F7F-1 Tigercat FSX & P3D Native Released

[Dutcheeseblend]

Looks wonderful YoYo!

To the dev team, especially Gordon: we should somehow put TacPack logo's in the release screenies, if there's TP on the bird. And, in the readme files point to the TP website.

[Stickshaker]

Thank you so much, GMan & Team, for this great plane! I took off on my first flight and made a 3 wire trap on the CV6. That cannot have been me, so it must have been the plane. I even forgot to make a screenshot...

[menef]

This keys combination works for me (switches from VC not), thanks a lot!



USS Shangri-La ; ) .

http://simviation.com/1/search?submi...rriers&x=0&y=0

"Midway Aircraft Carriers".

Hi YOYO! Beautiful shots! One question : the Midway carriers triplepack contains pilotable ships. How do you manage to use them with AI Carriers?

[YoYo]

Hi YOYO! Beautiful shots! One question : the Midway carriers triplepack contains pilotable ships. How do you manage to use them with AI Carriers?

I did small mod:
https://www.sendspace.com/file/8l5wb2

btw. I use it with TackPack (better option for carriers for me like speed and wind direction) but You can create formation with AICarr2 also.

[menef]

I did small mod:
https://www.sendspace.com/file/8l5wb2

Thanks. Just downloaded!!! Now I try and I'll let you know. thank you

[dvj]

Just pointed cat blue to the spinner model. Got blue spinner cat.

[Tuor2112]

Thanks to all! Also I managed to get a working gear indicator by copying some extra bmp files from an earlier Tigercat version. These I have attached and you need to put them in the ST_F7F folder in the panel.F7F folder. Cheers.

[menef]

Thanks. Just downloaded!!! Now I try and I'll let you know. thank you

DONE !!!! Thank you YOYO

[gman5250]

Thanks to all! Also I managed to get a working gear indicator by copying some extra bmp files from an earlier Tigercat version. These I have attached and you need to put them in the ST_F7F folder in the panel.F7F folder. Cheers.

Awesome, I've added the textures to the working file. The next group of models will have the functional gear indicator.

Thank you sir.

[YoYo]

Thanks to all! Also I managed to get a working gear indicator by copying some extra bmp files from an earlier Tigercat version. These I have attached and you need to put them in the ST_F7F folder in the panel.F7F folder. Cheers.

Finally! +1, TY!

[delta_lima]

Will the wing nav lights be "baked in" at some point, so they stay with the wing when folded?

Am really enjoying this one!

[gman5250]

Will the wing nav lights be "baked in" at some point, so they stay with the wing when folded?

Am really enjoying this one!

I'm glad you like the conversion so far.

The baked in lights are on my list of mods for the F7F-3. This will require that I make a custom set of lights that I can affix to the wing lights in the model. Also looking at an updated landing light ala Ant's Trojan or the current Carenado planes.

[dvj]

[menef]

Just pointed cat blue to the spinner model. Got Tigercinner cat.

Someone knows if the F7F with spinners was built only as test plane or if was used in line? Because I've
found not many photos in the web of this variant. The bulk of the Tigercat was without spinners, ( or I'm wrong?).

[gman5250]

Someone knows if the F7F with spinners was built only as test plane or if was used in line? Because I've
found not many photos in the web of this variant. The bulk of the Tigercat was without spinners, ( or I'm wrong?).

The service planes never ran this spinner, although there are some photos of early F7F-1 planes with the larger spinner that was used on the test mule. You are correct that the spinner was abandoned for service aircraft.

I modeled the "La Patrona" spinner for the upcoming F7F-3 aircraft, but included it in the F7F-1 package just for fun. It appears that the "what if " paints favor this spinner...it is a very attractive package.

[menef]

The service planes never ran this spinner, although there are some photos of early F7F-1 planes with the larger spinner that was used on the test mule. You are correct that the spinner was abandoned for service aircraft.

I modeled the "La Patrona" spinner for the upcoming F7F-3 aircraft, but included it in the F7F-1 package just for fun. It appears that the "what if " paints favor this spinner...it is a very attractive package.

Thank you Gman !!!!!

[dvj]

The service planes never ran this spinner, although there are some photos of early F7F-1 planes with the larger spinner that was used on the test mule. You are correct that the spinner was abandoned for service aircraft.

I modeled the "La Patrona" spinner for the upcoming F7F-3 aircraft, but included it in the F7F-1 package just for fun. It appears that the "what if " paints favor this spinner...it is a very attractive package.

This was totally a "what if". I just wanted to see if I identified the spinner model to the F7F-1 service blue how the spinners would look.

[Bomber_12th]

I was thinking back to what Tigercats I recall having seen in person and taken photos of myself, and I think the only ones I've seen were at Chino last year, with Jim Slattery's F7F-3N BuNo.80375 that was restored at Westpac on flying display, the sister-ship F7F-3N BuNo.80374 also owned by Jim Slattery which was still under restoration at Fighter Rebuilders at the time (was completed/flying by a couple months later), and the static F7F-3N BuNo.80382 at the Planes of Fame Air Museum (the only surviving example with the original radar nose).

Note that these first two restored examples are painted in the authentic late 1944/45 (and post-WWII) glossy sea blue - it was by no means flat/matte paint like earlier in the war. Also, authentically, just about everything was painted blue, down to the gear legs and wheels (originally the prop hubs were usually also painted blue when in service) - "I don't care what you paint it, as long as it's blue..."





I don't know the story on the spinners fitted to the F7F on display at Planes of Fame, but I've never seen them in period/in-service photographs. I do know that it has been missing props for many years, even back to when the Navy had it on display at Pensacola. The addition of the spinners, which I'm sure came from another aircraft type, were probably added just to make it look a bit more complete without actually having props (or prop hubs) fitted. These spinners might have actually been partially responsible/inspiration for the spinners installed on the Rod Lewis Reno air racing Tigercat "La Patrona". Someday, this one might fly again, but it would take wheelbarrow loads of money and a ton of work. As I mentioned above, this is the only surviving example with the radar nose.

[menef]

I'm not so good as YOYO, anyway, this is my carrier qualification :-)

[YoYo]

The addition of the spinners, which I'm sure came from another aircraft type, were probably added just to make it look a bit more complete without actually having props (or prop hubs) fitted.

Interesting, perhaps You have right. I didnt see any F7F-3N period picture like this, especially that engines of F7F had tendency to overheating.

[Bomber_12th]

Yeah, I could see the original prop cones (prototypes) causing issues with the engines not getting enough air through the cowls for proper cooling, and I assume that is the reason why they were done away with after the early evaluations - though too, I would expect they would have provided a bit of an unnecessary maintenance headache as well. The way the Planes of Fame Tigercat is displayed, it almost looks like jet intakes.

BTW, great screenshots Menef, YoYo, and DVJ!

[Bomber_12th]

Sorry for more thread drift, but I finally tracked-down these photos again, from Westpac Restorations, showing both of Jim Slattery's flying F7F-3N Tigercats side-by-side. These two, a rarity among warbirds, actually rolled off the assembly line one after the other - one is 80374 and the other is 80375 (in-fact, even more crazy, the Tigercat on display at the Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola is 80373!). 80375 was restored at Westpac and 80374 was restored at Fighter Rebuilders (both also shown in my photos above), and were finished in matching delivery schemes with the factory numbers on the cowls and "JS" codes on the tail fins.







Note the dual drop tanks and rocket launcher stubs.

[gman5250]

Not sure about thread drift, I see a lot of excellent reference material for the F7F-3. The hanging wing gives me a good reference to the amount of gloss to add. I was a hot rod builder for a long time and can see right away the gloss is that of a single stage urethane or, in early models, enamel paint. Single stage paint, rather than two stage i.e. color coat/clear coat, has a different kind of gloss. Single stage does not have the "Wet" look of two stage paint, but rather a rich warm gloss with tons of depth. This is the challenge for polished metal as well. To create a finish that doesn't look like it was just hosed down is not easy. I work on improving the technique constantly.

I can create the gloss enamel look for the sim aircraft with a little bit of judicious tweaking of the various alpha layers.

Also the blue gear struts, blue wheels and silver paint spinners are deal makers or breakers. The engine case paint is another area of interest, with the bolt detail and operational grime showing. I'm making a build list for the F7F3...this stuff is invaluable.

Drift on gentlemen...

[YoYo]

Finally Gears Up/Down indicator works.

I noted temperatures of engines problem also.
Always max after 2-4 minutes, no matter what I did with prop, throttles, mixtures or cowls (and never drops).
Maybe any mod/patch for this too? Not very important but will be nice.

[Tuor2112]

YoYo, I used AirEd to change the 'Oil temp tuning constant' in the airfile to 0.95 from 1.1. It might need to go a bit lower still. Cheers