Geezer

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.

Shot below shows what I would like to accomplish, but have not tested the concept yet. I hope to use high poly heads on the figures that the player will see around airfields, while other figures will have lower poly heads. I also would like to make low poly versions of some aircraft so some decent maintenance scenes could be placed around airfields.

Muchas gracias! Recuerdo un poco de Espanol. But...only a little. These sites will really help Steve and I make ground objects. For instance, we want to make lots of guns/artillery.

Thank you - excellent link. The republic operated many types of aircraft, sometimes in VERY small quantities. The models of the Gamma and Dewoitine were made for a different mod but can be adapted to work in a SCW mod - sometime in the distant future. I already have a number of Italian aircraft that can be used in a SCW mod, plus Steve wants to make some new aircraft. Initially, we will work in FE1. At some point in the future, I would like to make an FE2 version with high-res trees, ground tiles, etc. This will keep us busy for years...

Steven1918 has developed an interest in 1930s stuff, so he and I have agreed to work together on this. It will take a while, but there is method to the madness. The WOFF developers have achieved an outstanding mod by carefully controlling the models and artwork to maintain a uniform appearance. That's what Steve and I hope to do.

Thought I'd start a new thread dedicated to the Spanish Civil War mod that Steve and I have started working on. We intend to make all new figures, guns, buildings, vehicles, etc so this is going to take a while - at least a year. Spain was a fascinating blend of late biplanes and early monoplanes. At that time, the superiority of the monoplane was not clearly evident so both Italy and Russia developed new biplane fighters based on their experience in Spain.

Making good progress - new Nationalist figures and vehicles are mapped and textures started.

This is fascinating and caused me to dig up Woodman's reference on WW1 armament. When I bounced it against the information at the Aerodrome link, it became clear that your fundamental conclusions are correct - but the devil is in the details. The late war British mechanisms (such as the Constantinesco-Colley gear) that significantly boosted rate of fire, also increased stress on the components resulting in frequent failure of gun parts and holes in propeller blades. When combined with the Hazelton muzzle booster, guns would occasionally run away, firing as high as 1,000 rounds per minute - but very briefly! Also - as you have identified - the engine speed issue could be crucial. For example, the Austro-Hungarians were limited to 350-450 rounds per minute by the nature of the Schwartzlose gun, and it proved difficult to match the gun to most Austrian engines.. Austrian pilots had to keep one eye on their tachometer in combat and avoid shooting outside the narrow range of acceptable engine/gun rpm.

Most of the aircraft gun systems used in WW1 were actually interrupters, not synchronizers. The guns would shoot independently, but would be interrupted by a propeller blade - usually there was no synchronization of gun speed to engine/propeller speed. The rate of fire was inhibited by the engine/propeller speed, which was slower than the gun's theoretical rate of fire. Not sure if the code can simulate all of this complexity. OTOH, you could have some fun. Have a recording of the pilot cussing a blue streak while beating on his cocking levers with a hammer!

Another possibility is ejecting empty cartridges. Both the Spandau and Vickers were versions of the Maxim gun - all of them ejected spent cartridges down through the bottom of the gun. Most aircraft collected the empties in boxes located beneath the gun, but some aircraft - mostly British - funneled the empties down a chute to exit the aircraft. See upper right corner of Camel shot for ejection chute. This is easy to accomplish in FE1/FE2 as a lot of the original SF code is still operational. Example below is from my FE2 Gladiator. [Gun01] SystemType=FIXED_GUN //GunTypeName=303CAL_VICKERS_MK1 GunTypeName=303CAL_Browning InputName=FIRE_PRIMARY_GUN MuzzlePosition=-1.881,0.334,-0.599 LightPosition=-0.5437,2.1606,0.0605 AimAngles=0.4,0.0,0.0 MaxAmmo=400 EjectShells=TRUE EjectPosition=-1.973,-0.695,-0.70 EjectVelocity= 0.0,0.0,-2.0 //MinExtentPosition= -0.44, 0.05, -1.006 //MaxExtentPosition= -0.39, 0.15, -0.196