mppd

Can anyone come up with a flat spot in Thailand to fit a new airfield on? My Marine A-6A Intruders and Phantom IIs also flew from this Nam Phong RTAFB in 1972-73, and there is no reference for it in Yankee Air Pirate either. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks, Mike Druzolowski

Thanks Kevin, I'll have to give it a try. I appreciate the step-by-step. There are several VNAF bases I would like to see added as well that had runways at least 4000 ft long. I have had mixed success adding airfields to the existing terrain - the Marble Mountain Air Facility next to Da Nang went in without too much fuss, but much of the rest of the terrain is very uneven, and parts of your base start going underground without a little TE attention. Thanks again, Mike D.

Sorry, what I meant was: Has anyone successfully added this base to their WOV installation? It is missing from the default install, and YAP did not add it either. I made an attempt to start adding several VNAF bases to the SVN terrain and was having trouble finding flat terrain to stick them to. I have not done the research to modify terrain, so was hoping someone had done this already. Thanks, Mike

Not sure which skins you mean, but if you mean my VMA(AW)-242 decals I thank you for the compliment. The skins are really pretty much as provided in the Razbam offering, and I think that they look pretty nice as supplied. I only painted out the markings on the .bmps. Corktip is interested in doing some additional markings for the Razbam A-6. He has not been feeling well lately so I'm not sure what progress has been made. My decal setup will help anyone interested in creating markings for multiple aircraft within a squadron. I also have a decal reference for the wing flap modex number - common on Navy Intruders but not on my Marine A-6As. (I still like the idea of the decal system - the markings look sharper as the aircraft angles away from you in external views). I'm doing decals now for the other two land-based USMC Intruder units in Vietnam for the Razbam bird. Anyone create a Nam Phong RTAFB reference to fly A-6s out of? Mike Druzolowski

File Name: VMA(AW)-242 white nose markings for Razbam A-6A File Submitter: mppd File Submitted: 28 Mar 2008 File Category: A-6/EA-6 File Version: No Information Website: No Information VMA(AW)-242 repaint for the Razbam A-6A (white radomes) This is part two of my VMA(AW)-242 decals, and the base model is again the recently released A-6 Intruder by Razbam. Just drop the folder into the A-6A folder and go fly. Most aircraft had black radomes early in the unit's history at Da Nang, but many later aircraft were seen with off-white radomes. It will not work with the original WOV A-6A or the add-on created by Monty CZ. A working decal system is provided for anyone creating new markings for the plane. Enjoy, Mike Druzolowski Click here to download this file

File Name: VMA(AW)-242 black nose markings for Razbam A-6A File Submitter: mppd File Submitted: 26 Mar 2008 File Category: A-6/EA-6 File Version: No Information Website: No Information VMA(AW)-242 repaint for the Razbam A-6A (black radomes) This is the first of the four Marine Corps A-6A units which flew in Vietnam, and the base model is the recently released A-6 Intruder by Razbam. Just drop the folder into the A-6A folder and go fly. Most aircraft had black radomes early in the unit's history at Da Nang. It will not work with the original WOV A-6A or the add-on created by Monty CZ. A working decal system is provided for anyone creating new markings for the plane. Enjoy, Mike Druzolowski Click here to download this file

Thanks guy. Need to finish white nose birds from -242, then the other units. I still want to do them all for the stock WOV A-6 and Monty CZs Intruder too. Mike

As part of the modding crowd, I too wish you the best birthday you can have. Mike Druzolowski

I started markings and decals for the recently released Razbam A-6A - I intend to do the three units which flew in Vietnam - VMA(AW)-242, -225 and -533. Anyone else doing this who wants to combine resources or share this project? (Corktip is already in on this...) Lots of VMA-242 photos on the Internet, the others are much more rare however. I am looking for any photos in actual Vietnam-era markings, plus bureau numbers/nose ID numbers. Thanks, Mike Druzolowski

Sure, I'd like a copy of them. Always like to see artwork from someone else, and how it is layered in Photoshop! The stock A-6A skins and shape look pretty good in-game to me. The shape of the Razbam offering is just superb though. Everyone should get it. I was a little disappointed in the templates as offered at the Razbam Forum for the A-6A though - they left you to redo all of the grey/white rendering yourself unless I'm mistaken! Just to set the record straight, VMA(AW)-224 also flew A-6As in Vietnam, but off of the USS Coral Sea in their '71-72 combat cruise, and this is already offered here at CA for download in correct markings by JSF_Aggie for the stock Intruder. Mike D.

Thanks for the reply Sandy. It always bothered me that WOV depicted all the wrong markings for Marine Intruders, now is a chance to revise them for a really nice A-6A. I am planning on making them fit the stock WOV A-6A also. I have lots of Bureau numbers for the birds of VMA(AW)-242 and -533, fewer for -225. Lots of photos on the Net and in the books I have for -242, fewer for the other two. Anyone that can contribute is welcome to share the credit! Thanks again, Mike D.

O.K. So I guess I'm the only Marine A-6A enthusiast. I'll go it alone... Thanks anyway, Mike Druzolowski

My list for Vietnam-era birds that I am waiting to see consists of (and in no particular order): F-102A Delta Dagger T-28D Trojan RF-101C Voodoo AP-2H Neptune AC-119 Boxcar KA-3D Skywarrion EC-121 Connie C-141 Starlifter C-46 Commando C-45 PC-6 Pilatus Porter C-7 Caribou C-123 Provider ...and I know that all but the last three are in some stage of completion (or a variant is in progress which may lead to my variant being done). Mike D.

O.K. lets try another question. Anyone get a blue tint to their smoke from explosions - perhaps a Video card issue, or effects .ini? I'm of course running in 24-bit color mode. Thanks, Mike D.

For various explosion smoke types, these values are all over the place. If I change all of the ParticleColor[xx].Value numbers to 1.000 or 0.000 for the entry for the smoke TGA which is applicable I should get all black or all white or vice versa?? I'll give it a try later. Thanks, Mike

I have been toying with a T-28D flight model for someone elses future project, and found a fine combination of values to make it fly just fine in clean configuration. However, throw some ordnance on it and it starts to wobble after rotation and just plain flies unstable in the air. Tried shifting the CG forward a bit, which helped (the weapon stations were a bit fwd of CG) but still not what I think it should be. Anyone with a helping word on this for me? I sort of miss the MS Flight sim "stability" values. The roll damper value simply dulls the roll rate and doesn't really help this basic instability. Once the underside is clean, flies fine again. Thanks, Mike D.

Could you clarify exactly where to place the two extra files: NOISENORMAL.BMP and TERRAINEFFECT.FX. Exactly where would the VietnamSEA map directory be found? Thanks, Mike D.

Anyone who knows me, or has downloaded any textures/decals I created knows that anyone is welcome to do anything that they want with my files. This is all just for fun and to increase the enjoyment of an already great simulation. Credit is nice if given, but it's no big deal. It is a compliment to see your files used by someone at any rate! Have fun with them. Mike Druzolowski

Yankee Air Pirate is indeed payware, but well worth it to anyone who is a WOV fan. It is worth the aircraft add-ons alone, plus the target list and object add-ons. I can't understand why so many in several forums complain about the thing being payware - if you fly MS Flight Simulator or the various CFS sims, payware add-ons are as common as can be, but no one seems to make such a big deal out of that. Buy into it if you are an enthusiast, don't if you don't want to. I have never heard anyone buy into YAP and complain that they DID NOT get their money's worth - I'll bet that there are no unhappy customers. (And no, I'm not on their payroll - I only think that the whole YAP concept is what I would have created with the time and talent that I lack). Contact them with any questions. Mike Druzolowski

A superb mod - changes the sim completely, and my PC had little frame rate hit. I reduced the color saturation in the two vegetation files though. Will share the files if anyone wants them. Thanks again, Mike D.

File Name: 497th TFS Night Owl Textures File Submitter: mppd File Submitted: 2 Mar 2008 File Category: F-4 File Version: No Information Website: No Information Night Owl 497th TFS F-4D textures This is a small add-on for the stock Wings over Vietnam F-4D (that I forgot I did). Although done before in several nice packages packages (one by Sundowner available here and one available through a Yankee Air Pirate mission set) these textures are all black-belly Night Owl birds from the 497th TFS, 8th TFW at Ubon RTAFB, Thailand which match my other F-4 texture packages, and of course all are actual serials from photos. The LORAN airplanes require the mod created for Yankee Air Pirate, with a slight ini tweak as sent to me by Sundowner, so I cannot include it here. As usual, drop the folder into your F-4D folder and fly. Enjoy, Mike Druzolowski Click here to download this file

Nicky, check these screenies out!!! Hey Frank, where's my copy of these? You've been holding out on me... Mike

Frank, You already have some nice skins that you sent me. How about we put something together for everyone here at CA? I'll help with some additional serials and markings. PM or E-mail me if you want to do something like that. Post a screenshot to show everyone also, your skins look great! Perhaps we can keep the interest in the Skyraider going here (and keep Nicky interested too!) Mike