@MrSilverWolf Actually, those two jets are already in my subassemblies. I probably downloaded your' parts set at some point in the past and added it to a group. The airline markings though were new to my eyes - I probably figured I wouldn't be building many airliners and so left them alone. As for the little prop engine removed from SPs I even have modded versions of that little thing in my subassemblies. XD
@EternalDarkness -nods- True, it still wouldn't quite look right. I just found this adaptation interesting and how it applied to our prior conversation thought it might inspire some ideas. Sorry to bug ya!
@MrSilverWolf Ah, so you're like me in that you have a zillion subassemblies. XD I only recently started learning to adjust XML code. Now that parts are adjustable by increments of 0.25 they should have altered the angles to 0.125 increments. I have to turn to notepad every time I wanna work with something that isn't in 0.5 increments. Since I try to stick to one scale I pretty much have to. It's also nice for making stuff like the Mirrors on this thing. (I don't know how to make them super reflective - it's just silver.) I could toss out probably half of my subassemblies right now but one never knows what might be lurking among those goodies.
@MrSilverWolf The one I'm cooking up now will be better. I've also got a tank that's pretty much ready to post but I'm considering changing the main gun. What's the XML code to allow parts to pass through one another again? Anyway, thanks!
I agree, an interesting build. @EternalDarkness (I think that's your' username) could this be a demonstrator for an adaptation to replace leaf springs in SPs?
@MisterMasada Doh! I misread the 209 as 109! >.< Sorry about that. Oh, don't I know that feeling. If you look through my design history you'll see a batch of off the wall spurious aircraft from SAAB, Kjeller Flyfabbrik, IVLK and finally SILK. Those were all for an RP that was unillaterally ended by the other party immediately after my first five SILK designs were put up. -_-;
I decided that I spent all that time designing and building them I may as well publish them.
@KingDeadshot If you count down time for laughing and reading it aloud to the Mrs as well as time away while assisting in getting the kinderfolk off to school - there abouts. lol
@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!
@Pilotmario Are you kidding?! Even when shooting down Buzz Bombs late in WW2 there was serious danger to the fighter pilot. There's one pretty famous image of a Typhoon or Tempest with some damage but mostly just with it's paint scorched when it took out a V-1 from too close of range! If I were to take this thing down, I'd want an air-to-air missile and hit it from the very edge of that missile's range! XD
Looks like you had a hard time getting the lines of the Emil down? No worries, its tough to do exact reproductions with SPs. I LOVE how you pulled off the splinter camo on the wings though! That is wicked! :D Any particular reason you are adverse to producing Third Reich replicas?
@KingDeadshot Oh, you certainly do. You have the right to bear arms, so long as it cannot accomodate too many rounds and it matches the list of guns permissible by Federal Law. You have Freedom of Speech too, so long as you don't speak too loudly against current government policy. You have the Freedom of Press too, so long as the government says you can use what you've gathered or global news is approved for the American audience. You have Freedom of Assembly too, so long as the numbers are reasonably small and you aren't marching on Washington to complain about government policy OR occupying an insignificant portion of wilderness in protest against just state policy. Depending on who is elected next in 'Murica, the Freedom of Religion is looking pretty shakey there, considering the remarks that Muslims will no longer be permitted to enter the country. The Freedom to assemble and form a well regulated militia is a thing of history though the government line is that the National Guard is its Militia's proxy - though the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have shown that they are a Federal Military Reserve and no longer have the capacity to function for the people unless ordered to act firstly by the President and secondly the Governor of the State. Now then, get back to your' fast food breakfast meal, your' government approved media that though said to be live is delayed by Federal Mandate, 7 seconds, for the leisure of their censors, then get back to your' 15th ranked education facility with intentional revisionist history or your' underpaid, self-depreciating job from which you will pay a fixed percentage to the Federal Government without any break-down of how it will be used (Taxation without representation, sound familiar?) and if all that fast food leads to heart disease or FDA approved produce saturated in roundup which though can cause no known harm to the human body has a severe effect on beneficial bacteria in your' GI tract, let's hope that Obamacare can save you from your' misery. ^_^ Meanwhile, I'm going to get back to a foreign film and have a cup of imported coffee~ lol I'm as much a patriot as the next American, but one has to be able to admit to the hipocracy in our legislation with a nudge and a staged chuckle. Even now our posts are being recorded for review - and every phone call we make is monitored for red flag statements/remarks, which are both gray areas not covered by any existing rights. Right now our government is fighting with Apple as the policy of a certain device is absolute security which does not allow them to monitor anything discussed/exchanged over that device. After which we will all be much safer from the bad guys in Bumfukt Egypt. -nods sagely, with his tongue in his cheek- Speaking of invasions of privacy were you aware that if you have children Social Workers have the right to enter your' home without a warrant? What's more, they can drop in anytime for a period as long as a year! Not even the FBI can get away with that feat! America is the perfect representation of humanity's well documented tendency, in a state of hatred towards another, to begin to behave and resemble that which they hate most. Still, it is the country of my birth. Both of my Grandfathers, several uncles and a gaggle of cousins have gone on to serve in the armed forces. Both of my grandmother's played a role too - just at home in the war production role. Come to think of it one grandmother was named Roselyn, sort of resembled Rosie the Riveter and had that no BS attitude. XD While the above are, to the best of my knowledge, factual statements - I have pledged allegiance to our flag innumerable times and though it may have been before I understood what exactly that meant, I intend to maintain that stance. I may disapprove of much of our government's policies, the global policing while we are trillions of dollars in debt, and the slow withering of our rights as citizens. However this is still my country and when push comes to shove I am ready, willing and able to help defend her from any enemy - foreign or domestic.
@MrSilverWolf Oh I could make it just fine but to color the bottom of wings a different color you need to make a sandwich of two identical wings. Furthermore small fuselage sections that are 11 pounds now, if built in two perfect halves and then assembled will equal 22 pounds. It's a pure power to weight ratio thing that concerns me.
@ccooper lol This is my old version. I forgot to upload the newer incarnation, which has proper intakes and omitting the "Bridgekiller" guns since they don't work against the ships anyway besides making them go buggy. However, thanks!
@MrSilverWolf I would have built the fuselage in halves so I could get that nice sky blue belly and doubled the wing surfaces but as this thing is meant to perform I wanted to avoid undue weight. True I included details like simulated intakes, exhaust stacks and insignia - but if I'd gone that other route she would have been at least 800-1,000 Lb. heavier.
Hmm ... this one will be a little rougher for the Ilmavoimat's VL Salamointi fighters to take down than other Soviet types - but we'll still take you down ... damn Reds!
lol Wow this thing looks great and was fun to take around Sky City! How many HP did this engine have? I didn't wanna tear that beautiful engine apart that @MoterKade produced!! lol At 5% throttle I was tooling along at 50 mph. XD For future reference Pitch though works great for operating motor vehicles because you have a more hands on control on how fast you're moving, you can coast - and move in reverse. I couldn't help spinning out in the corners of the Oval Office once I ramped up the throttle though! I think I'd like to coast through them with brief bursts of throttle. My fun in the Oval Office ended once the grill was nudged fully against one of of the barrier walls so I was stuck. Oh, a word of warning! This girl has so much power don't go 100% throttle on the jumps in the Jump zone - you'll overfly the safe landing areas and come apart on landing. lmao Overall I had lots of fun, thanks for this magnificent build!
@TheOwlAce Actually when controlled by pitch its like putting your' foot on the gas pedal and taking it off so that you are coasting. You can also use engine braking by reversing though breaks still slow you down faster.
I revised my tank that was supposed to be in our RP so that it has a full chassis and less fuel and a lot of belly balast. I was able to take her across the Ice Island and up onto a mountain overlooking the missile site. I fired off a few rockets at them then ran away from the incoming missile back down over the ridge and kept popping back up to fire at them. XD Eventually though I goofed up and accelerated forward and didn't stop and back up in time to avoid the missile. lol
@WalrusAircraft Ah, then you are a few years my senior! We're the old farts of SimplePlanes! ^_~
I vividly remember both of the latter events as well. The beginning of "Desert Storm" or the Gulf War, as history remembers it, was also etched into my memory.
I was at Washington Elementary in Moorhead MN at the time of the Challenger disaster, I remember the teachers buzzing about but couldn't clearly hear what they were saying. In retrospect I think they were debating on whether they should show us the footage as an event in history or if it would be bad. In the end they wheeled a TV in on a metal cart, briefly summarized the event, and allowed us to watch the news coverage. I think I was in shock over the Challenger disaster. Living in Oxnard a year or two prior, when the shuttles would still land at Edwards AFB, you could clearly hear the succession of sonic booms from a shuttle's descent. At the time I believed the shuttle was a cutting edge piece of technology that couldn't possibly simply explode like that. Older and wiser I now know it used '70s technology and was pretty impractical when compared to alternate technologies.
September 11th began after a late night of work. My mother called that morning half-way waking me up and told me that an airplane just crashed into the WTC. I thought to myself - "Wow - what a disaster," and proceeded to file it away with the crash of the B-25 into the Empire State building in '45 and went back to sleep. Then I received a second call telling me that another plane had crashed into the WTC. I knew then it was nothing like the accidental crash of '45 - this was intentional. Thus I quickly made my way to the living room television, turned it on for live coverage and got online to see if any further news was available. I couldn't believe my eyes when the towers fell. A buddy of mine, a fellow model builder, had been a security guard at WTC Tower 2 years prior and he couldn't contain his anxiety as the wing of that aircraft had gone right across what was his security post. In the aftermath of the attack he witnessed a gaggle of Arab-Americans celebrating at his local Dunkin Doughnuts. I wasn't sure I believed him and so looked up the number online, called it and sure enough the man's voice was heavily accented and there was all kinds of hooting and yelling in the background including the stereotypical phrase uttered as a cheer in Arabic. I told him I had the wrong number and called up corporate immediately after. The individual I spoke with sounded absolutely livid and assured me that they would lose their franchise license as a result. Sure enough, the following week they were closed, according to my friend. That was the Passaic NJ location. I don't even know if a new one or if that one has reopened under new management. That was my own little dagger to contribute against those who would support and celebrate the killing of civilians.
I got another chance several years later. I used to maintain a website for supplement materials for a table-top role-playing game that was set in a sci-fi setting. One of the items described was an anti-sniper device that would use a sensor following the same principle as anti-artillery radar to retrace bullet trajectories and return fire from an unmanned gun position mounted on the vehicle.
A retired Indonesian military officer obviously couldn't understand that the materials on that site were fictional because he wrote me a long letter telling me that they were very interested in acquiring a number of these devices and asked for weight specifications, what weapons the remote weapon station could mount, etc. As his signature indicated he was retired I wondered about why he might have made such a request - furthermore he never clearly stated who "they" were. His E-mail included all of his contact information. I turned around and forwarded the suspicious letter, along with the website he had misunderstood, to the Minneapolis FBI office to reference or forward to whomever may be able to identify the man's affiliations. Less than a week later several tons of nitrate explosives were siezed in Indonesia along with dozens of arrests of alleged al Qaida cell members. I didn't recognize any of the names released but I still wonder if my actions contributed at all in that event.
As an aside a few years later, during the occupation of Iraq the US Army fielded an experimental system identical to that described on that website - which I learned through Yahoo! News, Technology. lol Were they too inspired or did I just come up with the same idea? XD
I've gotta hand it to you, this is a cool idea!! Its a shame we can't fire multiple explosive shells or have the option of proximity fuse warheads but it's awesome that you came up with an idea for a flak gun that is reasonably realistic. XD I also like the foot pads so that the chassis isn't swiveling around due to the pull of the rotator, great use for the pistons. (I'll probably be borrowing from these ideas down the line! lol) By the way I DL'd a truck a few days ago that completely changed my view on how to work cars/trucks/tanks - use pitch instead of throttle for the engine! That way you can more accurately control your' speed AND you get the benefit of reverse as well!
@WalrusAircraft I was at Mary Law Private School in Oxnard CA, attending pre-school, at the time of the shooting. I remember the news coverage of it though after I got home. ^_^
@Cjredwards Awesome! Hopefully with a degree you can really aim high, so to speak! ^_~ I envy you. I told my parents, at the tender age of 12, that I wanted to join the air force once I was of age - a desire that still lingered up to adulthood. However my parents responded quite angrily and adamantly refused my following that career path. Both of their fathers were veterans. My mother remembered well the stress of worrying about her father being over in 'nam. Thus I was threatened with being disowned by my entire family if I made that decision - which was a terrifying thought for someone with close family ties. By the time I had moved out, was married and had a daughter I revisited the thought but was found to be unsuited. Apparently at 18 I broke my left ankle at a Metallica concert - believing it to be just one more sprained ankle to add to the list I never had it treated and thus it healed incorrectly. :/
@ccooper Sure, how involved do you want to get with the build though? I have yet to see a Short Stirling or Handley-Page Halifax. In terms of US types, since I brought it up earlier, a B-32 Dominator would be interesting. Want something smaller? How about a Boeing P-26 Peashooter? (Remarkably, one of these actually shot a Zero down over the Phillipines!) Feeling Navyish? How about a Hellcat/Martlet, Devastator or Dauntless? Feeling even more Briny? A Catalina, Sunderland or if you're feeling really up for a challenge - how about a Supermarine Walrus or Sea Otter
@MrSilverWolf After downloading it I saw that you did put something in place for the exhaust stacks - just simplified for a lower part count. That said she's a nice and stable gun platform. I made two kills in her on my first hop in Sandbox mode! :D
@AwesomeDesign717 Bah! The USSR shall fall! (Wow, I'm a prophet! :D j/k) Just wait until your' new Yaks meet up with what the Ilmavoimat has cooked up especially for you Stalin stroking bastards!
@MoterKade I don't think I've heard that one, paint this one black, and I'd swear it was the lead truck from Convoy. (Chances are you're far too young to remember the movie or song... lol)
This reminds me more of an Fw-190A, the nose is too short and there are no exhaust stacks! :P Just razzing ya! lol Great build though, a change of pace from the norm for certain~!
Is the port side belly fairing supposed to be shorter than the starboard one? This has to be an oops - I just looked at a ventral view and then checked again - just looks like you forgot a part in there! >.<
The landing gear does act very weird though I've no idea why! lol However this is a beautiful build, love the detail and attention to the shape of the aircraft. I went to school with an underclassman, didn't care very much for her, but I sure was envious of her when I learned from her family that she joined the Air Force and wound up flying these for a living!
@TheOwlAce Okay, here is your' Ho-230-B-2 fitted with flaps. Besides the tail gun being operated by the Trim slider all the other controls are the same.
@EternalDarkness Ah okay, yeah I did kind of get the impression that I stuck my nose where it didn't belong, but I understand the frustrations. And yes, big laggy projects can really be irritating for the builder. You have this mental image, you know you can get it to look just like so and yet the closer you get to your' goal the more the lag monster rears its ugly head. Reminds me of the first and perhaps only ship I've built - mostly anyway. I was in the process of adding the new lights to that project based upon WW2 era documentation about the location of navigation/identification lights on warships. Lag was already getting bad but by that point the trim and vtol sliders were starting to lag and stick as though I still had the mouse on them when I set elevation and rotation to where I wanted my turrets. Blew my own ship out of the water a couple of times because of that. The RP I was building it for ended prematurely, the project frustrates me due to lag, as such I don't know if I'll ever get back to finishing it. >.<
@TheOwlAce Very nice! I like the addition of the armaments and did you do some fuselage work here as well? The hull step seems more pronounced now? Here's another one that could benefit from the new flaps option to omit that extra weight and what have you from the rotator and separate wing assembly.
@TheOwlAce Sounds cool! I've only taken out one plane with an explosive device, besides missiles, when I was jettisoning my Boom-25s to gain extra maneuverability as a plane flew under my belly. HOW I was not caught in the blast I'll never know. I'm not sure what happened with your' bird a minute ago. I gave her a go round and while only slightly pitching up I attempted to jettison the first set of bombs. The next thing I knew there was a muted explosion and that little canopy was overflying the NEXT island over at over 6700 mph! lmao Note to self - don't drop bombs unless level or pitching DOWN!! XD
This version has a shorter takeoff run too, by the way, I managed to take her off from Bandit Air Field! No more relying on South or Yeager for this aircraft type - at least not on take-off. lol
@TheOwlAce lol Congrats, you managed to increase the Horse Power/Weight Ratio by 0.034 from the Fw-446B-2! lol That is one heavy airplane - 253 ton fully loaded! XD
She's not a bad aircraft, with that kind of weight I can about imagine how much fuel she carries. Her rear fuselage puts me a bit in the mind of some design I've seen somewhere that either remained a paper project or cancelled prototype. Personally I'd have given it more of an even taper of the fuselage back towards the tail. From her predecessor's description I think she could use some flaps too! Since you don't do XML modding, would you like me to throw together a pair of wings with ailerons and flaps on them so you can throw them in your' subassemblies list?
@EternalDarkness Oh, I thought you were the one who said you liked designing chassis and what not and so submitted that as an idea for one you could put together for interested parties. I apologize for misunderstanding~
@MisterMasada Aaah now I see, yes, a decent looking - let alone functional ring mount would be tough to pull off. I found myself making a few modded angles of 0.125 on the truck I'm using your' simplified chassis for but overall I have trouble with angles on SP too.
One day I should experiment to find the perfect angle for various size roundels/insignia for wings - which is one of the things that irks me most. It would also be nice if we could make concave parts or just purely curved parts that could wrap part way around a fuselage part.
Maybe we'll see leaf springs added as a small update? T'would be nice! Suffice it to say you already contributed greatly to my truck builds by coming up with the idea of using pitch instead of throttle for the engine - not having reverse sucked! I also was unable to conceive a decent functional chassis and so relied on the suspension option for the wheels instead of shocks on my first truck design. And yes, 110 HP is right on the money for the main production version but the Army fitted the M3A1E1 with either 103 HP Hercules diesel motor or in the alternative an 81 HP Buda-Lanova diesel engine. (Wiki incorrectly simplifies the matter by stating that the M3A1E1 were outfitted with Buda diesel engines, without the model or HP provided.) So you're absolutely right, you made the right choice on this one's HP. I must have been thinking of a different truck I was examining. Sorry about that! >.<
@MrSilverWolf Actually, those two jets are already in my subassemblies. I probably downloaded your' parts set at some point in the past and added it to a group. The airline markings though were new to my eyes - I probably figured I wouldn't be building many airliners and so left them alone. As for the little prop engine removed from SPs I even have modded versions of that little thing in my subassemblies. XD
@EternalDarkness -nods- True, it still wouldn't quite look right. I just found this adaptation interesting and how it applied to our prior conversation thought it might inspire some ideas. Sorry to bug ya!
@MrSilverWolf Ah, so you're like me in that you have a zillion subassemblies. XD I only recently started learning to adjust XML code. Now that parts are adjustable by increments of 0.25 they should have altered the angles to 0.125 increments. I have to turn to notepad every time I wanna work with something that isn't in 0.5 increments. Since I try to stick to one scale I pretty much have to. It's also nice for making stuff like the Mirrors on this thing. (I don't know how to make them super reflective - it's just silver.) I could toss out probably half of my subassemblies right now but one never knows what might be lurking among those goodies.
@MrSilverWolf Oh okay, thought that you would have used XML for that for landing gear in the past. XD Sorry 'bout that!
@MrSilverWolf The one I'm cooking up now will be better. I've also got a tank that's pretty much ready to post but I'm considering changing the main gun. What's the XML code to allow parts to pass through one another again? Anyway, thanks!
I agree, an interesting build. @EternalDarkness (I think that's your' username) could this be a demonstrator for an adaptation to replace leaf springs in SPs?
@MisterMasada I detested that film, the story line made you really feel for the plight of these engineered soldiers - and the ending sucked. lol
@MisterMasada Doh! I misread the 209 as 109! >.< Sorry about that. Oh, don't I know that feeling. If you look through my design history you'll see a batch of off the wall spurious aircraft from SAAB, Kjeller Flyfabbrik, IVLK and finally SILK. Those were all for an RP that was unillaterally ended by the other party immediately after my first five SILK designs were put up. -_-;
I decided that I spent all that time designing and building them I may as well publish them.
@KingDeadshot If you count down time for laughing and reading it aloud to the Mrs as well as time away while assisting in getting the kinderfolk off to school - there abouts. lol
@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!
+1@Pilotmario Are you kidding?! Even when shooting down Buzz Bombs late in WW2 there was serious danger to the fighter pilot. There's one pretty famous image of a Typhoon or Tempest with some damage but mostly just with it's paint scorched when it took out a V-1 from too close of range! If I were to take this thing down, I'd want an air-to-air missile and hit it from the very edge of that missile's range! XD
Looks like you had a hard time getting the lines of the Emil down? No worries, its tough to do exact reproductions with SPs. I LOVE how you pulled off the splinter camo on the wings though! That is wicked! :D Any particular reason you are adverse to producing Third Reich replicas?
@Pilotmario There is no GOD that even knows why this many bombs would be necessary on one aircraft! XD
@KingDeadshot Oh, you certainly do. You have the right to bear arms, so long as it cannot accomodate too many rounds and it matches the list of guns permissible by Federal Law. You have Freedom of Speech too, so long as you don't speak too loudly against current government policy. You have the Freedom of Press too, so long as the government says you can use what you've gathered or global news is approved for the American audience. You have Freedom of Assembly too, so long as the numbers are reasonably small and you aren't marching on Washington to complain about government policy OR occupying an insignificant portion of wilderness in protest against just state policy. Depending on who is elected next in 'Murica, the Freedom of Religion is looking pretty shakey there, considering the remarks that Muslims will no longer be permitted to enter the country. The Freedom to assemble and form a well regulated militia is a thing of history though the government line is that the National Guard is its Militia's proxy - though the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have shown that they are a Federal Military Reserve and no longer have the capacity to function for the people unless ordered to act firstly by the President and secondly the Governor of the State. Now then, get back to your' fast food breakfast meal, your' government approved media that though said to be live is delayed by Federal Mandate, 7 seconds, for the leisure of their censors, then get back to your' 15th ranked education facility with intentional revisionist history or your' underpaid, self-depreciating job from which you will pay a fixed percentage to the Federal Government without any break-down of how it will be used (Taxation without representation, sound familiar?) and if all that fast food leads to heart disease or FDA approved produce saturated in roundup which though can cause no known harm to the human body has a severe effect on beneficial bacteria in your' GI tract, let's hope that Obamacare can save you from your' misery. ^_^ Meanwhile, I'm going to get back to a foreign film and have a cup of imported coffee~ lol I'm as much a patriot as the next American, but one has to be able to admit to the hipocracy in our legislation with a nudge and a staged chuckle. Even now our posts are being recorded for review - and every phone call we make is monitored for red flag statements/remarks, which are both gray areas not covered by any existing rights. Right now our government is fighting with Apple as the policy of a certain device is absolute security which does not allow them to monitor anything discussed/exchanged over that device. After which we will all be much safer from the bad guys in Bumfukt Egypt. -nods sagely, with his tongue in his cheek- Speaking of invasions of privacy were you aware that if you have children Social Workers have the right to enter your' home without a warrant? What's more, they can drop in anytime for a period as long as a year! Not even the FBI can get away with that feat! America is the perfect representation of humanity's well documented tendency, in a state of hatred towards another, to begin to behave and resemble that which they hate most. Still, it is the country of my birth. Both of my Grandfathers, several uncles and a gaggle of cousins have gone on to serve in the armed forces. Both of my grandmother's played a role too - just at home in the war production role. Come to think of it one grandmother was named Roselyn, sort of resembled Rosie the Riveter and had that no BS attitude. XD While the above are, to the best of my knowledge, factual statements - I have pledged allegiance to our flag innumerable times and though it may have been before I understood what exactly that meant, I intend to maintain that stance. I may disapprove of much of our government's policies, the global policing while we are trillions of dollars in debt, and the slow withering of our rights as citizens. However this is still my country and when push comes to shove I am ready, willing and able to help defend her from any enemy - foreign or domestic.
@MrSilverWolf Oh I could make it just fine but to color the bottom of wings a different color you need to make a sandwich of two identical wings. Furthermore small fuselage sections that are 11 pounds now, if built in two perfect halves and then assembled will equal 22 pounds. It's a pure power to weight ratio thing that concerns me.
@ccooper lol This is my old version. I forgot to upload the newer incarnation, which has proper intakes and omitting the "Bridgekiller" guns since they don't work against the ships anyway besides making them go buggy. However, thanks!
Gotta be an American plane - no pilot from any other country would dare climb into a plane where its bombload likely exceeds its airframe weight! XD
@MrSilverWolf I would have built the fuselage in halves so I could get that nice sky blue belly and doubled the wing surfaces but as this thing is meant to perform I wanted to avoid undue weight. True I included details like simulated intakes, exhaust stacks and insignia - but if I'd gone that other route she would have been at least 800-1,000 Lb. heavier.
Hmm ... this one will be a little rougher for the Ilmavoimat's VL Salamointi fighters to take down than other Soviet types - but we'll still take you down ... damn Reds!
lol Wow this thing looks great and was fun to take around Sky City! How many HP did this engine have? I didn't wanna tear that beautiful engine apart that @MoterKade produced!! lol At 5% throttle I was tooling along at 50 mph. XD For future reference Pitch though works great for operating motor vehicles because you have a more hands on control on how fast you're moving, you can coast - and move in reverse. I couldn't help spinning out in the corners of the Oval Office once I ramped up the throttle though! I think I'd like to coast through them with brief bursts of throttle. My fun in the Oval Office ended once the grill was nudged fully against one of of the barrier walls so I was stuck. Oh, a word of warning! This girl has so much power don't go 100% throttle on the jumps in the Jump zone - you'll overfly the safe landing areas and come apart on landing. lmao Overall I had lots of fun, thanks for this magnificent build!
@TheOwlAce Actually when controlled by pitch its like putting your' foot on the gas pedal and taking it off so that you are coasting. You can also use engine braking by reversing though breaks still slow you down faster.
I revised my tank that was supposed to be in our RP so that it has a full chassis and less fuel and a lot of belly balast. I was able to take her across the Ice Island and up onto a mountain overlooking the missile site. I fired off a few rockets at them then ran away from the incoming missile back down over the ridge and kept popping back up to fire at them. XD Eventually though I goofed up and accelerated forward and didn't stop and back up in time to avoid the missile. lol
@WalrusAircraft Ah, then you are a few years my senior! We're the old farts of SimplePlanes! ^_~
I vividly remember both of the latter events as well. The beginning of "Desert Storm" or the Gulf War, as history remembers it, was also etched into my memory.
I was at Washington Elementary in Moorhead MN at the time of the Challenger disaster, I remember the teachers buzzing about but couldn't clearly hear what they were saying. In retrospect I think they were debating on whether they should show us the footage as an event in history or if it would be bad. In the end they wheeled a TV in on a metal cart, briefly summarized the event, and allowed us to watch the news coverage. I think I was in shock over the Challenger disaster. Living in Oxnard a year or two prior, when the shuttles would still land at Edwards AFB, you could clearly hear the succession of sonic booms from a shuttle's descent. At the time I believed the shuttle was a cutting edge piece of technology that couldn't possibly simply explode like that. Older and wiser I now know it used '70s technology and was pretty impractical when compared to alternate technologies.
September 11th began after a late night of work. My mother called that morning half-way waking me up and told me that an airplane just crashed into the WTC. I thought to myself - "Wow - what a disaster," and proceeded to file it away with the crash of the B-25 into the Empire State building in '45 and went back to sleep. Then I received a second call telling me that another plane had crashed into the WTC. I knew then it was nothing like the accidental crash of '45 - this was intentional. Thus I quickly made my way to the living room television, turned it on for live coverage and got online to see if any further news was available. I couldn't believe my eyes when the towers fell. A buddy of mine, a fellow model builder, had been a security guard at WTC Tower 2 years prior and he couldn't contain his anxiety as the wing of that aircraft had gone right across what was his security post. In the aftermath of the attack he witnessed a gaggle of Arab-Americans celebrating at his local Dunkin Doughnuts. I wasn't sure I believed him and so looked up the number online, called it and sure enough the man's voice was heavily accented and there was all kinds of hooting and yelling in the background including the stereotypical phrase uttered as a cheer in Arabic. I told him I had the wrong number and called up corporate immediately after. The individual I spoke with sounded absolutely livid and assured me that they would lose their franchise license as a result. Sure enough, the following week they were closed, according to my friend. That was the Passaic NJ location. I don't even know if a new one or if that one has reopened under new management. That was my own little dagger to contribute against those who would support and celebrate the killing of civilians.
I got another chance several years later. I used to maintain a website for supplement materials for a table-top role-playing game that was set in a sci-fi setting. One of the items described was an anti-sniper device that would use a sensor following the same principle as anti-artillery radar to retrace bullet trajectories and return fire from an unmanned gun position mounted on the vehicle.
A retired Indonesian military officer obviously couldn't understand that the materials on that site were fictional because he wrote me a long letter telling me that they were very interested in acquiring a number of these devices and asked for weight specifications, what weapons the remote weapon station could mount, etc. As his signature indicated he was retired I wondered about why he might have made such a request - furthermore he never clearly stated who "they" were. His E-mail included all of his contact information. I turned around and forwarded the suspicious letter, along with the website he had misunderstood, to the Minneapolis FBI office to reference or forward to whomever may be able to identify the man's affiliations. Less than a week later several tons of nitrate explosives were siezed in Indonesia along with dozens of arrests of alleged al Qaida cell members. I didn't recognize any of the names released but I still wonder if my actions contributed at all in that event.
As an aside a few years later, during the occupation of Iraq the US Army fielded an experimental system identical to that described on that website - which I learned through Yahoo! News, Technology. lol Were they too inspired or did I just come up with the same idea? XD
Congrats! ^_^
I've gotta hand it to you, this is a cool idea!! Its a shame we can't fire multiple explosive shells or have the option of proximity fuse warheads but it's awesome that you came up with an idea for a flak gun that is reasonably realistic. XD I also like the foot pads so that the chassis isn't swiveling around due to the pull of the rotator, great use for the pistons. (I'll probably be borrowing from these ideas down the line! lol) By the way I DL'd a truck a few days ago that completely changed my view on how to work cars/trucks/tanks - use pitch instead of throttle for the engine! That way you can more accurately control your' speed AND you get the benefit of reverse as well!
Reminds me a bit of the offspring of a Supermarine Sea Otter and a Dornier Do-18! XD
@WalrusAircraft I was at Mary Law Private School in Oxnard CA, attending pre-school, at the time of the shooting. I remember the news coverage of it though after I got home. ^_^
@Cjredwards Awesome! Hopefully with a degree you can really aim high, so to speak! ^_~ I envy you. I told my parents, at the tender age of 12, that I wanted to join the air force once I was of age - a desire that still lingered up to adulthood. However my parents responded quite angrily and adamantly refused my following that career path. Both of their fathers were veterans. My mother remembered well the stress of worrying about her father being over in 'nam. Thus I was threatened with being disowned by my entire family if I made that decision - which was a terrifying thought for someone with close family ties. By the time I had moved out, was married and had a daughter I revisited the thought but was found to be unsuited. Apparently at 18 I broke my left ankle at a Metallica concert - believing it to be just one more sprained ankle to add to the list I never had it treated and thus it healed incorrectly. :/
@ccooper Sure, how involved do you want to get with the build though? I have yet to see a Short Stirling or Handley-Page Halifax. In terms of US types, since I brought it up earlier, a B-32 Dominator would be interesting. Want something smaller? How about a Boeing P-26 Peashooter? (Remarkably, one of these actually shot a Zero down over the Phillipines!) Feeling Navyish? How about a Hellcat/Martlet, Devastator or Dauntless? Feeling even more Briny? A Catalina, Sunderland or if you're feeling really up for a challenge - how about a Supermarine Walrus or Sea Otter
Congrats!
@ccooper Thanks! :D
@MrSilverWolf After downloading it I saw that you did put something in place for the exhaust stacks - just simplified for a lower part count. That said she's a nice and stable gun platform. I made two kills in her on my first hop in Sandbox mode! :D
@Arhitekt Aaaah okay! Thanks for the tip!
@AwesomeDesign717 Bah! The USSR shall fall! (Wow, I'm a prophet! :D j/k) Just wait until your' new Yaks meet up with what the Ilmavoimat has cooked up especially for you Stalin stroking bastards!
@MoterKade I don't think I've heard that one, paint this one black, and I'd swear it was the lead truck from Convoy. (Chances are you're far too young to remember the movie or song... lol)
This reminds me more of an Fw-190A, the nose is too short and there are no exhaust stacks! :P Just razzing ya! lol Great build though, a change of pace from the norm for certain~!
@MoterKade Bah, I was able to turn that rig around with only the width of one and a half of Bandit Airfield's runways! XD
@Arhitekt THIS is awesome! Great work! How did you manage the dual mounted tires though?
Is the port side belly fairing supposed to be shorter than the starboard one? This has to be an oops - I just looked at a ventral view and then checked again - just looks like you forgot a part in there! >.<
The landing gear does act very weird though I've no idea why! lol However this is a beautiful build, love the detail and attention to the shape of the aircraft. I went to school with an underclassman, didn't care very much for her, but I sure was envious of her when I learned from her family that she joined the Air Force and wound up flying these for a living!
Neat little bird - though don't ya think that fuel tank is a bit excessive? (Quietly squirrels away said fuel tank into his subassemblies)
@TheOwlAce Okay, here is your' Ho-230-B-2 fitted with flaps. Besides the tail gun being operated by the Trim slider all the other controls are the same.
@TheOwlAce Alrighty, just a sec.
@EternalDarkness Ah okay, yeah I did kind of get the impression that I stuck my nose where it didn't belong, but I understand the frustrations. And yes, big laggy projects can really be irritating for the builder. You have this mental image, you know you can get it to look just like so and yet the closer you get to your' goal the more the lag monster rears its ugly head. Reminds me of the first and perhaps only ship I've built - mostly anyway. I was in the process of adding the new lights to that project based upon WW2 era documentation about the location of navigation/identification lights on warships. Lag was already getting bad but by that point the trim and vtol sliders were starting to lag and stick as though I still had the mouse on them when I set elevation and rotation to where I wanted my turrets. Blew my own ship out of the water a couple of times because of that. The RP I was building it for ended prematurely, the project frustrates me due to lag, as such I don't know if I'll ever get back to finishing it. >.<
@TheOwlAce Very nice! I like the addition of the armaments and did you do some fuselage work here as well? The hull step seems more pronounced now? Here's another one that could benefit from the new flaps option to omit that extra weight and what have you from the rotator and separate wing assembly.
@TheOwlAce Sounds cool! I've only taken out one plane with an explosive device, besides missiles, when I was jettisoning my Boom-25s to gain extra maneuverability as a plane flew under my belly. HOW I was not caught in the blast I'll never know. I'm not sure what happened with your' bird a minute ago. I gave her a go round and while only slightly pitching up I attempted to jettison the first set of bombs. The next thing I knew there was a muted explosion and that little canopy was overflying the NEXT island over at over 6700 mph! lmao Note to self - don't drop bombs unless level or pitching DOWN!! XD
This version has a shorter takeoff run too, by the way, I managed to take her off from Bandit Air Field! No more relying on South or Yeager for this aircraft type - at least not on take-off. lol
@TheOwlAce lol Congrats, you managed to increase the Horse Power/Weight Ratio by 0.034 from the Fw-446B-2! lol That is one heavy airplane - 253 ton fully loaded! XD
She's not a bad aircraft, with that kind of weight I can about imagine how much fuel she carries. Her rear fuselage puts me a bit in the mind of some design I've seen somewhere that either remained a paper project or cancelled prototype. Personally I'd have given it more of an even taper of the fuselage back towards the tail. From her predecessor's description I think she could use some flaps too! Since you don't do XML modding, would you like me to throw together a pair of wings with ailerons and flaps on them so you can throw them in your' subassemblies list?
@EternalDarkness Oh, I thought you were the one who said you liked designing chassis and what not and so submitted that as an idea for one you could put together for interested parties. I apologize for misunderstanding~
@MisterMasada Aaah now I see, yes, a decent looking - let alone functional ring mount would be tough to pull off. I found myself making a few modded angles of 0.125 on the truck I'm using your' simplified chassis for but overall I have trouble with angles on SP too.
One day I should experiment to find the perfect angle for various size roundels/insignia for wings - which is one of the things that irks me most. It would also be nice if we could make concave parts or just purely curved parts that could wrap part way around a fuselage part.
Maybe we'll see leaf springs added as a small update? T'would be nice! Suffice it to say you already contributed greatly to my truck builds by coming up with the idea of using pitch instead of throttle for the engine - not having reverse sucked! I also was unable to conceive a decent functional chassis and so relied on the suspension option for the wheels instead of shocks on my first truck design. And yes, 110 HP is right on the money for the main production version but the Army fitted the M3A1E1 with either 103 HP Hercules diesel motor or in the alternative an 81 HP Buda-Lanova diesel engine. (Wiki incorrectly simplifies the matter by stating that the M3A1E1 were outfitted with Buda diesel engines, without the model or HP provided.) So you're absolutely right, you made the right choice on this one's HP. I must have been thinking of a different truck I was examining. Sorry about that! >.<
@TheOwlAce Somehow your' incarnation of the "Marbanian Bomber" has a more ... "Real" feel to it than those sketches.
@TheOwlAce I spotted also a bit behind the Airship inspiration! :D
@TheOwlAce Oh okay, DeviantArt. Yeah I've seen some real creative aircraft designs on there!! :D