My goodness this is a beautiful aircraft, she handles perfectly and is a joy to fly. I especially had fun bouncing the pillows all over the cabin with a little bit of aerobatics. Only after landing in chase view did I realize one of them was sitting on the dash right in front of the pilot's seat. lol
She is a spirited little thing indeed! Nicely done! It seems to want to roll to port when flying level for a while but that's probably just the tail wheel creating a minor change in balance or drag and is nothing too important. She kind of reminds me of a P-36 or an MB.152
A very interesting design overall! Thanks for sharing! It might be neat to have some guns in addition to the cannon but that in and of itself makes it unique. I had an issue with the starboard spinner falling off on the runway, so had to reattach it and nudge it into place before I could fly her. Not that big of a deal really. Takeoff is a little tricky in that you can't just go to 100% throttle at the start or she'll make a mighty fine pilot's monument right there on the tarmac. Landing is another story. For the life of me I couldn't land her safely as she wanted to tip up onto her nose no matter what I did. Did you have the same problems or is it an issue on my end?
Wow!! How did this bird fail to attract attention from other SP players?! She's sporty, easy to handle, a good gun platform, simple in both take-offs and landings. Besides the diesel punk bomber you posted recently this is another new fav for me. Bravo!
Another lovely seaplane build from the original OWL. This one is fun and sporty, I had a lot of fun with this one. Flight is a joy with this one and she can practically land on her own. Takeoff was a little tricky. You can't simply power all the way up to 100% or she'll nose over, with or without flaps. Eventually I dropped the flaps all the way, eased the throttle up gradually until a little over 50% while keeping the wings level until she broke the surface tension of the water. Finding out the trick to it was fun in and of itself! Great build as always!
This was a fun one to play with! I don't know why it didn't get more attention. It's appearance is unique, the turret arrangement is neat, I liked the staggered bombing control and she's really smooth to land and take-off. Great work!
This is a beautiful replica, great work! Her ability to climb vertically was astounding to say the least. I kept her in a near 90 degree vertical climb until she finally stalled at 55ish mph after about an 8 angel climb! She didn't like maneuvers that require negative Gs though so you have to be delicate on pitching forward in any orientation under around 200 mph. She seemed to only have the two outboard MGs; Has SP still failed to fix the issue of planes with side cowl MGs shooting themselves down?
I've not published anything new in ages as I've been working to reproduce wing textures, replacing control surfaces with rotator controls (as you did with this build) and also trying to adopt the new clear parts with interior detailing and playing with modding tools. I can only hope I can get even somewhat close to your standards produced here!
Total insanity, I love it! lol I tried chasing Tiny down with this quasi-beast but somehow I killed the motor... O.o; lol Takes a while to load up on even my PC! XD
@noob11 Great! Thanks! Yeah, tanks easily wind up at too high of power on SP. One of my "light tanks" (Okay - armored car since now you folks have come up with realistic treads!) - had two engines one for ordinary use and one for an emergency power boost for climbing steep inclines. I used to test my vehicle designs by taking them from one airstrip to the other via the mountain paths and the bridges. To me that was proof it could handle rough terrain operations. ^_~
My solution to the turret operation was VTOL and Trim without stabilization but that was also before they added the Gyroscope. Still I LOVE all the detail you put into this design AND didn't bump up its size to allow for all that added detail. Typically tank designs are built with the intent of being able to fit on your' average single lane dirt road and I think you captured that design element in this machine.
Did you try that giant that @SUKHOI built? Good grief, that thing's a cheat isn't it?! I was ramping hills at 80+ mph without damage to the chassis and managed to sink Tiny, Beast and BOTH destroyers with it's Cleaver missiles. LOL Thus far it's the only land based vehicle I've tried that has managed to kill all four ships. lol I did manage with a few aircraft previously, a patrol boat someone made with a cheat where the canopy is below the waterline and so the destroyers do not detect it as a threat and then one ship I designed but I only managed that by sheer dumb luck since the regular guns don't stop being operable even after your' canopy is knocked away.)
I've JUST returned to the game after being away for some time due to my graphics card crapping out on me. I'm not capable of amazing work like this above though. I'm guessing you are a returned player? I'd just like to know how to appropriately sheath aircraft wings and I'd be happy! lol
@SUKHOI WOW! This tank is a riot! Those cleaver missiles are cheating, I swear! C'mon, I trekked this thing around the mountain, picked off Tiny with one then went around the island a bit, got a bead on one of the destroyers and proceeded to destroy that entire flotilla! lmao She's got power to spare and you're right about the suspension system being a bit extreme but it was fun ramping hills in a tank tooling around at 80+ mph! I think she's a little overscale for an MBT but I'm not complaining - it's fun and a great build. Great job, keep up the good work! ^_^
This one was FUN to play with, I took her after Tiny instead of having to bug out after one pass, I was able to make perhaps a dozen runs on her. I finally managed to score a torpedo hit since I've been back and managed to put 3-4 of the rockets into Tiny's hull. That accounted for about six passes including abortive ones. After that ... OMG ... those guns level a devastating barrage of fire! A two or three second burst from the dorsal turret and other forward facing guns resulted in explosions in the bow, deck and superstructure. I continued to make passes on her even after she started to list heavily to port. After it was all said and done I still had 60% fuel but I wanted to test her landing characteristics. Like the others I tested today she has a fairly high landing speed and even then I think I came down a bit too heavy for the gear to compensate. She lost her props but otherwise I was able to land safely. You know what they say - any landing you can walk away from is a good one! This bird is unconventional in the extreme in that she has two turrets on such a small airframe and that interesting X-Wing like layout that gives her a startling rate of roll for an attack aircraft. In any event what's important is that she has a unique look, devastating firepower, an excellent speed for a prop driven attack aircraft, she's a very stable gun platform and most importantly - fun to fly! Another excellent build!
This bird kicks butt! She's far more stable right from the starting line, she's very forgiving on the controls and while her rate of roll and turning radius is far less than the new model naval fighter the trade out for stability both in maneuvers, gunnery and landing are a wicked trade off! As the description states she's an excellent Bomber Interceptor but I think she'd also be a worthy ground attack aircraft if it could be fitted with rockets, bombs or torpedoes without destroying her balance. Another great build!!
@TheOwlAce Wow, this one is a real thoroughbred. She's meant to be at high speeds as often as possible! At low speeds she will perform snap rolls and wobble on her vertical axis, pretty much anything under 170-180 mph. Given the sizable air brakes and brake chutes though that's not really a serious issue. I found that the flaps made take-off a little more treacherous so I wound up not using them after my first take off reacquainted me with the mountains of SimplePlanes. lol Ultimately though she's a fast and nimble fighter. With a light stick she's a fairly stable gun platform but takes practice. I'm not sure what caused it but I wound up in a high speed stall that resulted in a spin after recovering from a dive and banking away. It only happened the once and I couldn't reproduce the phenomenon afterwards. All in all - GREAT work!
Nice job on putting this one together! I have a partially finished P.11a in my list but I thought the struts looked too small. I'll need to get weights and dimensions before I consider finishing mine. What do you think of this beaute? That gulled wing is elegant looking, isn't it? ^_^ Can you believe how hard of a time the Poles gave the Germans with this machine at half this horsepower, open cockpits and without self-sealing fuel tanks?! (If a fire started it was designed so that the whole fuel tank assembly could be jettisoned allowing the pilot to land it in a field somewhere, dead stick.) Now, imagine what those same pilots could have done at that stage with truly "modern" aircraft for the period? XD
@TheOwlAce Well, it wasn't a horsepower thing! lol She's just so cute and little it couldn't help it! XD I gave her some angled armor around the turret, made the gunner's hatch a bit more pronounced, nudged in an emergency escape hatch underneath, rearranged the weight and in the end wound up with almost your' exact same weight but without the propensity to flip. I also fiddled with the mantlet so it covered up that hinge joint.I think a radio box at the back of the turret would be a good addition though and you've got those uneven areas at the fore and aft of the hull. I could mod some pieces to fit that spot though I think. I noticed that you didn't adjust the traction or give the wheels internal suspension? (If you don't know how, click on the wheel, scroll down and first is traction and it should say Auto next to it. Click on Auto and it'll give you the option to go above 100% - I always set it at 150% for forward and sideways traction. Suspension says Disabled by default but when you click Disabled it gives you spring strength and buffer or something like that - I went with 90%/120% on this one as I went on ahead and took the liberty of doing so then drove her back and forth from Bandit to Yeager and visa versa.) She's a real spitfire, except on big declines, I was averaging about 35-40 mph but she kept wanting to creep up to about 70! lol I also hid the cameras in the driver's and gunner's periscopes. (It doesn't effect visibility.)
Did I mention that I liked how you left the engine semi-exposed for some rear deck detail? I wish I had thought of that when building those three tanks - it would have saved on the part count big time! lol Oh yes and another thing, I like the addition of the big circular ring at the center of the underside of the turret. Of course turrets lead down into the hull but I never gave it a thought to put something like that there besides the rotator. I'll HAVE to remember that for future projects! Overall, love this tank, I had fun polishing her up and even more fun running around crazy-like on the Krakablowa Islands! :-D Ohhh ... an interesting idea just came to mind. I wonder, with a bit of boyancy, a couple of hinge joints, and a T1000 engine - could I make this light tank amphibious? Hmm... :-D
I believe this would be classified as a tankette, in the same class as the Renault FT series. I was surprised by the amount of horsepower you gave her. I throttled up, went to turn and she lept off of her wheels and did a balarina maneuver on a corner of her skirt before falling back on her wheels. I tried to take it easy but then she overturned on me on the way to the bridge from Bandit. I took a look at the mass added and figured out a way it could be a lil more stable. Remove the mass from the upper surfaces (as much as you can without stripping off parts anyway,) and I see a way you can add 12,000 pounds - 6 tons to her weight. Those little axle stubs for the wheels would bring the center of mass right down to the belly of the beast which is where you want it in any tank, big or small. I'd also recommend bringing the steering arc down to 15-20 degrees, she'll still turn like a mad cow once the center of balance is set. XD
Aside from that, I think you did well in creating such a small armored vehicle with a low profile and great potential as a scout, infantry support vehicle and generally just a beast to tool around in! :-D I'm going to go experiment with her now. ^_^ If I come up with a variant you can say that the post-war establishment of Valmet in the former Se Suomi Imperiumi collaborated on the design~
@Cjredwards Yep, took the wind right out of my sails. As far as the injury is concerned now and then it flares up with arthritis but at the time of the injury? It actually felt like a minor sprain - apparently sprains are more painful than breaks; Go figure!
Wow, does not even begin to cover this project! It looks like that thick wing gave you considerable trouble but we work with what we have and do the best we can - which you definitely did with this build! I tried taking off from Bandit when I first loaded it and apparently the runway wasn't wide enough because she caught on something and turned hard to starboard. lol No problems taking off from South Airport though. I am stunned by the sheer size, intricacy and clever adaptations such as using the jet engines as cowled radials with a T1000 prop engine as the "spinner" for looks. I wonder who the fourth person is in the cockpit though? Lenin, Stalin, Kruchiev and ... Marx perhaps? XD j/k I noticed that you had a sizable bomb bay all set up, why did you opt against adding bombs to the hardpoints? The lag factor? Anyway, good job bringing something to the table I think few would ever attempt to reproduce in SimplePlanes.
@Cyan Thanks very much for responding to my question. Maybe I should've tagged this under Funky Trees? Dunno. I got around to looking at code for auto aiming devices and even found mention of a volley mod while looking around at other's builds.
I did try your suggestion out after you mentioned it and hilariously all that did was when I pressed the space bar was to then allow me to hit the button in the corner to fire the cannons.
I'm now thinking about testing no action group but instead adding a line of code for input="FireGuns" - compared to these folks making these amazing mods today I'm just groping in the dark though! lol
Yeah, amazing that it's been that long since I made that messed up biplane. I got the alignment of the top wing all wrong so it wound up a little like a Beech Staggerwing when I really wanted it to be either perfectly aligned or with the top wing slightly forward. How I didn't catch that then eludes me even now.
A lot of stuff was going on in my life back then. Some of which was pretty heavy but other parts were just "life" in general. There were also factors in my game play though that just had me under and over it, so to speak.
I didn't feel my builds were turning out quite how I wanted. I started to lose the ambition to build altogether because I was simply incapable of doing better than I'd already been doing. I'd hit a wall both creatively and technically.
I griped endlessly at the seeming (and ongoing) unwillingness of Jundroo to address the airfoil appearance issue. I was tired of the slab sided wings and with my limited skills doing it manually was kinda impossible.
Another gripe was the 'decal' issue. For a very long time I wanted to see Jundroo create a tool to create insignia or even entire skins that could then be placed on a completed build and conform to it's contours.
Both tools would drastically reduce part counts for those that brave those waters with the tools we presently have. It would also improve the experience of our android users.
As an aside I was also plagued with the overwhelming, approaching OCD, desire to create even a basic cockpit "tub" but again I was facing a losing battle there. At the time I didn't have tools for modding apart from going into my xml files manually on notepad.
The new glass parts and hollow fuselage parts are pretty big game changers I was very happy to see. The inability of clear parts to either perforate other parts or to select to open holes in what is otherwise a "solid
This boat is amazingly detailed and has spectacular performance! Beautiful work and happy B-day! I'd love to see an armed variant with this level of detail. Though my son and I went ahead and tacked on two of his modded cleavers and two of his modded miniguns and proceeded to destroy everything afloat in the game. lol
This is one sexy beast of an aircraft! I took her off from Bandit and landed at ... Yeager ... the one at the other side of the island anyway. I absolutely wrecked the bridges with the cannons which was plenty of fun. I wonder if there isn't a way to make the cannons fire by the same control as the ordinary guns? Take off was easy landing wasn't quite so ... she wanted to hover in the ground effect for about 2/3 of the runway. I wanted to taxi back around and realized ... it doesn't have a rudder or turning tailwheel! Ack! I now see that you left out the rudder due to design issues so that's okay and honestly she looks great with just the tail skid. For some reason it didn't recognize the bomb and as a result I didn't get to do anything real fun with that. My only other question is; Why didn't you put windows into the frames?
Oh, another thing. Is this the only example of a Burgundian aircraft you've posted thus far? If this is the new generation I'd kind of like to see what the older generation looked like as those'd be more likely to be exported - or so I'd imagine anyway. I also noticed that you modded this one's engine so I assume that this RP isn't limited for modding? (Within reason, obviously.)
@TheOwlAce Have you been using the overdrive mod or are you still editing XML manually? I'm still fiddling around with overdrive and it's mostly the same as manual xml modding. Either way to make fuselage parts weightless it's simple. Just set massScale to 0 instead of 1. There is another way to reduce the weight of an overall aircraft and that involves using the fuel tank. You don't adjust the massScale on those though you reduce fuel and total to a negative number. For whatever reason it doesn't reduce the fuel carried but rather the mass instead. I believe if you wind up with a negative loaded weight bad things happen with the game though. I'd actually slipped a couple of those into one of your Bf-xxxs I had built with a higher fuel capacity and some of my own personal touches added. I haven't checked to see if it still works now after the past two or three updates though. Fair enough on the flag though..
This one reminds me of one of my fav X planes of WW2 - the XP-46 - I love it! She did something weird on landing though, I might have just come down with too much force, but rather than the wheels chirping it made a sound like a solid object hitting the runway and caused her to bounce and nose over? O.o I've had problems with that in the past both from the design aspect and just from a landing mistake though.
@TheOwlAce I see, that's an option too. I'm getting a definite Spanish Civil War vibe from those options. Given that one of the experiments with this project is giving wings an actual shape and using rotators for some of the control surfaces (maybe all by the time I'm done) it'd be a lot more simple to use just a color flash to signify the Marauders. What does Wathingla's flag look like? I was thinking that maybe since they're licensed privateers that they might have that symbol somewhere on their vessels and aircraft too.
I'm curious, have you tried to make any airships using the new helicopter parts yet?
I'm not much for civilian aircraft but this one is really neat! Thanks for sharing! The wing construction taught me a little about how to portray wing shapes and how to use wing scaling so you can focus more on the appearance of the wings than fitting those blocky things in them. ^_^
@TheOwlAce I've been wanting to experiment with a few things since I came back and I've been working on an aircraft that would fit into that category, I think, albeit the model I have started has spatted wheeled undercarriage. It shouldn't be hard to switch out to floats in a later version.
I started with the image of the Fiat G.50 or Fokker XXI but she grew too big and started to resemble a single seat Northrop Gamma instead. I may yet make her a two seat long range light scout bomber.
After this, I'll probably submit the 105 foot class patrol boat I've been working on for the marauders too. She is prop powered (though I used VTOL to cheat for tighter turns) and has some real neat deck cannons in open mounts borrowed from MrVaultech. (Though I altered them a little to fit the control method I wanted.)
I'm still gaming how to install and deploy a torpedo from such a small patrol boat. I know there are torpedo tube launchers people have shared but I'll be scaling them up by 4 and want to project them out to either side.
The next aircraft I do I want to try to do a "full" cockpit. This one just has a shade box thing going on for what's under the canopy side level.
BTW is a Green X on a white background good enough for their wing/tail/flag markings? I'm not too confident in reproducing the serpent...
@TheOwlAce Sounds kinda steam-punk like which can be fun in and of itself. You really have got a thing for airships, don't you? I still haven't built one...
Seems that biplanes, parasol wing monoplanes, gull wing monoplanes, boxy bombers and racer type monoplane adaptations as fighters would be the flavor of the game? I wonder if the arrestor hook would work for trapeze type fighters from airships? Making rare earth metals exceedingly rare is a good way to keep tech levels down. Are the Serpent Marauders purely a surface navy/airship organization or do they have an air arm too?
@TheOwlAce Oh okay, so kind of like a Private Military Corps. Can you tell me anything more about the Serpent Marauders themselves and who is Wathingla Kingdom at war with? Furthermore what level of tech is Burganian aircraft technology at? I can't definitely say I'm in but I think it could be fun. Right now I'm in a tinkering phase but my most productive time here on SP was when I was making stuff for your RP back when. :-)
@TheOwlAce Ah okay, cool. I'd never heard of a fantasy mapmaker being available online. Gosh, I haven't genuinely RP'd in over a decade now, unless you count the Se Suomi Imperiumi/Germanian Empire thing. How long did this RP go on for and how many members did you have active? Are the Serpent Marauders like a bandit/pirate/mercenary group or something I don't see a corresponding nation for them? If I were to choose I like the simplicity of that flag for markings ... or possibly Waterling if you did it simple-like.
@MrVaultech Agreed, there's something more that needs to be done with the top and the posterior side of the float to make it look right. I haven't gotten it figured out quite yet either but thought'd be better than the banana boat. I'm guilty of more than a few of these and I'm nowhere near your skill/talent level for this game. While I was hunting that recoiling cannon you teased (which I did find, BTW) I saw that you had quite a few AFVs with that mod in place. I used to upload a fair amount too but I seem to have more fun just tinkering around. If I build anything relevant to post someday I'll put it up - it's just been a long time.
@TheOwlAce Who all is participating in the RP of creations? Any details on the respective nations, state of affairs, past bad blood between them, ongoing skirmishes, etc.? Did you make this map? It looks a lot better than what I can concoct with Windows Paint! XD
@MrVaultech An XML modding tool would easily make the parts I was talking about. It's just a matter of rotating them 45 degrees so that you get a sharp edge down on the water. Even now I'm not sure it's the best approach as I've been toying with other ideas since. I've got like six projects underway ... I noticed you have some wheeled armored vehicles out nowadays. Have you thought to try out Tracks 2? My son is gaga for creations that use that mod but says that all the settings for it are a little overwhelming. I haven't tried out any for myself yet though.
Do you have this posted anywhere as a component? It'd be a nice touch to add to the open mount 50mm gun I'm adding to a gunboat I've had on the back burner forever...
Not bad at all, you certainly haven't lost your edge after all of these years! The only gripe I can find has nothing to do with your build but rather a glitch with the new transparent canopies. You know, flying in cockpit view and despite flying over the sea you see a mountain range looming in front of you? LOL
Check out TheOwlAce's little float fighter they did around the same time. The fuselage assembly on her might make for a good basis for more realistic floats? I know I saved a section of it as a subassembly for that purpose! XD
OMG! This is an amazing build! You forgot to mention AG5 to arm all the other guns that aren't facing forward. I couldn't tell if AG6 or 7 did anything. Brilliant job!
Nice to see another of your unique designs! This one took a little getting used to in flight. I pitched forward pretty hard and wound up in a death tumble which I managed to recover by shutting the engines down, using both roll and rudder to get out of it at only like 500 feet ... so I used the opportunity to experience a landing on the water. That was nice and smooth! Afterwards I figured out that the flaps partially deployed helped to stabilize the pitch controls. Lateral stability gave her a butt wobble but nothing critical. If anything it'd spread gunfire out over a wider area in a dogfight. I've been experimenting a lot in sandbox the past few weeks but haven't published anything new.
Lately I've been experimenting with some XML modding tools, trying to get some realistic looking wing textures and figuring out interior details so I can make full use of the new clear parts.
On the other hand part of me wants to start building replicas, digital models, of WW2 birds. Some of the complex curves, shapes and greenhouse/beetle nose surfaces have me a little intimidated though. lol
@thefalkenreich Yeah, I've not been spending a lot of time on SimplePlanes lately. I find it a little funny that you commented on my post which is nearly 3 1/2 years old! :D
@SUKHOI Thanks for the upvote! ^_^ This was designed for a group build - quasi-RP. (I say quasi, since attempts at diplomatic dialog in the RP posts were ignored and discussions about tactics and strategy were similarly ignored by the moderator for the alternate history setting.)
@TheOwlAce It's so nice that with our builds we don't have to deal with politicians trying to tell us "We don't need to spend more on a new design because we have that design," or "Our standard fighters can serve as strike-fighters, so we don't need attack aircraft," right? lol
@TheOwlAce Wow! How on Earth did you manage that? What I meant was that everytime I would take off with one of the fighters and switch to the appropriate camera view the carrier would eventually crash while I was out fooling around in the fighter. OR are these more intended to be mobile airstrips? That I could see happening - unless you're just so darned skilled that you can toggle between the controls and maintain both aircraft's flight without a hitch?! If so I bow before your' gamer-ness! lol
My goodness this is a beautiful aircraft, she handles perfectly and is a joy to fly. I especially had fun bouncing the pillows all over the cabin with a little bit of aerobatics. Only after landing in chase view did I realize one of them was sitting on the dash right in front of the pilot's seat. lol
+2A wonderful and best of all - functional - digital model! I've never been a big fan of the Maryland but this one got my attention. Great job!
+2She is a spirited little thing indeed! Nicely done! It seems to want to roll to port when flying level for a while but that's probably just the tail wheel creating a minor change in balance or drag and is nothing too important. She kind of reminds me of a P-36 or an MB.152
+1Wow, now this takes me back. She flies nice though a lil too touchy on the controls for we keyboard flight users. lol
+1A very interesting design overall! Thanks for sharing! It might be neat to have some guns in addition to the cannon but that in and of itself makes it unique. I had an issue with the starboard spinner falling off on the runway, so had to reattach it and nudge it into place before I could fly her. Not that big of a deal really. Takeoff is a little tricky in that you can't just go to 100% throttle at the start or she'll make a mighty fine pilot's monument right there on the tarmac. Landing is another story. For the life of me I couldn't land her safely as she wanted to tip up onto her nose no matter what I did. Did you have the same problems or is it an issue on my end?
+1Wow!! How did this bird fail to attract attention from other SP players?! She's sporty, easy to handle, a good gun platform, simple in both take-offs and landings. Besides the diesel punk bomber you posted recently this is another new fav for me. Bravo!
+1This is probably your best forward canard prop fighter yet. Very nice, pretty responsive on the controls and best of all a joy to fly. Great job!
+1Another lovely seaplane build from the original OWL. This one is fun and sporty, I had a lot of fun with this one. Flight is a joy with this one and she can practically land on her own. Takeoff was a little tricky. You can't simply power all the way up to 100% or she'll nose over, with or without flaps. Eventually I dropped the flaps all the way, eased the throttle up gradually until a little over 50% while keeping the wings level until she broke the surface tension of the water. Finding out the trick to it was fun in and of itself! Great build as always!
+1This was a fun one to play with! I don't know why it didn't get more attention. It's appearance is unique, the turret arrangement is neat, I liked the staggered bombing control and she's really smooth to land and take-off. Great work!
+1This is a beautiful replica, great work! Her ability to climb vertically was astounding to say the least. I kept her in a near 90 degree vertical climb until she finally stalled at 55ish mph after about an 8 angel climb! She didn't like maneuvers that require negative Gs though so you have to be delicate on pitching forward in any orientation under around 200 mph. She seemed to only have the two outboard MGs; Has SP still failed to fix the issue of planes with side cowl MGs shooting themselves down?
I've not published anything new in ages as I've been working to reproduce wing textures, replacing control surfaces with rotator controls (as you did with this build) and also trying to adopt the new clear parts with interior detailing and playing with modding tools. I can only hope I can get even somewhat close to your standards produced here!
+1Total insanity, I love it! lol I tried chasing Tiny down with this quasi-beast but somehow I killed the motor... O.o; lol Takes a while to load up on even my PC! XD
+1@noob11 Great! Thanks! Yeah, tanks easily wind up at too high of power on SP. One of my "light tanks" (Okay - armored car since now you folks have come up with realistic treads!) - had two engines one for ordinary use and one for an emergency power boost for climbing steep inclines. I used to test my vehicle designs by taking them from one airstrip to the other via the mountain paths and the bridges. To me that was proof it could handle rough terrain operations. ^_~
My solution to the turret operation was VTOL and Trim without stabilization but that was also before they added the Gyroscope. Still I LOVE all the detail you put into this design AND didn't bump up its size to allow for all that added detail. Typically tank designs are built with the intent of being able to fit on your' average single lane dirt road and I think you captured that design element in this machine.
Did you try that giant that @SUKHOI built? Good grief, that thing's a cheat isn't it?! I was ramping hills at 80+ mph without damage to the chassis and managed to sink Tiny, Beast and BOTH destroyers with it's Cleaver missiles. LOL Thus far it's the only land based vehicle I've tried that has managed to kill all four ships. lol I did manage with a few aircraft previously, a patrol boat someone made with a cheat where the canopy is below the waterline and so the destroyers do not detect it as a threat and then one ship I designed but I only managed that by sheer dumb luck since the regular guns don't stop being operable even after your' canopy is knocked away.)
I've JUST returned to the game after being away for some time due to my graphics card crapping out on me. I'm not capable of amazing work like this above though. I'm guessing you are a returned player? I'd just like to know how to appropriately sheath aircraft wings and I'd be happy! lol
+1@SUKHOI WOW! This tank is a riot! Those cleaver missiles are cheating, I swear! C'mon, I trekked this thing around the mountain, picked off Tiny with one then went around the island a bit, got a bead on one of the destroyers and proceeded to destroy that entire flotilla! lmao She's got power to spare and you're right about the suspension system being a bit extreme but it was fun ramping hills in a tank tooling around at 80+ mph! I think she's a little overscale for an MBT but I'm not complaining - it's fun and a great build. Great job, keep up the good work! ^_^
+1This one was FUN to play with, I took her after Tiny instead of having to bug out after one pass, I was able to make perhaps a dozen runs on her. I finally managed to score a torpedo hit since I've been back and managed to put 3-4 of the rockets into Tiny's hull. That accounted for about six passes including abortive ones. After that ... OMG ... those guns level a devastating barrage of fire! A two or three second burst from the dorsal turret and other forward facing guns resulted in explosions in the bow, deck and superstructure. I continued to make passes on her even after she started to list heavily to port. After it was all said and done I still had 60% fuel but I wanted to test her landing characteristics. Like the others I tested today she has a fairly high landing speed and even then I think I came down a bit too heavy for the gear to compensate. She lost her props but otherwise I was able to land safely. You know what they say - any landing you can walk away from is a good one! This bird is unconventional in the extreme in that she has two turrets on such a small airframe and that interesting X-Wing like layout that gives her a startling rate of roll for an attack aircraft. In any event what's important is that she has a unique look, devastating firepower, an excellent speed for a prop driven attack aircraft, she's a very stable gun platform and most importantly - fun to fly! Another excellent build!
+1This bird kicks butt! She's far more stable right from the starting line, she's very forgiving on the controls and while her rate of roll and turning radius is far less than the new model naval fighter the trade out for stability both in maneuvers, gunnery and landing are a wicked trade off! As the description states she's an excellent Bomber Interceptor but I think she'd also be a worthy ground attack aircraft if it could be fitted with rockets, bombs or torpedoes without destroying her balance. Another great build!!
+1@TheOwlAce Wow, this one is a real thoroughbred. She's meant to be at high speeds as often as possible! At low speeds she will perform snap rolls and wobble on her vertical axis, pretty much anything under 170-180 mph. Given the sizable air brakes and brake chutes though that's not really a serious issue. I found that the flaps made take-off a little more treacherous so I wound up not using them after my first take off reacquainted me with the mountains of SimplePlanes. lol Ultimately though she's a fast and nimble fighter. With a light stick she's a fairly stable gun platform but takes practice. I'm not sure what caused it but I wound up in a high speed stall that resulted in a spin after recovering from a dive and banking away. It only happened the once and I couldn't reproduce the phenomenon afterwards. All in all - GREAT work!
+1THIS is amazing!!! You've managed to revolutionize the game again, good work!!
+1Nice job on putting this one together! I have a partially finished P.11a in my list but I thought the struts looked too small. I'll need to get weights and dimensions before I consider finishing mine. What do you think of this beaute? That gulled wing is elegant looking, isn't it? ^_^ Can you believe how hard of a time the Poles gave the Germans with this machine at half this horsepower, open cockpits and without self-sealing fuel tanks?! (If a fire started it was designed so that the whole fuel tank assembly could be jettisoned allowing the pilot to land it in a field somewhere, dead stick.) Now, imagine what those same pilots could have done at that stage with truly "modern" aircraft for the period? XD
+1@TheOwlAce Well, it wasn't a horsepower thing! lol She's just so cute and little it couldn't help it! XD I gave her some angled armor around the turret, made the gunner's hatch a bit more pronounced, nudged in an emergency escape hatch underneath, rearranged the weight and in the end wound up with almost your' exact same weight but without the propensity to flip. I also fiddled with the mantlet so it covered up that hinge joint.I think a radio box at the back of the turret would be a good addition though and you've got those uneven areas at the fore and aft of the hull. I could mod some pieces to fit that spot though I think. I noticed that you didn't adjust the traction or give the wheels internal suspension? (If you don't know how, click on the wheel, scroll down and first is traction and it should say Auto next to it. Click on Auto and it'll give you the option to go above 100% - I always set it at 150% for forward and sideways traction. Suspension says Disabled by default but when you click Disabled it gives you spring strength and buffer or something like that - I went with 90%/120% on this one as I went on ahead and took the liberty of doing so then drove her back and forth from Bandit to Yeager and visa versa.) She's a real spitfire, except on big declines, I was averaging about 35-40 mph but she kept wanting to creep up to about 70! lol I also hid the cameras in the driver's and gunner's periscopes. (It doesn't effect visibility.)
Did I mention that I liked how you left the engine semi-exposed for some rear deck detail? I wish I had thought of that when building those three tanks - it would have saved on the part count big time! lol Oh yes and another thing, I like the addition of the big circular ring at the center of the underside of the turret. Of course turrets lead down into the hull but I never gave it a thought to put something like that there besides the rotator. I'll HAVE to remember that for future projects! Overall, love this tank, I had fun polishing her up and even more fun running around crazy-like on the Krakablowa Islands! :-D Ohhh ... an interesting idea just came to mind. I wonder, with a bit of boyancy, a couple of hinge joints, and a T1000 engine - could I make this light tank amphibious? Hmm... :-D
+1I believe this would be classified as a tankette, in the same class as the Renault FT series. I was surprised by the amount of horsepower you gave her. I throttled up, went to turn and she lept off of her wheels and did a balarina maneuver on a corner of her skirt before falling back on her wheels. I tried to take it easy but then she overturned on me on the way to the bridge from Bandit. I took a look at the mass added and figured out a way it could be a lil more stable. Remove the mass from the upper surfaces (as much as you can without stripping off parts anyway,) and I see a way you can add 12,000 pounds - 6 tons to her weight. Those little axle stubs for the wheels would bring the center of mass right down to the belly of the beast which is where you want it in any tank, big or small. I'd also recommend bringing the steering arc down to 15-20 degrees, she'll still turn like a mad cow once the center of balance is set. XD
Aside from that, I think you did well in creating such a small armored vehicle with a low profile and great potential as a scout, infantry support vehicle and generally just a beast to tool around in! :-D I'm going to go experiment with her now. ^_^ If I come up with a variant you can say that the post-war establishment of Valmet in the former Se Suomi Imperiumi collaborated on the design~
+1@Cjredwards Yep, took the wind right out of my sails. As far as the injury is concerned now and then it flares up with arthritis but at the time of the injury? It actually felt like a minor sprain - apparently sprains are more painful than breaks; Go figure!
+1Wow, does not even begin to cover this project! It looks like that thick wing gave you considerable trouble but we work with what we have and do the best we can - which you definitely did with this build! I tried taking off from Bandit when I first loaded it and apparently the runway wasn't wide enough because she caught on something and turned hard to starboard. lol No problems taking off from South Airport though. I am stunned by the sheer size, intricacy and clever adaptations such as using the jet engines as cowled radials with a T1000 prop engine as the "spinner" for looks. I wonder who the fourth person is in the cockpit though? Lenin, Stalin, Kruchiev and ... Marx perhaps? XD j/k I noticed that you had a sizable bomb bay all set up, why did you opt against adding bombs to the hardpoints? The lag factor? Anyway, good job bringing something to the table I think few would ever attempt to reproduce in SimplePlanes.
+1@Cyan Thanks very much for responding to my question. Maybe I should've tagged this under Funky Trees? Dunno. I got around to looking at code for auto aiming devices and even found mention of a volley mod while looking around at other's builds.
I did try your suggestion out after you mentioned it and hilariously all that did was when I pressed the space bar was to then allow me to hit the button in the corner to fire the cannons.
I'm now thinking about testing no action group but instead adding a line of code for input="FireGuns" - compared to these folks making these amazing mods today I'm just groping in the dark though! lol
Yeah, amazing that it's been that long since I made that messed up biplane. I got the alignment of the top wing all wrong so it wound up a little like a Beech Staggerwing when I really wanted it to be either perfectly aligned or with the top wing slightly forward. How I didn't catch that then eludes me even now.
A lot of stuff was going on in my life back then. Some of which was pretty heavy but other parts were just "life" in general. There were also factors in my game play though that just had me under and over it, so to speak.
I didn't feel my builds were turning out quite how I wanted. I started to lose the ambition to build altogether because I was simply incapable of doing better than I'd already been doing. I'd hit a wall both creatively and technically.
I griped endlessly at the seeming (and ongoing) unwillingness of Jundroo to address the airfoil appearance issue. I was tired of the slab sided wings and with my limited skills doing it manually was kinda impossible.
Another gripe was the 'decal' issue. For a very long time I wanted to see Jundroo create a tool to create insignia or even entire skins that could then be placed on a completed build and conform to it's contours.
Both tools would drastically reduce part counts for those that brave those waters with the tools we presently have. It would also improve the experience of our android users.
As an aside I was also plagued with the overwhelming, approaching OCD, desire to create even a basic cockpit "tub" but again I was facing a losing battle there. At the time I didn't have tools for modding apart from going into my xml files manually on notepad.
The new glass parts and hollow fuselage parts are pretty big game changers I was very happy to see. The inability of clear parts to either perforate other parts or to select to open holes in what is otherwise a "solid
This boat is amazingly detailed and has spectacular performance! Beautiful work and happy B-day! I'd love to see an armed variant with this level of detail. Though my son and I went ahead and tacked on two of his modded cleavers and two of his modded miniguns and proceeded to destroy everything afloat in the game. lol
This is one sexy beast of an aircraft! I took her off from Bandit and landed at ... Yeager ... the one at the other side of the island anyway. I absolutely wrecked the bridges with the cannons which was plenty of fun. I wonder if there isn't a way to make the cannons fire by the same control as the ordinary guns? Take off was easy landing wasn't quite so ... she wanted to hover in the ground effect for about 2/3 of the runway. I wanted to taxi back around and realized ... it doesn't have a rudder or turning tailwheel! Ack! I now see that you left out the rudder due to design issues so that's okay and honestly she looks great with just the tail skid. For some reason it didn't recognize the bomb and as a result I didn't get to do anything real fun with that. My only other question is; Why didn't you put windows into the frames?
Oh, another thing. Is this the only example of a Burgundian aircraft you've posted thus far? If this is the new generation I'd kind of like to see what the older generation looked like as those'd be more likely to be exported - or so I'd imagine anyway. I also noticed that you modded this one's engine so I assume that this RP isn't limited for modding? (Within reason, obviously.)
@TheOwlAce Have you been using the overdrive mod or are you still editing XML manually? I'm still fiddling around with overdrive and it's mostly the same as manual xml modding. Either way to make fuselage parts weightless it's simple. Just set massScale to 0 instead of 1. There is another way to reduce the weight of an overall aircraft and that involves using the fuel tank. You don't adjust the massScale on those though you reduce fuel and total to a negative number. For whatever reason it doesn't reduce the fuel carried but rather the mass instead. I believe if you wind up with a negative loaded weight bad things happen with the game though. I'd actually slipped a couple of those into one of your Bf-xxxs I had built with a higher fuel capacity and some of my own personal touches added. I haven't checked to see if it still works now after the past two or three updates though. Fair enough on the flag though..
This one reminds me of one of my fav X planes of WW2 - the XP-46 - I love it! She did something weird on landing though, I might have just come down with too much force, but rather than the wheels chirping it made a sound like a solid object hitting the runway and caused her to bounce and nose over? O.o I've had problems with that in the past both from the design aspect and just from a landing mistake though.
@TheOwlAce I see, that's an option too. I'm getting a definite Spanish Civil War vibe from those options. Given that one of the experiments with this project is giving wings an actual shape and using rotators for some of the control surfaces (maybe all by the time I'm done) it'd be a lot more simple to use just a color flash to signify the Marauders. What does Wathingla's flag look like? I was thinking that maybe since they're licensed privateers that they might have that symbol somewhere on their vessels and aircraft too.
I'm curious, have you tried to make any airships using the new helicopter parts yet?
I'm not much for civilian aircraft but this one is really neat! Thanks for sharing! The wing construction taught me a little about how to portray wing shapes and how to use wing scaling so you can focus more on the appearance of the wings than fitting those blocky things in them. ^_^
@TheOwlAce I've been wanting to experiment with a few things since I came back and I've been working on an aircraft that would fit into that category, I think, albeit the model I have started has spatted wheeled undercarriage. It shouldn't be hard to switch out to floats in a later version.
I started with the image of the Fiat G.50 or Fokker XXI but she grew too big and started to resemble a single seat Northrop Gamma instead. I may yet make her a two seat long range light scout bomber.
After this, I'll probably submit the 105 foot class patrol boat I've been working on for the marauders too. She is prop powered (though I used VTOL to cheat for tighter turns) and has some real neat deck cannons in open mounts borrowed from MrVaultech. (Though I altered them a little to fit the control method I wanted.)
I'm still gaming how to install and deploy a torpedo from such a small patrol boat. I know there are torpedo tube launchers people have shared but I'll be scaling them up by 4 and want to project them out to either side.
The next aircraft I do I want to try to do a "full" cockpit. This one just has a shade box thing going on for what's under the canopy side level.
BTW is a Green X on a white background good enough for their wing/tail/flag markings? I'm not too confident in reproducing the serpent...
@TheOwlAce Sounds kinda steam-punk like which can be fun in and of itself. You really have got a thing for airships, don't you? I still haven't built one...
Seems that biplanes, parasol wing monoplanes, gull wing monoplanes, boxy bombers and racer type monoplane adaptations as fighters would be the flavor of the game? I wonder if the arrestor hook would work for trapeze type fighters from airships? Making rare earth metals exceedingly rare is a good way to keep tech levels down. Are the Serpent Marauders purely a surface navy/airship organization or do they have an air arm too?
@TheOwlAce Oh okay, so kind of like a Private Military Corps. Can you tell me anything more about the Serpent Marauders themselves and who is Wathingla Kingdom at war with? Furthermore what level of tech is Burganian aircraft technology at? I can't definitely say I'm in but I think it could be fun. Right now I'm in a tinkering phase but my most productive time here on SP was when I was making stuff for your RP back when. :-)
@TheOwlAce Ah okay, cool. I'd never heard of a fantasy mapmaker being available online. Gosh, I haven't genuinely RP'd in over a decade now, unless you count the Se Suomi Imperiumi/Germanian Empire thing. How long did this RP go on for and how many members did you have active? Are the Serpent Marauders like a bandit/pirate/mercenary group or something I don't see a corresponding nation for them? If I were to choose I like the simplicity of that flag for markings ... or possibly Waterling if you did it simple-like.
@MrVaultech Agreed, there's something more that needs to be done with the top and the posterior side of the float to make it look right. I haven't gotten it figured out quite yet either but thought'd be better than the banana boat. I'm guilty of more than a few of these and I'm nowhere near your skill/talent level for this game. While I was hunting that recoiling cannon you teased (which I did find, BTW) I saw that you had quite a few AFVs with that mod in place. I used to upload a fair amount too but I seem to have more fun just tinkering around. If I build anything relevant to post someday I'll put it up - it's just been a long time.
@TheOwlAce Who all is participating in the RP of creations? Any details on the respective nations, state of affairs, past bad blood between them, ongoing skirmishes, etc.? Did you make this map? It looks a lot better than what I can concoct with Windows Paint! XD
@TheOwlAce I see something about that in my notifications, I think you quoted me there ... off to take a look~
@MrVaultech An XML modding tool would easily make the parts I was talking about. It's just a matter of rotating them 45 degrees so that you get a sharp edge down on the water. Even now I'm not sure it's the best approach as I've been toying with other ideas since. I've got like six projects underway ... I noticed you have some wheeled armored vehicles out nowadays. Have you thought to try out Tracks 2? My son is gaga for creations that use that mod but says that all the settings for it are a little overwhelming. I haven't tried out any for myself yet though.
Do you have this posted anywhere as a component? It'd be a nice touch to add to the open mount 50mm gun I'm adding to a gunboat I've had on the back burner forever...
Not bad at all, you certainly haven't lost your edge after all of these years! The only gripe I can find has nothing to do with your build but rather a glitch with the new transparent canopies. You know, flying in cockpit view and despite flying over the sea you see a mountain range looming in front of you? LOL
Check out TheOwlAce's little float fighter they did around the same time. The fuselage assembly on her might make for a good basis for more realistic floats? I know I saved a section of it as a subassembly for that purpose! XD
OMG! This is an amazing build! You forgot to mention AG5 to arm all the other guns that aren't facing forward. I couldn't tell if AG6 or 7 did anything. Brilliant job!
Nice to see another of your unique designs! This one took a little getting used to in flight. I pitched forward pretty hard and wound up in a death tumble which I managed to recover by shutting the engines down, using both roll and rudder to get out of it at only like 500 feet ... so I used the opportunity to experience a landing on the water. That was nice and smooth! Afterwards I figured out that the flaps partially deployed helped to stabilize the pitch controls. Lateral stability gave her a butt wobble but nothing critical. If anything it'd spread gunfire out over a wider area in a dogfight. I've been experimenting a lot in sandbox the past few weeks but haven't published anything new.
Lately I've been experimenting with some XML modding tools, trying to get some realistic looking wing textures and figuring out interior details so I can make full use of the new clear parts.
On the other hand part of me wants to start building replicas, digital models, of WW2 birds. Some of the complex curves, shapes and greenhouse/beetle nose surfaces have me a little intimidated though. lol
@TheOwlAce Yeah, actually, I do though I do not use it as frequently as E-mail. I'll send it to you on Steam. :)
@TheOwlAce I'm assuming so, otherwise I wouldn't have upvoted it when I did? Sorry for the delay, I haven't been on SPs much in the past year.
@TAplanes OGs?
@thefalkenreich Yeah, I've not been spending a lot of time on SimplePlanes lately. I find it a little funny that you commented on my post which is nearly 3 1/2 years old! :D
@SUKHOI Thanks for the upvote! ^_^
@SUKHOI Thanks for the upvote! ^_^ This was designed for a group build - quasi-RP. (I say quasi, since attempts at diplomatic dialog in the RP posts were ignored and discussions about tactics and strategy were similarly ignored by the moderator for the alternate history setting.)
@TheOwlAce It's so nice that with our builds we don't have to deal with politicians trying to tell us "We don't need to spend more on a new design because we have that design," or "Our standard fighters can serve as strike-fighters, so we don't need attack aircraft," right? lol
@TheOwlAce Wow! How on Earth did you manage that? What I meant was that everytime I would take off with one of the fighters and switch to the appropriate camera view the carrier would eventually crash while I was out fooling around in the fighter. OR are these more intended to be mobile airstrips? That I could see happening - unless you're just so darned skilled that you can toggle between the controls and maintain both aircraft's flight without a hitch?! If so I bow before your' gamer-ness! lol