Conspicuous by Their Absence

[womble55]

Further to my bit on B25's and the naval equivalent the PBJ-1, the gunpacks fitted were quite different to the usual items fitted. They were contained in one lump as it were. See accompanied photo for clarification, still these things are sent to try us! Keep up the good work..........only 7 weeks to holiday time

[Ivan]

Hi Womble55,

I am still working on my version of the B-25C also. Basically textures and flight model both need improved.

The really screwy thing in your photograph isn't the gunpack and it isn't even the weird looking radome. The top turret and the waist gun positions should not both exist on the same plane. I can't see what the tail cone looks like, so can't make a call there about whether it indicates a J model or a D and earlier model. The exhausts on the engine indicate a plane later than the D series I believe.

Why did you pick such a strange subject? BTW, if you are getting killed by resource limitations, (I was only getting severely beaten up ;-), you might want to consider doing the nose section as simple textures on a solid background instead of glass and framing. I cheated a bit on my B-25: The rudders are not 3D.

I had to do a pretty severe rework recently because of something found when a friend of my son's came over for a play date. One of the things my son brought up was CFS and when I tried to help them fly my B-25, I noticed that my very clever stealing of parts from the inner wings had left a very serious bleed when the flaps were down. I had looked the plane over pretty well (or so I thought) but had not done that with flaps down.

I added the parts back and lost the tip from the back of the left nacelle. This drove a rebuild of the nose gear doors down from 4 polygons to 2 polygons, so minus 2 polygons and minus 2 glue parts brought the nacelle tip back.

BTW, silly question, but you do have the upgrade to AF99 which allows for 1200 polygons, right?

- Ivan.

[womble55]

Ivan...Ivan...Ivan....
The PBJ-1D was basically a D series but ( a big but here and no jokes about big butts!) it was the first B25 derivative to have tail and waist positions which were later incorperated into the J series. The mid upper turret was also a feature in that some aircraft had them and some had them removed and a cover plate fitted instead. Also some were fitted with the nose glass and some were plated over with same size panelling.
Since writing this article, I have gone back to my library and the RAF Mitchell II was a hybrid B25D with tail and beam guns....it gets worse doesn't it!
I'm afraid its the old chestnut that if you dont have a photo to examine the detail then a cropper you'll become. The only problem is that every photo I come across is different in some way. Jeeeeeez I pick em don't I?
As to your idea of 2D rudders, I think that will provide a badly needed reduction in the parts count.
Cant see the wood for the trees eh!
I think I have the upgrade, every time I have a reload of the hard drive (i find that keeping the program list at a reasonable level in Microsoft ME keeps it stable) I load AF99 and the upgrade in one session. Question:- If the upgrade is installed correctly would each time I call up the parts count give me 800 or 1200 max total?

[kettenhund]

~S~ All,

Picking up a thread that's been in active for nearly 5 years I'd like to propose that the greatest stop-gap of them all was the Junkers F13 airliners of 1919 pressed into service as a ground attack aircraft on the Russian Front in 1943. Can anyone beat this?

Kettenhund.
aka Ken Attwood,
Newquay, Cornwall, UK.

[womble55]

I'm afraid a 24yr old airliner is relatively new compared to the age of the Avro Vulcans and Handley Page Victors of the Falklands War.
I do believe that the Vickers Valentia was used as a bomber during the early part of WW2 in the Middle East, I am not sure of this yet but will soon be corrected, no doubt.
I seem to recall that Hellcats and Corsairs were used as refridgerators. Apparantly when being delivered the ammo was only fitted to one gun per wing and the other ammo bays were filled with Beer bottles/cans. when close to the airfield they would climb high to chill the beer.
Now that reminds me.... spitfires were fitted with drop tanks that contained beer after D-day.
Did a Piper, Taylorcraft or Auster spotter plane shoot down another aircraft late in the war?
But would you believe that the last official combat duties of the Supermarine Spitfire ( not with the battle of britain flight) was to assess the best way to attack piston engined aircraft by the English Electric Lightning and its heat seeking missiles. This was in the sixties!

[Ivan]

Ivan...Ivan...Ivan....
Question:- If the upgrade is installed correctly would each time I call up the parts count give me 800 or 1200 max total?

Hi Womble55,
Pardon my late reply. Life has been very busy in my world.

Re Ivan...Ivan...Ivan: It's really Ivan Ivanovich Ivanov.... ;-)

When the upgrade is in place, the parts count looks something like 1100 of 800 parts or 137% or something like that.

Regarding Mark numbers, I believe the A&B models were the Mitchell Mk.I and the C&D were the Mitchell Mk.II. I will check again to confirm. If I am wrong, I have mislabeled mine. Regarding 2D parts in various places, I don't believe a 2D horizontal stabilizer or 2D fin/rudder would cost much in visual appeal. I chose to do the 2D rudders early when I realized that this was going to be a fairly complex project. I probably should have done the H-Stab as well, but don't like to remove things I have already built.

If you want to send me the project I will be glad to look it over and make suggestions. No, I will not add or change anything. I still have my own incomplete B-25 to mess with. I will warn you though, Anna Honey will be out of town for a bit over a week, so I will be busy as heck for at least that long.

- Ivan.

[womble55]

Sorry Ivan but you are under the mistaken belief that when your wife goes away for a short time that you will be able to work on your projects.
Try and find the list of things to do that she is compiling because a lot of my projects, AF99 or RC are sidelined on such occasions. I can only get a decent time on the PC when she is watching Coronation Street or Eastenders. Hooray for such programs.

[Ivan]

Anna Honey left Saturday Mornng. Other than a grocery list, there isn't a Honey-Do list. She knows better than to leave such a list. She knows I will ignore it. One parent (me) and two elementary school children is enough to keep very busy without any added list. Other than too many things to do to feed, clothe, and transport children, the house is much more peaceful.

- Ivan.

[Ivan]

Anna Honey came back from Beijing Sunday night. She is off to Estonia next week.

Sheesh!
- Ivan.

[Ivan]

Anna Honey left for Estonia last night. Heard from her from Tallinn this afternoon.

- Ivan.

[hubbabubba]

How about the Armstrong-Whitworth Whitley guys?

An ugly beast, but it fought from 1939 to 1942, and was still operational on D-Day. A MkV would be a great addition to early war scenarios.

[Ivan]

Womble55 has one.

- Ivan.

[hubbabubba]

Womble55 has one.

Thought so but where? I searched Simviation, FlightSim and even tried googling it. Womble55, time to publish, if you catch my drift...

They're is an old saying about dogs looking like their masters and vice versa. If it works with aircraft, then Jay Leno must have a Whitley.

[Ivan]

Hello Folks,

Pardon me for changing the subject slightly: Here are some development shots for a plane I am reworking. Yes, I know there are a couple already out there, but I had a couple ideas I wanted to test out. I also didn't think there would be so few parts that were reused from the P-40E.

- Ivan.

[Ivan]

Here are a few more shots from the project. So far, the worst bleed I have found is around the nose gun fairings. Note that they bleed through the carburetor scoop on one shot and that the cowl bleeds through the far side fairing on the other shot. I can live with those. The keel area doesn't exist at the moment.

- Ivan.