Martin Marauder Gold for FS9 has been released

Animation

I ran into an FS9 Marauder you've probably seen called Hitch Hiker.
I found interesting the animation for the two glass hatches above the pilots and
two sets of bomb bay doors. Front and aft doors open in different actions.
I see you have the widows animated in FSX, would you consider doing more animation in
FSX..?
 
Seahawk72s said:
I ran into an FS9 Marauder you've probably seen called Hitch Hiker.
I found interesting the animation for the two glass hatches above the pilots and
two sets of bomb bay doors. Front and aft doors open in different actions.
I see you have the widows animated in FSX, would you consider doing more animation in
FSX..?
Click to expand...

SH, on the model I represent, the rear bomb bay was not used for bombs and the doors were welded shut.
It became an ammo hold for all the rear guns fed by chutes. It also held personal belongings and anything needing a place.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that the upper canopy windows were emergency escape hatches, not ingress/egress openings. The normal entry/exit is through the floor hatch into the nose gear bay.
 
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Milton Shupe said:
SH, on the model I represent, the rear bomb bay was not used for bombs and the doors were welded shut.
It became an ammo hold for all the rear guns fed by chutes. It also held personal belongings and anything needing a place.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that the upper canopy windows were emergency escape hatches, not ingress/egress openings. The normal entry/exit is through the floor hatch into the nose gear bay.
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Understood. Was there a detachable ladder like I think the Mosquitoes used..?
 
Seahawk72s said:
Understood. Was there a detachable ladder like I think the Mosquitoes used..?
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From the docs I have, I could not determine how the ladder worked, detachable or otherwise. In the videos, it seemed shaky (not fixed) and mechanics seem to climb in without the ladder, so I just left it out.
 
Milton Shupe said:
From the docs I have, I could not determine how the ladder worked, detachable or otherwise. In the videos, it seemed shaky (not fixed) and mechanics seem to climb in without the ladder, so I just left it out.
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Must have been a lot of fun if you had to bail out...
 
Another one

I finally got one that wore that red-bordered insignia that was only used for a couple months in 1943. "Rat Poison" only has four mission marks and still looks fairly new.


 
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Seahawk72s said:
In particular I was thinking of the tail gunner.
In movies guys jump out thru the bomb bay doors or side hatch, just wondering..
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In belly or water landings, they would use the side hatch.

I rarely animate emergency hatches as I am usually poly restricted in FS9.

I am not restricted on the Marauder but I am on the A-20 Havoc "C" model for FS9. I leave such things for the painters.

The only 3-view I have that shows the starboard side does not show the exit door which is one of the two exits they could use.
 

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Milton Shupe said:
In belly or water landings, they would use the side hatch.

I rarely animate emergency hatches as I am usually poly restricted in FS9.

I am not restricted on the Marauder but I am on the A-20 Havoc "C" model for FS9. I leave such things for the painters.

The only 3-view I have that shows the starboard side does not show the exit door which is one of the two exits they could use.
Click to expand...

Ahhh, great drawing , thanks..
 
Marauder Intruder

Here's something different: a Marauder intruder! I had no idea until I stumbled upon pictures of them.

This B-26G belonged to the 456th Bomb Squadron, 323rd Bomb Group, 9th U.S. Army Air Force, based at Laon/Athiues, France in the winter of 1944-45. It wears overall black camouflage for night intruder operations over the Ardennes.

This one is overall black. I have another one on my list from another unit that painted theirs gloss black except they left the top surfaces olive drab, with the black going very high up the sides in the style of RAF night fighters and bombers.

This one comes from a profile and the caption says it was semi-gloss black and the artwork has a white fin band, codes and in the insignia. Real refrigerator white, it looks like. I dunno about that. By that time the Army wasn't even using real white on daytime combat aircraft; they were painting "white" markings in shades of gray, sometimes quite dark.

I felt pretty confident about painting the white parts neutral gray, but I have to wonder about the finish. I don't recall the Army using semi-gloss paints. Early American-built night fighters and intruders (P-70, P-70A) were painted matte black. Later ones (late production P-61, P-38M) were very glossy. In between, early P-61s were olive drab over neutral gray, same as day fighters. And besides, these intruders were painted in theater. Who knows where the paint came from: US stocks, RAF stocks, captured Luftwaffe stocks, some local French hardware store...? So your guess is as good as mine whether to use this skin with the matte or the glossy model. I set it up for the matte model, but I might change my mind.

The "white" parts look sort of yellow in the screenie, but that comes from the setting sun shining on them.
 
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I have seen pics of the all black Marauders as well as the black/olive drab versions, but only a few color pics of them... and the paint schemes were very flat. One particular B-26 that had the two tone olive drab over black had a somewhat glossy looking underside however. The idea of using "captured" material makes sense to me, the USAAF probably grabbed whatever they could use to make work... German U-boats most likely played hell with Allied shipping and supplies may have been sparse. Just a theory.

BB686:US-flag:
 
In one black & white photo I saw there were highlights and reflections galore on the black parts and none at all on the OD parts. (And yes, the picture was clear enough to tell reflections from paint chips!) I plan to do one like that. I'll have to use reflection to simulate gloss, but that's the only way I can think of to make part of the plane shiny and the rest of it flat. Should be interesting to see.
 
Another night stalker

Here's another night flyer.

This B-26G belonged to the 654th Bomb Squadron (Recon), 25th Bomb Group (Recon), 9th U.S. Army Air Force. In the spring of of 1944 the 25th BG(R) received four B-26G's modified for night photography. They were painted all or mostly glossy black and used by the 654th BS(R) for "Noball" missions, to provide early warning of V-1 missile attacks. They began operations in early August and by late September the Noball missions were ended, as the V-1 was no longer considered a threat. This plane has its undersides and sides painted glossy black while its topsides retain the original olive drab.

There are matte and glossy models, but the only way I know to make a plane part glossy and part matte is to use a matte model and give the glossy parts some reflective sheen with the alpha channel. It looks like metallic reflection rather than glossy paint, but I guess it's as close as the limitations of FS will let us get.

The shine doesn't really show up in the screen shot, but you can see it in the sim. I kept the effect to a minimum because when I cranked it up a bit more it looked all wrong.


 
Navy JM-1

"Joe's Banana Boat" was a Navy JM-1 target tug based at NAS Banana River, Florida and probably belonged to Utilty Squadron Sixteen (VJ-16.) The real JM had no gun positions. Devoid of armor and armament, the JM was the fastest Marauder variant.

You can hardly see the name on the nose in the screenie, but it's there, and somewhat more visible on the model in the sim.

This plane is one of the options in the Minicraft 1:144th scale kit.

I have a few more JM-1's on my list.

Maybe some more B-26's too...
 
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Originally Posted by Seahawk72s
Understood. Was there a detachable ladder like I think the Mosquitoes used..?


Milton Shupe said:
From the docs I have, I could not determine how the ladder worked, detachable or otherwise. In the videos, it seemed shaky (not fixed) and mechanics seem to climb in without the ladder, so I just left it out.
Click to expand...

Seahawk, there was quite a discussion earlier in this thread about the ladders and access starting about here: http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforu...n-the-Burner?p=1071896&viewfull=1#post1071896

Milton, the more I dig, the more yours was a wise choice. I just got back from a long trip including a stop at the MAPS Air Museum in Akron/Canton OH. Theirs is a straight B-26 (Production # 99). It has a swing-down hatch and a ladder mounted on the rear bulkhead of the nosegear well. From the pictures you can see what looks like the original ladder mounts but with a modern 'Home Depot' aluminum ladder attached and hoisted forward, and held up by a bungee cord. I didn't have access to the staff to get details but from the way it is suspended it's likely a 'functional substitute'.
Further digging leads me to believe that somewhere in the production the drop-down hatch was replaced by the split, sliding version (a safety issue?). The mount in the MAPS aircraft sort of indicates a lighter type of ladder, either a simple hinged type or a hinged, extendable version which would account for the 'wobble' in videos and which would be prone to breaking in the field. That would be cured by all sorts of field mods.
 

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Marines JM-1

Here's another JM-1. The Marines had several utility squadrons and it's not known which one this plane belonged to. A photo and a profile, both hosted on several web sites, plus a model kit decal option, all refer to it as a "Navy " plane, but the MARINES title clearly visible on the fin tells us otherwise.

This one is glossy all over, so it uses the model with specular gloss.
 
So I had to paint a Navy JM-1. The changes on the textures were too simple not to. This one belobged to Utility Squadron Seven (VJ-7) at Pearl Harbor in late 1944 and early 1945.
 
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