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On base....... Sooo many new buildings, vehicles etc, I use hardly any stock objects anymore. At least by building my own you can get everything at the correct scale....some of the stock buildings are way off.

Advanced derivative of the original lightweight fighter with an afterburner giving supersonic top speed and 4 weapons pylons...pictured are the prototype and company demonstrator.

and 3 squadron RAF...with additional "special" WW2 scheme (codes are correct for 3 squadron)

Wielding the Big Stick... to little old Paran

last shots from a laptop. next screenies should be from my desktop (already back up and running)

Douglas F2D-2 Dagger - VF-2 'Flying Chiefs', US Navy, 1941

Not me coming back from the dead hehe screenie dump........ somebody fill me in on what ive missed!!!!!! (kidding ofc) Loving the content you all post !

Dhimari version for allenjb42....the arabic script on the nose is a translation of "gnat" which I hope is the correct way round...

North American Mustang Mk.IV - No.183 Squadron, RAF Pacific Command, 1946

So......what was happening back in 2011 I wonder? Well there were rumours of a new version of Falcon 4 which was later released by Benchmark Sims (BMS), and in February of that year DCS: A-10C Warthog was released. The Strike Fighters community was eagerly awaiting the release of Strike Fighters 2: North Atlantic - and it was also the year that Combat Ace member Sophocles bit the bullet and decided to get into 3D modelling. Now many years later, he has now released what certainly looks like the best modelled aircraft ever to grace Strike Fighters 2, and that includes all of Thirdwires efforts. Many modder projects start and look promising and then wither and die (especially after so many years) so we decided to ask Sophocles some questions about this project. The F-5A thread starts around 2012 - what year did you start the F-5 model exactly? I started the model in December of 2011. I'd never done any 3d modelling, but I was determined to learn, having done a lot of free-ware/payware texturing work for CFS2 and FS9. What 3D programs do you use to create 3D models? 3dsMax.. It is unusual for someone to stay on a single project after all this time - what has kept you going all these years to continue the project? Well, I spent about a year finishing the external model (learning all the basics as I went along, ie. modelling, mapping, animating) and then another year doing the cockpit.. I'd planned for a release in 2014 but by that time my world caved in together with the Greek economy..) lost my business, house, went through divorce and even lost the dog!! As you can imagine, the last thing on my mind was the F-5A model!!! I tried over the years at times to re-invest in the project, but real life just kept getting in the way... Many Combat Ace members were involved in the project, some actively helping along and contributing in one form or another (will thank and present their contributions in their entirety when the project is complete), others offering encouragement and emotional support (this is the best thing about the Combat Ace community!) but the one individual who for the most part inspired the level of detail in the model; and who subsequently worked the hardest getting the project moving again was Volker (ravenclaw).. without whom the project would not have been revived (post-2017). I really need to get the F-5A out to the community because their support (and patience, LOL!) has been incredible. After this do you think you will continue to do other 3D models on this level? Sure, with all the knowledge and experience I've accumulated over the years, any new projects (and there are a few..) will take a fraction of the time .. given the world doesn't implode...again!!!!! With special thanks to Sophocles you can download Hellenic Air Force F-5A Volume 1 here and looks like there will be more high quality volumes to follow:

I’m sure the Dhimaris wouldn’t mind some of the desert camo version!

hola PacePuma, tengo para que te des una idea 4 discos operando 3 mecánicos y uno solido, pero cuando se jode , se jode todo. en un primer momento luego de una recuperación del sistema se restauro al 2018, pensé que había perdido todo pero no fue así.

Okay so far YAP just needed the avionics and cockpit for the F/A-18E since there's was pretty much incomplete. I referenced the names that did the actual work (I just did the skins and now working on it) so hopefully they're credited.

Just to clarify, it's not the YAP most over here at CA think it is. YAP-RW is a free fan-made project done almost entirely by one end-user who bought all YAP products in the past; he's been updating those so that they work on Strike Fighters 2 for his own enjoyment and simply thought about sharing what he's done for free. He's in no way related to the original YAP nor to the fact original YAP guys monetized upon freeware mods without permission. The owners of YAP died years ago and the store was still up despite not being controlled by anyone anymore. Apologies for the little off-topic, it's just that I've seen people complain about YAP-RW as if it was done or even monetized (it is not) by the same YAP guys responsible for those issues. This is a case where an unrelated end-user was held accountable by some for the issues surrounding those products, products he legitimately bought without knowing of all this chaos.

Would be possible to eliminate the dirt of the machine gun fire? After all the civ birds do not use their guns.

Changed ti to the RAZBAM cockpit and look at that, success!

bueno, lentamente hoy puse en acción de nuevo el simulador luego de 3/4 meces, el FW-190D 13 es el primero de la lista, luego el SU-27K le continuara , estoy sufriendo inconvenientes con el gancho.

F-15N Sea Eagles of VF-103 on their final cruise aboard USS John F Kennedy, somewhere in the Mediterranean, 2004... The squadron would go on to upgrade to the F-15NSE (Navalised Silent Eagle), nicknamed the 'NES' or 'Mario' by it's crews...

Vickers Valiant B.1 (FE) - No.35 Squadron, RAF Pacific Command, 1954

I have spoken ...

meanwhile for the rest of us....

Work In Progress. Photorealistic skin for excellent Geezer's Pfalz D.IIIa.

If this is the Fresco, how it will be the F-105??

Congratulations on finishing this project! I am sorry that Sophocles had to go through so much upheaval at home, both personally and economically. But despite the heartbreak, stress, and resulting long delays, this F-5A has turned out to be a top-notch add-on. Certainly among the top 5 aircraft you can get, and arguably the best available at this time. I would have enjoyed a lot more back in 2012 when SF2 was still my primary sim of interest. At this point, I primarily play DCS World, but I still download and try out SF2 mods that interest me. This one most certainly interested me. Are there going to be follow on F-5A addons based on this release to cover other users/variants, which aside from texturing and minor FM/model edits shouldn't be too hard or time consuming compared to the previous effort)? I would love to see an SF2 F-5E completed to this level, but that is substantially different and would pretty much be the same as building a new aircraft from scratch apart from being able to reuse a lot of the cockpit and most of the flight model.

Since I had a look into the shaders I also extended the drawing distance for fading objects. The modified object shaders: Update V1.1: fixed incorrect calculation of object distances outside the view center. sf2_extfadingdistance_shaders_v1.1.zip -Copy the shader files (*.fx) into the Terrains\<terrain> folder. -Adjust the variables fadeStartDistance and fadeLength to your likings in the follwing code section of both shader files: float fade_with_distance(float FadeDist) { float fade_alpha = 1.0; //mue: distance at which the object still has alpha = 1.0 (full opaque) const float fadeStartDistance = 16000.0; //in meters //mue: fadeStartDistance + fadeLength = distance at which the object has alpha = 0.0 (full transparent) const float fadeLength = 3000.0; //in meters const float fd = FadeDist - fadeStartDistance; if (fd > 0.0) { fade_alpha = clamp(0.0, 1.0, 1.0 - (fd / fadeLength)); } return (fade_alpha); } -Set in flightengine.ini DetailMeshSize so that (fadeStartDistance + fadeLength) / terrain_tile_size < DetailMeshSize -Set in options.ini ObjectsFade=false -Enjoy your flight!