Jimbib

Thanks @dtmdragon, will give these a listen. He has also done a video with another Red Eagles pilot Ted "Gabby" Drake hosted by Steve Davies where they talk through some previously unseen footage of Constant Peg operations at TTR:

Thank you for the pointers on DCS - I'm looking forward to getting stuck into it. I purchased the Nevada map a few years ago when it was discounted and might pick up one of the Middle East maps too. As for SF2, that's a good point about not listening to the customer base, another major contributor as to why the PC games died - it's a shame he continuously locked / changed things in the coding which caused constant rework by the modders and didn't deliver on the features that the general fanbase like multiplayer etc. I still feel that the marketing goes hand in hand with point about listening to the customers, it is one of the things that the commercially successful flight sims out there at the moment are all doing well, whether it be DCS, War Thunder (just about qualifies as a flight sim), Microsoft Flight Sim etc and something that TK never bothered with. They are hitting all the major points - producing content which draws people in, a well-built website, exploiting owned / earned / paid channels, advertising across multiple platforms, and then they follow up by converting them through their sales funnel, and they know how to appeal to their different audiences whether it's the high fidelity option (DCS) or the shoot em ups (WT). The flight sims that don't get their message out there about their USPs and why their product deserves consideration and a potential purchase tend to flounder and / or die.

Last week I was fortunate enough to attend an evening presentation and book signing with former MiG-21 and MiG-23 pilot, Lt. Col. Rob ‘Z-Man’ Zettel at the RAF Museum at Cosford. He covered his entire flying career both during his military service and after flying airliners, but the real highlight of his story was his time with the 4477th Red Eagles in the Constant Peg program at Tonopah Test Range, flying acquired Fishbeds and Floggers against other American pilots. Considering there were only ever 69 'Bandits' who flew with the 4477th, it was a privilege to hear from one of them first hand about how they operated these aircraft in secrecy in order to improve their air combat tactics against Russian fighers. Obviously had to get a few signed prints to be framed to go in the mancave! Rob Zettel is due to appear at the following events over 2026 (have borrowed these dates from the 10 Percent True podcast discord), I would highly recommend attending his presentation if you can: May 15, time TBD United Airlines Flight Training Center Denver, Colorado Presentation, Q&A, and book signing (United Corporate Event) May 16, time TBD Wings Over the Rockies Museum Denver, Colorado Presentation, Q&A, and book signing June 13-14 Imperial War Museum Duxford, UK - History Festival Featured speaker and book signing July 11, time TBD SOCAL CAF Museum Camarillo, CA Presentation, Q&A, and book signing July 20-26 Oshkosh, WI (Air Venture) October 21-25, time TBD River Rats Annual Reunion Dallas, TX Presentation, Q&A, and book signing (Private event)

Sadly, TK has essentially never done any significant marketing for his portfolio of products, something that I wish he had done a lot more of over the years. Yes, he's got his social channels but I've noticed he basically ignores all comments underneath his posts (and has abandoned the discord) and he started them way too late in order to drive traffic to save the PC games. The only time I ever saw him consistently engage with customers was when he used to host his own forum at thirdwire.com. I understand the counter point which is "a small business doesn't have time / money / resources for marketing" but that is exactly what is needed drive customers through the sales funnel to open their wallets and convince them to purchase it, especially when his SF2 collection is still $100 and consumer budgets are tighter then ever. (I have a very strong suspicion that the big influx of people joining CA are acquiring the installers from 'other sources' and then coming here looking for mods - there ain't no way they're all splashing out that much money for an unsupported game this old). It's something I find very frustrating because in my opinion there has never existed a combat flight sim with a better combination of aircraft availability and "jump in, fly about, shoot bad guy", which I'm sure is the same for a lot of people still here at CA, but can't help feel the ball was dropped on the marketing / delivery side of things. I'm not saying it's the only reason why the PC games got left behind but it is a major contributing factor. Regarding the DCS F-100... just watched the trailer linked by MigBuster and good lord that looks incredible, the detail and immersion are exceptional. I've not gotten into DCS properly yet but this could tip me to do so.

This looks awesome Dels, cannot wait to fly it!

I believe so... but with a catch. If you were to make a copy of a regular aircraft and remove all mention of it's engines, fuel tanks, flight controls and sounds in the aircraft data ini file, you would now have an aircraft that can't fly. This aircraft can be placed in flights of one in scripted missions which your door gunners would shoot at, I think this has been done in the YAP-RW mod. The catch is you can't make them appear in single missions or in campaigns in specific parked locations that the AI gunners would engage. There is also a chance that the game engine would try to spawn the immobile aircraft in a flight as an enemy or friendly.

the list of alphasim models is here and the mediafire links below for anyone interested in playing with their models: https://www.mediafire.com/download/t883na7l7i9ddz8/ALPHASIM+3ds+models.7z https://www.mediafire.com/download/a5519bdr4fbr0pe/ALPHASIM+3ds+models+2nd+batch.7z

I think it is possible with scripted single missions, here are a couple of threads on doing so (it probably also relies on a flight size of 1, AI wingmen will struggle with it)

Very sorry to hear this news ravenclaw, am wishing you a speedy recovery and hope you're on the mend soon mate. Take care, you've got this.

I think Marcfighter did the Hip and YEYEYE did the hind

I have absolutely no idea why this fix works but it did 100% for me:

Sure, see here: http://thirdwire.com/man/sf2/Strike_Fighters_2.htm

@F5TigerIIGuy check out this thread from Dels:

Agreed! I spent many years playing Innerloop's JSF so I have a soft spot for that overall shape, Klavs' take on it really sharpens up the demonstrator.

For some background on the specific author of that F-32 model, Hangar B is the same person as Klavs81, who was a modder here at CA (he was the author of the F-35 mod) along at other forums as well, very sadly he passed away a couple of years ago: https://www.wcnews.com/chatzone/threads/goodbye-klavs-may-13-2024.31940/ I hadn't realised his models were available to purchase. I did see all the jets he modelled on his sketchfab page that were used in articles by The War Zone over the past several years, but assumed they were exclusive as downloading is disabled for them: https://sketchfab.com/hangar.b.productions/models

Few more done, new 747, A300 and A310 mapped to existing SF2 models so skins will transfer across for terrain modders.

Damn @Erik, that was fast! A thousand thank yous sir Will keep eyes peeled and post back here if I see anyone else.

Not sure if I've recently fat fingered something on my account but I seem to have lost modder status, could someone reinstate it please?

Would love to see any Puma / Super Puma you add to SF2 @GKABS, so a big thank you. My last place of work used to be riddled with 332s and 225s plus the odd 330: (excuse the potato quality of some of them and my dodgy photoshopping to remove faces / serials)

@Benetnasch, as per what daddyairplanes mentioned, 3d modelling for the SF2 series requires some specific tools, although the general principles are the same for getting any model into a game engine (3d modelling, setting animations, part heirachies, UV mapping, painting the texture, exporting to the game engine, writing the data files etc.) Some useful links can be found at the following post if you want to have a go:

Great work on pulling this pack together Rob, looking forward to playing with it. On a very sad note, I recently learnt of Klavs81's passing last year, it is always a great loss when we lose a member of the CA community, I hope he would be happy to see his work living on for people to enjoy. Rest In Peace, Klavs81. https://www.wcnews.com/chatzone/threads/goodbye-klavs-may-13-2024.31940/

For getting into making add on objects like aircraft, mustang's original SFP1 3d modelling tutorials are a great place to start: https://www.bobsyouruncle.net/StrikeFighter3dModeling.htm If you do use 3D Studio Max, you will need the relevant Thirdwire exporter plug-in for your version of the software, these can all still be accessed via this page on Thirdwire's website: https://www.thirdwire.com/downloads_tools.htm If you do not have access to 3D Studio Max, Mue made a SF2 exporter for Blender which is free, but a lot of the lessons from mustang's tutorials will apply: For anyone getting into 3d modelling in SF2, mue's LOD Viewer is an absolute must have: Also, the SF2 Knowledge Base has lots of useful threads with 3d modelling tips in it (the SF1 Knowledge Base will as well for that matter) https://combatace.com/forums/forum/268-thirdwire-strike-fighters-2-series-knowledge-base/ https://combatace.com/forums/forum/99-thirdwire-strike-fighters-knowledge-base/