Trotski

Gotta love Russian ( originally ) Tanks, they are like Race cars for Squaddies.

Yes, Decals are very versatile, and they can also cover a lot of mistakes you may have made in the colour scheme, I must say, I never used to be a fan of painted on markings, however, do tend to use those a lot lately, as they become part of the paint scheme, and you can weather them better that way ( look at my Skyraiders for an example of what I am talking about.

Yes it appeals to my sense of chaos, and I like to see what if scenarios, which are not necessarily aligned with what people think things should be, because that is what historically happened or is happening in the present. I see no problem with nations having the same kit and then having a dust up, wasn't that what happened in the Football war in S America ? both sides if I remember correctly flew US types of aircraft varying from the F4U Corsair etc. The egyptians flew all sorts of things Soviet, British and Italian, as did a lot of other Arabian Countries, and clashes must have happened where the same types came up against each other. Even the French flew KI 43 Oscars after the war, also some German aircraft as well, they even had a couple of Panther tanks, so, if one takes that idea and runs with it, boundless choices are open to you.

Here's a Parani HE 51 for you to be going on with

do take a look at the skins I did a while back for Paran and Dhimar aircraft, including a Canadair Sabre, they were early works from myself, so not as good as some of my newer offerings, however they may be a good tool for you to glean some ideas from. I am really miffed that all my library of skins is inaccessible at the moment as I would love to give you a hand with some of the skins. As I said take a look at my back catalogue and see what you can extract ideas wise. Like I said, I would love to do my Elbonia/Slobogia thing, and base them on Finnish and Swedish, maps with some North Atlantic thrown in for good measure. However, a lot of it is beyond my scope, as I am unable to do any modelling, and I am buggered if I am going to splash out a small fortune on 3DS Max !! I look forward to seeing what ideas you do come up with, as I feel that the whole idea of using theoretical nations adds a lot to this sim, as that way we are not bound by recorded or actual history.

Dhimar seems to me to be a more "traditional" and logical set up, akin to Saudi, or Oman for instance, therefore they are really the easiest to equip, as they would certainly have an equipment schedule that would be sensible in a logistical, and cost wise sense. Of course this would depend largely on exactly When, you are kitting them out, in other words what year period. When I started doing Paran/Dhimar stuff a while back, I started both countries from just after the First World War, and then equiped them with the likes of Hanriot HD's and other WWI types that could have possibly been around in the 20's and of course taking into account that the 2 nations were only just emerging, so they wouldn't have a huge amount of Shekels to chuck around. If however you are aiming towards a more modern time frame, say the 1960's on, which in my opinion is actually more interesting than more modern stuff. Then you cauold easily equip both sides with British/French/European aircraft, as in fact this did happen in the Middle and Near East during the 50's through 70's So the likes of Vampires, Meteors etc. could be found on both sides of a "Border Incident" No so much with US aircraft, or rather Fighters and bombers, as the Yanks were careful to only supply "the good guys" with their aerospace equipment. Same goes for the Warpac countries, they would only supply to a sure bet, come into my parlour, client state. The Brits and the French however had a more cavalier attitude. Or so it appears at least.So a situation as we see in Iran, with their use of F14's and F4's continued even after the Islamic Revolution. Thus the Iranians have or had, a mix of Western and Soviet airframes. As for the respective Navies, a lot depends on whether they have any sort of carrier capability or not. If not then "Navalised" aircraft are not a requirement, if on the other hand, they do have carriers, then again depending on when you are setting you time period, then really it is British, French and US aircraft on the table ( or Flightdeck) as the Soviets had little naval aircraft available until the Forger appeared, and the Forger was pretty rubbish really, and it wasnt until the 80's really that they had much worth using , then of course you get the mighty and most beaudacious SU 29's which are awesome beasties indeed. I suppose if you wanted to look out of the box a bit, you could cast your eyes over to the Indians, with their Maruts, and licence built Gnats, also the navalised Jaguar !! However, these are just ideas I am tossing around, which may get you thinking obliquely. I see no reason not to have British/French/Spanish/ Italian airframes in the Airforce, and also be equipped with Soviet or Pact aircraft, at the same time, as this did happen, as did the use of NATO kit to ex WARPAC countries after the fall of the curtain. Germany is a fine example of this, with Hinds, Fulcrums etc. in service and kept in service well after the re unification...........The main think to take away from my rantings and ramblings, is this, the 2 countries are mythical, so therefore by that premise, one does not have to follow ANY rules at all. Make it bright and different, if you want to have a Mig Squadron flying next to a F86 Squadron, then go for it, it isn't wrong, because the whole story is just that, a story, and it is YOUR story, built how YOU want to build it. I wish I had the ability to do it myself (With Elbonia and Slobogia) however as my hard drive with ALL my stuff on it now refuses to work, I am rather stuffed.

It is indeed an interesting theatre of War, with many possibilities, I would be tempted though, to veer away from the Excepted norm, as we see it today, Ie. Paran is Red Force, therefore they MUST be supplied and equipped by the "Evil Empire" As the 2 countries are fictional, it therefore follows , that the equipment scales, and suppliers of their equipment, can also be fictional. My Vision for Paran in particular, was one of the Country being ruled by factions, a bit similar to the Japanese during WWII. So for the Navy , the C in C of the Navy, may not like or want what the Air Force or the Army use, Sort of a tribal arrangement , deliberately done by Parans leader/Sheik/Mahdi, or whatever you envisage him ( or even Her ) as, to keep the factions at odds with each other , so no one group, can rebel and take over the country.....I hope I am explaining this well. So, by that coin, the Airforce may be using Soviet kit, for example, and the Chief of the navy hates the Russians, and does not trust their equipment and training, and prefers let us say, for arguments sake, British aircraft, and therefore equips the Navy with those aircraft. Maybe it is a little over complicated, but then, Arab politics do tend to get like that. Of course you can go with the way things are in the real world, but my argument, or rather, suggestion, is to be creative, and not follow the accepted Status Quo.

I know they did X-Wing Alliance, I have X-Wing Alliance.....However, X-Wing Alliance is NOT X-Wing, different animal.

I have all the TinTin books, and the encyclopedia........Could sort of say I'm a fan lol

Have you played it yet ?......I hope they do X-Wing too

Look for "King Ottokar's Scepte" we find countries like Syldavia, and in the " Calculus Affair" we have the likes of Borduria and there are many other countries that are looseley based on Eastern Bloc nations, google Tintin, and it should give you a potted history. Herge used a lot of real life aircraft in his stories too, so there are some interesting colour schemes for 1930 - 1950 ish, Spitfires Mosquitos, Arados BF109's etc as well as a lot of Civilian types too.......very interesting and could be rather fun to do.

Well Poland was only in the Warsaw Pact because they got screwed in WWI and II, they have really always sided with the West, also after the fall of the Iron Curtain, most of the oldSoviet Equipment was retained, and in some cases still is, therefore for a !western" oriented power or Country to be using Lims, Iskras etc is not totally out of the bounds of reality. A lot of the old Warpac nations still do retain old Soviet equipment, helicopters in particular, because, let us be honest, the Russians build beautiful and effective Helo's . So. depending on when you are going to set the scenario, the Poles could be on either side of the curtain so to speak. If you look at the equipment knocking around in both the Middle East, ( PARAN/DHIMAR) there is a mix of both modern european stuff, South American kit ( Brazillian mainly) and US produced aircraft, the F16 being rather commonly equipping all sorts of nations. However if it wer me doing the revamp, I would actually cut down on the amount of US kit, except for maybe Phantoms, and the earlier stuff, like the Century series, one could have a scenario in fact where both sides are actually using the same, or similar equipment, Mirage vs Mirage for example............The possibilities are boundless, and I would be tempted to make it as diverse and "different" as possible.

"You just bought a light to additional new ideas. You are genius! This is what I decided from now on. The feedback are appreciated as always. " Yes as a Brit, it sometimes irritates me sometimes, that people seem to forget that there is a very successful and prolific Aerospace industry outside of the US and Russia, and those aircraft, which are every bit as good as, and in a lot of cases better than, US/Soviet offerings. Also I agree with Kev's ( Wrench) suggestion about the Canadian built Sabres. plus, in my humble opinion, they actually look better than the vanilla ones from the Good old US of A. Oh yeah, dont forget that the Polish also produced Migs under licence too. . its a whole world of choice , I had thought about doing this myself, except with 2 new nations, based more in the European or Baltic areas, the Countries of Elbonia, and Slobogia. Also there is the ones from the Tin Tin series too, that one could play with.....Food for thought.

Why do you have to think along the US/Soviet line, try using things like Mirage, or some British stuff, also Fiat Ginas etc. Just because they are antagonists, does not stand to reason that the "bad" guys are equipped with Soviet/Chinese kit. and the "good" guys use good old Uncle Sam hardware. Mix it up a bit and make it interesting, Oh and dont Forget SAAB's too.

I Did a load of early Paran/Dhimar aircraft a couple of years back, with historical aircraft from WWI on, through to WWII and beyond, some of those may be useful to you ?

Welcome to our little corner of the internet. A great sim, with great accessibility, we get everything you could want or need, except for IFR , but that is no huge loss , as for anything else, make sure, if you dont understand anything, that you check the forums first, as there a lot of FAQ posts in there, failing that just ask and someone will try and either help or solve your issue. Happy flying .

Hmmm my understanding is, that yes of course, when there was yet another pointless "push" on, then squadrons did fly support missions, of course they did, as they were following orders, however, if they could avoid it, they wouldn't strafe or mud move, except when possibly returning from a mission and heading home, and it was the "form" to empty the guns into the PBI . However, one must also remember, that the infantry habitually fired at any and all aircraft because they were rather pissed off at them , as a recce aircraft, usually meant a nice stiff dose of daily hate from enemy Arty, so, they shot at all aircraft, and didnt differentiate, what side those aircraft were on, the pilots knew this, and avoided it like the plague, as it can be rather bothersome getting potted at by your own Infantry. in the early years of the war in particular. So, yes it was done, but the attrition rate was so bloody awful, they didnt do it unless ordered to, in general at least. As I said, even in WWII the attrition rate of ground attacks was awful, for all Airforces, even the specialised ground pounders had a stupidly high attrition rate, so, as with balloon busting ( although some pilots were suicidal enough to do it Albert Ball for instance) it wasn't a really common practice whatsoever.

Flying low was not a recommended practice, especially on entering, and leaving the patrol area, not only was the danger of ground fire very nasty, Richthofen is a prime example of how deadly ground fire was, and the archie was even nastier at low level, on top of that the enemy would be around as well, and generally above and in the sun, so being low was not a thing you would do, unless absolutely vital, and it would be in and out as quickly as possible, lay the eggs, give the trenches a few squirts, and get the hell out of Dodge tout suite !! this is why specialist aircraft were developed for this, from 1916 on, as they were given a bit of armour,, and were of less floppy construction, the Dolphin or the Halberstadt CL series, or the Hannover. mud moving is a hazardous occupation, one only has to look at the attrition rate of ground attack missions in WWII a lot of Typhoons were lost due to ground fire, and the figures are actually worryingly high, and those were more modern and faster aircraft than the wood and canvas jobs over the Western front !!

Try it in an FE2 , " it will be fun" they said, "be like shooting fish in a barrel " they said, says the PBO ( poor bloody observer ) or GIF ( Guy in Front ) as he is hanging onto the gun mount for dear life. This is possibly the reason FE2 pilots had permanent black eyes.

Either the 20Lb Hales or the later 25Lb Cooper, were not terribly powerful, most of the weight was actually the casing and fins. So compared to later WWII bombs of a similar weight, the blast radius will be noticeably far less, also dependant on the type of ground they were dropped on ie soft muddy as was standard WWI fare, the blast would have been negligible, if the damn things went off at all that is, I assume the German PUW types were no a lot different. So low level bombing was not as dangerous as it would be in later periods. However I can find little data on the blast effect of Hales/Coopers, they did the job is all I can seem to find, and they were a bit more potent than the grenades they used previously.

Switches off, Sucking in, Contact.

If you keep flying a BE2, then the day you die will be upon you rather abruptly.

Ahhhh our glorious technical marvel that is the BE2. Better at everything except being a combat aircraft. The Eindecker pilots must have been laughing all the way back to the mess. But, it was a cunning plan on our behalf, we were lulling them into a false sense of security, then repeating the process, as they wont expect us to do anything a stupid as repeating the same error twice..........We'll learn 'em !!!

German aircraft of the first world war, Peter gray & Owen Thetford, invaluable source book for all the German types of the war. any of the Crowood Press books. Aeroplanes of the Royal Aircraft Factory for example. Finally, Biggles, if you havent read the Biggles books, that is a sad loss. For younger folk maybe, a bit jingoistic, definately, but good light reads anyhow.

Ahhh ok, that then makes it clear, however my statement that it works just fine, still stands