Hauksbee

Looking forward to it HH.

Nice work, there. Any chance of snow on any of those peaks?

I've been away from 3D modeling for the last couple of years, but ever since Olham posted a pic. of the Lohner M (Austrian) seaplane, I've got the itch to break out Animation Master and build one of my own. In researching the web for pictures to fill in the blanks from other blurry photos, I discovered that some other 3D artists have had the same idea. There were two artists who were really good. These pics. are from the better of the two. (mainly because of the background photos he used...and the lighting.)

Lou: Could I beg a copy too?

Damn! It's like discovering a dusty old trunk in your grandmother's attic...filled with WWI planes. How cool is that? Olham: Thanks for the Lohner whale watching. Now there's a pilot with a death wish. (also the PM with the wing warping scale E.III)

Bullet Head: here's some camo patterns much favored by Hansa-Brandenberg. The bottom pic. is regular hexagons, but the top is not.

While purusing the Aynsley photos of the Italian Air Force, I ran across this pic. of a Macchi M.39, the Italian entry in the 1926 Schneider Cup races, and which the Italians won. Going to America, the Italians were confident of victory, but distressed at the prospect of Prohibition. The prospect of three weeks, or so, across the Atlantic with nothing to drink was real hardship duty. In the end, it was the plane that saved them: Schneider Cup planes carried their fuel in the pontoons. The Italians installed brand new tanks and filled them with red wine.

For the speed trials, yes. But if it had competed in the race proper...

The delightful end to the Jack Ryan conversation, was that when the dealer asks for $5,000,000 as a deposit, Ryan lays a business card (identifying himself as the Deputy Director of Operations for CIA) on the desk in front of him and says, "Will you take a company check?" and the dealer simply says,"Yes." Olham: my piggy bank is probably not any heavier than yours, but for an Albatros, I'll invest it all. I'll even throw in the piggy bank. (It's a start.)

Here y' go, BH...The Macchi-Castoldi M.72. Two V-12 engines placed end-to-end. After winning in 1926, the Italians were poised for victory in 1927 and 1929. (If an aero club won three races in five years, they would retire the cup. Each race was hosted by the previous winning country. Each club could enter up to three competitors with an equal number of alternates.) The M.72 was prepped, but engine troubles prevented the Italians from entering. The British then went on to retire the cup in 1931, but by that time Mussolini had become interested in the M.72 and continued to fund the project. In 1934, Francesco Agello pushed the M.72 to 440 mph, a record that stands today for seaplanes.

Lou, if it's built in FSX, would it not be importable into OFF?

Can somebody familiar with Italian tell me how 'Macchi' is pronounced? Is the double-C a soft C, or hard? Is it pronounced "ma-chi', or 'ma-kee'?

http://www.philaphot...lbum=1368&pos=0 While researching the Lohner seaplanes, I found this Phil Aynsley photo essay on the Italian Air Force Museum. 61 mouth-watering photos of Italian aircraft from WWI and WWII. (including my Lohner) Great stuff.

In that case, let's go for it!

I am reminded of the scene in "A Clear and Present Danger" when Harrison Ford (as Jack Ryan) asks a Central American arms dealer: "How much for the UH-1 chopper out on the lot?" The dealer replies, "$5,000,000." "Can I test fly it?" "Yes, if you leave a deposit." "How much of a deposit?" "$5,000,000." But I'd have to wonder if they'd turn their baby over to any of us, no matter what the offer. How do you put a price on all those hours of loving, hand-crafted work?

Amen. Great work. The gray & green is a nice change from the standard green & purple.

I think Bullethead's comment has it right. (Given that the pontoons don't have steps on their bottoms to break the suction, they must have needed the hydrofoils just to get the thing off the water.) ...and this was indeed cutting edge technology. Looking at things like this, I often think on one of Olham's posts about German pilots in Turkey needing all their skill to keep the Pfaltz E.III just flying straight and level, and being thrilled when they finally got Fokker E.III's. Brand new, modern stuff, that Fokker! I remember during WWII ( I was 7 when it ended) and after, seeing illustrations in magazines of minesweeper rigs. Half kite, half torpedo looking things. They were always called 'paravanes'. 'Hydroplanes' (in my young memory) were tiny, pumpkin-seed shaped racing boats to which you attached the biggest outboard motor possible, without sinking at the starting line.

Thanks Lou, for that link. Last night, I followed a trail of links until I found the same two pics. as shown in your post. I neglected to leave a trail of bread crumbs, and doubt that I could find it twice. ps: 'Couldn't see where the propellars were from the photos. Here's a color-enhanced section of the 3-View.

You're absolutely right, Lou. I made a screenie from Olham's colored version and took a shot at it. I figured that since this is a step-and-repeat pattern, how difficult can it be? Damned near impossible! Since it is a commercially printed cloth, I know there has to be a repeat pattern somewhere. Maybe you have to go six swirls up and seven across, but it's there. (if you have a full width yard or two off the bolt.) Patching together a continous pattern was a certifiable labor of love. Good on y'.

How are you doing Bullethead? The storm just kissed the south coast of Massachusetts this morning.

Happily, Sim Out House solved my 'game-does-not-recognize-the-joystick' problem. It was a Vista thing (and Vista 7) with the config. file. They pointed me to a link that had patches, and I'm back in business. I recall being stunned at the graphics quality when I first saw ETO demoed in stores, so it was a bit of a let down now. OFF and ROF have put the bar pretty high and I haven't flown it since early XP days. It's still a good Quick Combat platform, and there's a Single Mission that I remember fondly. You have to escort a wounded P-38 Photo Recon Lightning back to safety, keeping the wolves at bay. I've not cracked the code on that one yet.

That is a real beauty! For more in a similar vein, check out the Hayao Myazaki animated film, "Porco Rosso".

I agree. Where did you get that righteous cloud picture?

Agreed. It was a minor revelation for me when I found a book on the subject. The author pointed out that if you ask most laymen about the function of camo, most everyone will say, "To hide the target", i.e., to make it invisible. That rarely happens. Mainly, camo works to deceive the enemy gunner/bombadier into thinking (let's say, in a target-rich environment) that you are the least important choice. If a bombadier is in doubt for two seconds too long, the bombs miss the target and the camo's done its work.

These things will happen. I did this pic. of the Hawker/von Richtofen dogfight a few months before I bought OFF P3 and was feeling rather pleased with myself. As soon as I started hanging out here, I was soon informed that, 1.) von Richtofen was not flying a D.V on that day. It was a D.II, and, 2.) it wasn't red. That came much later.