PraetorH

File Name: F-4F (80) Norm 81B Camouflage File Submitter: PraetorH File Submitted: 28 September 2012 File Category: SF2 Series Add On Skins History of the Norm 81 camouflage: Since the mid 70ies German fighter pilots from Jagdgeschwader 71 "Richthofen" and Jagdgeschwader 74 "Mölders" increasingly complained about the old one-fits-all aircraft camouflage of the Luftwaffe called Norm 72 (Standard 72, named after the year of introduction). Its large geometrically arranged areas in olive-green and gray worked well camouflaging an aircraft on the ground and even in low level flight over the equally geometrical fields of Germany. But the dark colours also drew massive attention in high altitude combat. Worse, the oversized Iron Crosses and serial numbers with their high contrast black and white lettering made the aircraft even easier to spot. In the later 70ies, Luftwaffe command encouraged its fighter pilots to develop new paint schemes. “Richthofen” and “Mölders” in particular were eager in devising trial camouflages. Most of them massively reduced the greens and put stronger emphasis on grays, while shrinking the markings a lot. (I do not know if it was intentional or not, but some resembled WWII Luftwaffe interceptor camouflages.) These were to become the basis for the official Norm 81. Norm 81 was to be used by fighters and fighter-bombers alike, and applied to Phantoms which were upgraded to Peace Rhine-standard. When they were upgraded to ICE-standard, Norm 81 was replaced by the more modern Norm90J – the first German paint scheme intended for fighters only. Description of the Norm 81 camouflage: The aircraft camouflage is dominated by two shades of light gray (Lichtgrau, Steingrau) on the lower surfaces and the sides. Only the upper surfaces of the wings and the topsides of the fuselage along the spine and the engines were painted with three dark shades of gray (Quarzgrau, Basaltgrau, Staubgrau) and one shade of green-gray (Grüngrau). The early schemes deliberately featured soft edges for the colours blending them better into each other. Later this was given up, as weathering did that job rather well, too. The national markings were reduced in size and number; the Iron Cross was applied top to the left wing and bottom to the right wing, and on both sides of the fuselage. Early in the 80ies, the old Norm 72-warnings continued to be used, until replaced with toned down warnings. For flight safety some aircraft sported high visibility markings, most notably when transferred to low level fight training in Goose Bay, Canada. These markings could be painted on the top fuselage, under the nose, on the wing tips and on the stabilizers varying in size and colour. Many crews seemed to favour red or yellow, but green or blue was seen often as well. Only few had white or dayglow markings. Norm 81 was used in two variants, A for geometrical shapes on the wings, tail and the fuselage downside, and B for rounded shapes. B seems to have been the preferred choice by the units. Advise on the use of the skins in SF2: The combination of soft colour edges and Norm 72-markings makes these skins suitable for campaigns set in the early and mid 80ies. However in the late 80ies they would look rather out of place. Skins included: I included one Norm 81B skin for every German wing equipped with F-4F: Jagdgeschwader 71 "Richthofen" Jagdgeschwader 74 "Mölders" (flying 'denamed' as JG 74 today) Jagdbombergeschwader 35 (flying reorganized as JG 73 “Steinhoff” today) Jagdbombergeschwader 36 (disbanded today, flew as JG 72 in its last days) Requirements: You need the F-4F (80), but the skins should also fit on the F-4F (ICE). Also, F-4F and F-4E may work more or less. Installation: Just unzip and drop the folder in your SF2 mod directory, usually it is: C:\Users\xxx\Saved Games\ThirdWire\StrikeFighters2 yyy Credits: Ravenclaw_007 for his template (based on Sundowner's F-4E template), and his decals which I am using. Click here to download this file

Glad you like it nonetheless ... No tanks indeed: Norm 81 was not applied to tanks, they kept the old light gray ones (only when Norm 90J was introduced they gave them a slightly different colour). The tanks already included should do it, so I did not think there is a need for special tank skins. I hope I am not wrong in that.

Oh yeah, you are right! Forgot about that. btw, there is another version of that file without screenshots. It can be deleted, it was mistake...

I like the Idea of Brain32: a joint airforce. It would make things a bit easier, for example working out camouflage regulations. Also one could make spiffy new insignia! I liked that of the Baltic Defense College: It is a bit to complicated for the use as roundel, though...

So, meine Norm 81B-Skins warten auf ihre Freischaltung. Ich hoffe, es klappt alles. Und bitte nicht vergessen: die Standards von der GMG sollen sie gar nicht halten, aber ich denke, sie sind eine gute Lösung bis ein echter Skinner sich der Phantom annimmt.

An M50! Wow! Good stuff here...

Salvete! Is there a campaign for the French Campaigns in Indochina, most notably the disaster of Dien Bien Phu? I know we obviously have the terrain thanks to SF2V, but what about planes and missions? regards

Thanks mates, I'll have a look! Unfortunately it seems this conflict is not too popular... :(

Ja, dagegen ist TK geradezu ein Großmeister der Kundenbetreuung! Aber auch da gibt es genug fanboys, die einem seit nunmehr Jahren erzählen, welch großes Potential die Sim hat. (Und das alles, nachdem 1C jahrelang betont hat, dass man die Arbeit an der IL2-Serie hintanstellt, um sich ganz auf CoD konzentrieren zu können). Der Vergleich mit CoD ist nicht ganz zufällig, da dieses Spiel wie SF2 mehr oder weniger konkurrenzlos dasteht. FC bedient einfach ein anderes Segment, sowohl vom Anspruch her, als auch vom Inhalt. Moderner Kram interessiert mich allenfalls am Rande, nett zwischendurch. Und der Inhalt an sich ist mit 'disparat' noch nett umschrieben. SF2 dagegen deckt durch sein Kernset an Fliegern gleich mehrere Bereiche sinnvoll ab, je nach Interesse. Und für alles andere gibt es DLC. Es wäre interessant bei einem Nischenprodukt wie der Sim zu wissen, welchen Anteil modder und ihre follower an der Kundschaft haben. Ich kenne das von der Total War Serie, in der ich als Modder wesentlich aktiver bin als hier ;) Obwohl die community riesig erscheint, ist sie doch nur ein kleiner Teil der Kundschaft. Würd mich nicht wundern, wenn es hier genauso wäre. Eines habe ich nämlich gelernt: unterschätze nie die Faulheit von Menschen. Die Verwendung von mods ist vergleichsweise anspruchsvoll. Man muss wissen, dass es sowas gibt, ein Forum finden, sich einarbeiten, sich durcharbeiten, und die mods installieren. Klar, alles kein Ding für uns, aber für Joey Joystick eine Hürde. Das Riesenproblem liegt am Ende auf beiden Seiten. TK muss lernen, dass sich Joey Joystick nicht für mods interessiert und daher trotz guter mods seine DLCs kauft. Er hat gar keinen Grund, gegen mods vorzugehen. Die modder wiederum müssen etwas souveräner auf DLCs und Patches reagieren. Bei jedem DLC loszuheulen, wie sinnlos es ist und dass die mods viel besser sind, entspannt nicht gerade die Lage. Es hilf einfach nicht, sich permanent in die Opferrolle gegenüber dem big bad TK zu begeben und ihn zum Übel der Welt zu erklären. So verhärten sich nur die Fronten. PS: ein wenig erinnert es mich an die unseelige Debatte in Il2 um die Sicht aus dem Cockpit der FW-190 ("Bar"). Irgendwann hat Oleg Maddox, der Chef von Il2, den Kopf in den Sand gesteckt, weil der Ton der Kritik einfach unerträglich war. War er vor der "Bar" noch regelmäßig im Forum anzutreffen und hat gerne dort geschrieben, hat sich danach fast vollständig zurückgezogen. Dabei war die Kritik in der Sache korrekt, wie Oleg sicher auch weiß, aber die Kritiker haben Fehler über Fehler gemacht in der Diskussion, die sich ganz unglücklich hochgeschraubt hat. Ich befürchte wir sind mit SF auf einem ähnlichen Weg.

File Name: F-4F (ICE) Norm 12J Pixelated Air Superiority Camouflage File Submitter: PraetorH File Submitted: 23 September 2012 File Category: SF2 Series Add On Skins F-4F (ICE) Norm 12J Pixelated Air Superiority Camouflage Story: *** entirely fictional and very unlikely to happen, but fun *** The time of the F-4F in Luftwaffe service is coming to an end. They are about to be phased out by 2013 and only one fighter wing, JG 71 “Richthofen”, still operates them. However in their last year JG 71-personell decided to give the venerable fighter a last new look and applied a pixilated camouflage based on the colours used in the standard Norm 90J camouflage. As it turned out, the Phantom not only looks phabulous but is also well concealed at high alt and in the clouds. It is soon to be adopted by the other Luftwaffe fighters as Norm 12J. Requirements: This is a skin for the F-4F ICE, thus you need the excellent pack of Ravenclaw_007 http://combatace.com...-europe-vers20/ Installation: It uses the decals of the ICE-pack, so there is no need to install extra decals. You just drop unzip and drop the folder into the F-4F ICE folder in your mod directory, usually it is: C:\Users\xxx\Saved Games\ThirdWire\StrikeFighters2 Europe\Objects\Aircraft\F-4F_ICE Credits: Ravenclaw_007 for his reworked F-4F template, his decals, and the F-4F ICE Sundowner for his original F-4E template. If I have forgotten any contribution, please tell me! Click here to download this file

I forgot to name Sundowner, whose original template has been the basis for the F-4F template. I updated the file accordingly to credit him too. Sorry, Sundowner!

Die Haltung von Herstellern gegenüber Moddern ist naturgemäß schizophren: einerseits können sie die Beliebheit steigern, andererseits können sie den Absatz veringern, gerade bei DLC-abhängigen Spielen. Generell finde ich es schade, dass Militärflugsimulationen immer sehr einseitig auf Jagd- und Jabo-Fliegerei ausgelegt sind. Eine vernünftige U-Jagd, CSAR oder echte GCI-Prozeduren z.B. sind heutzutage technisch machbar, aber irgendwie scheint es dafür keinen Markt zu geben... Ich fand Sims daher immer etwas beschränkt in Sachen features.

Well, that requires more of a greatly larger budget, rather than a 'slightly' larger budget ;) Anyway what is far more important is this: You need to work out national regulations for aircraft camouflages and markings which actually make sense. Sure you can go all-grey and restrict it to decal swapping, but that would be boring would not it? After all, non of these countries has a jet fighter or fighter-bomber force, with the exeption of the Estonian Albatros. So you can develop whole new camos. I suggest at least two per country: one for the air superiority fighters and one for fighter-bombers/attackers/etc.

Thank you, the skin has been uploaded already, awaiting approval and release. edit: ...and done! I like it very much, too, and it was simple.

It is surely closer to what the Estonian AF in reality had on its jet trainer. And the Skyhawk is a damn good call! Remember, we are talking about the Balitc states here. They are small and have suffered more than other states in the Euro-crisis. Think about it: if Switzerland having a GDP six times as large as that of all Baltic states combined is strained to buy 22 Gripen fighter-bombers recently, then what can the Baltic countries to? Sure they are willing to spend more in %, and cut social welfare and stuff, but there is a very tight limit nevertheless. Thus the Skyhawk would do well. For this very reason the newer Corsairs may be a valid option: their 80ies airframes should be still usable, their avionics are well suited for what they do, and they are cheap. Here an older doodle (skin obviously needs improvements!).

Seems I happen to like digital camo! This is my take with Norm 90J colours and I ust say it works VERY well in the clouds (see third and last pic).

And some people are going to FC, when this here - no way! Twin-engined Deltas are just extremely cool. Hope your work progresses well and we can all enjoy this beauty.

Due to its strained financial situation, the Air Force of Estonia accepted Germany's offer to take over the upgraded Luftwaffe F-4F for free. The Phantoms were to operate as stopgap until the coming aquisition of Hornets, planned for 2018. This was deemed an passable solution, especially since the armament of 20mm shells, Sidewinder and AMRAAM missiles would also be used by the Hornet. Estonian personell soon applied a new camouflage - maybe the last regular camouflage ever to be seen on this venerable birds. ... (na, of course there will be more, as long as I skin!)

Oh, that's sad. I would have even offered to make some skins for the Estonian AF, including spiffy new camo (and hastily overpainted old German camo) ;) But as I see, Spinners also thought about the Phantom...

What about ex-Luftwaffe F-4F ICE? They are soon to be replaced (next year) un Germany and rumored to be offered to Croatia. They would be a cheap stopgap.

I also love deltas! And the M4000 is a bird I am waiting for since I discovered mods for SF. So I can't wait for your release :)

The JBG 36, last in the line. I think I will swap the ACM-markings and give JG 71 the red ones for obvious reasons, but I still got some other things to do before release (tanks, some ini-stuff)

I would love to play a sim with detailed Ground controlled interception-model so that one can have the full SAGE experience over the wide spaces of Northern America e.g. (or the Sov counterpart). That would be cool, but I don't think it would sell... This seems to be a good tactic, but it might prove difficult if you only have Sidewinder missiles. Their warhead seems to be too weak to severly hurt heavy bombers. Since none of my favorite rides has anything bigger than that, I have seen bombers soaking them up like nothing and I had to close in anyway. Occassionally I fly MiG 21 vs B-52... if it was that hard irl those MiG-jockeys really had guts.