Hey. What happened to those guys?

Well, we received 9 airplanes and 4 ships and just finished another long week getting this thing ready.

Here are some snapshots we just took while flying around looking at the work.

D3A1 done



Dry Dock done



Ford almost done





Mppd just sent the tower.



Blowing clothes off the line at Pearl City



That old water tower.





New plane for Wake Island.

And a few action shots....





Can't miss...







I missed...

Thanks for posting some more updates. Nice little touch on the bungalow occupant.
Mudpuppy

Those Vals sure are pretty.

Thanks for the update Zerocinco, the screenshots look great!

I noticed that too.

Thanks for the update Zerocinco.


Wheels

Work has begun on putting the stories together and working through the details. It's amazing what doesn't work the way you want it go work.

The missions will be named after the pilot when that information if available...and it almost always is.

These are of the few bright spots in the day for the US.

411207_George Welch


411207_Phillip Rassmussen (over Kaneohe Bay...except now I think it was B5N2's they intercepted.)







Lots of details to work out but it won't be long now.

Wow those air combat pics look great

It's nice to see a sim developer putting out regular updates, and more importantly, updates that reflect the actual game you're gonna pay for.

It's also very nice to see my zero pit still getting some use!

Great work.

Cheers

Did you get my email back Z05?

AD!!!! There you are! How do I find Volk? I need a painter.

And, of course, that pit went down the drain with the rest of your models also, right?

A new Friday update. Painting planes while waiting for parts.

This is 31st Sentai, 1st Chutai attempting to bomb Mingaladon Airport and being jumped by AVG Pursuit 3...or the Hell's Angels. The tailgunner is deadly. It took me four tries to get these pics.

What are those? KI 51s?

Ki-30's. We will use them a couple of times: Rangoon and the Phillipines.

Ahhh, they didn't look quite like KI51s but I wasn't sure. IJA aircraft aren't my strong suit.

Some of this is tough. I think we are perpetuating errors. Some modeler will paint an airplane and we use it for the authentic paint scheme when it was wrong to start with. And the pictures are mostly in black and white. All those shots of Japanese aircraft without primer and peeling paint are but snapshots in time but if you look at the game pieces, they are all like that. None of that jibes with what I know of the Japanese. But without a photo...not a modern model or a rebuilt warbird.

I am painting the Ki-21 in the colors of the two Sentai that attacked Rangoon. There is just no way that the paint was the color represented in drawings and I have no idea what it would have faded into. So whatever I use might end up being considered well-researched and authoritative when, in fact, it is a WAG. Luckily, the player will see it from the inside and through a ring sight.

Here are some additions. We are bringing it all together now. Still painting two more planes, making decals and tweaking the terrain.

Ki-21 Sally 60th Sentai


Ki-21 Sally 98th Sentai


Hayabusa in base paint. I love this wing. Wolf's FM is a little too hot for the average player. We will tame it a little but we will leave those snap rolls in.






Butterfly flaps in Aotake primer.

Luv the Type 1 Hayabusa. Often mistaken for the Type 0 during the early war campaigns in Malaya, Dutch East Indies and over China; it really was a formidable fighter. It outclassed most early-war Allied fighters. And by all accounts a delightfully manoeuvrable fighter to fly.



Forgive me if you are aware of this zerocinco, but the most knowledgable folks to talk to regarding accurate Japanese aircraft colours are the guys at http://www.j-aircraft.com/ . They are real fanatics when it comes to Pacific aircraft. and the good thing about it is that if they don't know they'll say so. But, honestly, there isn't much they don't know about aircraft colours.

Cool link Pips.


Wheels

whats up with the props not moving in some of the pics, I think its one of the only things i didnt like about the Strike Fighters engine.

Every recip airplane model has two propellors. One is a prop with blades and the other is a transparency that simulates the blur of a rapidly spinning prop disk. You set the RPM in the INI to determine when the "slow prop" gives way to the "fast prop". While the solid prop will rotate, it won't go fast enough to be convincing. What you are seeing is an airplane whose engine RPM is below the range of the fast prop. And this happens usually when the airplane is running on AI. They retard throttle to stay behind a target where you probably would not. It's easy to do away with altogether in the INI. We usually set and idle RPM that will look right during taxi but go to blur as soon as the throttle is advanced.

Here's the final VP14 version of the PBY. All planes are done except for the Hurricane. Hard to believe we are this late but we are almost ready to go now.

























Maybe an announcement on Monday.

Great Work!

Regards,

J. P. Kelly

I don't think the PBY had a bomb bay during WWII It used wing racks from all of the references I have seen, now there are the forest-fire bombers that do have the "belle tank bomb bay" but I'm purty sure that was a custom add-on

It had an internal bomb bay. There may have been models without them but the people I know who have done the conversion for fire fighting used what was there originally.

No.
Internal bombbay is 100% BS.
Bombs, Torpedos.. all was hung from wing racks outboard of the struts.

If you believe that to be so, all you have to do is eliminate the animation command. Anyone who believes that they had an internal bomb bay has one.

Zero & team thanks for your hard work, I was just trying to help with Authenticity nothing more.

I was talking to some guys who were converting two Cats into tankers once a long while ago. I asked about tankage and they said they would use the bomb bay. I didn't think they had one since the bottom of the aircraft was a boat keel. So they showed me one. It looked pretty much original manufacture to me but then the airplane was 35 or 40 years old already. It could have been installed any time in that time and grown to look old in the interim. I have also read that they hauled "4 bombs in their bomb bay" while trying to confirm if they had them or not in the models we are going to use for stories. So rather than not have them, we put them in. If it turns out they were not in 1940's era Catalinas, it's no problem to make it not be there. But if it turns out they did have them...or a later version did have them and someone wants to play that way, it would be a major problem installing it, now wouldn't it?

I will eventually call some friends at Aero Union and ask...if anyone knows any more in the real airplane business.

We are not into 100% BS. This stuff isn't free so we have to find ways to use it efficiently. Like I said, you can always choose to shut your bomb bay.

It's Friday. Last test flight of the day.

Nobody can paint like Sundowner but I can smear grease, oil, fuel, hydraulic fluid and bug splats with the best of them.



Not just testing the paint but the butterfly flaps, too.



Just when you think he is going to beat your turn, hit F and suddenly you're pulling lead.



But you had better check six.





Very un-Japanese. I'm going to run for it.



Have a nice weekend.

The last thing before release is to actually fly through the missions looking for errors. One HUGE hurdle was to make it playable with a sky full of airplanes and a harbor full of ships and a lot of smoke and fire. We finally succeeded and now it's a scream.

It's always interesting to see how wrong we are when we start putting this together. The key element is play. Once you play it, you see what is boring, interesting, exciting. Some things are best done by AI off the side to be witnessed by the player rather than fly them himself. Some things need to be stories told with a joystick.

Pearl Harbor will be about 8 missions and they will not all be at Battleship Row and Hickam. They will be at Ewa, Kaneohe, and Haleiwa. (Sorry, no Wheeler.) But Wake Island will have 8 missions also and they will be better in some ways. I think when the set ends up in the hands of the AVG, it will be a great product and a great experience. Hope so anyway.

Here are some shots of Pearl Harbor Mission #2 which is named 411207_Kakuichi Takahashi for now. The lead Zero pilot from the Kaga commented that the "helldivers" in the D3A1's should not have attacked Ford Island causing so much smoke that it obscured the battleships. In fact they all complained about it. This is the guy they complained about and a very good dive bomb mission.





Fearing a US response and not wishing to be located, the PBY's at Ford and Kaneohe were major targets.















and oh look! Isn't that the Utah we were told to ignore? Definitely an AI target.



Let's see Zuikaku...Zuikaku...



...Zuikaku...Zuikaku...I'm guessing the one one the right.



notice the steam pipe?



Still needs the unit markings and decals. Decks need the crew. But we are in the final stretch now.



And, as promised, I will quit showing new arrivals landing on an angle deck. The Yorktown is now in the hands of the paint shop and it is going to be special even by YAP standards.







Frankly, Hinch, it is your best work. Thanks.

The smoke effects over pearl are marvellous! The more there are, and the denser it can be, the more realistic.

Again, looking forward to this.

Speaking of smoke, is there any way to add a haze effect to the target area? The result of many small fires that produce (not towering columns of smoke) but low ground smoke?

What? Asking for too much? Me?

Not impossible. Probably kill the frame rate dead again but worth the effort. It is rather cheery looking isn't it?

Happy Post Tax Day. I have enough for Chinese food tonight if I don't get any meat.

This week was details. Lots of details.

Got the water to work right at Wake and test flew some missions. It's going to be a flight sim classic.



Shot the engine off this D3A1 (or maybe that's the Ki-30) and noticed we did not paint the firewall. So I put a firewall texture on and spent two hours trying to shoot the engine off again and never did. If you spend too much time lining up for the shot, you get tailgunner in the face.



Do you know who Harry Brown was?



He was a 2nd Lt. who took a P-36A out of Haliewa along with two other guys and went hunting. He shared in a D3A1 and took part in dropping two Zeros headed back to their ship. More than 20 US fighters got into the air that day. We cannot reproduce all the stories but we will tell what happened before we send you off the sod strip to take your chances.

By the way, there is only one known picture of the 45th Pursuit Squadron's airplanes that were being flown by the 47th PS pilots that day. No clue if the roundelle is supposed to be on the fuselage, one has a picture of a number that could be a 16, THE expert says all attempts to paint models, etc. are using false information. So we will take a guess, confess to our ignorance, and hand you a very nice machine (originally by Wolf) that fought for the US on only this one day.



Decals. Unit markings and hundreds of decals.



Hey. Gas caps.



Zeros done now to start on the Vals.





Nothing new to show landing on the Hornet but we just got this in to show taking off of the Hornet.

It came in 5 minutes ago so no time to get it in game.







It will come in B, C and J...maybe one more.

Banzai.

Those screenshots look very nice.


Wheels

Screenshots doo indeed look brilliant. However you do need to get rid of those protruding cannon on the A6M2 Zero. Only the A6M5 version had extended cannon.

Five minutes when we get to the nit-picking stage. We are nowhere near that stage right now.

Zero, don't think it's nit pickin just tryin to help.

Indeed...The exaust tubes souldn't be visible on an A6M2 also.

We have no problem with having errors pointed out. That's part of why we run developmental pictures. There are too many questions that are answered incorrectly on the internet. Sometimes someone knows the answer.

Ford's book on the Flying Tigers gives the Japanese order of battle for the raids on Rangoon. Trying to find the aircraft skins is tough. Combat reports describe the Japanese bombers as gray. Others as light green. One sentai was green with brown blobs. As soon as we guess, we will almost certainly guess wrong. Sometimes it's a matter of accepting a guess made wrong decades ago. But someone will know the answer from a book they once read. So we will continue to run pre-release pictures. Yankee Air Pirate never shows the final until after release anyway...that's because we don't have it ourselves until the day before.

As far as the Mitzubishi Zero, we know the general differences between the types. On any airplane, we try to get the last version and then dumb it down when we get around to differentiating between them. If you don't like gun barrels and square exhaust stacks, you really won't like this:



Again, it's five minutes once we get to the nit-picking stage.

Details Details Details. Just waiting for Burma/Kunming and we are ready to go. Maybe need to get one more bomber to shoot at. Tested a mission last night...we aren't going to fly a lot of bomber missions. Pretty dreary stuff.

Here's some shots from a very busy week:


Final Pre-dirt paint on all Aircraft. Decals. Unit devices. 3 or the 6 Kates here.







Test flew a few missions to see if they worked.

Bunny Stone...RAF night kill over Mingaladon. Needs some work.



Soryu (or Hiryu) dive bombers beating up Wake Island



Wake Island biting back.







Then the Japanese biting back themselves. Love those dive bombers.



Then we detailed all the radial engines. Here's a few.







Decals for all three AVG squadrons. Authentic tail number matched fuselage number.



If the truth were known, I am doing Rising Sun just so I can be a Flying Tiger.





Banzai.

Looks AWESOME!!!

+1

Wheels

Amazing!

This looks really nice! lookin forward to giving it a go

Here's the Friday update a day early. We are dealing with details now. The list is only about ten items long and after that, Rising Sun will be released. But in the mean time we are going to get the last set out for Yankee Air Pirate.

Here are some of the details.

That jeeps always needed a driver. Not sure he should be wearing yellow pants though.



Someone asked if we were going to redo the ordnance. Thanks to MPPD, all the bombs, torpedoes and depth charges are just about done.

Okay. Fuses aren't orange.









I know it would never carry this thing but it was what we were using for testing IJ Navy bombs.



Then we finished the transports and their damaged/destroyed models.











This is how we test the destroyed models...



And people on the decks in both configurations.

Akagi during recovery.



Akagi at launch phase. Looks like a couple of them are a little too eager.







Finally, MPPD provided this external fuel tank and pylon for the A6M2. (and, yes, the gun barrels are gone and the external exhaust stacks are too.)



Now we are going to jump ahead a generation and finish off the Vietnam War...in style.

Guys, it looks as though you are doing great job, but one thing. And I'm not trying to be a pain in the butt, here, but I know you want to get it right.
The P-40's (Or Hawk 81's) do not have the correctly shaped fuselage. They are wrong aft of the cockpit. You've given them the fuselage configuration of later P-40's. That shape started with the P-40E.
The top of the aft fuse does not follow the canopy top all the way back to the tail, on early P-40's.
It tapers down. It looks as though you got it right on the P-36, and the P-40 was just a p-36 with an Allison engine...pretty much.
As I said, that fuselage design you show was introduced with tyhe P-40E.

Ooops....just noticed that those ARE p-40 E'S! I thought I saw nose guns.
You were getting everything so correct, that it didn't make sense that you make an error like that. Should have known something was wrong. And it was me!!
Good job.

P-40B's and E's are drawn to blueprint. Pre-release photos are pre-release photos.

No, it was my mistake. You guys are getting it right.
By the way, how far are you going to bring this story? First year or so, only. Or all the way to Hiroshima?

Our plans are to skip the nukes, firebomb at low level at night and
end up over Manchuria shooting down a b-29 dropping supplies to
POWs...thus the opening shot of the Cold War.

But that's a secret...

Damn....I like that Secret!

Regards,

J. P. Kelly

We have no dramatic pics to show today. We are in the final stretch. Deuces delivered Burma and now we are building the battlefield. When that's done, Phase One is ready to go.

Here are a few shots taken during testing.

The place:



...and I would like to thank Edward for your generous offers to help. We will lean on you soon when we get caught up. Thanks.

Some players:





AAA in downtown Rangoon. British 40mm Bofors.



AAA at Tak/Raheng. Japanese 25mm dual.



Some shots for 411223_Chuck Older from December 23rd in Rangoon.











One of the attackers. The Ki-30 from Tak/Raheng.



And a shot of downtown Rangoon missing trees, buildings, lawns, vehicles, people, docks and a lot of gold paint. The Schwedagon Pagoda.



Banzai.

Any chance of having dust kicked up during take-off's and landings on dirt strips? Or would that result in too heavy a framerate loss?

I'm not sure it can be done realistically in the Thirdwire engine. Got any ideas? As far as framerate, it shouldn't matter if the runway environment remains simple...just a few more TGA polys.

We do a gimmick with the Sikorsky's that kicks up dust or ocean spray but after once you wouldn't do it again.

Work on Burma delayed while YAP Set 9 is finalized and uploaded. Here are some shots from a Phase Two mission using P-40E's (yes, wrong paint and fuselage number) in the Salween River. We have not changed the bombs or fuel tanks yet. The pictures just do not do justice to the steep gorge they had to fight in but it's pretty realistic without the one AAA gun that present.

Oops. Paint error on canopy rail.












Ah ha. There you are.












I think formations perform differently in Wings Over Vietnam. 8 keeps pushing for it. Might need to investigate.

Only four months behind schedule and 100% over budget but things should go faster now.

Banzai.

I think the steepness of the gorge is done very well. Quite atmospheric.

The pace at which this project is progressing is impressive! Great shots all togehter.

Nice!

It all looks great me.


Great job!

Very nice.


Wheels

Tweaking missions. Some interesting shots. When you write missions in a story format, you can do things that regular games cannot do.

Chinese hut because Kunming looks so good that we will do the raid. Ordered a Ki-48 today.



P-40E final. Check the exhaust stacks.


Holes in all airplanes that look like holes.


Here's what I'm talking about: There are 8 to 10 episodes in our attack on Pearl Harbor ranging over 5 targets on Oahu (sorry, Wheeler was just too hard to place without ruining the hills). Since we know who flew the mission, when they took off and what they went after, the scene can be set to the time of day. In a regular game, you would might see Battleship Row intact and just go after this or that target. In Rising Sun, when you approach Pearl Harbor (as in this mission, 411207f Takehito Chihaya)when you fly from the Akagi in the second wave, you arrive to see the Arizona sunk, the Oklahoma capsized, the Utah heeled over, all the BB's damaged and the Nevada under power leaving her mooring. Each mission is gradually modified to present the appropriate view to the player. And, the defenders bring more and more AAA to bear. A major reason that the third wave was not launched was that Admiral Nagumo realized that most of his aircraft would not survive it. It works out very well for the player who knows the story...and you all do.

USS Nevada starts its run for open water. Should already be running down in the bow.




...just as Vals from the Akagi and Kaga show up to hammer it.






Maybe the red lead paint is a little too rosy?



Pennsylvania gets hit in the dry dock.


Zeroes attack P-40's lifting off.


I love this shot. Mppd's Hickam Water Tower is a 23MB jewel.






A lot of 16-hour days to go until release.

Outstanding!

Regards,

J. P. Kelly

A few more from George Welch.













Correction: NV was already hit when it started its run.



Banzai.

Just want to say all that looks fantastic! Great job. I've been to this thread a million times and I'm still knocked out by everything I see.

I know this is a WIP but just want to mention as a constructive just-in-case-FYI that by the time of Nevada's sortie down the channel, Neosho and Vestal were no longer moored on battleship row (Neosho had backed away and eventually pulled into the Southeast Loch and Vestal was eventually beached at Aiea Shoals). Also, while on BB row, Vestal was moored with her bow toward the north, opposite the direction of the BBs; i.e. Ford Island was to her port. I don't mean to be pedantic but your level of detail is very high so I thought it worth noting; please forgive me if you just hadn't gotten to that yet.

We were not aware that Vestal was turned around. Our info is the Vestal stayed put as the captain (who had climbed back aboard had ordered abandoning the ship) until tugs came and beached her but she had been knocked sideways by the blast of the AZ. We know they had both moved because they are not in the pictures so we have already moved them in the later set ups. We will have the Vestal in place until the fifth mission of the first wave when the player bombs the AZ. We are not certain where they were hour by hour of the attack so we are going to have to guess. Thanks for the tip. What we have little detail on is the west side of Ford Island. Aside from the Utah and some reports of hits on ships, there are no pictures.

Hello,

Yes, it's tricky to discern Vestal's orientation with those canvas deck covers. You can tell for sure in that classic shot looking down Battleship Row taken from Matsumura's Kate, with the torpedo exploding against the listing WeeVee. Vestal's stack was closer to her fore mast than her aft mast, and you can see this in that photo (the Vestal's rear mast is mostly obscured by Arizona's aft tripod mast/fire control tower).

I can't say where Vestal was during the Nevada sortie but she's not in any photos that I can think of offhand (save for the post attack shots) so perhaps she was already well north at or near Aiea. As you said, guess until something more tangible is gleaned. At any rate, what you've done is fantastic!

What kind of info are you searching for regarding NW Ford Island/carrier row? I can't see how you have the vessels but Utah, Raliegh and Detroit were moored facing northerly (Ford Island to their starboard) and Tangier was moored the opposite direction (Ford to her port). Again, pardon if that is redundant.

BTW, the only Strike Fighters I have is Strike Fighters 2 Vietnam. What SF will I need to run your masterpiece?

We will turn the cruisers and the Utah around...and list her the other way. We cannot do much over there since we do not have Damaged Models (DM's) of those ships we subbed in for the cruisers. We have Utah and Tangier (for which we are using a freighter right now.) But if the cruisers moved off, we can do that. I think they just sat there and took it.

In any case, the detail will be where the action is, on Battleship Row, Hickam, Ewa and Kaneohe Bay. We have no mission against the Utah, for instance. It will be hit by AI aircraft. (We chose to follow the orders that dozens of planes ignored.) But if the player wants to go hit it, they can. Everything we build blows up. Same as Yankee Air Pirate. If you choose to go off on your own, the targets will still destroy...if we have the model.

Right now Rising Sun is planned to run on either...or all. "Planned" because we have not started the Windows 7 machine since we got it home weeks ago. Until we see what we are facing, we have no idea of the time involved and may be forced to abandon plans. I start that in about two weeks after YAP's last set goes out next week and Burma terrain is complete.

One interesting thing I keep seeing is "what it looked like". TK is pretty picky about light and time of day. All those old black and white photos reveal little. It was actually a fairly nice, clear day...colorful...unforgettable.

The photos I've seen about an hour after the attack have Raliegh listing and battling to stay afloat, but Detroit appears to be gone. Okay, just checked, she got underway at 1010 so indeed she and Raliegh were at their berths to take it during the attack, as you said.

I don't have Yankee Air Pirate but having just downloaded SF2V, I'll go check it out.

Don't bother JFM. First, it doesn't work with 2nd gen Thirdwire games, and second, the SF2:V Expansion Pack left me MUCH happier then YAP and it's FREE!

http://combatace.com/files/category/407-...num__10__st__10

That's good to hear. Post a picture of the aircraft carriers...or some shots of the variety of missions that were flown by pilots in the Vietnam war...real combat pilots. How about the weather? Refuelers? Ships lights? Ground detail? All the aircraft that exist in Yankee Air Pirate that were actually participants...and then the things they actually did in missions told by the people who did them.

Gotta love the trolls.

Exhausted,

If you're not too exhausted, we're still waiting...........

(crickets)

JFM and anyone else - The YAP series both V1 & V2 have been outstanding! If your looking for immersion into SEA era air combat simulation you won't be disappointed. Keep up the great work YAP Team.
NIELS

The Expansion Pack expanded by including things that are in YAP...put there years in advance of SFV2. Things we paid for were donated. In most cases, it is their prerogative. YAP contains a lot of things and created a lot of things thought impossible until we did it. Most of those things were done by Eightlein, Deuces and myself in uncountable hours.

Realistic clouds.
Realistic terrain and jungle.
Refueling and missions that require it OR YOU WON'T GET HOME.
Helicopter flight
Lighted ships
hundreds of doodads and props...some just for one mission like Hinch's ferry.
hundreds of target areas with thousands of objects that correspond to the real target location
Realistic carriers...both Launch and Recovery versions.
Too many aircraft and vehicles to recall now...many that were ignored until we did them.

We also benefited by the generosity of various talented people...like Sundowner, who never charged a penny for some terrific artwork and the best skins there are in any game. Or Hinch who charged the price of a bag of Doritos for things that are not in any Expansion Packs...like every aircraft carrier from the Lexington through the Nimitz (to be released later)...or a destroyer for one mission that is so real that the pilot who flew our SH-3 from it's deck was shocked. Some people did one thing and let us use that one thing. Niels' beautiful RA-5C in the preceding pics is one of them. Kesselbrut's cockpits are another example.

With the Expansion pack, one has the tools to create fantasy or recreate Google stories until boredom sets in. How many times can you simulate chasing a MiG and fire a Sidewinder at it and call it fun? I cannot speak for anyone but myself. Twice. We took the tack that we know things that cannot be gleaned from Google. But that is what some people like. There is a huge convention in LA this week dealing with people who prefer fantasy to stories from past reality...and there is big money in it. We just told tales that we hope people played over and over. But some we knew would be flown once. It's not a first person shooter, you know.

What YAP does is recreate history because it interests our players and our people through choice and education. We can also apply real world experience that fantasy gets wrong every single time. We don't sell models. They are our props. We tell stories...like book stores and theaters. And our stories come first- or second-hand from the people that flew them.

And our stories are ready for you to fly. The Expansion Pack allows you to spend the hours we already spent creating your own missions. To get them right takes a long time. Some take weeks if they are as good as YAP's.

We know...because our players tell us...that knowing it is as real as we can make it makes it real for the player. You cannot get that from any place but 500 feet at 500 knots pulling 5 G's dodging AAA while fumbling with the switches. Sorry. You just cannot. Aviation has been a life to me, not a set of Time-Life books. I know the difference.

I will happily match screen shots but I think YAP's forum is a lot better place. Rising Sun is a horse of a different color and we would like to keep it that way.

Back on topic:



Much of what you see in this shot was done by MPPD, Deuces and Hinch...and of course, TK.

YAP is inbound; Rising Sun will be ASAP.

Looking forward to more RS updates/screenshots.

Waiting for Terrain. Last few hitches then we go. In the mean time:

Full on test of Pearl Harbor. Smooth dogfight A6M2 vs P40B with ships, smoke, sound, AAA and aircraft on the ground and in the air. So...it works!


Put the lawn around MPPD's Base Ops building at Hickam.


G4M1! Not the G4M2. So now we have them both.


Type 91 Mod 2 torpedoes attached. Maybe needs to be a little closer and more parallel.




Mk 13...and, yes, they were brass...just not that polished.


Mitsubishi Ki-51 Type 99 Assault Plane (aka Sonia) in 27th Sentai skin (maybe).


I don't think the IJAAF painted the Rising Sun emblem on their fuselages until late in the war.




B-25's flying low overhead outside. Gotta go.

Banzai!

Fantastic.

Is that Soryu in the fourth screen?

Beautiful screenies.
I hope you got a good look at the B-25's, plus some pictures maybe?


Wheels

I think so. Bridge on the right...uh, starboard.

Yep! Hiryu's island was port amidships.

The fidelity of aircraft models has always been top-notch in the SF:P1 series - I just wish I could say the same for the way it renders geography...

Looking really nice, guys!

Looks great - please continue to keep us updated!

Regards,

J. P. Kelly

The Sonia had a spinner...







This one will not be just a target for the Flying Tigers. It will be used in New Guinea and the Phillipines...and Okinawa. Probably 4 skins total.

Maybe something more interesting next week...

Beautiful as always.

You know, I am thinking about doing a thing on the great close support aircraft of WW2 for SimHQ using aircraft from several different games. Your Ki51 will certainly be used in that. I have always had a soft spot for what I called the Japanese Stuka.

Thanks, Tom. Things are finally under control. The Burma terrain was the big hang up. We did not want those post-Apocalyptic cities and I wanted some "rain shadow" terrain on the other side of the mountains. Nothing is easy, it seems.

Hinch, Here's your toy. It's almost ready. Much too pretty. I will dirty it up and send it along. I hate to do it to the torpedo but the shine has to go.



Pursuit by the Zeroes is pretty good.


You didn't think we were going to let a torpedo plane reach the Akagi, did you?




The deck will be in recovery mode when we run Midway. You will be able to see all the planes on deck through the site of your SBD.



I will do Torpedo 8's skin first. Looking for the numbering for just that squadron now but eventually several others, too. Of all the stories, theirs is one of the most sobering.

I believe there is numbering for Torpedo 8 at this website.
http://www.centuryinter.net/midway/Carrier_Squadrons/Torpedo_Eight/in_color.html

John Fords - Torpedo Squadron 8 .
http://www.archive.org/details/torpedo_squadron8


Wheels

Hey! Thanks, wheels.

That saves a lot of Googling.

Cool!

I'm sure that TBD would have had an 'interesting' flight home with those Zeros up his clacker!

Looks great, love the TBD!

Regarding the SBD attacks at Midway, you mentioned the IJN CVs will be in recovery mode and you'll be able to see all the planes through the SBD bombsite. Do you mean a full deckload of planes? In their book Shattered Sword, The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway, researchers Johnathan Parshall and Anthony Tully revealed the IJN CV decks at Midway were void of most if not all planes when the SBDs struck; Akagi had only CAP planes on deck. She had recovered CAP fighters at 1010, about 15 minutes prior to Dick Best's arrival, and Best reported seeing six or seven Zeros spotted "well aft"; one took off during his dive. The Midway attack planes began landing a bit after 8:30, once the B-17s were finished, and the planes were stowed in the hangars (as per standard IJN CV air-ops methodology). Nagumo's report of Akagi flight ops indicates that the Midway strike recovery was done by 0900, then at 0910 they recovered CAP planes; then 0932 launched CAP; then recovered CAP at 0951; then launched CAP at 1006; then recovered CAP at 1010 (obviously planes in shifts)--all quite impossible with a full deck of planes which could not be respotted in entirety in 16 minutes between CAP recovery at 1010 and Best's arrival at 1026.

I beg your pardon if this is old news to you, and please understand this post is fueled by my excited anticipation for RS.

I never mind story detail...especially on Midway. I have that but I don't know everything.

The Akagi, as a game piece, is special. Special bad, not special good. The deck is sloped down both ways from the bridge as was the ship. The game recognizes only flat deck surfaces so there are some strange sights to see if you look closely out of the cockpit. So we are free to mess the Akagi up in any way we want since it is tough to use in game play anyway. We will use it because the story requires it but will lean more on the others.

We are going to hit the Kaga first with the SBD's. Then later we will let you find the fleet in the dark (with search lights on) and land. You will also depart from one IJN carrier and have only the Hiryu left when you run low on fuel.

It was a very mean day in history. If the player knows everything is right and gets into the story, we think we can connect him to that day.

Shame the old Devastator doesn't come with its multi-coloured pre-war garb.

But, I'll take it.

Now that the base is on, it's only a matter of selecting an area and adjusting the Hue, Saturation and Lightness.

To match which ship?

The model is having three last minute fixes done and then I will send it when it goes to 8 for testing. The FM is not so good right now.

Almost done. Still not dark enough. Torpedo is appropriately dirty now.

Going to have to modify that bow wake, I think.

This sim is just looking better ane better!

Mingaladon is done (from an aerial photo taken during the war). Magwe, Lashio, Loiwing, Chiang Mai, Tak, Kunming are also done but I am sure happy there were no aerial photographs. You can go blind doing this stuff.

Next the custom tile.

The docks are done at Rangoon.

Now for the hard part. Stop playing and finish building.

















Banzai.

More very interesting things to come as Burma finally comes into focus.

First, far away from the Ledo Road...just a WIP paint job on our TBF. Really a nice piece.



The Ledo Road as created by Edward for the Burma map.







Filling in the empty spaces at Mingaladon just in time for the first bombing.



The CAMCO Hangar at Mingaladon as described: Brick with a thatched roof and steel girders. Big enough for two Tomahawks and one outside in the hoist.



Happy Fourth of July...the day the AVG disbanded 68 years ago.

Checking out the Rangoon River. It looks about right. Shader is off somewhat.





The Irrawaddy runs all the way to Mandalay and Edward put the River "Kwai" in for a later mission by the 490th Bomb Squadron.



Building Rangoon. Once the custom tile is done, it should go fast.

All the game generated buildings will go to be replaced with even uglier ones. Having worked in Rangoon, what's missing is trees, mildew, temples, overcrowding...and power lines.











We're leaving the wires off. Buzz all you want. Our P-36A, originally from Wolf, is my favorite checker. I can compare the realistic skin texture/light/shadow to the terrain so we don't have one look real and the other look like a cartoon.

A quick buzz around the docks to check on the Empire.



Too late for tea at the Strand. Does that mean it's time for a gin & tonic?



The wharf is about half done.



Gold leaf goes onto the Schwedagon Pagoda this week.



The end is now in sight...at a distance...but it's in sight.

A couple more from today.

Pic of the tiles pre-wharf, pre-buildings, pre-gold paint.



mppd is right on time with the gold paint.



Pretty amazing...



Banzai...soon

Power is off tomorrow so computer maintenance is in order. This is the Friday update then.

Filling in Rangoon. Done by midnight if I don't get bored. Decided to take the Ki-21 out and see how well the docks burn.

They burn just fine.













Min ga la ba. That means hello, I think. I cannot remember the phrase for goodbye. The the only other phrase I remember in Burmese is na-maleh-ba-bu . It means "I do not understand." I used that a lot.

Rangoon is done and that means in our cookie cutter way of building things. Burma is done.

Salween Gorge for Tex Hill


Lilly's about to be hit by First Pursuit over Kunming.









Syriam and Chaulk Petroleum














Wrong insignia but it's going to be CNAC anyway after we clean up the model.






Lots and lots of details but the main chunks are finally done for Phase One.

We should speed up now.

I'm really lookin' forward to this! I know I've probably said it a million times, but the PTO is, by far, the most interesting theater of WWII, at least as far as I'm concerned.

Hi, i just noticed this new forum, what is this a addon ? expasion pack ? cos that looks like CFS3

Rising Sun is an add-on to Strike Fighters...a very large add-on.

Burma is mostly done. It's all Excel, Word and Notebook now. All the secondary strips are done. The design of the major airports is done. Cities. Villages. We will stop developing it beyond February 28, 1942 for now.

I am always surprised at the scenes I stumble upon while doing this. TK's engine can create great scenery.

Ki51 at Nakhon Sawan (before I planted the buildings).



I wanted some smoke so I blew up the adjacent village for this shot.



Landing P-40B at Hmabi or Highland Queen, an important RAF (later IJAAF) dispersal field north of Rangoon. (There's a restaurant in the town that has a dirt floor, no running water except a hose hanging from the ceiling, chickens beneath your feet and great noodles. On every table are bowls, spoons and handguns. You get great service when you put a .45 next to your tea cup.)





Some nice scenery near the southern coast of Thailand.



A daytime shot of the same scene...I think.



Pearl Harbor



Lifting off at Saigon to sink the Prince of Wales.



A shot from Prachuap Khirikhan.



Landing at Kyedaw Airfield at Toungoo...the scene of our first Training Mission. Take off and land the squirrely P-40 and Hurricane. Carrier quals will be at sea aboard the Kaga.







A shot of the not-finished-yet major airport layout.

Outstanding, simply brilliant.

Going back to the start picking up some details. Flying jets in Wings Over Vietnam, this detail is often superfluous but in WWII, you are going to see it in the game. So we had to paint some things that had been passed over by the brush before.

Ford Island Bldg 5. It's in all the pictures behind the USS California...you' see.





Splinter City is what the GI's called the wooden barracks.



The lawn around Base Ops and a few more splotches on the Double Hangars.



The correct windows on Hickam Barracks (aka "The Hotel")



...a strafe target, by the way.



Those oil tanks...



...and those, too.



And this landmark.



Then some shots from Kunming...and Guilin.







The above P-51B a very nice model from Wolf that we have not remapped yet so we can slap on thicker paint. It's nice workmanship.

That's Friday's update. Non-stop until the release which will occur when there is no surface left unpainted, all the missions work as hoped and a couple of planes and ships are repainted.

Most of the ground objects you see at Oahu are by mppd...a most excellent prop man.

Banzai.

Absolutely BEAUTIFUL!!!

Zerocino,

I know you and others have put in tremendous blood, sweet & tears for Rising Sun, after this is completed and we in the sim world get enjoy this work of art, could it be a consideration in the future to think of another add-on for SFP1. The ETO and Pacific theaters have been done repeatedly, maybe (and that's a BIG maybe) doing the MTO/North Africa theaters??? just a thought/hint/wish/bug in the ear/idea maybe toss around.

Thanks again for your great work.

Hotrodss

General Short called.

He said get the damned jeeps off the grass. He's afraid his Rotie's will be next.

Looking good.

Hi zerocinco,

these are very nice and detailed pictures of pearl harbour. There is only one mistake (historical): The Ford Island Tower was initially painted in dark grey. The red/white stripes were added after the war. Nevertheless I like the red/white painting more than the historical one.

Greetings

I know the water tower was painted that color. I thought the top of the control tower was painted that color as well. I'm having a very hard time finding a good shot of the tower either before or during the attack.

Not sure if this shot of the tower helps? It is of Ford Island hangars after the December 7, 1941 Pearl Harbor attack.
http://www.airfields-freeman.com/HI/FordIs_HI_41Dec7_burning.jpg

I have never seen a picture of the Ford Island tower in dark gray. So we go with what we have for now. Mike's picture is pretty tiny but I see it way back there in the back. It seems to have contrasting "colors". It's only paint. If we get a better shot of that day we will repaint it.

Here is the water tower again with Building 55 behind the California.

http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/images/g30000/g32456.jpg

The destroyed model of the California lists just like the real one. All you have to do is hole it. I wish we could do smoke like that but it would lug down any computer we are likely to play on.

Hopefully, you will be so engrossed in the mission that you won't notice anyway. The first time you will get a close look, you will be pulling out of a dive bomb pass on some PBY's on the south end of the island. You should have it at about 11 o'clock on your pull. On every subsequent mission, there will be smoke and bullets in the air.

I for one really do appreciate the expertise, time and research done by those of you interested in assisting us in our attempts to be accurate. Thank You.

Mike, that is the picture of the water tower, not the main tower. I couldn't find a pre-war pic of the tower. There has to be one out there but I can't find it.

Look just down and to the right just above the roofline. Is that it?

Some prewar videos.
I thought I saw a video where they are flying past the tower prewar on one of these channels
If nothing else I think they are good channels for research.

Bomberguy's channel - http://www.youtube.com/user/Bomberguy

UnknownWW2InColor - http://www.youtube.com/user/UnknownWW2InColor

UnknownWW2InColor2 - http://www.youtube.com/user/UnknownWW2InColor2


Video link - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgKC9VU1-n8
Skyraider1404's channel - http://www.youtube.com/user/skyraider1404


Wheels

I read that it was "a dark color" until 1942 but one sentence on the internet is worse than meaningless.

Maybe; zooming in just makes for a bigger blur.

Hi zerocinco,

this is only an interpretation of Ford island during the Attack

you can see the tower on the left of the first tank (nearly in the middle of pic)
the drawing is based on this picture taken some time before the attack


according to Navy historical architect Jeffrey N. Dodge the tower "construction of the control tower was started in early 1941, but the air traffic control room in the top part of the tower was built after the Dec. 7 attack... It was a solid dark color then, but by 1943 had been painted the familiar red and white."
original text:
http://www.trackpads.com/forum/military-...trol-tower.html

By the way, the upper oirginal picture was taken on october 1941 (tower in construction)

This picture shows that the upper part of the tower (control building) is still missing. The tower looks like an industrial chimney:



Please don't get me wrong. I don't want to annoy you. In my Pearl Harbor map for il2 (wrong sim, i know) I also used the red/white complete ford island tower as seen in films like Tora, Tora, Tora and Pearl Harbor:

You are not annoying us. It's entertaining to dig through the dusty files trying to find one little thing. It gives us a reason to post a lot more pictures, too! And unaccustomed as I am in on-line speak...or squeak...please do not take my response as anything other than what it is...a response and the logic behind our decision to paint the tower a color we know it was painted in its life.

Here goes:

The National Archives photos: The first photo, you admit is a long time before the day in question in terms of the Navy who likes to build things and likes to paint things. So we have to ignore that. The others are very brightly back lighted and the shadow side could be anything. So we must ignore those also.

We also have seen that artist's conception of Kakuichi Takahashi's bombing of the PBY base as the first attack of the morning. (sorry. don't have the name of the work or artist's name handy.)

His major building placement is correct. Ours are not in final position. But he has an advantage. Paint. He does not worry about the disappearing skins, jerky maneuvers or downright Crash to Black that happens when we overload the computers. His doesn't fly or explode. Ours does. So we will have fewer poly's dedicated to non-target items. The same goes of IL-2. We want TK's light and shadow, Deuces clouds, Hinch's ships and YAP's planes and you cannot have it all. But it's a great picture.

I flew over and took this shot...then I blew up the new hangar just to test the destroyed model.



One note on the artist's picture: Asphalt is oil and crushed rock. These two items determine the color of the surface. The dominant rock in Hawaii is....red lava. Most surfaces around the islands have a reddish cast depending upon when the surface was lain. While it may have been black, it was more likely like everything else is there. We are unlikely to diddle with Deuce's island tga very much so this is our offering. It also offers more depth perception when you land on it.

Before it is taken out of context, I will say that IL-2 is an excellent piece of work, has its own direction and all the 6-point type required to fend off whatever. I will accept IL-2's vision of Novaya Zemlya. I have crawled all over Ford Island...in color and I prefer mine. In their Pacific Fighters, this is Pearl Harbor:







So I assume the picture you posted is from an add-on and one done from a lot of research as is the artist's painting above. They have their research. We have ours. They also have their limitations as do we. I can see they used what they had in many instances. So do we (and two of them are much too white in the morning sun I see). TK didn't use all those simple forms because he is blind. He had to contend with the target computer and his vision was flying at altitude...and delivering a product on one CD. Ours is low altitude combat in slow aircraft so we need more detail and more computer.

Detail can become absurd and we are purveyors of absurd levels of detail. Why? Screenshots interest people. But the test of the product is if it's goals are accepted by the players as worthwhile and if TK's engine will deliver our interpretation. But I think I am an expert on what is seen in these situations and nobody should see the detail we provide. They should be doing everything they can not to become a crater and we are going to make that the key element because that is the story we wish to tell. For our story-telling, this is a 90% final version of how Ford Island looked just before the first bomb dropped.



I have also run across conflicting statements about when the tower was painted but the looming fact is that there is very little about it because there is so much more interesting about the day. I have little faith in a library that puts as much nonsense on their shelves as truth...the Internet. There are many more articles on alien abduction, the shroud of Turin and hobgoblins than there are on microbes in the human body.

But let us say that it was not red and white until January 1942...the earliest of the TWO statements I can find. Red and white? I have pictures and that is what I posted. Their offering is "a dark color". Rising Sun is supposed to be entertaining. So what "dark color" would our players find entertaining? I would have to guess. I don't have to guess about red and white. I have seen pictures. But here's an idea that is just as legitimate as any other guess:



...and I can get paid for that!

Having said that about absurd detail, here is some from this week as we start to wind this thing up. Some are of Oahu...which all took place on one day...and some are of Burma and Southeast Asia which was a war unto itself and the main concentration of Phase One.













Paint shop has the Lex...



The last piece for Phase One is in hand and headed for paint. I can't believe we were thinking of skipping Kunming because the expense of a one-mission airplane. Great fun.





Shots of the Kunming area terrain.



Our new runway to replace Desert3...pieces still in place from old set up. Takeoff and taxi programming today...thanks MPPD.



Don't stop looking for errors. They are not Easter Eggs. We want it to be as much like the day as we can create. But we got a deal on red and white paint so we went with it.

We knew we were playing to an audience of experts, fanatics and aficionados when we picked up this ball. We enjoy the challenge and the audience. If the players know that they are being offered the most accurate scenario, then they ease into the experience of being there much more easily...and that is our goal.

So find me a skin for a Ki-48 that is THE skin from the 21st Hikotai (82nd and 84th Chutai) stationed in Hanoi on the morning of 20 Dec 1941...and did they have Kana numbers on their rudders.
Otherwise I have to paint them red and white with a Snickers logo on them.

Granted, Il-2 is one of the all-time greats, but I've never understood why they thought that a row of KGV's at Pearl would be a compelling feature.

The detail contained in these screenies is amazing. Great to see the development of Pearl Harbour.

But a question if I may. In the IL-2 and CFS2 'mod add-ons' for Pearl the placement of the major ships are most exact, as are the various bases and buildings both on Ford Island and Hickam Field. Yet I've often thought that the Harbour and surrounds remaind sterile due to the lack of movement of all the small vessels scooting around the harbour. Any chance of some 'life' on the water?

Layout wise the following link is the clearest view I've ever found of Pearl Harbour itself on that fateful day.
http://www.webgalactic.com/pearl/map.html

And this link shows a map of just how wideranging the Japanese attacks were:
http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1649.html

Unlikely

Hi zerocinco,

the picture of Pearl HArbor was taken from my Mod-project of the Hawaiian Islands for IL-2. It took me over half of a year to complete it:







I also wasn't able to find old photos of the prewar Tower under construction so I decided to place the complete red/white Tower on the map. It looks so much better on Ford Island, so I can fully understand your decision.

What I like about your representation of Pearl Harbor is that you used original buildings. They are much more authentic. But one of the best features of your products are the very atmospheric and authentic missions. Unfortunatly forgotten by most of the last combat sims you demonstrated how to deliver the historical atmosphere of the combat situations and their enviroments (YAP2). Keep it on! I hope rising sun will be as good as YAP2!!!

Do you plan to integrate the other airfields on Oahu (Kaneohe, Wheeler, Hickam, Ewa ...)?

We could not do Wheeler and that is a major distraction. Flattening the hill between Haliewa and Pearl looked horrible. So we decided upon moving the major action to Hickam. That worked out okay because we don't have the old bombers that were parked at Hickam, a bomber base. Too much $$ and we would never fly them.

We have Ewa and Kaneohe. Ewa has a strip. Kaneohe, we hope the PBY's will get us by. Again, flattening the peninsula was going to be ugly. Our other choice is a custom tile with the strip painted on it. Since we have nobody leaving the ground from either of those two places, it might be acceptable to the player. That remains to be seen.

I have admired your work for two years. I knew someone was insanely accurate and you are to be commended. That is an accomplishment that we use for our research knowing you had thumbed through every possible source to do that. You acknowledge the port the AAF had at Hickam, Hospital Point, and base housing...which we put in the roads for but might skip the detail. Right now we our lights dim when the swarm arrives and we must choose between cutting BMP size or cutting poly's. Testing will prove which it will be.

Is it possible to gain good fps with all those zeros, vals and kates flying around the battleship row? That was my problem. You need good hardware to fly with my map full of those old battlewaggons.
A bitmap of wheeler would be a good compromise, perhaps some buildings for the schofield barracks? You made such nice 3D-objects of the barracks on Ford Island and Hickam.

Do you plan to make missions for Guadalcanal (also interesting from the japanese side), Coral Sea, Port Moresby (perhaps fly with/against the trio of aces from Lae (Saburo Sakai and colleagues), Darwin, Rabaul, Iwo Jima, Midway, the airraid against the Yamato? The Yamato would be wonderful! There are a lot of possible scenarios to rebuild all those aircombats. And do not forget the mission: death of Adm. Yamamoto or the b25 Doolitle Raid starting from the Hornet. Oh it is better to stop now. I don't want to put your team under too much pressure.
Let us wait, the first sceenshots are very promising.

Allow me to chime in here. Way back when the Boss brought this whole idea to the table, Doolittles raid was a big discussion. We got the rough model Hornet from the Hinchinbrooke shipyards and we worked out the CAT setup with sixteen B-25's on her deck. Placement, timing etc. It needs fine tuning.

So at this point I'd say yes to that one.

porto72,

Out of interest, what ship models did you use for Battleship Row in your Il-2 Pearl Harbor mod? It's hard to tell from the shots you provided................. nice though they are.

Porto,

If we put your detail into the harbor, I think it would choke. We had to introduce reduced LOD's to get Pearl to work smoothly. Another thing is that we limit the aircraft to those which the story-teller saw or would have seen. Of course, the player has the pieces and the options to create every mission that day and we might even provide a list and details. But we will only run those that are sequential, unique and entertaining...which means you level bomb once in the Harbor. The action on the periphery is more fluid and less restricted as you can imagine. Even then, while you are maneuvering over Kaneohe, someone will blow up a battleship out of sight and the game will lug while it goes through the procedure to replace the model with the destroyed model.

Wake is easy. There is not much for the game to paint so we can run numerous things that we cannot at Pearl. It's a work of art to me.

Burma is the jewel, though. Not so dense that the game has troubles and small unit sizes. 21 bombers doesn't do a thing even with full clouds and jungle. It's a very nice looking set up. Every angle is a photo op.

Before release, we might revisit Wheeler but Kaneohe is not likely to get a real runway. We have one mission which originated at Wheeler and took place over Kaneohe. We have two missions from Haliewa which has a turf strip (which currently looks like spinach salad). I think smoke rising from Wheeler would add a lot to the scene since everyone is likely to be expecting it.

Our plan is to present the war to the end as long as there are identifiable pilots...from any country. We don't want to just retell the tale of the victors. We want to tell stories of pilots without relating them to politics or leaders. The Japanese pilots will be in the stories until the last days. Edward says we can do any of the missions I sent him so all we need is ships and planes after Phase One goes out. What we won't do is turn it into a boring shooting gallery.

Phase One is Pearl Harbor, Wake Island and those missions up until ~ 7 Feb 42 and a Hurricane mission flown by J F Barrick. That means it includes the sinking of the Prince of Wales and Repulse by bombers from Saigon. IJAAF flights into Thailand are included. Then, of course, Kunming and Rangoon.

Phase Two opens at Darwin. It includes Guadalcanal, Doolittle, more Burma, Coral Sea, Midway, China, Eastern Solomons and the sinking of the Wasp, Hornet and Hiei.

We are open to any suggestion and will try to do it if time and money allow. The game engine is willing but it puts a lot of effort into painting pretty pictures for us.

Thanks for your interest. We really appreciate the opinion of an expert.

Hi,

I used imported models(from Google 3d-object-bank) for the Arizona, Maryland and Oklahoma. I was forced to learn to work with 3d-software and importer/exporter software:



Though your models are by far better than my imported models.

Details...Lots of them to take care of. Things we put on a list and charged ahead that we now have to go back and fix.

Some shots.

Looking at black tarmac on Ford Island.



Torpedo test. Missed. Flew all the way to the target and missed! No sake for me.



AI planes hit the California.



Last plane in Phase One complete with grease and mud. What I would give for a picture of one from that group on that day.







Drops all the bombs on time and on target.



Little details from 411220 Sandy Sandell.



Roundels too far forward on the wings from this angle.



Scenes from the last mission in Phase One. 420207 J F Barrick.











Burma will be fought over in several Phases from Rangoon to Imphal and back again but this is the last installment for Phase One.



ahhh....#$$%^&*!!



Long week. Long week ahead. No breaks until Rising Sun/ Kyokujisu is out.

Going out for sushi.

Kanpai!

Wow, you even improved Ford Island. It is looking very good now.

I like the bridge.


Wheels

I have been putting off repainting the skins for the Ki-21 but with the Pre-Release List getting down to low double digits, it was time. It only took the entire day but it our main IJAAF bomber. A few bugs and some scrapes and it will again be the terror of the skies.

Here in 12th Sentai colors...from Phnom Penh I think.



Cowl flap axis wrong.







Here's a shot of Eightlein's generic bombsight that really works. Even on a village on a hillside (Here, Lamphu, Thailand). Look at the bottom of the picture. See those two yellow lines? You just pick your altitude AGL, set whatever speed he keeps telling me and I keep forgetting...



...and when that altitude's crossbar hits the target, let them all go.







Here's a little 20th Century nation building. First you bomb them, then you say howdy.





Hit the smokestack and knocked out the engine. Some of the effects are really fun. Streaming fuel. Smoking engines.



A few things did not go as planned. Here the crew of the Akagi does not look at all like Japanese
deck hands. In fact, they look a lot more like happy burn victims dancing a jig.



And these feet. If I raise him up, his head sticks out. Maybe I should make Geo's Texas-sized pilot into a more Japanese-sized navigator.



Happy Friday the 13th.

Banzai!

Friday update. We are down to details and there are a lot of them. And this is before the testers get hold of it, too. I think the list is down to 23 items to go. None of them are difficult to solve.

We though you would like to see the good, the bad and the ugly in this week's work. It is very revealing.

Not just another Tomahawk picture. We are toying with different pits to increase the visibility. Most pits are made for themselves without the player in mind. Only one airplane had visibility as bad as the game pits give you. That was the Spirit of St. Louis. Everyone else can see or the don't fly.



Our bungalos on Ford Island. They will look better when we park the cars beside them.



Fake Japanese Destroyers.



Uh...no. It looks like my mother's kitchen curtains.



Deck guns used to defend Wake Island.



Some GO's (our shorthand for Ground Objects) at Wheeler. Putting them into the hangars to assure the LargeOilFire effect will happen. Game priority will not allow smoke from the buildings with all those planes on fire...and you have seen the picture of Wheeler.



Killing time. We have an IJA soldier on a bike also. You may have seen those shots also. They look very realistic in motion...in your way...on the runway. My father said that the Chinese would run across the runway at Kunming while his bomber was taking off...and the closer the better. This was to ward off invisible bad luck "dragons" that were following them. Apparently, sometimes the dragon would pull them into the prop blades which would be good luck for the B-25 crew if they had room to abort with a full load of bombs and fuel and bad luck if they did not. They would rely upon the Japanese to chase off their dragons.



This is our successful experiment to get the ship's AAA to hit the water when an attacker comes in low. And, again, you have seen the pictures. If we increase the lead to match, you will never make it.



Uh...no.



A bunch of GO's lined up for DM (again, our shorthand. this time Destroyed Model) testing.



I knew there was a reason I painted that firewall.



Repulse Destroyed Model.



Prince of Wales DM. Toying with the idea of putting men on deck and in the boats. Not sure yet.



Oops.



Arizona Destroyed Model. Pretty close to the pics.



Battleship Row post-attack.



This one IS just another Tomahawk picture.



Wheeler Hangars. They burn fine without the airplanes on fire nearby.



All the aircraft wounds. Skin holes. Fuel leak. Engine out. And, I see the tailwheel is missing.



Wheeler attack 411207 Akira Sakamoto is ready to go.



Details. Who wants to see MiGs and Phantoms before they were born? This is 411207 Tsuguo Matsuyama in a mission to suppress aircraft at Bellows.



AI take off at Bellows. If you have never programmed an E-W runway to work in AI, you have a steep learning curve to climb.



Tester (me) sitting in AD's Zero pit (excellent viz BTW) closing on P-40.



I think he was going the opposite way in real life. Just switch the wind direction and he will go the right way.



"The Haoles are at it again, bro."



Uh...no.



Short list. Pits. Some paint. Parameters for the torpedo. Rewrite all the missions. Out to test. Then sell this puppy.

Banzai!