RAF_Louvert

. Hellshade, (and all), I had some time this morning to get a start on the Tripehound you requested. Still a fair amount of tweaking, adjusting, and fine tuning, but the basic layout is coming together quite nicely, even if I do say so myself, (and I do). I will be adding some small spurts of flames to the remaining wings, and I definitely need to rework the areas bracketing the roundels on the top plane. Also need to play with some different colors for the cowling. But it should be a fine mount for you when it's completed. Cheers! Lou .

. Very interesting thread here started by a good question asked by carrick, and lots of excellent info already provided. Flyby PC noted Sitka Spruce in his reply, and this is still one of the top choices in aircraft building and repair when wood is required. I have used Sitka Spruce myself in several aircraft projects and it is a beautiful material to work with. Incredibly strong and relatively lightweight, but oh so expensive. And to be rated as aircraft grade for something like a main spar the grain has to run uninterrupted through 90% of the board's length, with no knots or defects of any kind. Keep in mind too that the main wing spars and such on the old planes were not a single board but where in fact several lengths glued up into a channel, I-beam, or box section, which increases the strenght of the spar exponentially. Cheers! Lou .

. Widowmaker, excellent dawn patrol footage Sir, and I liked the musical score as well. Very atmospheric. rabu and Barkhorn1x, getting the Camel to come out of the death spin isn't too terribly aweful if you have some alt to work with. Throttle back a bit, let the controls center, and gently push forward on the stick when it starts to settle down. Hellshade, glad you enjoyed "Zeppelins Over Paris", it was a fun one to put together. As to my video card, I am running an nVidia 9800GTX+ and I use nHancer to tweak the settings. I can get those settings for you if you like. However, it appears from your latest video that you've sorted out the tearing issues. Well done Sir. CJ, neat DR1 Sir. A little Brylcreem to keep the ducktail in place and you're a cool Daddy-O when fighting us teabags. .

. Very nice Duce. I love flying at dawn and dusk. .

. Thanks Duce, WM, and rabu. As you all well know though we painters have it easy due to the outstanding skins we all get to start with. BTW rabu, are the Tripehound skins your fine work Sir? I had a couple of hours this evening and chipped away at the bird a bit more. I have updated the previous pictures and am adding another to show the top view as well. I have most of the wing wrap distortion issues sorted out and am on the downhill side of this project. A little more spiffing and shining and she'll be good to go. And yes Widowmaker, I will make it available to all in our downloads section, but it does belong first to Hellshade. However, I don't imagine he'll mind sharing his kite with the rest of us. Cheers! Lou .

. Hellshade wrote: I'll see what I can put together for you Hellshade. Any other paint wishes on this kite? .

. Very good Hellshade, I particularly like the running commentary. Reminds me of a couple I did last year, and if you would like to see those, here are the links: The last one was just for fun as I'd been seeing if it could be done and had already wrecked several kites trying to pull it off. Thanks to you and Morris, Barkhorn1x ,almccoyjr, and rabu for the comments on my effort. I was rather proud of "Duel In The Sun", and capturing my death spin and recovery on video was one of those rare moments, (even though I did push my trusty Camel into the spin intentionally for the drama, pulling it out directly in front of the camera was PDL). Keep up the good work Hellshade, it's nice to see the many videos made by you and Parky, Catch22, Jammer28, and MikeDixonUK listed on the User Made Videos Page at the OFF website. I'm not sure why I've never made the cut on that page but I imagine the devs must have their reasons. Ah well, c'est la guerre. Cheers! Lou .

. Glad you enjoyed it WM. Mike, outstanding screenie Sir. Looks like firstrate desktop wallpaper to me. Cheers! Lou .

. Screwed perhaps, but nerves of steel as revealed by this close-up... .

. More great vids there Hellshade, well done Sir. Not sure what to tell you on that blue sky tearing issue as I don't have the problem myself. After getting my system dialed in I don't see any video distortion of any kind regardless of weather, number of planes, etc. BTW, here is an 8 minute video I did some time back of a dogfight between a Camel and a DR1, set to Mozart: As you can see there's blue sky in this one and no white jaggies. Hope you get the glitch sorted out Hellshade, and keep up the fine work. Cheers! Lou .

. Hail and Hello...Again, I know that I had intended to take a six-month sabbatical from the OFF forums due to time constraints and life in general, but I've discovered just how much of a stress reliever visitng you lot really is for me. After barely a month of being away I found myself slipping in to read one of your stories, or catch a glimpse of a new screenshot and the like, just to relax and unwind. And, while my free time is still very limited, (and at points nonexistent), I've had to rethink my original plan due to this realization. Even though I won't be able to be as active as I was in the forums for some time, I am going to stop in and catch up at least once a week or so. You all are just a very tough bunch to stay away from, and thank God for that. BTW, I took great pleasure in getting caught up on the "Reports From The Front" this morning, and was even able to add one of my own from Number 1 Squadron, Austrailian Flying Corps, Egypt. Cheers! Lou .

. Greetings All, Just a quick drop in to show you what I found waiting for me in the mail box this morning: It's an original Royal Flying Corps Mark IVa that I purchased on eBay a few weeks back. It is tagged No. 4752AG on the face, and after popping open the back I discovered it is an Octava movement. Also, inside the back cover the following was engraved: "442.9". And on the face someone has added "N2", (or possibly "NZ"), to the left of the aviation "A" mark, and "8.8" to the right of it. Not sure what those markings indicated, but what a great puzzle to try and sort out. The numbers have a brownish cream tint to them indicating they once illuminated at night, (but due to the degradation in of the zinc in the old radium paint they no longer glow). The watch was advertised as not working, but after a very light cleaning on my part I set the time and gave a very slow couple of winds and it has been ticking away and keeping time for the last several hours! For those who might not know, the Mark IVa was used in the cockpits of the RFC planes at the beginning of the War until they were superseded by the Mark V midway through 1916. This is the selfsame watch that pilots were told to be sure and retrive when they crashed their kites, as failure to do so was grounds for charges and punishment, (as if the poor sod didn't have enough to worry about when he crashed in No Man's Land). Cheers! Lou .

. British_eh, your gold Hamiliton is worth a pretty penny Sir, be sure and take good care of it. To answer your question about the value of the RFC watch: In near perfect original or restored condition the Mark IVa and Mark V models can fetch upwards of $1,200 to $1,500 US, depending on the manufacturer. In good running unrestored original condition, such as the one I found, the price can go as high as $600 to $700 US. I must admit I paid nowhere near that amount however, as the gentleman in England who was selling this timepiece had it grouped with a second old pocket watch and listed them both as "not working / for repair", and not in the proper military timepiece section of eBay. I ran across them purely by accident while doing a Google search for info on the RFC watches and when I discovered how few people had even noticed the listing I put in a maximum bid of $150 US for the pair and ended up claiming them for $142. I didn't quite believe it until they arrived in the post this last week, and was even more shocked and enthralled when I found that after a very minor clean up both watches ran beautifully. BTW, the second watch turned out to be an original Swiss made pocket alarm watch, and the alarm still works! I may relist that one on eBay to offset the cost of my RFC watch. Cheers! Lou .

. Flyby PC wrote: .... yup, that's why. .

. Very neat video Hellshade, love the massive furball. Can never have enough air time displaying the quality of this sim to others. Just one note, if you aren't already aware of it, you may be able to minimize or eliminate those white jaggies by setting program priority on "HIGH" for both OFF and TrackIR. It can make a very large difference. Cheers! Lou .

. Duce wrote: Fair enough, and right you are Duce. Where shall I park this then so we can tap it? .

. Yes, the case does show some wear, though not as much as the photos make it appear. There are some odd reflections on the case back and around the crystal that look like discoloration but in fact aren't. My apologies for the poor photo quality, I was having trouble holding the camera still I was so excited. Ten hours and it's still ticking away too. Cheers! Lou

Greetings All, Yes, I know I planned on a six month sabbatical, but I have news for all my fellow OFF'ers that I find very exciting. Last night I loaded up a clean install of CFS3 and then installed the Mediterranean Air War, (which, like OFF, is a stand-alone complete rework of the old Microsquish sim). After I had it all set up and gave it a go I was giddy with the ability to fly about over Egypt and other such exotic locales and was wishing we could do so with our beloved OFF planes. Well, guess what? WE CAN! Not only fly, but also fight, as the following screenshots attest to. Let the inquiries begin! Cheers! Lou .

. Roger that Winder, and thanks again Sir for this valuable input, it is very much appreciated as my knowledge of such things wouldn't fill a thimble. Shredward, an Italian campaign in OFF would be super, and I know Olham and others have been hoping for that for some time now. Hi ya Widowmaker and thanks for the welcome back, but it will be rather brief. However, at this point I believe I will make a habit of stopping by with the odd bit of info in between RL responsibilties and crisies. Cheers! Lou .

. Excellent point Winder, and I had noticed that the AI were not nearly as aggresive flying the OFF planes in MAW. Also, as Burning Beard noted, the guns are much stronger than they should be. However, all the OFF planes I have flown so far in the MAW set-up seem to handle the same as they do in OFF. For my Dardanelles work it will be less of an issue as there are very, very few dogfights in that early war camapign. Mainly recce, gun ranging, and bombing. Cheers! Lou .

. Royce, I started on the Dardanelles idea about a year ago and have puttered along with it in my spare time. The Short Torpedo Bomber is of course one of the early OFF planes from the first phase, and the HMS Ark Royal is actually Rob's HMS Furious repaint of Corrado La Posta's HMS Eagle model. The forts are my creation, and I came up with a method of using four stock OFF buildings which I repainted to look like fort parts, which I then assemble as I please to create as needed. A few months back I did turn over the fort files to Stumpjumper so that he could make use of them in a few MP missions. I am now hoping to get back to this work soon, and with the added bonus of MAW I am getting some excitement back in this project. Duce, no specific MAW forum that I can find, but there are missions and other MAW resources and such posted over at Sim Outhouse. Cheers! Lou .

. Quite a bit Olham. In particular the first use of an aircraft carrier in a war campaign; the HMS Ark Royal. cptroyce, thanks for the heads-up on that glitch Sir, much appreciated. And for all those who don't recall this project, here are three videos I did showing various stages of my work: Dardanelles Project Video 1: Sorting Out The Short Float Plane, Shore Guns, And The HMS Ark Royal Dardanelles Project Video 2: Testing The Fort Guns Dardanelles Project Video 3: Fort Work Continues Cheers! Lou .

. Which is why I mentioned my Dardanelles Campaign project FlybyPC. .

. TKS Winder, this is what I pretty much outlined a few posts back in this thread myself. BTW, with this new area to work on I can now get back to my Dardanelles campaign when time allows. Cheers! Lou .

Olham, you might find this useful Sir: This is the region MAW covers. Cheers! Lou .