Consolidated PBY-5 Catalina..next installment

[Shessi]

Hi Folks,
Finally finished tweaking and fettling the next Cat, the PBY-5. Kept on spotting things and improving things etc, so finally being uploaded as we speak.

Two initial models, one with bombs, one without, soon to follow an RAF MkIb.

Cheers Shessi

[glh]

Nice job !! By any chance is a Black Cat with torpedoes in the works ??

[Blackbird686]

Looks Fantastic, Shessi, Downloaded and in the "build hangar" awaiting the first test flight. Cracking fine job, mate.

BB686

[mrogers]

Great rework Shessi!
Hope you don't mind me asking, but does it have working cowl flaps? Just wondering, not too worried if it doesn't.
Looking forward to the -5A with the wheels.

[Shessi]

Cheers guys,

Re-versions, what does it say in the title..........................YES! In the original post I said (stupidly?) there will be a PBY-5A and a PBY-6A, both with various RAF/Allied models, and weapons fit.

Mark,
No, some might say, shame (you asked that before, have you got a thing for cowl flaps or is it because you spend most of your time upside down? only joking...ha!), but there is a flushing Elsan and the cigarette lighter works.... If it's a real desire let me know, they're just a bit of an extra pain to do.

Oh, just realised that I forgot to mention in the README, that the rear blisters open with the canopy (SHIFT + E) command and the guns swivel out on the tail hook (SHIFT + T) command. Why do I keep forgetting to mention that...grrr!

Cheers

Shessi

[SSI01]

Thank you Shessi for this beautiful texture set!

[Mick]

Pretty soon I'll put up some skins for the new Cat.

First will be what you'd expect from me - pre-war, pre-camouflage US Navy and Coast Guard Cats resplendent in metallic silver paint and yellow top wing surfaces.

I painted these skins back in the days when we never expected to see an early, round-tailed Cat, and since only two Navy squadrons flew the -5 before the advent of camouflage, I painted all four section leaders of each squadron. If I was painting these skins now, with the early model Cats in the hangar, I would only paint one plane from each squadron, maybe two at most. But since they are all already done, and have the required updates, I might as well release all of them. That makes it your decision, not mine, which ones to keep in your hangar. I will just be a matter of which rudder and section color combinations appeal to you.

The Coast Guard only received one Cat before camouflage, and all their planes were colored and marked alike anyway except for the serial numbers, so there's just the one Coastie skin.

Note that my original pre-war skins will not work with the new model, as there are some mapping changes, so even if you have the old ones, you'll need the new ones for the new model. The new skins also incorporate some texture enhancements; the colors are more realistic and the details on the textures are much improved. We can thank Shessi's sharp eyes and painting skills for the improvements.

I hope to have the pre-war skins wrapped up and uploaded today or tomorrow.

Not long after that I'll put up a few wartime skins. Starting with Shessi's outstanding textures, I'll be backdating his original skin to a slightly earlier time when it wore an earlier version of the national markings with "meatball" stars and rudder stripes, and one or two skins using the same basic color scheme but with later markings.

I also have a couple black Cat skins in the works, based on the original AlphaSims base textures. One will feature the red-bordered national insignia used briefly in mid-1943, and one will have the blue-bordered insignia used for the rest of the war.

The wartime skins will take a little longer to put up, since they still have to be modified to work with the modified mapping on the latest version of the model. I hope to get that done in the next couple days.

Cats wore other camo schemes than the early light blue and the black Cat ones, in both US and Commonwealth service, but I'll leave those to painters more skilled than I at painting realistic base textures. Soft edged camo schemes and combat zone weathering are beyond my skills as a painter.

[Shessi]

Actung!

Many expletives later, I've just noticed a small glitch in the VC. No one has noticed it..yet!...but the co-pilot's control wheel is not attached to the control arm. It kept happening and I thought I had cured it, but obviously not and missed it. Funny I've just checked the MkIb version and the glitch is not there only on the 5??

So, sorry and a thousand embarrassed apologies, I will be uploading the corrected pack again, so no worries....aagghh!!! AND

Cheers

Shessi

[Blackbird686]

No worries mate. Small hiccups are to be expected and it was easily fixed. Now... where did I put those bloomin' trollies??

BB686

[TARPSBird]

Hey Shessi, my steering wheel came loose!
I hadn't gone into the VC yet since downloading last night. Was adding my Shockwave lights and just flying around the Chicago lakefront. There's always a glitch or two, no problem. I may have overlooked the steering wheel issue when you had me check out the plane.

[Mick]

The pre-war skins just went up the pipe and should be available on the download list soon.

In the works are a blue Cat that was at Pearl harbor when the Japanese attacked, and a couple black cats.

After that maybe a few more early war skins.

To forestall inquiries and avoid getting hopes up, I should note that the screen shots show the cowl flaps open. That doesn't mean I found a way to open them; I didn't. The screenies are from last year's release of those skins for the original AlphaSims model. The cowl flaps didn't work on that model either, but they were stuck open instead of closed.

The new skins have enhanced detail and colors as well as being adjusted for the new model's mapping changes, but I was too busy and too lazy to re-shoot all those screenies just to illustrate the tail and section colors.

[wombat666]

Thanks for a 'proper' Cat Shessi and Mick, my Father would approve the lack of wheels!
On the subject of 'Black Cats' I'll see if I can find the shots of the Cat 'Gunships' that operated around the 'Island Chain' that had been bypassed on the way to the Philippines.
Several enterprising US crews fitted at least 4x.5 Brownings in the nose compartment and went out on 'Barge Busting' missions.

[mrogers]

Hey Shessi I'm used to being upside down where I live

Seriously I would love to see working cowl flaps, and yes I have a thing for them.... I don't think I need the elsan toilet and cigarette lighter although it'd be nice to have them on display..oh I don't smoke

[Shessi]

Mark,
I won't promise, but a lot of the corrective hard work has been done on the 5, so......maybe...

Mick,
Yes that was strange of Alphasim to do that, model them and then not animate them?? These engines ran fairly cool and really only needed open cooling gills on landing/taxying/idling etc.


Cheers

Shessi

[Mick]

I've been busy! It's too hot and humid to go out and play, so I've been painting PBYs.

I've converted some skins I painted for the original AlphaSims model to work with the mapping changes on the new model, and in some cases transposed the markings onto Shessi's new base textures (or an earlier version of them.) This is what I've cooked up:

Two black Cats, one from VP-11 as it appeared while based in the Solomons in the summer of 1943, wearing the then-new and short-lived stars and bars with red outline style of national insignia, and one from VP-34 as it appeared while based in New Guinea after the red border was replaced with blue. They are both based on the original AlphaSims skins. All I did was adjust their black Cat textures to work with the new model, then make a copy and change the insignia and individual aircraft markings.

Two blue Cats based on Shessi's textures. All I did was change the insignia and individual aircraft codes to show a sequence of Cats illustrating how the insignia changed through the war. There's one from VP-12 marked as it appeared at Pearl Harbor at the time the Japanese attacked, illustrating the immediate pre-war markings specifications, and one from VP-14 as it appeared soon after that, illustrating the first wartime markings standards, with the red and white rudder stripes and the insignia back in all four wing positions again. I used an earlier version of Shessi's textures for these two, because at that early date the planes wouldn't have as much weathering as they would show after a couple months of wartime operations.

Shessi's VP-42 skin shows the next change, with the "meatballs" deleted from the roundel stars, so I skipped over that period.

I painted planes from an unidentified squadron (found a picture but no information in the caption) wearing the mid-1943 red bordered insignia, and one from VP-72 with the final blue-bordered style. Again, all I did was change insignia and individual aircraft codes. I based these two on Shessi's release textures, with all that beautiful wear and tear and weathering.

The reason they haven't gone up the pipe yet is the same as the reason I can't them to you now: I haven't made the screenshots yet, nor written up the informational file (though I think a lot of it will be copied from this post.) I need to get away from my desk for a while, so I might not get to zipping them up and posting them this afternoon. If not it will be tomorrow, since I don't think I'll have time this evening.

Anyway, they'll be along soon.

[SSI01]

First-rate, Mick. Thank you very much!

[Blackbird686]

'Barge Busting' missions.... Two BLACK Cats, THAT sounds like a lot of fun. Hell, I'm ready, maybe load up a couple of those bombs just for the heck of it. I'm sure I can find an un-suspecting enemy supply ship to turn those loose on. Then back to the "loading ramps" for a reload and refuel, and yet another round of "Harassment and Interdiction" in the middle of the night.

BB686

[Mick]

OK, the screenies are shot and the skins just went up the pipe.

Here are some pictures. This first one was based at Pearl Harbor and shows the markings standard adopted after the outbreak of war. The second one shows the mid-1943 style of insignia that I'm rather partial to, and then one of of the black Cats.

[Terry]

The new skins had transparent props so I overwrote them from the base file and all is well.

Thanks for the new skins.

[Mick]

The new skins had transparent props so I overwrote them from the base file and all is well.

Thanks for the new skins.

Argh! I should've foreseen that!

It's only that way on the two skins of planes with the earlier, pre-war silver props. The other four, with black props, are OK.

It's because those silver props were from the earlier, round-tailed Cats in their pre-war liveries. They were made highly reflective, so as to be very shiny. But the latest model doesn't have reflection enabled, so that dark alpha channel makes the blades transparent instead of shiny. I should've thought of that when I put the silver props on those two planes.

Attached is a new prop blades texture that will paint the stopped blades as close to silver as I can get without reflection. Use it only on the VP-12 and VP-14 paints; the others use black props, with or without yellow tips.

In case anyone has any sorting out of props to do, I've also included black blades with and without yellow tips.

I didn't spot this glitch when I took the screen shots because it only affects the stopped prop blades, and I loaded the plane for the screenies with the engines running. Thanks for the heads up!

I will upload a corrected version of the paint pack for the library.

[Mick]

I wish I woulda found this one a couple days ago!

"Jumpie" was a PBY-5 flying boat flown by Lt.(jg) William Price of VP-72, based at Funafuti in July, 1944.

Uploading as I type...

[Maarten -]

I wish I woulda found this one a couple days ago!

"Jumpie" was a PBY-5 flying boat flown by Lt.(jg) William Price of VP-72, based at Funafuti in July, 1944.

Uploading as I type...

Thank you very much!

Cheers,
Maarten

[Mick]

I've always been fond of the U.S. Navy's Atlantic camouflage scheme of White with Gull Gray upper surfaces. This PBY-5a belonged to VP-63, a unit of Fleet Air Wing Fifteen, based at Port Lyautey, Morocco in 1944. By the end of the war FAW-15, with its PBY-5s and -5As equipped with magnetic anomaly detectors, had virtually closed the Straits of Gibraltar to U-boats.

Since VP-63 flew both the PBY-5 flying boat and the PBY-5A amphibian, there will be a VP-63 skin for the upcoming PBY-5A when it's ready. It will just be a matter of changing the individual aircraft number to one worn by a -5A.

[vonernsk]

Mick,

Great work on the re-paints for this venerable ALPHA model. Somehow I have missed the upload to SOH of the revised models for this a/c ie the armed versions with bombs and depth charges.
Could you give me a link or indicate where in SOH they are?

Thanks again for all the work on this model.

Mal

[TARPSBird]

Mal, here ya go...

Shessi's revised PBY-5, armed and unarmed:
http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforum...d=205&id=19906

Mick's WWII repaint package:
http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforum...d=195&id=19928

Mick's prewar repaint package:
http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforum...d=206&id=19908

Details are provided earlier in this thread, and in the Warbirds Library forum. Have fun.