Siggi

I'm afraid I've come to regard the AI as of a very low level of threat. And I don't think it's because the AI is bad, it's because we have become masters of our planes. Having said that, Manfred sucked the large one.

I hit the top wing of a D7 with my Se5's undercarriage some months back, my wheels were damaged and I landed lop-sided but survived. Other collisions have seen a wing-tip go, survived ok. I've also been brought down by collisions and survived. So no, it's not an instant death-sentence.

Olham told me off for that so bomber pilots can still transfer to fighters if they wish.

From hereonin please submit your fighter stats as a total including both your bomber totals and fighter totals. Eg, if you have 17 hours on bombers and 10 hours on fighters please submit total hours on your report as 27 hours. Ditto for all the other entries. This is so I can simplify the fighter boards (do away with the bracketed stuff). Fanks. :)

It's for all nationalities, I'll add graphics if and when US/French forces fly. I'll see what added text looks like/if it'll fit.

I've put up an aces page at the DiD site. To qualify: a) You must be dead. b) You must have the highest award available. Only one entry per player, which will always be the highest achieved. Query: I'm pretty sure there have been more than the current two Pour Le Merites shown. If so, those I've missed, if you still have your stats for that pilot, please PM them to me. If you no longer have them, my apologies for missing you.

Thanks Bullet, I'd believed them much smaller than that.

Lol. Is that the best to be hoped for? How about any improvements?

If that's correct it indicates that MS did not model a true 3D environment, they created some kind of botched trickery. Probably necessary at the time, to allow the sim to run at a decent FPS on the hardware of the time. Or possibly down to what most people believe about MS, that they were unskilled hacks.

Do you prefer online or offline play? If it's offline there's no choice really, it has to be OFF. It's more than just an excellent sim, it's an RPG too.

I remember scathingly refering to CFS1 as 'The Hang-glider Sim', because of the way the planes were supposedly doing 300mph ten feet off the ground but looked like they were doing 20mph, and felt like gliders during maneouvers. I'm aware of the old rationale about having to be able to draw the scenery at acceptable FPS, but IL2 was doing an acceptable sense of realistic speed years ago. But then this is the CFS3 engine, and I guess they were still limited by the hardware back then. But it doesn't explain the flak-bursts. Trees go by a lot faster on the deck, and there are lots of them without detriment to FPS. So how come a handful of flak-bursts need to be going so slow (or fast in fact, being that the plane is over-taking them at 3mph, which means they're going at the same speed as the plane minus 3mph)? It's not just the far-away ones Olham, it's the ones you can fly through as well. It's very very weird, when you think about it. Clouds do it too, I should add. Next time you're flying through a cloud, notice how slowly the mist is passing you. It's like you're at walking speed. It creates a surreal sensation of no speed.

...how it is flak-bursts can do 100mph? The far away ones I get, but there I am, doing 100mph, and the flak-burst that went off just ahead of me creeps past my wingtip at around 3mph? Doesn't matter what speed I'm doing in fact, the little puff of smoke is always around 3mph slower than me when it should really be zipping past (or me zipping past it actually). What's that all about then?

Make sure you clean the mud out of the barrels, we wouldn't want the breeches going up in your fizog.

A week later it was smashed up in a muddy trench.

It's been a while since I updated this log, due to mislaying it after I was wounded. Soon as I find a quiet moment I'll set to it.

They sell them at ModelZone. I suggest you go check them out first, they're pretty crude.

Thanks Kaiser, that's extremely useful. I've heard of the hairspray technique and how to do it but those last two links are the first time I've seen actual results. Both are superb, the last one especially.

Thanks, I wouldn't have done that.

Mine's acrylic on enamel too, but I used a cloth dampened with alcohol to rub through to the silver. I won't be using that technique again. I'll certainly be trying yours on the Spitfire.

With your nail?! Bloody hell, how many times I've tried that in the past. I've even considered rubbing in a very fine layer of oil or vaseline onto the silver, to help the top-coat chip off. Did you use polishing powder?

What pattern did you go for, Oak-A?

Wow, that is fantastic! What technique did you use? Compare with my PoS (airframe):

Superb!

I've tried steel wool but it doesn't give a realistic effect, at least not in scale. The silver paint needs to show through with sharp edges; steel wool just buffs it through with a fuzzy edge.

Lol, I went out and bought some of that stuff a couple of days ago. I'd previously used the modelling brand (Maskol), which is very thick and hard to get off. I must have thrown it away (dried out in the bottle probably) and the stuff I replaced it with two days ago is far superior (Daler-Rowney Art Masking Fluid). It's thin as paint, goes on as easily as paint and rolls off with the thumb. I used it on the engine after the salt didn't work out.