Zerocinco. I love the dedication you show to historic detail. When you're done with the whole series, in a year or two,
I hope you and Maddox can get together and work something out. From what I understood there's going to be an SDK for third party
developers. CoD engine and your work ethics...priceless! They dropped the ball with Pacific Fighters. I'm not a big fan
of your underlying game engine. I'm going to buy it anyway. Just to support you guys. Immersion, especially in the carrier
battles, is going to be great with all those detailed ships, aircraft and Islands.

To be perfectly frank, while I was a big fan of the Thirdwire engine, I am disappointed with the way it has not kept up. I say "disappointed", not disgusted. I cannot imagine that TK is making enough money any longer to justify major investment. Plus, my guess is that we passed the point of diminishing returns about 3 patches ago. From here on out, a huge investment will net a very small increase in the look of the game and almost no inroads against his competitors.

And thanks for buying it.

Only four days and the basic Yorktown CV-5 is done.

Looks like the captain forgot to turn into the wind to recover.








Now for the Hornet camo and Enterprise. Should have the Saratoga and Lexington back from mapping this week.

Get that 3 wire.

It needs a wire at every place there is a wire. And you know who does the carrier INI's. You should be able to knock that out in a couple of dozen hours.

First go on the Hornet.

Nice ship.


Wheels

"Main force."

We went to a better artist of the all-important SBD-3. This is it in near final form (but not final paint). We still need to punch the holes in the flaps. After some experiments with canopies and guns, etc. it will go into paint. These are shots of the FM test we thought you would like.

This is what 10,000 feet straight down looks like. And that's the Akagi down there. (She did not actually have these aircraft on deck at the time.)



I think this is about 2500 feet where the more experienced Enterprise pilots released. Things are moving too quickly to do much more than glance at the altitude.



A couple of views looking up right after pickle during pull out.



You can tell, can't you?



Yep. Missed. Flew all the way from the Enterprise to drop a bomb in the water.



Put in some clouds, AAA, Zeroes, smoke and dirty up this plane and it's going to be a classic Third Person Shooter mission that really happened.

Awesome stuff! Can't wait.

All the last details worked out.

First, we didn't want to just paint on the holes in the dive brakes and flaps so we had to work around TGA overlap problem. And we couldn't afford the poly hit it would take to model all those round holes.



This is the Akagi from 8000 feet through one of the dive brake holes.



And we needed to determine how we wanted the canopies to work with the gun stowage animation. Also, the bomb trapeze needed a tweak.



Now, it's the SBD-3 from the Battle of Midway and it needs paint. Should be done by next week.

The B-25's are on the boards now. I think we will be ready for Darwin through Midway and Phase Two in time.

Very nice looking SBD.


Wheels

Finished.





Next up: Doolittle's Raiders, Lexington's paint and we are ready to go.

NICE!

VF-6 aboard the Enterprise. Everyone is the right color now.









Still screwing around with the Lexington model...has a glitch. Darwin's in. Awaiting B-25B and Japan final.

Very nice. Those F4-F's are top-notch and the carriers look awesome.

Every time I see an F4-F I have a slight feeling of pity I love flying them all the same.

Cheers

Deadline: June 4th.

These are some random shots from the Battle of Midway. Two more missions to rough out: Hiryu hitting the Yorktown and the Hiryu itself being hit.

We are going to set the battle up as it was and rely upon your own scouting to locate and direct your own strikes.

Test bed. Actually, this is the Arizona but we needed the catapult


If you dead reckon correctly, that will be you up there recording the location of the USN.


While this PBY makes a water take off from the lagoon at Midway to find the IJN.




Langdon Fieberling takes VT-8's new TBF's into battle.


Japanese dive bombers arrive at Midway...


...and begin to take the place apart.




Torpedo 8 is intercepted by Zeroes from all four carriers.


Myths dispelled. By the time these were in the air, the die was cast.


Flagship of Kido Butai, the Akagi.


We need an effect in the water around that ship. All this work and that looks like Ms. Pacman.


Next: Hiryu's Revenge and the battle's end. Lots of tweaking. Lots of work but it will be ready by the anniversary of Midway.

Nice preview.


Wheels

Nice.

Let me know. Plan on getting this up pretty quickly. This should be some real fun.

June 4th. Midway Day.

The deadline is approaching. It's going to be close but I think we will make it on time.

It is important to all of us that this Phase of Rising Sun be more than a bunch of missions. It is history that is still alive and the story of an epic sea battle that ranks in importance with Salamis and Trafalgar...very different, but in the essential ways, exactly the same. We try to give meaning to phrases in books that the words do not describe sufficiently.

Here are a few teasers.



We start with Butch O'Hare then go to the Doolittle Raid: 3 missions



Raid on Tulagi and Battle of the Coral Sea: 13 missions











Battle of Midway:

Start by flying patrols to locate the enemy. Your results determine where you fly the strike.







Launch from the Tone to find the US Fleet. Then send the strike to that location.



The famous story of Torpedo 8 but through the eyes of the men defending their carriers against it. Wild!







Lt. DeWitt Shumway finds the Hiryu.