Geezer

Got some work done on the Chirri and a hangar. Shot of Nationalist airfield stuff.

Yep - both elevators had an extra poly causing shadow. Already fixed. Welcome back!

Excellent article about WW1 aircraft cannons. http://www.quarryhs.co.uk/cannon_pioneers.htm

One more shot.

Been pretty busy with Real Life, but find time now and then to work on Spanish Civil War stuff. Shots below of skin development for Spain and China.

Good point. The Republic had to constantly improvise because of the embargos placed on the belligerents by the League of Nations. Spain had an industrial base that was capable of manufacturing bombs, so its possible they produced bombs whose lugs and mount points would fit a variety of bomb racks. There was also a vast amount of improvisation in the field. Shot below shows how a commercial Fokker airliner was turned into a bomber!

Found some shots of a preserved Polikarpov R-5 two-seater. As you can see, different types of bombs required different types of racks.

Steve - Your cockpit looks great! You're adapting to the 1930s very nicely! I only have a couple of hours a day for modding, so I am making slow but steady progress. Shot below of the CR32 cockpit.

Here's some drawings of 1930s Soviet bombs (courtesy of Crawford).

The biggest driver of bomb type is the type of bomb rack. The NATO and Warsaw Pact standardization of bomb racks was the first time that had been done on any scale. Normally, only specific types of bombs would fit on specific types of racks. That being the case, the Republicans probably used Soviet, French, British, and possibly Czech bombs. That, or they adapted bomb racks to fit aircraft they were not intended for. Below is the only thing I can find on Polikarpov fighter bomb racks.

Steve - I've been looking for a good website for SCW guns but haven't had much luck - yet. A lot of WW1 Vickers and Lewis guns were still in use in the 1930s, though most air forces were in the process of replacing them. Many late versions of the Vickers were basically the WW1 gun with an air cooled barrel jacket and higher rate of fire, however the WW1 ammo feed probems had not been completely fixed. Towards the end of WW1, both France and the US produced dedicated aircraft guns - instead of modified infantry guns - but they were not ready in time. The guns were phased into use throughout the 1920s and were in widespread use by the time of the SCW. - The French used several different 7.5mm Darne guns, plus the 7.5mm MAC 1934 gun - most French origin aircraft used in the SCW mounted the Darne. https://www.forgottenweapons.com/darne-mle-1923-manual/ - The US standardized on the Browning .30 and .50 machine guns, which can be borrowed from SF1/SF2 files. The British introduced license-built copies of the Browning rechambered for their .303 cartridge about the time of the SCW. Baffmeister did a lot of R&D for the Brit .303 guns mounted in my Gladiator, so you can use those gun files with confidence. Baff also did a lot of work on the Breda 12.7mm gun mounted in the CR42. The 12.7 Breda was developed from the smaller 7.7 Breda - the 7.7 was widely used in the SCW. The Soviets developed one of the best small caliber aircraft guns, the ShKAS - used in both fixed and flexible installations. Link below describes the evolution of aircraft guns in the mid-1930s to auto canons: http://spitfiresite.com/2010/04/cannon-or-machine-gun-the-second-world-war-aircraft-gun-controversy.html

A very good point. I will make some new Soviet bombs for the mod. Nicholas Bell and VonS may be able to help with gun info?

Magnificent!!!!

The Adler Tanker is pretty much done.

I think the Italian Euro Pilot is 1930s/early WW2 - the guy with the blue scarf.

Again, what I've described above DOES work - it may not be the only way to get where you want to go. Example below of an Ooops! moment shows the substitute pilot method does work.

I don't claim to know all of the many details about FE2 files. The following is what I've found to work when making new pilots for FE2. FE2 defaults to four different pilot figures: wwiPilotNew1, wwiPilotNew2, wwiPilotNew3, and wwiPilotNew4. If you wish to run substitute pilots, you must create a Pilots folder in the objects folder - this is the ONLY location where FE2 substitute pilots will display ingame. Inside the Pilots folder should look like the image below. - A complete set of files for a substitute pilot must display, or FE2 will run the default pilot. - A set of files consists of wwiPilotNewX.LOD and wwiPilotNewX.OUT, plus the associated art files for that substitute pilot - Other pilots can be temprarily stored in the Pilots folder, but they must be located inside another folder - FE2 does not look for files inside any folders located inside the Pilots folder - FE2 only runs those pilot files that are displayed when you first open the Pilots folder Hope this helps.

You have a disconnect somewhere, as the pilots with spaces in their names have been working OK for years. Normally, FE2 will only run pilot figures named wwiPilotNew1 through 4. Perhaps Steven1918 found a workaround for his pilots with crash helmets? Sample shot below of Desert Pilot.

As I started to dust off my old files for Storm Over The Sahara, I realized I had forgotten a great deal about mapping complex shapes. So, I thought I would start with something a bit easier, with few compound curves and then apply lessons learned to the desert war stuff. Shots show mapping and texture progress for the fuselage - wings and wing struts will be done on a second bmp.