Lockheed Harpoon, Ventura, and Lodestar - Native

[Brian_Gladden]

Eagerly awaiting the Venturas. Thinking some 50's and 60's vintage Corporate paints would look sweet.


Edit: meant to say, Loadstars... Haven't had my coffee yet...

[alain0568]

Hello Milton,

-I just tried your new models, and I find the nice improvements!
-However, would it be possible to get the speed of 100 to 110kts for the movement of the turret, rather than 125Kt?
-The exterior tank release switch could be located next to that of hide yoke?
-For arming, a window of choice like your A-20 would be welcome!
Cordially.


Alain

-

[Milton Shupe]

Hello Milton,

-I just tried your new models, and I find the nice improvements!
-However, would it be possible to get the speed of 100 to 110kts for the movement of the turret, rather than 125Kt?
-The exterior tank release switch could be located next to that of hide yoke?
-For arming, a window of choice like your A-20 would be welcome!
Cordially.


Alain

-

Alain, thank you for the comments and suggestions.

Regarding the turret animation, I set that speed above where take off is safely established and flaps are retracted. Movement of the turret in the real world causes some buffeting and I thought having safe take off and being established on climb out was the appropriate thing to do before the turret gunner got seated and active.

Regarding the tank release/load out, I have animated and tagged most of the switches, switch guards, and levers on the left side so some things have changed. All of the items are getting a make-over with textures and labels.

Regarding a load out window, I am not a gauge programmer and do not have one on the team so I am doing a little load out management through use of cockpit switches and xml coding the best I can. The RW aircraft had no "load out" window. :-)

[alain0568]

-Hello,


Okay, Milton!
No problem!


Alain

--

[Milton Shupe]

Investing a lot of time in the VC adding functionality and animating/tagging switches and levers. Meanwhile Wellis is updating some of the VC textures and labels (not yet shown).

Also worked on night lighting and have that in hand now looking good throughout although a screen shot does not do it justice.

[Milton Shupe]

Eagerly awaiting the Venturas. Thinking some 50's and 60's vintage Corporate paints would look sweet.


Edit: meant to say, Loadstars... Haven't had my coffee yet...

Hello Brian; good to see you here. :-)

Yes, there are some awesome liveries out there for the Lodestar so we will enjoy getting that one out.

[Brian_Gladden]

Have you considered perhaps a Long nose Trigear Howard 250 out of a loadstar? I thought about one back when I was designing but at the time I couldn't find a set of 3 views. Now I don't even have FSDS anymore...

[Milton Shupe]

Brian, I agree it would be the "Cat's Meow" of Lodestars. However, if you look it over, you'll see it's pretty much a total new project outside and inside.

I am focused now on converting my inventory of projects to FSX native and hopefully no new full projects from scratch in my future.

This is one of the Lodestar pictures that captured my interest and propelled the Lodestar project.

[expat]

you'll see it's pretty much a total new project outside and inside.

Indeed it would. We all owe making your life easier and less busy! But love that picture window and so-60's paint of the tri-gear. It should be someone else's turn to do!

[expat]

A couple more of the 250 - to inspire others.

[wombat666]

A couple more of the 250 - to inspire others.

Almost pure 'Art Deco' and a version of the venerable Lodestar I had not come across.

[Bjoern]

A couple more of the 250 - to inspire others.

That thing looks like the Iron Vulture.

https://www.animationsource.org/tsso.../aircraft4.htm

[Milton Shupe]

Back on topic, the model conversions are progressing.

The Civilian version appears to be completed at this point.

The "D" nose version is almost complete. A few niggles to correct and we are good, I believe.

I have completed the VC upgrades that I intended to do but will not try to do a load sheet for the various munitions. The xml just got to numerous and complicated for my very basic xml skill level. I will simply provide some model/munitions variations as before.

Now awaiting updated VC panel and ecu textures before the next beta.

[Milton Shupe]

Indeed it would. We all owe making your life easier and less busy! But love that picture window and so-60's paint of the tri-gear. It should be someone else's turn to do!

I'll certainly share the Lodestar gmax source for the tails, wings, engines and main gear if that would help. Might be able to cobble the rear fuselage section from the existing.

[Willy]

Brian, I agree it would be the "Cat's Meow" of Lodestars. However, if you look it over, you'll see it's pretty much a total new project outside and inside.

I am focused now on converting my inventory of projects to FSX native and hopefully no new full projects from scratch in my future.

This is one of the Lodestar pictures that captured my interest and propelled the Lodestar project.

I seem to remember doing that one. I'd be happy to do it again as well in FSX native. I might even still have my original layered .pdn files. Edit: I do

Now, when the Ventura is ready to go, I've got a few that I'm going to have to do. Including my personal ride "Cumshaw Queen"

[Milton Shupe]

Just posted the first full Beta v1.0 package of the Harpoon.

Eight models, eight liveries, fully featured, and with bump and and spec maps enabled.

While you are testing this for us, I'll move on to the Vega Ventura.

Thank you for your help in "swamp testing" this one in advance.

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforum...d.php?t=109661

[heywooood]

seems to work in FSX-A (FSX+Acceleration boxed) however I had trouble starting it up using the VC so went to Ctrl+C on this initial test. Everything else worked perfectly
It looks great and flies very nicely

[Catboat]

Thanks again Milton and all concerned for yet another great aircraft with the Harpoon for FSX. As a kid I used to hang on an airport fence in Napier N.Z. and drool over N.A.C's Lockheed 10s and Lodestars.

Only one problem though-I am running FSX SP1 and SP2, and though the aircraft downloads perfectly, when the thumbnail is selected for the particular aircraft texture, I get a "Initialization Failure" Pop-up. I have checked the loading threat and it is perfect, the correct layout appearing in the "Aircraft" selection menu. I have not had this happen before with any of Milton's products, and being a computer idiot, I have no idea what I can do to correct the problem. Anyone got any ideas Please.

Many thanks in advance

[mrogers]

I've converted one of my FS9 textures for the PV-2 to DDS for the FSX native V1.0 model, so far it is working well. I have other FS9 textures that will follow in due course soon, plus a real world civil one for the civilian model. That one still needs a bit of work.
I noticed a small black area between the front of the rear stabiliser and the fuselage that was also apparent on the other PV-2 textures too in the package. I just added a small block of the same blue colour of the stabiliser to the front of the top stabiliser, so that effectively fixes that small black rectangle. No more black there now. Apparently it's a bit of area on the texture that got missed in the painting.



The native PV-2 looks great in FSX.
Milton, I have some pictures of the PV-1 cockpit back area and I'm waiting on some more information to come so will PM you when it's arrived.

Looking forward to the native Ventura, and Lodestar!

[MrZippy]

Thanks again Milton and all concerned for yet another great aircraft with the Harpoon for FSX. As a kid I used to hang on an airport fence in Napier N.Z. and drool over N.A.C's Lockheed 10s and Lodestars.

Only one problem though-I am running FSX SP1 and SP2, and though the aircraft downloads perfectly, when the thumbnail is selected for the particular aircraft texture, I get a "Initialization Failure" Pop-up. I have checked the loading threat and it is perfect, the correct layout appearing in the "Aircraft" selection menu. I have not had this happen before with any of Milton's products, and being a computer idiot, I have no idea what I can do to correct the problem. Anyone got any ideas Please.

Many thanks in advance

I also have FSX SP1 and 2. Downloading now and will check it out.

[Milton Shupe]

seems to work in FSX-A (FSX+Acceleration boxed) however I had trouble starting it up using the VC so went to Ctrl+C on this initial test. Everything else worked perfectly
It looks great and flies very nicely

For those who prefer a VC start switch start-up, change the following statement in the [Piston_Engine] section of the aircraft.cfg:

normalized_starter_torque =0.30347 //0.03347

I have a slow start gauge by Pierre Carosin that I meant to include and will test that out for the next release.

[Milton Shupe]

I also have FSX SP1 and 2. Downloading now and will check it out.

Thank you for testing this. I have FSXA so not sure what the restrictions are at that level.

[Milton Shupe]

I've converted one of my FS9 textures for the PV-2 to DDS for the FSX native V1.0 model, so far it is working well. I have other FS9 textures that will follow in due course soon, plus a real world civil one for the civilian model. That one still needs a bit of work.
I noticed a small black area between the front of the rear stabiliser and the fuselage that was also apparent on the other PV-2 textures too in the package. I just added a small block of the same blue colour of the stabiliser to the front of the top stabiliser, so that effectively fixes that small black rectangle. No more black there now. Apparently it's a bit of area on the texture that got missed in the painting.


The native PV-2 looks great in FSX.
Milton, I have some pictures of the PV-1 cockpit back area and I'm waiting on some more information to come so will PM you when it's arrived.

Looking forward to the native Ventura, and Lodestar!

If you are pulling over textures from FS9, note that a few textures have changed, and many have been added.

So, copy one of the texture.cfg files from one of my liveries and put into your FS9 texture folder.

It would be best to eliminate all but the fuse, fuserear, fuse_D, eng, wing, tail textures from your FS9 livery. Use one of the distributed folders as a guide as to what to keep. That plus the texture.cfg will then allow you to use all the new and updated textures with your FS9 livery.

The black spot on the htail is an area of the tails_t texture that was mapped separately after those liveries were done I think. See the attached mapping template for the tails.

[MrZippy]

Thank you for testing this. I have FSXA so not sure what the restrictions are at that level.

1st test flight is very successful all the way from choosing the thumbnail, picking the flight plan, and hitting "Fly Now". Take off and landing both as smooth as butter. I'm usually lazy and do the Ctrl+E engine start. I will make the change to the aircraft.cfg to help with the VC engine startup.

[aspen31]

Hi Milton
I flew the Harpoon a bit in P3D V4.2 and it flew like the beast I believe it was. I've never seen a Harpoon except in a Museum but I did see a few Howard 500s and Lodestars in the day - the sound and performance seem very close to my recollections. Everything (switches, levers etc) functioned as anticipated except the start which I could not accomplish - I used mixture full forward, propellers 100%, fuel pumps on, ignition on; a bit of primer and engage. The prop would turn once with each "hit" and then stop - Control + E worked well. This could have been me since I didn't have much time to play - otherwise this seems a good machine for V4.
I would like to see a civilian freighter version if ever possible. Cargo doors are more fun than turrets for me.
In the meantime any advice about start up would be appreciated.
Thanks for doing this airplane.
Warren