing his first drum and quickly slapping on a second. The HA began to smoke and headed east. Cochran and Wells appeared off to our left, but King and I were closer to the stricken Hun. The second drum from the Lewis gun did the trick. King fired two long bursts. The German put his nose up, hung for second in the air, and fell, tumbling unsteadily and growing smaller and smaller until it disappeared in a bright flash just behind the enemy’s third line trenches. We returned with a number of good photographic plates and with Cochran able to confirm the fallen HA. At last we had our first confirmed victory in the air and only the third to date for the squadron. We had a proper gay and hearty in the mess that night. Kincaid was the musician of the lot and he wrung whatever music was in from our ancient and none too healthy piano. We sang all the standbys, including “Mademoiselle from Armentieres” with the requisite lines… The Kaiser’s up in an aeroplane, parlez vous, The Kaiser’s up in an aeroplane, parlez vous, The Kaiser’s up in an aeroplane. I hope he never comes down again. Inky, dinky, etc. Buckingham produced a top hat from somewhere and did a music hall turn. He sang “Lily of Laguna,” “If It Wasn’t for the ‘Ouses In Between,” and “Don’t Dilly Dally on the Way.” A splendid time was had by all. Captain Wyllie, however, seem to put out. I stood him a drink as the evening wound down. He and Major Ross-Hume were still butting heads and he suggested that the Major saw King and me as two of “Wyllie’s boys,” and was not appropriately enthusiastic about our success. He confided that he was due for transfer to Home Establishment, as was I, and thought it might be high time for the two of us to be moving on. I told him that I did not see that happening while the push was on. In honesty, I have felt for some time that a change of scenery was due. On 9 August, we had another exciting day. Once again our attempt to photograph a section of the lines near Flers was interrupted by several Huns. At first there were only two Fokkers. King and I were alone this time. But the Fee can handle itself in a scrap with Fokkers and I was able to chase off one and catch the other in turn. King was splendid with the machine gun, and we last saw the Fokker falling vertically and streaming thick black smoke. Our rejoicing was cut short by the sudden appearance of a cloud of Fokkers mixed with Halberstadt scouts. I put the nose down and ran in the direction of home. King stood and gripped the rear-facing Lewis gun. He did not begin to fire, and from this I deduced that the Huns were still out of range. King’s leather coat was flapping loudly in my face, whipped by the one hundred mile an hour wind. I pulled at his coat and motioned for him to sit down, shouting that he was only slowing us down. King slipped off a mitt and held up all five fingers and then showed three fingers. He mouthed the word “eight.” Eight Huns! As we crossed our lines and passed south of Arras at 3500 feet, I half stood and looked backwards over the engine. I am in the habit of fastening my safety belt very loosely so I can do this. Three Halberstadts were following about 400 yards behind. The other five machines had turned away or were in the process of doing so. We continued in a long shallow dive toward our aerodrome at Le Hameau. Uncharacteristically, the Hun machines followed us all the way west. A French squadron had recently taken up residence across the field from Le Hameau next to the farm called Filescamp. They had installed several anti-aircraft guns and machine guns around the field and I hoped that they could provide some assistance. I passed above Le Hameau at 500 feet and, hearing the French Archie at Filescamp come into action, I turned about to meet our three pursuers. King fired a short burst into the first two to approach. We turned about and got a second crack at one of them. Now these two chaps decided to leave for more friendly territory and abandoned their colleague to us. The remaining HA was painted a dark brown with a large letter “B” on its side. Quite by accident, we ended up alongside the Halberstadt and King hit it for six. The French Archie did not let up and shells were bursting all around us. King fired again and the German machine began to smoke. We followed it about a mile to the east. King gave him another fifteen or twenty rounds from close range. The Halberstadt dropped its left wings and slid downward, hitting a wood and breaking apart. We landed minutes later and a small crowd assembled around our machine. King held up two fingers and led the way to the squadron office. We made our report to the RO. The Major listened impassively and nodded when we were done. “Keep it up, lads,” he said. At dinner, the RO informed us that the Fokker we had claimed remained unwitnessed and unconfirmed, even though it was clearly seen to be fatally damaged. I suggested that a decision to leave the claim unconfirmed was an unwarranted stain on our honour. He glanced in the direction of the Major and said there was nothing to be done for it. As for the Halberstadt that lay scarcely a mile and a half away, credit for that victory had gone to the French Archie gunners. I was more than a little disgusted.

has this unit ever been represented (as a F-16 user) in any flight sim?

thanks guys , I did look up the F-4E(F) Air Superiority Fighter (Luftwaffe) and it just removed the rear seat and pilot....my solution was to use FakePilot as the backseater.

SitRep: I made some progress with creating airfield files which put the parked aircrafts on correct positions. Here the flightline of Petriwka Airfield and the parking area for transport planes at the same base:

easiest method will be to add a black decal to the canopy itself. same method as on the airframe, get your mesh name and location from lodviewer when you do it, you can just use a small 12x12 tga filled to the borders. while usually bad form in making decals, it works when you are coloring a whole part like a ECM blister or maybe a canopy. the color to the edges will bleed and cover the whole mesh. mandatory screenie. not a upcoming project, just something different

Con la Diana sul petto

Thats a good idea. And done.

because that trick no longer works in SF2

Don't know what I'm doing wrong but it appears to work on LOD viewer but then not in game??

mind you, the original skin was good. just on the wrong model.

You will surely have realized, that in the two Beta versions the parked planes were parking somewhere on the gras. I'm now working on this subject and creating airfield files with correct placement for parked planes. Its a puzzle job and will need some time.

you and me really need to talk id say you got the newer markings and i've got the older ones, except i did do both since there was a little over a year seperation between the two styles also, theres new ADFs coming at months end. B model and A model w/o the tractor beam that was on what i originally worked with did you put your Buccaneer head on skin or as tga? frankly, i should have gone tga myself, it was a PITA gettin him squared up on each side and each aircraft! (dammit, gotta fix that rescue mark on the B. number 93 on the list now.....)

short time user...

aaaand back to the 90 again

very nice, and the Spad bird on the bottom got me to catch a hiccup (wrong tail feather texture) when i went to go double take on it and mine! but your going for this century, im repping the 90s. so we're good for tonight, i'll take it out further west

Some Texas Vipers

everything dies baby thats a fact but maybe everything that dies, someday comes back put your makeup on, fix your hair up pretty.... (this after i sayin no the skin thats out there will be fine. just do serials....)

WIP

ok folks, i cant be the only one here flyin Vipers in SF2 i mean, unless someone is playin it in the White House, where else you gonna see these guys?