Sorta the forgotten child of EAW. We've been talking about the Hi-Res Mosquito and Me-410 as the last of the original EAW planes to get the hi-res treatment and we completely overlooked the venerable B-26.

Anyhow, here's something for the skinners to play with:






Believe it or not most of this model is based on the original EAW lo-res version. I had to build a new tail from scratch because the horizontal stabilizers just wouldn't render properly.

This is the largest model I've ever done using my "empty F" hi-res conversion method. Since I loose the F.3dz with my method there's not a lot of room on the other pieces for planes larger than a P-38.

However, it occurred to me as I was taking the lo-res version apart that if I left the props on the wings I could use the C and P files, which we usually use for the two props on a twin engine plane, for the fuselage instead.

I think it worked very well. Once broken up there were plenty of nodes available to add 3d air intakes on the engine cowls, 3d gunpods on the sides of the fuselage and a more refined top turret.

Skinners please note that the tail (A.3dz) points to the SEX and SRA texture files to take advantage of the new transparency links in 1.28e and both sides of the fuselage (C.3dz and P.3dz) point to the PEX and PRA texture files for the same reason.

Hi Ray.

I'm glad to see you've adopted the way you've done this model. Great to hear you made a new tail to fix RS issues.

Mike will be happy.

Nice work Rotton,

thanks for all the time and effort


cheers,


Pobs

Thanks Pobs.

Funny how we lavish so much time on certain planes to the neglect of others.

Personally, I think the B-26 is rather sexy. Maybe a couple of skinners can make this one shine.

ray...

ran your B26 in both slots provided,
but it crashes the game everytime
dunno why... any clues?
default model runs fine...

Hmmm, not sure Ade, haven't had any problems here and I think Iron Mike is running it OK.

What exe are you running?

This one is purely for 1.28e because it uses the new transparency links. Not sure if that would cause a problem with earlier exes.

If that turns out to be the case though don't worry, I will reverse engineer it to run with 1.26.

1.28e...game loads to the fuel dial
flickers to the cockpit view then crashes
abruptly....remove all your files and everything
is fine....

Ade,

I'll send you a set by e-mail. See if it still happens.

All working good here, except some RS problems in glide mode.
The engines show through the "engine gondolas" from the rear and the rear gunner show through the bottom rear fuselage.

Otherwise its a good step forward!!

Thanks alot.................

Glad to hear that it's not a universal problem, thanks.

We'd have to get John involved for that Glide mode problem. I have no idea why it happens.

Why Me?!

Isn't there something odd about glide mode that you were helping Iron Mike with on the Mosquito?

I figured that might apply here too.

It's the un careful use of -32768, which is the cause of all the Glide problems.

For some reason when you have two elements, which are back to back they reverse the textures, so you see the one above, below, and so on.

The only fix for Glide is to fix the RS, so you don't need to use -32768 on the Normals.

Oh.

Nice to know.

I'll see if I can fix it.

ray...

installed the latest file set u sent,thanks
and tried the one by one file deletions
to find the culprit, but every time got a
CTD after the fuel dial load up....

deleted all your files and installed 2
other LR B26 models from tally ho..
both work fine...

there's a nasty hiding somewhere in the
files for the game to crash so early in
the load process..

beyond me m8...

Ahhhh - something nice for DAW and Midway...
Well done, Ray

Ray says that the B-26 is for 1.28E and not for any earlier exes. You can pull the first skin from it to use as a solo plane.

http://www.sandbagger.uk.com/ironmike/MS08-B26-556BS-G-8bit.zip

It is just one skin.

Actually what I was referring to was the fact that the texture files don't follow the old standard that we've used for a while now.

We used to name the files ****AEX.tpc if the 3dz file was named ****A.3dz, ****BEX.tpc for the ****B.3dz and so forth.

Any parts of the model that we wanted partial transparencies on such as the cockpit glass and the props had to point to the ****Tex.tpc file which was linked to the ****TRA.tpc file.

Now we have a few other linked files. M,P and S are it I believe.

Because of this I assigned the A.3dz to the SEX.tpc file, which links to the SRA.tpc file, the C.3dz and P.3dz files are assigned to the PEX.tpc file which is linked to the PRA.tpc file. This allowed me to have partial transparencies on the turrets and cockpit glass.

I assigned the wings, which have integral props, to the TEX file which of course is linked to the TRA.tpc file.

I can make a version that will work with earlier exes but the glass will be fully transparent.

Sorry Ralf, I ment to say pull the first from my Lo Rez B-26 Squadron...

Just a preview of a HR B-26 as a work in progress...





More to come...

The fuselage is done on the 454th's "Sharknose", RJ-B B-26C, 2107582, 323rd Bomb Group, 9th Air Force, Britain 1944







Wings are next. Thanks Ray for all the hard work on this model!

You're welcome.








Gonna need one in Brit markings for DAW.

Just sayin'

I'll ask Peter Booth to start a new search when he's finished looking for Desert Spits. He was able to dig up enough data on No.312's Tomahawks and Kittyhawks for me to do the entire unit so that one is behind the HR B-26 in my cue. Just let me know the final slot list so I can build the squadron correctly from the start.

The Marauder will stay in the B-26 slot, Mike.

I was refering to the P-40 Tomahawk.

Oh.

Tomahawk will be in the P51D slot.

Hi all,

If you want this for DAW you need the early version, 5' shorter wing, shorter an broader verticaltail and a completely revised tail gun position to make an RAF Marauder MkI/MkIA

Pete.

Progress Report, B-26C, RJ-B, "Sharknose" 449th Bomb Squadron 323rd Bomb Group 9th USAAF....

Enemy coast ahead, May 1944.







I think the base skin is ready to go.

Now, from the rest of the squadron, only 15 more....

Looking good Mike
Pete

I'm still working on this skin set. The going is slow as the kinks are being worked out. Ray has put up with all of my requests to bend a point here and stretch a point there and we have ended up with a very nice model.



more to come.

Hey, I just noticed, the top gunner element and the nose gun element aren't transparent. Either the PRA.tpc file got screwed up or the elements are set to texture not transparent.







Otherwise, quite a good looking model ( if I do say so myself ).

Ray, you are correct about the transparencies. I don't know what is up. So, be prepared for another email with a large attachment. You might as well cancel you weekend too.... we are so close.

One thing Ray.

I noticed you've coded the two elements in your F.3dz, which you use to join up the HR model, are coded 146/1. That means these two elements will appear in game, every time the pilot is killed.

You should remove the element completely, and just use the hard points on their own.

Ah, yes, thanks John, I'd forgotten to remove them.