Nifty Fifties AI: USAF TB-25

[Mick]

Do we have any other fans of the Nifty Fifties here?

While recreating my post-WW2 sim "FS1954 - A Half Century of Flight," set in thelate 1940s and early 1950s, I was struck by the absence of a TB-25, a plane I've sorely wished for since I made my first FS1954 one confuter and almost a decade ago. During my hiatus from the hobby I continued to download planes and scenery that I thought I'd want of and when I got back into FS, and a spark of recollection steered me towards John Young's package of modern B-25 warbirds. Sure enough, one of the several models features the glass nose and absence of turrets and guns that characterized most TB-25s.

I took a few hours off from setting up scenery and made a few TB-25 paints. Since I suspect that my interest in classic-era military might be rather limited, I hesitate to go to the trouble of packaging them up unless I know someone else would want them. Would anyone like a few USAF TB-25 paints?

Here's one, a MATS plane:



And here's one from Air Training Command:



I hoped to make a flyable TB by adding a panel and sounds and adapting another flight model but alas, I couldn't come up with a way to get the bomb bay doors or the entrance hatch to close.

Still, it will serve to appear on my Nifty Fifties Air Force bases as an AI plane or a static scenery object.

So - would anyone be interested in some USAF TB-25 paints for John's AI B-25?

[pfflyers]

Hi Mick,

I'd really like some USAF paints for the Mitchell, if you'd care to post them.

Where did you get the models? I must have missed it.

Thanks,
PF

edit: I found the models at FlightSim, downloading now.

[normb]

Great idea! I've collected all I could on the TB-25's as well. They were everywhere after the war. A TB-25 at the first Pease AFB (NH) open house was the first USAF plane I ever got in as a kid. It had the SAC coat of arms on the side just under the cockpit. Nifty fifties were great.

I've always wondered if the MAAM/RCS birds could be modified using Alpha masking to hide the guns and turrets. Same for the TR models.

Thanks for the P47/P51 50's repaints. NH had them as well at Grenier Field (MHT, NH).

Norm

[Mick]

OK, up the pipe they go. Went. Gone.

Glad I'm not the only one here who likes the nifty fifties!

The plane is at FlightSim.com:

http://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/fslib....ght&fid=176277

It has a lot of different models and paints that represent what must be pretty much every B-25 flying on the warbird circuit today.

Norm, I did paint the P-51H as an NH ANG plane, but I didn't include it in my release because it looks just like the California plane without the squadron insignia. I left a couple other paints out of the releases because they looked so much like others. I made it to populate MHT in FS1954. If you'd like a copy, send me a pm with your e-addy.

[glh]

I think this might be what you are looking for. It is John Young's AI B-25 file with the textures for Red Bull that looks to be your TB-25. Also has textures for Grumpy, Maid In The Shade, Sarinah, Devil Dog, Yellow Rose, etc., etc. I took his file and merged it with the .air and .cfg files from (now) freeware B-25 packages. There was a little adjusting to do for things like contact points and so forth.

I did this for my own enjoyment and have never posted it anywhere since the original work(s) are not my own. It can be done. I'm flying this in FSX Acceleration.

P.S. I'd like to have your paints if this is the model that you used.

[stansdds]

Roy Chaffin has a B-25J that has the TB-25 style engine cowlings and it does have a cockpit. The downside is that he does not want people repainting his aircraft, so as far as I know there is no official paint kit.

http://www.roychaffin.com/rcs-panels.html

[Mick]

OK, it went up the pipe. Yesterday's upload went astray, but I just reloaded it successfully. It should be available this evening, I think.

[Mick]

I think this might be what you are looking for. It is John Young's AI B-25 file with the textures for Red Bull that looks to be your TB-25. Also has textures for Grumpy, Maid In The Shade, Sarinah, Devil Dog, Yellow Rose, etc., etc. I took his file and merged it with the .air and .cfg files from (now) freeware B-25 packages. There was a little adjusting to do for things like contact points and so forth.

I did this for my own enjoyment and have never posted it anywhere since the original work(s) are not my own. It can be done. I'm flying this in FSX Acceleration.

P.S. I'd like to have your paints if this is the model that you used.

Yep, that's the model I used, and it's exactly that paint that I used as a shiny natural metal base. I then used the paint kit and a bit of fiddling to produce the new paints, which I found photos of on the web. They're mostly authentic, though they include a small bit of guesswork and artistic license on the fin tip colors, since most of the photos were black & white, and one or two didn't really have colored fin tips at all.

What flight files did you use to make the plane flyable? I tried a couple different aircraft.cfg and AIR file combinations and I couldn't find a way to close the entrance hatch or bomb bay doors with any of them. I know how to adjust things like contact points and lights, but I couldn't get those animations working.

Would you be willing to share your flight files? Perhaps via PM, or as an attachment to a post here, if you don't feel comfortable with a public release?

[Rami]

OK, it went up the pipe. Yesterday's upload went astray, but I just reloaded it successfully. It should be available this evening, I think.

Mick,

Fear not, I approved it now.

[Mick]

Roy Chaffin has a B-25J that has the TB-25 style engine cowlings and it does have a cockpit. The downside is that he does not want people repainting his aircraft, so as far as I know there is no official paint kit.

http://www.roychaffin.com/rcs-panels.html

Those are some nice planes! But if looks like all the B-25s are armed with the top turret and guns in all the gun positions. I used the AI model for a TB because it doesn't have the turret or any guns.

[normb]

Can Alpha masking be used on the simpler models such as the TR birds or Mike Stones B-25 to hide the guns and turret? Mike's B-25 is pretty neat considering the file size and details. All his birds tend to surprise me that way.

Norm

[Mick]

Can Alpha masking be used on the simpler models such as the TR birds or Mike Stones B-25 to hide the guns and turret? Mike's B-25 is pretty neat considering the file size and details. All his birds tend to surprise me that way.

Norm

I thought of trying something like that, but I figured it would leave an open hole where the turret used to be.

Maybe not; maybe it's worth a try...

I never knew that Mike Stone made a B-25.

[glh]

Yep, that's the model I used, and it's exactly that paint that I used as a shiny natural metal base. -------- deleted, GLH ----------

Would you be willing to share your flight files? Perhaps via PM, or as an attachment to a post here, if you don't feel comfortable with a public release?

Sure. Send me an e-mail address to where you want them and I will pack them up in a .zip file for you. I compress with 7-zip.

To the nearest of my memory, I used a combination of John Young's AI model and texture files and the panel, sound, .air and .cfg from RCS Panels RAF Mitchell, FDG's Mitchell and Mike Stone/Garry Smith (update) B-25J. I did not keep track of what was what as I put this together for my own enjoyment and so I have never publicly released it.

I only combined a package of other people's work so I take NO CREDIT for the basic parts of the package. The credit belongs to others.

[Mick]

Here's a little enhancement you can make to your TB-25s.

My aircraft.cfg file is set up to call on the model with the file name ending in 7. That's an unarmed glass-nose that looks like a TB, but I failed to notice that it has a tiny little pod under the outer left wing panel. I suspect it's a modern weather radar. To make that disappear from your TB-25s, simply edit your User Interface sections for the four TB paints to call up the model with the file name ending in 3.

I was so pleased to find a B-25 model with no guns or top turret that I didn't even notice that little pod.

[glh]

Mick:

I have not been able to find a decent set of (freeware) landing lights that work for these models. Nothing appears to be built into the models themselves.

If you come across a set, let me know, please.

[Mick]

Mick:

I have not been able to find a decent set of (freeware) landing lights that work for these models. Nothing appears to be built into the models themselves.

If you come across a set, let me know, please.

Will do, though I don't expect to make a serious search right now. These days my efforts are geared to setting up my "FS1954" on my current computer, and I have most of that job still ahead of me. I allowed myself to be distracted by the TB-25 because that was such a common aircraft on Air Force bases in the fifties, so a B-25 without a top turret has been high on my wish list for years.

I will continue the distraction for another day or two though, since I feel compelled to add TB-25 paints in the markings of all the major commands whose bases I might wish to place a TB at. That will include ADC, TAC, ARDC, the Air Guard, and possibly one or two others. I hope to finish them today - but then, I'd hoped to finish them yesterday and I haven't even started yet. Soon, anyway.

[Mick]

Finding out that the plane can be made flyable pumped up my motivation, so I painted some more skins.

This is why I love SOH! If hadn't started this thread to ask if anyone would be interested in my first few skins I never would have found out how to shut the bomb bay doors and entrance hatches (L key, linked to the lights) and I wouldn't have a flyable TB-25. And I wouldn't have painted ten more skins.

I just uploaded a package of fourteen skins. I included improved versions of the four originals; now the prop warning stripes line up properly with the props, and the two sides meet properly at he bottom of the fuselage.

There are now TB-25s from most of the major USAF commands and a few Air Guard units.

The full list is: two unidentified USAF units, Air Training Command, SAC, TAC, ADC, Pacific Air Forces, MATS (2), Air Materiel Command, the Air Force Flight Test Center/ARDC, both Mass. ANG units and the Missouri Air Guard.

They're not all completely authentic in detail because I wasn't able to produce the black nacelles that some of them had due to the intricacies of the texture mapping, and because some of the photos I copies from didn't show the whole plane. But I think they'll look believable sitting on the ramps of some Nifty Fifties Air Force Bases.

Here's what a few of them look like:

[P51FAN]

Thank you for these, Mick!