Any P-35's in Progress?

[Eraser]

I'm planning to start working on a P-35, an often ignored American fighter that would go nicely in Rising Sun. The P-43 RS came with was derived from the P-35 and eventually led to the P-47. It was also used by Sweden as the J-9



Figured it'd be best to ask since RS came with the P-43, someone might be making one already.

[sdsbolt]

no, I am sure there is not one being built. I made a small start on one a while ago but didnt get too far. would be a really neat aircraft to see modeled for an early Phillipines campaign.

[westview]

We have an Re.2000, which is superficially similar to the P-35, I suppose with a quick skin on that we could make due

[sdsbolt]

We have an Re.2000, which is superficially similar to the P-35, I suppose with a quick skin on that we could make due

yeah if you had the mesh you could make a few changes to make it work. as-is the difference in the landing gear alone would drive me nuts

[hairyspin]

Nothing ventured... go for it Eraser!

[MajorMagee]

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforum...=85&linkid=123

[Eraser]

Already started. It's going to be a while though, I was planning on learning mudbox and doing the mapping there instead of fussing with the UVs in max.

Speaking of landing gear, that's a whole issue in itself. Finding consistent information is frustrating. Alot of mixup in information and images shown between P-35, P-35A, J-9 and various prototypes. For instance, some showing completely covered landing gear and others partially exposed.

The best I've been able to come up with is the plain P-35 had completely covered gear, which was revised without making any change to the designation or production batch. The P-35A/J-9 had only the open gear fairings, but I've seen American marked planes with gun bulges under the wings that the Swedish planes had, and without them.

[johannesl]

I think that some of the confusion between the P-35A/J-9 is that they are the same plane. Sweden ordered 120 planes and received 60 of them, but when the war started the Air Corp took over the last 60 on that order and called them P-35A. They were in a number of ways a better plane than the P-35 in that they had a more powerful engine that gave it a true 300+ MPH speed and the .30 caliber wing guns.

As for the landing gear the first production P-35 did have fully covered wheels, but the Air Corp wanted a few modifications before full production began, exposed wheels being one of them. You also have to remember retractable landing gear were still kind of new in the mid 1930s and as a little safety feature against a wheels up landing they would leave them a little exposed when retracted. See also the B-17 and DC-3 of the same vintage.

If somebody does do an early Philippines mission set maybe they could throw in a P-26 Peashooter of the Philippine Air Force. They did get at least one kill of a Japanese bomber.

[Eraser]

Yes, they are. Problem is it's a fairly obscure aircraft and alot of the information is inconsistent.

Another example on the P-35A, is the armament. Everything says two .30cals and two .50cals, but some sources say the planes for Sweden had the .50s in the wings, while other sources say list the armament for the P-35A as the .50s being in the cowling. I could use a little help on the cockpit because I've read the instruments were in metric and Swedish on the P-35A even as they were delivered to the Philippines.

The P-26 was going to be aircraft number 3 I planned on doing (well higher if you count variations of the P-35) I was going to do the P-66 Vanguard after the P-35.

[sdsbolt]

I have a squadron signal book "p-35 mini in action" . pm me if you dont have a copy. has some of the info you are asking about.

keep us updated! p-35a would be on my wish list

[johannesl]

Maybe someone out there has been to the Swedish Air Museum and been up close and personal with their J-9 and can give a little better idea.
From the pictures I've been able to see it's a little tough to tell from the bore weather they are .30 or .50 cal.

Talk about obscure, I suspect that even fewer people can tell you about the P-66 than the P-35. I guess that's what happens when you do all of your work in the even less known China part of the CBI. Would make an interesting subject though.

[gecko]

Perhaps a member living in the Dayton area could arrange to get some close ups of the P-35 in the US Air Force Museum?

[Eraser]

I'm pretty good for reference material. I could use a better picture showing the left side of the cockpit, but what I have should suffice.

I like obscure, P-47s, P-51s and P-38s have been done to death in flight sims. Everyone knows them and how they perform. I like less common planes and hypothetical or less common matches to see how they would have gone had different planes been used in higher quantities, if deliveries had been made, etc. For example the P-35A was sent to the Phillipines and most were destroyed on the ground and by friendly fire. It gets a bad combat reputation like the Brewster Buffalo, and yet the Finns used it very successfully. I've found flying in IL2, and now CFS3, alot of it's bad combat performance wasn't really the plane's fault. What if P-35s were actually flown to full effect? What if they had been saved for use in Europe, how would they have fared against the Italian and German fighters? Same could be said for the P-66. The Chinese apparently replaced the P-40 with it, our pilots also liked how it handled but it was never used in combat.

[gecko]

Yeah, that's one of my favorite things about CFS3, getting the obscure corners of the war that noone knows about. I didn't even know the P-66 even entered production, and with a bit of research, found it saw limited action with the Chinese! It will go great with Bob's fantastic work on the China theater.

[rbp71854]

I have finally got my breath. A p-35a, P-66, and a P-26 possibly in the pipeline. All very much on my wishlist. May your efforts bring forth models to be released.

cheers

Bob