Late '50's CVA-42 FDR Carrier?

[FlyingsCool]

So, I've been using the Virtual Navy / Lazarus Coral Sea modded to be a late '50's FDR to put together the '57/'58 Med Cruise my dad participated in.

Are there any SCB-110 FDR (Midway class) models around? I haven't found any. (I'm thinking the SimWorks '65 Coral Sea might fit the bill, but I haven't found any pictures of it to confirm).

I saw a reference to USN Deck Equipment created by Lazarus, but it seems to be gone from the library here?

If anyone knows any freeware static models of the following planes I'd appreciate that as well.

In the meantime, I've been creating textures for examples of most of the following squadrons:

Air Group CVG-17

100 VF-171 Aces F2H-3 Banshee - Razbam
200 VF-74 Be-Devilers F4D-1 Skyray - Virtavia <---Modified from texture originally done by Bruce Martin
300 VAH-3 Sea Dragons A3D-1 Skywarrior - Virtavia
400 VA-175 Devil's Diplomats AD-6 Skyraider - Tim Conrad A-1H
600 VFP-62 Fighting Photos F2H-3P Banshee - Razbam
. VFP-62 Fighting Photos F9F-6P Panther <--While VFP-62 flew these at this period, too, there were not any on this particular cruise
700 VAW-12 DET. 37 Bats AD-5W Skyraider - Razbam*
800 VA(AW)-33 DET. 37 Night Hawks AD-5N - Razbam*
HU-2 DET. 37 Fleet Angels Piasecki HUP-2 - Jim Jacobson, Baldy*

*Haven't made these textures yet, but they'll be coming

I'll be happy to share what I can when I'm done.

[FlyingsCool]

Here's some images of the paints I've got so far...

I still have a few edits to make. The Roundels are wrong on the F2H-3. I forgot the red spinner on the AD-6. Let me know if I missed anything else.

Again, the F4D-1 texture is an edit I made to the texture originally created by Bruce Martin.

I've been doing a ton of research to get them as correct (within reason) as I can.

[FlyingsCool]

A couple of shots of the changes I made to create the FDR. As noted, I'd like to change out the A-4, E-2C and Intruder to more period correct aircraft if anyone has any suggestions. S2's were occasionally seen on the deck at that time, too.

[Cees Donker]

Wow! You've been busy! Can it be that I see two different water textures?



Cees

[expat]

Not sure what happened to Lazarus's stuff in the SOH Library?

Where do you download his Virtual Navy Coral Sea?

[tgycgijoes]

You have done a really nice job so far. Keep up the good work.

[delta_lima]

Here's some images of the paints I've got so far...

I still have a few edits to make. The Roundels are wrong on the F2H-3. I forgot the red spinner on the AD-6. Let me know if I missed anything else.

Again, the F4D-1 texture is an edit I made to the texture originally created by Bruce Martin.

I've been doing a ton of research to get them as correct (within reason) as I can.

I’m really keen on that F2H-2P paint. That I know of, the RAZBAM -2P has never gotten a repaint. Granted, there weren’t a lot of airframes, but any of the two VFP-61/62 or Marine VMCJ schemes would have been great. Now we’ll finally have a later 1950s era -2P scheme in the sim.

Many thanks.

PS-I fully sympathize with the dearth of late 50s carrier options. Your best looking, albeit most sparse option might be to fly off the SWS Coral Sea with clear deck. I’d do near anything for a F9F-8P photo Cougar and the right boat to fly it off.

[expat]

Your best looking, albeit most sparse option might be to fly off the SWS Coral Sea with clear deck.

Except at the moment I cannot get any aircraft including the PBR F-4 to to hook up the cat on the SWS CV-43. Bummer. May also revert to the pre PBR F-4 as there are many more paints for it and frankly the PBR finish doesn't look as good aas the SWS Legacy Phantoms, IMHO . .

[expat]

Your best looking, albeit most sparse option might be to fly off the SWS Coral Sea with clear deck.

Except at the moment I cannot get any aircraft including the PBR F-4 to to hook up the cat on the SWS CV-43. Bummer. May also revert to the pre PBR F-4 as there are many more paints for it and frankly the PBR finish doesn't look as good aas the SWS Legacy Phantoms, IMHO . .

[FlyingsCool]

Wow! You've been busy! Can it be that I see two different water textures?



Cees

Thanks,.... not that I'm aware of. I don't know if I've changed the ocean textures at all, but I've been working on my system since FSX came out, so it's possible I found another ocean texture, or this came with Ultimate Terrain or Ground Environment X NA? Or maybe an Orbx thing?? I've got some of that? These shots are taken outside of Jacksonville NAS in FL.

Edit: Is it possible you're thinking of the reflections of the clouds in the water?

[FlyingsCool]

Thanks guys... Did the Piasecki last night. Still needs some dirt, but I think looks good. When it's done done I'll do modex 41 130023 Rosey I, too. I need to figure out how to put the stars and bars and "NAVY" on top and bottom, too. It gets all stretchy up there, and I'll need to match it across the seam, too.

[FlyingsCool]

Not sure what happened to Lazarus's stuff in the SOH Library?

Where do you download his Virtual Navy Coral Sea?

Don't know where or when I found the file. It came in the file USS_Coral_Sea_vn_FSXA.V2.zip. The CFS2 Virtual Navy Coral Sea is still here, but it looks like for whatever reason Lazarus has removed all his files from Sim-Outhouse (and everywhere as far as I can tell). It's weird, there was stuff here as late as January, and he was working on an Enterprise model as of February, but his posts on it seem to have stopped?

I did some simple edits on the ship, moved the cats around a bit. The FLOLS seems tied to the runway. I centered the runway on the runway, but that pushed the FLOLS off the model a bit. But I figured it's better to have the runway line up properly than have the correct location for the FLOLS.

I'd like to harden the hangar deck, maybe animate the elevators? And, as I noted, I want to replace the planes on deck. Maybe Klaus would like to help me

[FlyingsCool]

Finished up examples of the last two planes on the cruise. For the Razbam AD-5N of VA(AW)-33 Det. 37 Night Hawks and a Razbam AD-5W of VA(AW)-12 Det. 37 Bats.
Man it was hard finding info on these planes. I had a couple of portions of pics from the cruise book, but no full on shots of either of these planes except for blurry landing and cat shots.

I've got some edits to make for the F2H-3 (Fix insignia) and F2H-2P (fix the spec files) and then I'll release them here.

[tgycgijoes]

Wasn't Klaus working on a lot of different carriers from that time including conversions of the straight deck Essex Class? Haven't seen anything from him at all here either. I pray that he and Lazarus are ok? Hey you two just "pipe up" and let us all here who care about you both know that you are well in these terrible times all around the world.

Richard

[harrybasset]

There are a few files on Simviation attributed to LLS. I've just tonight downloaded his CVAN-65 Nuclear Task Force.

[klnowak]

Wasn't Klaus working on a lot of different carriers from that time including conversions of the straight deck Essex Class? Haven't seen anything from him at all here either. I pray that he and Lazarus are ok? Hey you two just "pipe up" and let us all here who care about you both know that you are well in these terrible times all around the world.

Richard

Thanks for asking. At least I am doing very well and because of all the restrictions in Germany, I now use the free time to recreate some old scenarios for P3D after switching to a new computer and then P3D. I just had to do something different than just ships.
This time the choice fell on ETNW Wunstorf (already described in section P3D v4 here in the forum : http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforum...-62-in-Germany), which is now ready and will go online here in the next few days.
At the same time, I made great strides with my DaNang Scenerie, created small extensions for the new F-4 Phantom and then started yesterday with the Airbase ETNT Wittmundhafen.

A lot of free time must be used if I have not been allowed to spend my time here in Germany in cafes and restaurants.

greetings
Klaus

[FlyingsCool]

Yeah, as I pointed out in the RFN F-8 thread, Midway ('56-66) and Roosevelt ('55-68) had an interim configuration with a center forward and single starboard Rear elevator. The Coral Sea jumped ahead in '57 with the 3 elevator configuration that the other two eventually got (as seen in the model I'm currently using in the pics above).

Any thoughts on sources for geometry for this configuration Klaus? I know a teeny bit about modeling for FSX, and I've been doing Solid Modeling as a job since the late '80's so maybe I could find my way around converting something. I don't know how Lazarus and Virtual Navy guys would feel about me doing anything with their model?

[delta_lima]

Thanks for asking. At least I am doing very well and because of all the restrictions in Germany, I now use the free time to recreate some old scenarios for P3D after switching to a new computer and then P3D. I just had to do something different than just ships.
This time the choice fell on ETNW Wunstorf (already described in section P3D v4 here in the forum : http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforum...-62-in-Germany), which is now ready and will go online here in the next few days.
At the same time, I made great strides with my DaNang Scenerie, created small extensions for the new F-4 Phantom and then started yesterday with the Airbase ETNT Wittmundhafen.

A lot of free time must be used if I have not been allowed to spend my time here in Germany in cafes and restaurants.

greetings
Klaus

A bit off-topic - but I'm stoked about a Da Nang scenery ....

Back on topic, Gary from here has some exciting Essex angled deck CVs in the works - I'm not allowed to say more than that ....

[expat]

My that’s great news! I must say with all the carrier trials I have been doing the last few days the two favourites among payware and freeware choices and ones I keep going back to are both Gary’s Oriskany and Midway boats. There’s just something better, more immersive about them.

[FlyingsCool]

A bit off-topic - but I'm stoked about a Da Nang scenery ....

Back on topic, Gary from here has some exciting Essex angled deck CVs in the works - I'm not allowed to say more than that ....

I know the Med cruises are relatively boring compared to the active duty cruises of the '60's and '70's, but the FDR is important to me cause my Dad was on the '57 cruise on it.

After I release the paints, my next goal is to float around in the Med and visit the ports the FDR did on her cruise, try to get a feeling for what it was like.

But, yes, the Da Nang and Essex are exciting news, too. Gary already released a CVT-16 that was great for me to practice from as if my dad had made it to Carrier Quals.

Question: Is it possible to say make an AI track as if a fleet was on a cruise and have it stop at ports? Maybe trigger different AI tracks so say, make a cruise from Gibraltar to Cannes, flying next to or riding on the boat as it cruised after landing on it to the port. Then, when you're ready, either trigger a new AI track, or load another flight with the next AI track for the same boats from Cannes to Nice?

Question 2: Is there a source that shows the actual ports of call for any given cruise. The cruise book discusses where they visited, but, it's not clear which are ports. For instance it talks about visiting Paris, but I don't see how given the ports they sort of talked about going to. Based on the cruise book, (CVG-17 (AL) 7/57-3/58)) it seems like it went:

Mayport, FL -> Norfolk, VA -> Gibraltar -> Cannes -> Nice -> Paris??? -> Monaco -> Barcelona -> Athens -> Corfu -> Rhodes -> Cannes for Christmas -> Swiss Alps??? -> Genoa (which it says was the only Italian port) -> Rome??? -> Palma, Majorca -> Gibraltar -> Home (Mayport, FL?)

[navy81]

Quite possible to use Gary's Midway '75 which is fantastic. The only issue is the MUCH wider angled deck (LA). It is a really good, frame friendly, carrier - and free.
As far as pulling off the E-1B, A-6, and A-4 from Lazarus's CVA-43, i tried with MCX, but many of the small objects (gear, wheels, etc) are tied to other objects, most notably - the flight deck. So while I was able to "remove" much of the large structures of those aircraft, there were some remnants. Not a good option there either.

So, I tried working (as Delta Lima suggested) with SWS Coral Sea - and effectively removed the Air Wing and repainted the Island and deck from 43 to 42. The problem here is likely copyright infringement, since it is part of a payware package. It looks quite good in mcx but have not tried it in FSX - and would only want to do so if clearance was obtained from SWS. If anyone has a good lead and relationship with them, is it worth a try to contact and make that request? They produced a beautiful carrier.

Deke
Navy81

MCX pictures

[FlyingsCool]

Oops, I missed that the end of the runway on the port side was also an elevator in SCB-110

[FlyingsCool]

Quite possible to use Gary's Midway '75 which is fantastic. The only issue is the MUCH wider angled deck (LA). It is a really good, frame friendly, carrier - and free.
As far as pulling off the E-1B, A-6, and A-4 from Lazarus's CVA-43, i tried with MCX, but many of the small objects (gear, wheels, etc) are tied to other objects, most notably - the flight deck. So while I was able to "remove" much of the large structures of those aircraft, there were some remnants. Not a good option there either.

So, I tried working (as Delta Lima suggested) with SWS Coral Sea - and effectively removed the Air Wing and repainted the Island and deck from 43 to 42. The problem here is likely copyright infringement, since it is part of a payware package. It looks quite good in mcx but have not tried it in FSX - and would only want to do so if clearance was obtained from SWS. If anyone has a good lead and relationship with them, is it worth a try to contact and make that request? They produced a beautiful carrier.

Deke
Navy81

MCX pictures

Nice!
Yeah, I didn't purchase the SWS models,... yet, anyway... seem to be many people having issues with it, anyway.

[FlyingsCool]

I think the 723 paint is wrong for this cruise. I found a source that said only modexes 701-703 were used for the cruise. But I haven't found any photos to be able to figure out which bureau numbers match those modex's. I did find a photo which showed "27X4", but an officers hat hid the 3rd number, and the top of the tail was cut off by another photo hiding the modex number So it could be an AD-5(N?) 132724 or AD-5W 132734 I think it's most likely 132734, but that doesn't help me determine the modex number.

Edit: Oops, definitely wrong, I had swapped up the modexes for VA(AW)-33 Det. 37 and VAW-12 Det. 37.

Now, the funny thing is, the officers of VAW-12 were in front of 27X4, but 132724 is an AD-5 (perhaps converted to a -5N?), but the canopy, which I can only see a little bit of, looks more like an AD-5W (132734 would be a possibility for that). Geez, looking over the pictures, I had it ALL backwards

And this is the first time I noticed the Mickey Mouse insignia, and the fact the front of the radome on the AD-5W behind them was all black! Eek... I gotta pay more attention!

Oh, and look at their patches

And, interesting the landing gear cover is missing on the right gear of 803

[tgycgijoes]

I know the Med cruises are relatively boring compared to the active duty cruises of the '60's and '70's, but the FDR is important to me cause my Dad was on the '57 cruise on it.

After I release the paints, my next goal is to float around in the Med and visit the ports the FDR did on her cruise, try to get a feeling for what it was like.

But, yes, the Da Nang and Essex are exciting news, too. Gary already released a CVT-16 that was great for me to practice from as if my dad had made it to Carrier Quals.

Question: Is it possible to say make an AI track as if a fleet was on a cruise and have it stop at ports? Maybe trigger different AI tracks so say, make a cruise from Gibraltar to Cannes, flying next to or riding on the boat as it cruised after landing on it to the port. Then, when you're ready, either trigger a new AI track, or load another flight with the next AI track for the same boats from Cannes to Nice?

Question 2: Is there a source that shows the actual ports of call for any given cruise. The cruise book discusses where they visited, but, it's not clear which are ports. For instance it talks about visiting Paris, but I don't see how given the ports they sort of talked about going to. Based on the cruise book, (CVG-17 (AL) 7/57-3/58)) it seems like it went:

Mayport, FL -> Norfolk, VA -> Gibraltar -> Cannes -> Nice -> Paris??? -> Monaco -> Barcelona -> Athens -> Corfu -> Rhodes -> Cannes for Christmas -> Swiss Alps??? -> Genoa (which it says was the only Italian port) -> Rome??? -> Palma, Majorca -> Gibraltar -> Home (Mayport, FL?)

On a smaller scale, I did exactly that with AI Boat Traffic when I created NAS Alameda. I had the USS Constellation cruise from NAS Alameda to NAS San Diego and anchor in the harbor. You have to program the tracks in Google Earth. You can find out how to do this at Misty Moorings and the program is free. It is a lot of work but so much fun as you see it work. I think that I would program from Mayport to Norfolk as #1, then when you start FSX again, Norfolk to Gibralter as the next port of call etc. Do it in legs. I also programmed from NAS Alameda to Pearl Harbor the same way. It works. I quit experimenting when no one wanted to join me in my vCVW9 back 4 years ago. https://return.mistymoorings.com/faq...%20Dummies.pdf Here is your plan book to start with. Looking forward to you posting your results.