Missions & Scenery for 31 Squadron RAAF

[RWILLS]

Attachment 88761

While working on some missions for 31 Squadron RAAF, I managed to find a decent pic/layout of Koepang/Penfui airfield and size/position it reasonably well on top of a google maps screenshot - attached if anyone can make use of it.

[RWILLS]

Penfui.zip attached basic runway

[RWILLS]

Penfui.zip attached effort at basic runway

[kdriver]

Hi RW,

Thanks for the wartime aerial shot of Penfui and thanks for your rendition. Have you seen Maskrider's and XavierB's versions of the airfield? MR's is right on the coast while Xavier's is in the correct location inland and further to the east. Both versions have only a single runway and are designed for a stock installation of CFS2.

Cheers,
Kevin

[RWILLS]

Hi RW,

Thanks for the wartime aerial shot of Penfui and thanks for your rendition. Have you seen Maskrider's and XavierB's versions of the airfield? MR's is right on the coast while Xavier's is in the correct location inland and further to the east. Both versions have only a single runway and are designed for a stock installation of CFS2.

Cheers,
Kevin

Thanks, yes, I've been using both but neither of them were quite in the right place, and as with a lot of airfields it can take a lot of time to find evidence of exactly where it was. Drysdale took a bit of finding on Google, and for Lautem East/West and Fuiloro I'm relying a bit on PacificWrecks which isn't always that accurate but at least gives a starting point.

[RWILLS]

Hi RW,

Thanks for the wartime aerial shot of Penfui and thanks for your rendition. Have you seen Maskrider's and XavierB's versions of the airfield? MR's is right on the coast while Xavier's is in the correct location inland and further to the east. Both versions have only a single runway and are designed for a stock installation of CFS2.

Cheers,
Kevin

I think I might have found the correct location for Lautem Airfield, S 8.395178, E 126.859484
There looks to be a clear outline of an old airfield on google maps, with a heading of about 45 degrees, and even what looks like the remains of a building half way alongside?

[RWILLS]

Attachment 88805Attachment 88806

couple of useful maps showing Penfui, and some smaller airfields around Koepang, and also Lautem

[RWILLS]

31_Squadron_RAAF_mission_11-August_1943.zip

I've done some basic runways for Drysdale/Millingimbi that 31 Squadron RAAF used to fly from and attack Timor/Aru Islands.

As far as I can tell, from the mission reports etc, the RAAF Beaufighters had no wing machine guns, and just used the 4 x 20mm cannon.

[RWILLS]

This attached effort at Coomalie Creek airfield still needs a lot of work/development but seems to be heading in the right direction.Attachment 88920

[kdriver]

Thanks for Coomalie Creek - it looks great as well as being historically accurate. Here is an AFD file and airbases.dat entry so you can find your way there.

[RWILLS]

I'm slowly working on an historical Campaign/missions for 31 Squadron RAAF covering the period from November 1942 to roughly the end of 1943 where they were based at Coomalie Creek, but also used Millingimbi (for raids against the Aru Islands) and Drysdale (for raids against western Timor/Koepanf/Penfui). This is mostly for my own interest but I'm happy to post assorted missions etc here if others are interested, either in just having some extra missions to fly or in contributing to developing/sourcing resources etc. I've been working my way through the combat reports and there are a good 30+ decent historical missions that are interesting and varied. Attached is an initial mission for a raid from Drysdale on Penfui in February 1943, along with a very basic runway for Drysdale and slightly better model for Penfui. It would be nice to gradually develop more historically accurate models/scenery. Ships involved in the area include Warrego, Castlemaine, Armidale, Willcania, Alagna so I'm looking for some vessels similar to these, and also it looks like the Beaufighters had a fair bit of evolution, with wing machine guns being removed on some aircraft, bomb racks being developed and rear firing machine guns fitted.Attachment 88946 I've got several other missions roughed out which I can post as they become useable.

[Captain Kurt]

Sounds awesome. Please keep posting them.

[stuart277]

Hi RWILLS
Good luck with the work.
There should be Bathurst Class ships in the inventory.
I can whip up the Warrego (Grimsby Class Sloop) and the Castlemaine (just a guess as it is a merchant ship, but I have some details)
I have no details on the Alagna?
Cheers
Stuart

[aussie]

Great work RWILLS!

Good to see the RAAF represented. Coomalie Creek was only 10 miles from Batchelor airfield so it's a good area for flying short hops from one base to another. Do you have any plans for more top end bases?


Cheers
Aussie

[UncleTgt]

Always good so see a new name trying their hand at scenery & mission building

Echoing Aussie's comment, it's nice to see the RAAF in action ... please keep us posted on your progress.

31 sqn RAAF has a great Association website Home - 31 Squadron Association

lots of mission detail, and more

[RWILLS]

Hi RWILLS
Good luck with the work.
There should be Bathurst Class ships in the inventory.
I can whip up the Warrego (Grimsby Class Sloop) and the Castlemaine (just a guess as it is a merchant ship, but I have some details)
I have no details on the Alagna?
Cheers
Stuart

some pics attached fyi. i managed to find the Bathurst class, although the DP file needed some adjusting after they took out all the Jap aircraft before the fight even started!!!

some useful info here; https://www.navy.gov.au/ml-814

[RWILLS]

here is a start for part of the air combat over the convoy of HMAS Castlemaine, HMAS Armidale and HMAS Kuru when they attempted to rescue troops etc from Betano/Timor on 30 November 1942. Needs a better model to represent the Kuru! I've found some reports that indicate the Kuru may have been some way ahead of the Castlmaine/Armidale though?Attachment 88958 Also some experimenting with the Beaufighter formation in this mission to see if it helps against the Zeros. Probably the G4M1 model would be more accurate than the stock G4M2?

[RWILLS]

Hi RWILLS
Good luck with the work.
There should be Bathurst Class ships in the inventory.
I can whip up the Warrego (Grimsby Class Sloop) and the Castlemaine (just a guess as it is a merchant ship, but I have some details)
I have no details on the Alagna?
Cheers
Stuart

I don't know if the attached is of any use as a starting point for HMAS Kuru?HMAS_Kuru_iges_model.zip It's very basic and a fair bit of guesswork.

[RWILLS]

Attachment 89003
attached mission for 31 Sqdrn on 2-3 December 1942, flying from Drysdale.

I had to modify the dp files of the Beaufighter to allow if to fly lower in mission builder, and also allow the A6M2 to fly a bit slower (to see if it used less runway when landing? - )
also changed the formation to get the Beaufighters tighter together - so that will be lost if opened/edited in Mission Builder.

Interestingly, the AI aircraft flies over the terrain as if it's still using the original mesh, and the AI aircraft rise as they approach what would have been higher ground, but isn't!! Mission Builder even keeps wanting to adjust the altitude of some waypoints to match the older mesh. Is anyone else finding this?

[stuart277]

I don't know if the attached is of any use as a starting point for HMAS Kuru?HMAS_Kuru_iges_model.zip It's very basic and a fair bit of guesswork.

Hi RWILLS
I cannot open the file.
I have a couple of pictures of HMAS Kuru.
I should be able to build something by tomorrow.
Cheers
Stuart
PS
I have completed a Fairmile Type B motor launch.
Will upload today.

[RWILLS]

Hi RWILLS
I cannot open the file.
I have a couple of pictures of HMAS Kuru.
I should be able to build something by tomorrow.
Cheers
Stuart
PS
I have completed a Fairmile Type B motor launch.
Will upload today.

This attached was my rough guess compared to Fairmile B

[RWILLS]

[UncleTgt]

Attachment 89003
attached mission for 31 Sqdrn on 2-3 December 1942, flying from Drysdale.

I had to modify the dp files of the Beaufighter to allow if to fly lower in mission builder, and also allow the A6M2 to fly a bit slower (to see if it used less runway when landing? - )
also changed the formation to get the Beaufighters tighter together - so that will be lost if opened/edited in Mission Builder.

Interestingly, the AI aircraft flies over the terrain as if it's still using the original mesh, and the AI aircraft rise as they approach what would have been higher ground, but isn't!! Mission Builder even keeps wanting to adjust the altitude of some waypoints to match the older mesh. Is anyone else finding this?

RWills

I don't do enough mission writing to really comment, but I believe you may have stumbled on a quirk of Mission Builder.

It's really a stripped down version of the CFS2 exe, to allow mission creation & editing.

Because of this, I think they stripped out a lot of the code that wouldn't be useful.

Key amongst this, I believe, is that MB only seems to use mesh & A16N flattens that live within the sims own file structure.

I use a centralised scenery folder, kept outside each Sim install, to save disk space.

I've noticed that quite often when I'm creating a new airbase scenery, everything displays fine in the Sim, but when I open up Mission Builder to place GSL objects, part of the blended background doesn't show. It's as though the sim isn't recognising the LOD8 mesh, or any A16N flattens associated with the new base.

This can make gsl object placement somewhat challenging

I checked this out recently. I took a new airstrip I'm working on, that has this display issue in Mission Builder.

If I take a copy of that airbases A16N flattens bgl and place it in the installs SCENEDB/runways/scenery folder, the display issue (in Mission Builder) is resolved.

It does seem like Mission Builder only likes scenery bgls that live within that particular install' folder structure ...

[UncleTgt]

JUst an update to my reply from yesterday. Putting the A16N flatten in the Runways scenery folder works a treat for Mission Builder, just don't be surprised to see sloping water close by. It seems that MB loads the Runways A16N flattens last of all (irrespective of where it's positioned in your scenery hierarchy), so the fine-tune coastal water flatten A16Ns, so often necessary because of the "jagged" nature of the A16N blending with surrounding mesh, get overwritten.

I wouldn't advise placing these other (z.../zee...)flattens in the Runways folder, it would get too complex awfully quickly & might ruin how the scenery is meant to appear. Tracking down which A16N is creating an issue would just become a rabbit hole to disappear into ...

It's better to just put the runway flatten in place whilst you're using Mission Builder placing objects. Once you're done positioning objects & have saved your mission builder work/layouts etc., remove it before you fly the mission in the Sim itself.

[kdriver]

I've experienced this problem a number of times as well. While in MB it can be fixed by going into Advance Settings/Image Quality and sliding the terrain complexity/DEM settings back to maximum. MB has a habit of sliding the settings to minimum when it encounters complex terrain scenery.