Solomon Sea, Milne Bay, & Buna-Dobodura by UT released!

[UncleTgt]

I'm also finished with the gsl work for Dobodura & Oro Bay, now working my way back along the coast to meet up with the Milne Bay scenery ...

[Captain Kurt]

Just awesome

[Worthless]

Super, just super. Thanks for all your sceneries. Waiting patiently,....maybe not so patiently, but anyway.....waiting for the new adds. Great pics.

[highpockets]

😮 Wow!! Beautiful work.

[Sarg Willy]

Eye Catching Candy , just superb Uncle

[UncleTgt]

Whilst the Aussies pressed the Japs during their withdrawal towards Buna during the autumn of 1942, the US redeployed several units by air from Port Moresby, creating several "landing grounds". These were short & unpaved, & most were only used for a short while. A few were used as emergency landing strips during Operation Cartwheel, but fell out of use soon as better choices became available.

[kdriver]

You're leaving no stone unturned - great work John!

[UncleTgt]

A new entry has been added to Add-Ons Library, category CFS 2 Scenery Add-Ons

Description: Buna-Dobodura Scenery for CFS2 by UncleTgt


This is a reworking of the stock sceneries for the Buna-Dobodura area at the SE end of PNG. It is designed for use with Rhumbas mesh, but the scenery excludes provided should mean this works well in a stock mesh install too.
This scenery builds on & extends the areas covered in my previous Solomon Sea & Milne Bay sceneries, but it should work as a stand-alone scenery as well.


Contents:
New Ground2K scenery for each, including fringing reefs.
New airbase scenery, made using FSSC.
New gsl infrastructure.
New custom Landclass & Waterclass.
Some simple missions using the stock F4U-1A Corsair for viewing the gsl airbases & scenery


The sceneries are as developed during mid-1943, & the gsl reflects this. I have provided an earlier gsl gob for those wishing to depict Buna as a Japanese operational airbase, you need to install this gob last of all if that's what you want.


As the Japanese only operated aircraft there for a short time (between May & October 1942), I imagine most people will want the scenery as per mid-'43, which is after the US/Australians had battled across the airstrip - the Allies built the Dobodura complex of airfields for operations instead of fixing up the Buna strip(s).


Known conflicts:


Installing this scenery pack will require the archiving of some the airbases from Maskrider's Papua New Guinea scenery.


Maskriders Dobodura complex was built as a single airbase with multiple runways. As such all the runways had to be modelled at a single altitude - a necessary compromise at the time. Dobodura underwent many changes during it's active life, & Maskrider's layout seems to be from the latter half of 1943 & into 1944.


I decided to model each runway separately, & went for a more spartan mid to fall of '43 appearance, mainly to keep the object count manageable! The advantage of this approach is I could put each runway at an altitude to match the mesh better.


PNG-Dobodura_Horanda_Embi_GSL - replaced by Raways(1), Dobo(2), Horanda(4), Borio(10/11/15) & Nth Embi(12)
PNG_Dobodura_Popondetta_GSL - replaced by Girua(7) & Popondetta
PNG_Dobodura_Soputa_GSL - I struggled to find any reference other than it's use for air-dropping supplies during the advance towards Buna. I downgraded it to a small grass landing ground


PNG_Cape_Rodney_GSL - All the references I found suggested this was only built in 1945, so I did not depict an airstrip at this location.


Kokoda_Track_Set_3 - these are small sceneries depicting Buna Mission & the Japanese perimeter west of Buna. Some of the GSL scenery gobs included here supercede this bgl.


Credits
Thanks to:
Jean Bomber for his inspiration, advice & support. He talked me through getting to grips with G2K & more…
Maskrider for all his airbase packages & the blended airbase tutorial. This set the standard for airbase sceneries for the game.
Rhumbaflappy for the new more accurate world mesh – it was a desire to make best use of this development that is the driver for many of my scenery projects. He also developed the vtp1 fixer programme to fix display errors in vtp bgls compiled from Ground2K.
GavinC for his reworking of the stock airbases, making individual base reworking/ revision much easier
Shessi for his water textures, that were the inspiration for my reworking of Jimkos Pacific Blues, & indirectly lead me to develop this latest set of water textures.
Lindsay Watt for all of his scenery objects & innovations.
Wolfi for his scenery objects.
Xavier for all his scenery objects & airbase sceneries, opening up a larger world for us all to fly in
Martin Wright for all the various software tools that are so useful!
Russell Dirks for his EZ landclass programme, making large scale land/ water class adjustments possible
Christian Fumey for his excl8 & Ground2K programmes, making the creation of completely new scenery possible for CFS2.


UncleTgt
MAY 2021

To check it out, rate it or add comments, visit Buna-Dobodura Scenery UT
The comments you make there will appear in the posts below.

[Captain Kurt]

Thanks once more Uncle TgT. An awesome project.

[Ravenna]

Beautiful work UT. Thanks

[UncleTgt]

The short length landing grounds were only in use for a matter of months, during the advance towards Buna-Gona.

It is difficult to get in with a C47, but it can be done. Approach low & slow, with a shallow glide slope, & use your flaps!

They also shipped troops up in Hudsons, I haven't tried that yet.

The runway lengths & orientation are extrapolated from an Australian Defence Air Navigation Chart. These fields lack the sophistication of the later Dobodura fields, but they served a vital purpose, allowing US & Australian troops to be repositioned & leapfrog towards the Buna-Gona area by air rather than by sea.

I have no idea how they managed in anything without flaps, such as a DH84 Dragon...

[blohmundvoss]

Beautiful! As always!

Many thanks, Unc. May your bulldozer never run out of fuel . . .

Cheers
BuV

[Rami]

UncleTgt,

Many thanks for all this wonderful scenery, this is something I hope to install soon!

[Shadow Wolf 07]

I too intend to install it soon. Thank you UncleTgt!

[TheBookie]

Question,

Do you need the Maskrider scenery for this to work?

TheBookie

[UncleTgt]

Its a stand-alone scenery, designed for a Rhumba mesh install.

from the readme:

"This is a reworking of the stock sceneries for the Buna-Dobodura area at the SE end of PNG. It is designed for use with Rhumbas mesh, but the scenery excludes provided should mean this works well in a stock mesh install too.This scenery builds on & extends the areas covered in my previous Solomon Sea & Milne Bay sceneries, but it should work as a stand-alone scenery as well."

There are potential conflicts with elements from Maskrider's Papua New Guinea airfield set, but these are clearly identified.

[TheBookie]

I'll be doing more work on the Beaufighter Campaign I sent out a while back to few people in the forum.problem is so far it's all in 1942.

TheBookie

[UncleTgt]

Seeing as Buna was non-operational as an airstrip from October '42, & was recaptured by US & Australian troops by the year's end, it's not surprising the missions you have are all from 1942.

The scenery includes a JAP Buna gsl, so I think all that's required is to develop replacement gsl for the Horanda & Dodobura areas that doesn't include the later airfield complex. Sounds easy, but would take some time to achieve. But it's doable.

For your Beaufighter timeframe I would leave the landing grounds at Raways & Soputa in place, but remove Popondetta, Girua, Horanda, North Embi & Borio.

It could be argued that Popondetta could also be left in, it was used as a landing ground for C47's from NOV'42 onwards, but my version is too developed, it would need to be replaced with a simpler strip.

I also did some gsl for Oro Bay. To accurately represent this timeframe that should also be stripped back to a small harbour facility only.