Only four months behind...the last piece is on the board....our Ki-48. I can find no pictures that match the description given by the pilots after the December 20th bombing raid on Kunming.

In Dan Ford's book Flying Tigers, Flight Leader Sandy Sandell said they were "a dull gray color". Another pilot said they were "a pale green". So we settled for a color that they commonly painted their planes that looks like dull gray pale green. See what you think.





They don't go down easy. No one bullet kills.





Some pretty dramatic terrain around Wu Chia Ba airport.





...and they bite back.



So now we can start on that long list of details we pushed out of the way to get to this point. Wake is done and ready to go.



All the airstrips and runways on the Burma map are done.







And here's the album cover shot.



Now to repaint some airplanes and ship and test test test.

Banzai.

Zerocinco,

Great job!!!! B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L, your Wake Island looks 10x's better than in Pacific Fighters.

Can't wait for the release, think it's time to upgrade my video card.

Guys on the ground with rifles shoot back? Awesome! How accurate/dangerous are they?

In YAP, we made them very dangerous to jets since they were so susceptible to downing by a bullet...or an arrow. The props, transports and helicopters were less sensitive to them. In Rising Sun, you will hear a few dings before you are downed. The size of the bullet matters also. A 7.7 Arista or a 30.06 Garand won't do as much as a .50-cal or larger. You usually get one hole then out on them. These guys will have a lower rate of fire also. It's a good warning to pull up.

Generally, we set the explosive AAA to be relatively ineffective (but it will still nail you if you do not change your heading or altitude) and the machine guns to be more deadly. It just works out more realistically that way. Since stories are told by survivors, their hits were survived. Stories told by the dead would probably be of a very different opinion.

I had said we would announce the missions in advance. Well, I had better do it now then.

Here are the missions included in Phase One of Rising Sun:

411207a Yoshio Shiga A6M2 Sweep of Pearl Harbor and strafe attack on Ewa
411207b Akira Sakamoto D3A1 Dive bomb and strafe attack on Wheeler air field
411207c_Kakuichi Takahashi D3A1 Dive bome attack on PBY base at Ford Island
411207d_Juzo Mori B5N2 Torpedo attack on the USS California
411207e_Shigekazu Shimazaki D3A1 Attack on patrol planes at Kaneohe.
411207f_Tadashi Kusumi B5N2 Level bomb attack on USS Arizona
411207g_Takehiko Chihaya D3A1 Dive bomb attack on USS Nevada
411207h_Tadayoshi Kawada B5N2 Level bomb attack on Hickam air field
411207i_Tsuguo Matsuyama A6M2 Sweep of Bellows air field
411207j_George Welch P40B Go after D3A1's at Ewa
411207k_Phil Rasmussen P36A Go after D3A1's at Kaneohe and end up fighting Zeroes.
411207l_Harry Brown P36A Fight Zeroes returning to the fleet off the North Shore of Oahu.

411208 Aranya Prathet Ki30 Attack train station on Cambodia/Thailand border
411208 Yosio Hirosi Ki27 Fight Hawks over Bangkok

411210 Tsutae Murikami G3M2 Torpedo attack on the Prince of Wales
411210 Haruki Iki G3M2 Torpedo attack on the Repulse
411210 Moritaka Higashi G4M1 Level bomb attack on the Prince of Wales

411208 Daisuke Miyazaki G3M2 Level bomb attack and strafing run on Wake Island
411210 Henry Elrod F4F Intercept Nells inbound to Wake
411211 Henry Elrod F4F Bomb and sink a destroyer supporting invasion force
411211 Carl Davidson F4F Intercept bombers
411213 David Kleiwer F4F Attack a submarine
411222 Herbert Freuler F4F Attack B5N2's and Zeroes with last aircraft at Wake
411222 Isao Yahara A6M2 Defend aircraft and shoot down F4F's
411223 Kishichiro Yamunda D3A1 Dive bomb attack on last AAA site.
411224 Takeo Yamazaki D3A1 Dive bombe attack in close air support of invasion force.

411220 Sandy Sandell P40B Defend Kunming against Ki-48 raid from Hanoi
411223 R T Smith P40B Intercept bombers inbound to Mingaladon
411223 Shinjiro Nagoshi Ki27 Defend bombers against P-40's
411223 Ken Jernstedt P40B Intercept bombers over oil fields
411223 Ogawa Shojiro Ki21 Bomb the docks at Rangoon
411225 Duke Hedman P40B Attack bomber formation inbound to Mingaladon
411225 Tateo Kato Ki43 Fight P-40's over Rangoon
420102 Tex Hill P40B Strafe Tak (or Raheng) in Thailand. Catch Ki-27's on the ground and in the pattern.
420128 Bunny Stone Hurricane Take on bomber squadron alone at night over Rangoon.
420206 Allan Carvell Hurricane Intercept Ki-30's at dawn from Mingaladon
420207 Tex Barrick Hurricane Shoot down Ki-27's in Japanese fighter sweep of Rangoon.

I think our estimate is almost a month of entertainment before repeating a mission. Plus all the airports and ships are in place to recreate any other mission on these maps. We will include Oahu, Wake, and Burma (which includes all of SE Asia and southern China).

Phase Two starts at Darwin. Since we already have all the aircraft and ships of Phase Two, we do not expect anything like the delays that Phase One ran into.

They don't make sims like this anymore. Love the historical period, the aircraft and the huge list of missions. Sim enthusiasts will get their money's worth with this one.

Brilliant selection of missions. Very creative.