Dej

Have to go with the Captain. Conan the Barbarian is my all time favourite. It p****s me off that Howard Shore's Lord of The Rings theme gets so much airtime and Basil Pouledouris hardly any, his score for CtB knocks spots off Shore's effort IMHO. Good to see The Hunt for Red October above, that's another of Basil's. A much under-appreciated composer, I think. Number 2 is the soundtrack from 'Still Crazy'. Great film (my second all time favourite after Shawshank) , great laughs, great music.

I notice no one's posted anything Classical, which genre is an enduring musical love of mine, so if other peeps are having a second shot I beg Olham's leave to put up this one. For me, it's as one of the YouTube posters says... this is what love sounds like. Not the best rendition I'm afraid but the best on YouTube. If you like it and would wish a definitive take look for the version by Richard Hickox and The Northern Sinfonia. Bliss.

If you're willing to pay for better software Olham I'd suggest Cinema 4D. I find its interface more intuitive than Max and it'll export in a compatible format for most other software... mind you, so does Max. But C4D is German, so you'd be supporting the home team I second the learning curve point though. I only model for still images like the Fateful Morn pic (which taught me a few things)... wouldn't know where to start on rigging models for gaming!

Heh, me surfing the Morrisson wave (Jim AND Van), but this has to be mine. I love it, my mum loved it, my first wife and my present partner love it, each of my three children love it and so do all their tens of friends. Slap this on for a Summer barbecue and EVERYBODY is singing... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8z7HLy-6SXk&feature=related Brown-eyed girl, of course... and nice eye candy to boot (or is that BOOTS?) ;-) Happy time tune par excellance.....

They're not terribly informative photographs, Olham, two of the rear steps and one aerial shot. The photograph of the chateau at Cappy is much better. However I heartily recommend the books and indeed all of Mike O'Connor's 'Airfields and Airmen' books too.

I have the bulk of Central Powers and Entente aerodromes in, and I'm working on the US ones. It's the map overlays that take time and I'm sourcing more trench maps than are at McMasters. So, no, it's not publicly available yet but I was planning to release an interim version in the summer... if I can put in the time what with a new house and new job. You'll notice that where the hangers along the roadside in the trench map were are private houses now. I'd love to ask the owners if they ever turn up anything interesting when digging over their gardens.

And this is how it looks overlaid on the present day. As you can see, it's still an aerodrome... but a little bigger!

Here is the revised and, I think, final version. I've redesigned the hangars from scratch. You can't see it but they have all their internal framework as well as working curtains across the front! Many thanks to Jim Miller (JFM) for his valuable input on the style of hangar used at Bertangles and the photos of same. I've added some activity and detritus hopefully to give the scene a more 'lived in' look and procedural grass to improve the ground texturing. The scenario is: It's the early morning of 23rd November 1916 at Bertangles aerodrome. No. 24 Squadron is assigned to offensive patrol in defence of British two seaters carrying out vital reconnaisance before the next desperate push in the closing stages of the disappointing Somme Offensive. Maj. Lanoe Hawker's crew have just wheeled his DH2, No.5964, out in front of the hangars in anticipation of a busy day ahead. Hawker won't actually fly until the afternoon - he shouldn't, in fact fly, at all being the C.O. - but No. 24 will be a man short. His crew don't know this, though, nor do they know that this is the last day they'll see the machine... or Hawker. The overnight clouds are clearing and a fine day is forecast but there's a still touch of ground frost lingering... it's early yet. The squadron riggers and fitters are finishing their night's work, apart from one individual who has nipped out for a crafty gasper (cigarette) before the officers arrive for the morning patrol. Inside the hangar behind Hawker's machine, Capt. J. O. Andrew's DH2 isn't quite ready yet after having a cracked airscrew replaced... not that it'll do Andrews any great good, his engine will stop a bullet in the early stages of the encounter in which Hawker will meet his end. 3D modelling and rendering in Cinema 4D, post processing (mesh error correction, sky re-colouring, trees, cigarette smoke, film grain effect) in Photoshop. Hope you like it...

To the best of my knowledge, Lewie, the aerodromes you mention are all there. Shredward has done a huge amount of research to place as many WW1 aerodromes as accurately as the limitations of the CFS3 geography will allow... and I'm sure it will only be bettered in P4.

Ausgezeichnet, wie immer. Some accidental angle of the screenshot or other but as he bore down on that balloon... I could almost hear a voice saying 'Use the Force, Paul'

The deves will correct me if I speak falsely I'm sure, but I believe the aerodrome situation is akin to the skins one, i.e. there are a limited number of layout and building style tiles, so if you want accurate representation, like Gould Lee's 'cinder union jack in a field of potatoes' at La Gorgue, something else would have to give...

To that, isn't it all too often that a novice mistake is the downfall of the expert? I don't believe there needs be anything mysterious about it... MvR screwed up and an Aussie gunner (or whoever!) got lucky. C'est la guerre... c'est la vie. [EDIT] Come to think on it there are parallels with the Hawker Richthofen encounter. Hawker was well out of practice, shouldn't have been flying anyway, wasn't leading the flight so shouldn't have gone 'balls out' after the two-seaters on his own, especially with enemy scouts of known superior perfomance in the vicinity. He too screwed up... and paid the price of a single bullet. [/EDIT]

Not to mention the sheer impracticality of panyhose in the forest - have you seen that undergrowth?!! Honestly - more ladders than a fire-station, sweetie. And don't get me started on how many dead leaves a pair of four inch stilettos can spike up in half an hour! As for that snotty cow Marion... Maid?... Hah! One woman and a dozen horny men - go figure. Speaking of horny though, I'm telling you they don't call Much the tailor 'Much' for nothing! Oh no. No wonder he's a tailor, a codpiece that size takes a lot of sewing skill! Little John on the other hand.... Sorry... couldn't resist. [/Dick Emery Mode].

LMF, Olham... that's what those heartless b'stards at HQ would do you for for... although it's a WW2 term, not WW1. But in this particular case it'll stand for Lack of Merciless Ferocity, rather than what it, sadly, normally signifies. Btw, that's 'Ad Astra' on that pup, it's from No. 46 Sqn and you certainly made it 'Per Ardua' for him today.

As part of another project I have underway (I've too many of these things!) I've had to get back into 3D modelling. I was experimenting with effects today and initially knocked up the attached from stuff I had around just for playing with when I realised it had promise as a piece in its own right... with a bit of work. I'm calling it 'Fateful Morn'. It depicts Lanoe Hawker's DH2 in the early morning of 23rd November 1916 at Bertangles. Hawker's crew just have wheeled the machine out in front of the hangers in anticipation of a busy day ahead. Hawker won't fly until the afternoon, when No. 24 Squadron is a man short, but his crew don't know this, nor do they know that this is the last day they'll see the machine... or Hawker. There's a touch of ground frost lingering... it's early yet, and inside the hanger, Andrew's machine is still being worked on. It's a work in progress, I'm no Mark Miller and I'm not happy with the hanger textures yet and there are mesh errors on the DH2's nose, but I'm still rather pleased with it for a afternoon's work, so I thought I'd share it. 3D rendering in Cinema 4D, post processing in Paint Shop Pro Photo X2.

Pawgy, I too never saw your original post, but apologies of any kind on any forum I've frequented are rare enough for me to doff my hat to you, sir. 'Tis good you've given OFF a second chance... you'll probably feel you're giving it a third, fourth and fifth as Campaign Mode chews through your virtual selves. And that is the beauty of OFF, as CaptSopwith alludes. I've never, ever, played a sim where I can feel so relieved and satisfied at having done nothing at all... simply surviving at full realism is a strange sort of reward, but in OFF it works. Don't ever be reticent in asking questions or for help, no one here has any personal axe to grind nor wants to lord it over the newbie. Uncleal is wiser han he'll admit, with a wealth of experience in all incarnations of OFF. He just hides his light under a bolshi. Oh, and mine's a large Cragganmore, os gwelwch yn tha, I'm in the mood for a Speyside.

Ah yes, 30. It was 1992, good salary, fast cars and loose women... or was it loose cars and fast women? I turn 50 this year so I can't remember, I'm sure it was good either way!

Drat! I was hoping no one would point that out! Thanks Jim. I'll have to cite artistic licence on the weather for the atmosphere it lends. I guess I'll have to change the hangers though. Thanks to all for the comments.

Credit to uncleal for that one, IIRC.

I voted NO, being as I'm of the same opinion as Hellshade and such discrepancy in the quality of pilot models (if not improved) vs. cockpits models would only be worse given the screenshots we've been shown. I'd rather the devs spent their time on our other wishlist items. That said, having just come from the 'What started your WW1 aerial interst?' thread, if pilot models can be made to do this: 'Biggles replied to Wilkinson's cheery salute by putting his thumb to his nose and extending his fingers in the time-honoured fashion' I'll change my vote!

I owe it all to W. E. Johns. My dad grabbed a copy of 'Biggles of 266' from a market stall when I was seven, to while away that rarity - a rained out British seaside holiday. I'd always been interested in aircraft and had already built my first model Spitfires and Hurricanes etc. with Dad's help. So I was a receptive audience. However, sharing the draughty, castor oil-stained cockpit with Biggles; listening to the wind in the wires; chilling to the sound of bullets tearing canvas; embracing the friendship of the pilots and their good-natured ribbing of each other; admiring the chivalry and respect shown their opponents and breathing in the whole atmosphere of WW1 air-fighting that Johns evoked - had me hooked from the OFF, ahem! My best friend and I became keen aircraft modellers, but whilst he built anything and everything and painted them in pristine condition, I built mostly WW1 and some WW2 aircraft and loved dirtying them up and incorporating them in dioramas. This required more factual reading for peripheral information which made me ever the more absorbed and when I discovered that Lanoe Hawker was born a few miles down the road... well, I was committed... history on my doorstep. I drifted away from WW1 in later years as The Battle of Britain, Operation Tidal Wave, Schweinfurt-Regensburg and other seminally important air combat events from history (not to mention X-Wing and Tie Fighter!) captured my interest but WW1 never lost its hook and one day whilst browsing for CFS3 mods in hope of improving my experience with it, I came across OFF P2 and of a sudden I was seven again! By that reckoning I'm now ten and I've loved every minute!

A maybe slightly more thought-provoking thread to fill the Olham-shaped vacuum Shredward contemplated a time machine in Morris' 'More P4...' thread. So, if you had one and it was stuck at WW1 (to rein in your flights of fancy a tad) to what combatant unit, war year and aircraft would it take you? And why, if you want to elaborate? I'll start. As much as I'm fan of Lanoe Hawker and have been since I were a lad, my time machine would transport me to a later interest... to St. Pol, in October 1916, serving with Naval 8, RNAS. There I'd be flying with many of my other latter heroes, Robert Little, Charles Booker, Robert Compston, William Jordan (perhaps) et al. I'd start off flying the delightful Pup before, God willing, moving on to my beloved Tripe and then, if I survived, my boyhood joy and Biggles' own mount, the capricious Camel. What about youse guys...

In total there were six twin-gun Triplanes manufactured by sub-contractors Clayton & Shuttleworth (N533-538), three by Oakley (N5910-5912), and one ‘special’ (N5445) aircraft by the parent company, Sopwith. This one had a twin gun installation under a hump (similar to the Sopwith F.1 Camel). Four of the Clayton & Shuttleworth machines saw combat, 2 airframes (N533 & N536) with Naval 10, 1 machine (N534) with Naval 1, and 1 (N535) with the Manston War School. The Manston machine shot its propeller off. The Naval 1 machine was flown by a couple of their minor aces for some time without result. It was then flown by Roderic Dallas once and he made a claim in it. Of the 2 Naval 10 machines, Raymond Collishaw flew N533 for several weeks suffering gun problems in every flight, then he made two claims on one patrol. It was then flown by William Alexander who hated it. N536 was flown by Nick Carter who also hated it, and it was passed downwards, and fairly soon ended up getting shot down (on 14.8.17 F/S/Lt. Lloyd was brought down by Uffz. Steudel of Jasta 3.) Source: Post by Stephen Lawson at www.theaerodrome.com

Awesome. The wood testure on the struts of the revamped Tripe is so real I touched my screen and picked up a splinter!