Junkers Ju-52/3m

[aleatorylamp]

Hello All!
I finally got the right shape for the horn-balanced elevator, which is offset above the trailing edge.
It looks quite curious now, as you can see from the screenshot.

Each elevator cost 10 parts, but I´m on 101% parts count and have 7 components left over, of which 4 will go into upper and lower engine nacelles.

Quite another thing will be to get the hinge-supports in for flaps, ailerons and elevators, without messing things up with bleeds, so these may have to be ignored.

Then, as propellers are only flat single 2D parts, I think I´ll use the 3 restly components there, to make them have two blades at angles - it will look better.

I won´t have enough resources for a transparent cockpit, but in exchange, there are animated surfaces!

So, I´ll just texture the windows in shaded grey. It won´t look bad, and it is more important to get all the shapes right - like on the P-3 Orion, which also had cabin windows shaded in grey.

Note: Once I get the engine nacelles completed, I´ll post an untextured try-out look-see version, as an appetizer just for fun.
The .air file will correspond to the units with 725 Hp BMW 132A-3 engines.

Cheers,
Aleatorylamp

[aleatorylamp]

Hello again...
After all these years of building, I noticed a surprising thing in the tail
section: There are virtually no bleeds, and rudder and elevators are animated!

In this model, the aft fuselage is grouped in Body Main and goes all the
way into the tail section, ending under the tail-fin, just before the rudder.

There isn´t a Tail-fuselage structure or component that would normally go
into the Tail Group, and this is probably the reason for this pleasant surprise.
I should have noticed a long time ago... , but better late than never...

It seems that with this way of grouping Tail parts, the automatic glue
sequence separation created by the different Tail Groups does indeed
work - at least with a conventional tail of this type.

The Tail elements are:
- Tailplanes and Elevators, grouped in Tail Left/Right, separated by glue.
- Fin and Rudder, grouped in Tail Upper, also separated by glue.
- Lower Rudder and Tail-wheel, grouped in Tail.

I still have to see where to put the tailplane struts - I haven´t made them yet!

Cheers,
Aleatorylamp

[smilo]

she's coming along very nicely.
am anxious to see the untextured beta.
no pressure, though.
there are plenty of holiday distractions.

[aleatorylamp]

Hello Smilo,
Thanks for your good words.
It´s actually coming out quite nicely, once I figured out with a bit of patience, how to make the unusual shapes.

Now comes a more difficult part, the hand-made upper and lower wing bulges behind the engine nacelles.

I managed to get into Flightsim.com on the Windoze 8.1 laptop here just now, (I can´t on the WinXP tower, for some safety protocol reason), and I downloaded four Ju52 models of different older qualities, e.g. octogonal engines, etc. They are quite interesting in their own way.Two of them have transparent wire-strut cabins, and one of them has aileron/flap hinge-supports so they are not too bad really... apart from the bleeds... Definitely fine for the old days, but like you said initially, making an up-to-date one is well worth while! I also found a FS98 propeller sound called BigProp.zip, but I tried them out and they are re-worked Cessna-182 sounds, with lowered tone frequency - not really what we are looking for.

Cheers,
Aleatorylamp

[aleatorylamp]

Hello Folks,
Another application of "Ivan´s Conga" here...

It never ceases to amaze me how you found that one out, Ivan,
how to glue things left and right after having glued something on
top or in front first.

The complex nose section has exhaust pipes stuck on each side,
nose-lid stuck on top, and the exhaust ring, cowl and prop stuff
further in front.

Also, as can be seen on the screenshot, the forward part of the
nose structure under the forward curvature is no longer a square
shape, but octogonal - as rounded off as a square structure can get,
so now it´s more correct with respect to the original, which doesn´t
have the sides going straight down.

I´m also trying other shapes like the Oval or the flat Octagon because
of the apex that can be seen on the side. Perhaps I can get it better.

For the moment, the exhaust is all rusty and unpolished, but we´ll see
about that later!

...procrastinating the engine nacelle bulges again, aren´t we now?

Update: Due to different central engine element bleeds through nose and outboard
engines, ALL elements in the Nose Group had to go into Body Main - and seem to be
working fine - the longest Fuselage with neither Tail nor Nose parts that I´ve ever done!

Cheers,
Aleatorylamp

[aleatorylamp]

Hello again,
Now the nose structure ends in an Oval shape. It seems to be better than the
previous flat octagon, that made the nose-top rounded dome part too narrow
and caused a rather sharp apex on the side, that I mentioned.

Here´s another screenshot to compare.
Then, Post #25 shows the nose ending in a square just before the nose-cowl,
leaving no space for the exhaust ring.

Update: So, the present parts 123% count leaves 216 pieces free for upper
and lower engine nacelle bulges - should suffice!

Cheers,
Aleatorylamp

[aleatorylamp]

Hello Folks,
This would be Textureless Try-out Version One, or TTV1 as it were!, to
get a general impression of the shapes, and also the feel of the .air file.
The provisional model is attached herewith.

The aliased Extra300 Sound.cfg should be changed to some good radial
engine sounds managed by Minuteman10´s excellent Merlin Sound.cfg file!

Panel is custom, to be used with the custom engine gauges that Ivan
and I made for the FW200 Condor. They are not attached here because
the file is so big it will gobble up my attachment quota.

Engine nacelle bodies are still structures! They will serve as a basis to
make all the parts for the necessary components later on, and this is
going to take a bit longer than I thought.

For the moment I have fine-tuned the structure shapes, and with a glue
sequence for Wing elements, I have managed to keep bleeds to a minimum.

Fuselage, vertical tail, tail gear, main wheels and central engine are all structures,
so as to keep as many components as possible free for the wings, flaps, landing-gear
struts, elevators, flaps and the parts-hungry horn-balanced ailerons and elevators
that are offset from the trailing edges.

Parts count at the moment at 146.1%, but should go down a bit as soon as
engine nacelle bodies are turned into components. That way, a dorsal, a forward
and two lateral machine guns will be added.

It is going quite well, and even the provisional engine nacelle bodies aren´t
looking too bad!

Note: The AF99 AFX is also included, should anyone feel like having a look.
There aren´t any textures, it´s all just coloured cardboard!

Well then! Enjoy!! I hope you like it.
...and suggestions and criticism will as always be very welcome!

Cheers,
Aleatorylamp

[smilo]

got it...thanks, Stephan.
the screen shots look impressive.
am anxious to have a closer look.

i'll see what i can do
about a quick radial sound file.

[aleatorylamp]

Hi Smilo,
Thanks for your good words again!
I´m quite pleased with the shape of the model myself!

On Simviation there´s a really good (I thought) BMW 801 Radial
sound to download, and it works well with Minuteman10´s Sound.cfg.

I´ve attached the Sound.cfg here, and it will use those BMW sounds.
Cheers,
Aleatorylamp

[smilo]

here we are, jumping topics again.
sorry about that.

i've spent an inordinate amount of time, lately,
futzing around with sounds and sound.cfg files.
actually, i think i've found some good ones.
there's a nice BMW132 set by Lawdog
and tweaked by OBIO here in the library.
of course, the trick is making them work in cfs,
which would entail adapting the Merlin sound.cfg.

in the mean time, i thought i would modify
the merlin cfg to work with the stock p47d.
it won't be spot on, but, should be close.
at least, it's a radial package.

[aleatorylamp]

Hello Smilo,
Not totally a topic jump - it sounds very useful for the Ju-52, and it´s
something I´ve been thinking of as well. Then it would be easy to upload
a model with just the sound.cfg, without huge MB´s of the .wav sounds.

Should you finish by the time I´m done with all the Ju-52 textures, guns
and (uufff!) nacelles, I´d be interested in that Sound.cfg for P47d sounds,
to use on the Ju-52.

No hurry or rush intended!
Cheers,
Aleatorylamp

[smilo]

never mind...your 300 sounds better

[aleatorylamp]

Hello Smilo,
It´s not too bad though, but I´ll go into it in more detail on the other thread.
Cheers,
Aleatorylamp

[aleatorylamp]

Hello Sm ilo,
I ust got the BMW 132 sounds you said!
I´ll try and see how I to use them on the Ju-52.
Cheers,
Aleatorylamp

[aleatorylamp]

Hello Folks,
I hope you have all had a nice time at your Christmas Dinners with the family.
Now we have to prepare for the New Year´s Eve indulgance, but remember:
It always tastes better than how you feel afterwards!

I´ve been very busy with Auntie Ju, and have made quite some progress.
Here are a collection of screenshots.

It is a Ju-52/3m g3e armed transport/auxiliary bomber with a 725 Hp BWM-132A-3
9-cyl radial engine, in green/yellow livery, as yet without registration number or markings.

As regards the oblique wing-bulges behind the engine nacelles, at the end, it
was workwise simpler, and shapewise better to use top and bottom half structures.
I tried and tried, with parts for components there, but my psychatrist recommended
using structures! After all, they don´t come out half bad now, with correct glue
sequencing.

I got a dorsal gun+gunner in, with his windshield, as well as the optional forward
firing cockpit machine-gun. Both are in the Dp file, along with three 500 Kg bombs.
The Radio-goniometer and the antenna are on the model too. All this except the
gunner´s head are is yet untextured. We shall see...

There was also provision for 2 lateral fuselage-gunner positions, but 149.8% AF99
parts count will not allow that.

The textures took a while to make, to try and give the corrugated aluminium panelling
a convenient look, but I think it looks quite plausible.

The cockpit windows are as yet untextured, and I am still experimenting with the best
way to do this.

The Virtual cockpit for the moment is non-existent, and I´m planning to add it via SCASM,
but, the model I think will be fun to look at and to try out. I´m just fixing the sound alias
and will attach the model in a moment.

Happy New Year to you all!
Cheers,
Aleatorylamp

[aleatorylamp]

Hello again,
Attached with this post is the model. WIP Version 2 with textures.
Source Files are also included, should anyone feel inclined to have a look inside.
Any suggestions, as well as constructive criticism will, as always, be very welcome!
Cheers,
Aleatorylamp

[hertzie]

Ofcourse NO criticism!! You're great!! Thanks for all your good work!!

hertzie

[aleatorylamp]

Hello Hertzie,
Thank you for your good words!
The grey/light blue Spanish CASA 352L, licence built Ju-52 is on the line now, with slightly more powerful engines.
Cheers,
Aleatorylamp

[aleatorylamp]

Hello folks!
I´m having a bit of a dilema in deciding about the Spanish version.
There are really two concepts:
A) The German Ju-52/3m g3e auxiliary bomber units brought over for the Spanish Civil War, and
B) the Spanish licence-built CASA-352 and CASA 352L units.

A) The first appear to have been about 20 units, that could carry 1500 lb of bombs.
For aerial defence, they had aft firing machine-guns in dorsal and ventral positions, the latter
in a retractable "stew pot" between the wheels.
Strangely enough, none of these had any forward firing guns Some later units had one just above
the cockpit, like the restored Ju-52 recovered from a Norwegian lake.
Perhaps they did not expect an attack from the front, or relied on escorts.
It was actually a serious weak point.

Then, as seen on some photos, two laterally firing fuselage guns could be fitted, making it into
a kind of gun-ship (apt for strafing...).
Updated paragraph:
A new model could possibly be made moving cockpit machine-gun to a ventral position, but the
parts for the "stew pot" would be a problem. I´d have to see where I can scavenge the parts for it.
Then, engines would still retain their toe-out, as all these were German-built units.

B) Secondly, there were the 170 units built in Spain from 1945 to 1952. These were unarmed,
military transports, trainers, and paratrooper droppers, without engine toe-out.

However, the question is: Will a lumbering transport aircraft that didn´t drop any bombs or fire any
guns be of any interest for CFS1?
This is really the dilema.

Any ideas? I´d appreciate any comments!
Thanks in advance,
Aleatorylamp

[aleatorylamp]

Hello all,
and Happy Old Year´s night!

As regards the unarmed Spanish CASA 352L military transport and paratrooper
dropper, one nice idea would be to hack the CFS1 Bomb bitmap, and make a
paratrooper with his parachute out of it, and then also to hack the bomb
dropping speed, to slow it down to that of a parachutist drifting down.
Then, the bomb explosion would have to be turned into a parachutist
landing with his deflating parachute, and the crater could become a
soldier image.

That way the thing to do for the simmer would be to try and get them all
into a certain area on the ground from a certain altitude.

There seem to be some bitmaps for bombs, craters and explosions in the main
CFS1 texture folder, that could perhaps be provisionally altered, but who could
possibly know where the bomb falling details are programmed?
It´s all wishfull thinking, isn´t it?

Here´s a screenshot - also without military markings and also without cabin
window textures as yet.

A very Happy New Year 2018 to all!
Aleatorylamp

[smilo]

paratroops in lieu of bombs...
what a grand idea.
heck, it could even be used with the c-47.
sorry, i don't know how to accomplish it.
it would be a sight to see.

as for version preferences,
i, personally, lean toward the "lumbering transport "
and paratroop dispenser,
as oppose to the armed bomber type.
but, as i said, that's just my personal preference.

happy new year to you.
be safe

[aleatorylamp]

Hello Smilo,
It would be nice to be able to drop paratroopers...
I suppose it would be an impossible task to try and track
down the CFS variable that regulates bomb dropping speed.

Re. Spanish Ju-52: OK, better! Thanks for the feedback.
The CASA-352L military transport/paratrooper dropper it will be,
with 3x775 Hp radials and 175 mph max. speed at S.L.

It is actually a little less lumbering than the other version, the
green/yellow auxiliary armed bomber, as it has 3x50 more Horsepower.
For the moment, these two would be the releases I have in mind.

Cheers,
Aleatorylamp

[aleatorylamp]

Hello Smilo,
A little extra progress on the armed version:
The engine nacelle bulges on the wings were a bit too wide, so I narrowed them down a bit.
The glitch came from the drawings I was using. This correction also freed a few extra parts
for the second gunner´s head, which was pleasing.
Here are some screenshots. It´s not looking too bad.

Update: Getting ahead too on the Spanish version:
The narrower nacelles have also hepled reduce the difficult outer-wing/lateral-exhaust pipe,
and I also gave the cabin area a shaded texture - perhaps I´ll give it more contrast - more
brightness and more shadow. Then, I finally started with the military markings: There´s
already a black "X" on the white rudder.

Cheers,
Aleatorylamp

[aleatorylamp]

Hello Smilo, Hello Ivan, Hello All!

I hope everyone has recovered from the corresponding Christmas and New Year indulgance!

To start the New Year, here is a TTV - a textured trial version of the CASA 352-L (Ju-52),
one of 170 units bult in Spain between 1942 and 1954 under licence from Junkers.

The model is very similar to the trial German JU-52/3m one I posted a while ago, with the
difference that this one is an unarmed transport and paratrooper aircraft. The engine
cowlings also have different shapes, and have air-intake scoops on top. Also, engines
have no toe-out like on the German Ju-52.

Power is 3x775 Hp ENMA Beta B4 radials (Licence built BMW-132). S.L. max speed is 175 mph.
Instead of armament, there are 18 paratroopers acounted for in the .air file, and nothing
in the Dp file, and weight is almost 2200 lb under MTOW, which should be fine.

Propellers are Ivan´s 2-pitch,(20 and 30 degrees), 2-blade Hamilton Standard, with the curves
in the propeller tables tweaked for the speed range this aircraft operates at. It is quite curious
to watch them operating with the Beckwith Test Gauge.

The model itself has a parts count of 146.3%, despite not having a transparent cockpit.
A virtual cabin via SCASM is however planned.

One interesting thing I noticed as regards the use of left/right Wing/Nose templates, is that
they work infinetely better if they aligned with the portion of the engine that is in left/right
nose sections, (in this case the rear edge of the cowling), rather than with the swept back
leading edges. There is no momentary bleed of the engine bulkhead.

The manually made textures try to emmulate grey corrugated aluminium, light blue underneath,
with painted military numbers and emblems. Those took a long time to make. I suppose if I knew
how to use more sophisticated paint programmes, it would help!

Mostly, the flight simulator light-blue is still too strong for colouring under-surface textures of
aircraft, but looking at photos of the CASA 352L, in this case, FS light blue it fits very nicely.
I suppose the reason is that the sky in Spain is a clearer light blue than elsewhere, where
undersurfaces have to be painted in a much paler blue or even grey, the colour of more
cloudy skies.

For the moment, the exhausts are not textured, but rust-coloured. I always find it difficult to
decide how to colour exhausts - in pictures, it ranges from bright chrome to flaked burnt paint
of different greys, browns and blacks, or not-so-bright rust. Anyway, there are textures still free
to do something about it if anyone has a suggestion better than bright orange rust!

Then, another fun aspect while building was the glue sequencing: With the number of items put
together with propellers and engines in the nose and nacelle sections, glue sequences had to be
quite intricate to be effective to keep bleeds to a minimum.

Anyway, here is the model and its AFX as a test version, should anyone be interested in taking a look.

Incidentally, better late than never, I noticed yet another glitch in the 3-view drawings I was using
- they didn´t show the hump in the fuselage back a few feet behind the cockpit - they had the back completely straight! Needless to say,I corrected it as soon as I noticed, also on the other version.
Ivan had already pointed out that although the plans seemed quite detailed, they did contain a few mistaken shapes...

I hope you like the test model! As always, suggestions and complaints will be much appreciated and
happily attended to!
Cheers,
Aleatorylamp

[smilo]

got it...thank you, Stephan.
the screen shots look great.
i'll try to check out the model this weekend.