Hobbs Army Air Base

Milton Shupe

Milton Shupe

Staff Contributor
Staff member
HAAF was a WWII training base for B17 bombers. It also had AT-11's for training purposes both fully functional with turrets and bombs and mock units for flight training outfitted similar to the B-25's.

I have a NM funded glossy magazine of the HAAF history including photos, drawings, schematics, etc. of the base, its buildings, its training programs, etc.

If anyone is interested in developing scenery for any of the sims, please say so here and I will make available scans of the magazine, some examples attached.
 
Cool! Typical AAF layout found in the Southwest. I would love to try it but I have bitten off plenty now with the P-61. :icon_lol:
 
Hi Milton
I would like to help for a cfs2 version there some interesting things to do in this scenery particulary the targets, that could be cool to have a Bomber training bases .I would... cause i've so many place to complete and I could not garanty a reasonable delay :kilroy:.


HAAFTarget.jpg
[/img]

Eventually I could participe for some parts (g2k work or mask ) if somebody want make a cfs2 version.

http://www.hobbshistory.com/haaf1.html
http://home.comcast.net/~nmgeoglyphs/nmgeoglyphs.html#Bombing_Range_Location_Maps_


JP
 
I have upload around 15 pages of the pictures and writeup for anyone interested. You can get it here:

http://www.flightsimonline.com/downloads/HAAF.zip

If several of you are interested, you may speak up and collaborate on your efforts with others. Certainly some of the work can be shared across sims.

This is a highly interesting WWII Training base with lots of history.

I am also near completion of an AT-11 used at that airbase. I will be happy to provide that and possibly an AI of it for the scenery.
 
It would be the perfect base for the upcoming Accu-Sim B-17. :applause:

For FSX of course.

Maybe I will grab the files and take a look. I have ADE and can make models in Blender that will export to FSX. Getting the period textures and building dimensions may be the hardest part.
 
I just had a look in FSX and the airfield exists as NM83 Industrial Airpark and this is what it looks like in the sim.....

b_133623.jpg


I would need to fit it to the plans to see how accurate it is and obviously all the living areas/airfield buildings would need to be added (it currently has a few generic modern buildings there) but it certainly looks like it could be reverted back to the 1940's.

Anyone interested in working on the project with me?
 
Here is a Google Earth shot of the same. There is a prison on the West side where I work.

If you need any pictures that I can take from the ground, let me know.

You can find NM83 just NW of Hobbs, NM, in central Lea County just west of hwy 18.
 
If you are local Milton just what is that very odd circular road for in the bottom right corner of your shot?

I was checking it out in GE before you posted that pic and I was (and still am) intrigued as to what it is for.
 
B-17 training field would be useful :engel016::kilroy:

PS Milton, that screenshot is amazing, i'd love to have somthing like that done properly in FSX!
 
Tako_Kichi said:
If you are local Milton just what is that very odd circular road for in the bottom right corner of your shot?

I was checking it out in GE before you posted that pic and I was (and still am) intrigued as to what it is for.
Click to expand...


That complex is one of the best Junior Colleges in America, the New Mexico Junior College. Most of its buildings are inside the circular road, but there are now sporting fields, stadium, Maintenance, other non-acedemic programmed instruction, and also acedemic classroom buildings outside the road.

Most of the area is now Industrial Park (north and East side), the West side has the prison, there is a noticeable golf course and city park, and some city and county buildings on the NE side. Just off the main complex area is the National Soaring Society complex. Hobbs holds annual soaring competitions attended by world points holders.
 
After some difficulties in getting the latest version of ADE I now have it installed again and started looking at Hobbs. After pasting together a couple of the images Milton provided, then scaling and rotating the image in ADE and laying it under the existing FSX airfield I have the following......

b_143624.jpg


The old NW-SE runway is close but everything else is well off and of course the apron/building side is not even in the same ballpark.

Looks like lots of work to do just on the airport layout side never mind all the custom buildings. Talking of which, does anyone know of any resources for US WWII airfield buildings? I would imagine a lot were generic for the time (billets, officer housing etc.) with just a few of the hangars and the tower possibly specific to Hobbs.

For the UK there are a number of building libraries made available by Ted Andrews so building UK period airfields is comparatively easy but I don't know if such libraries exist for US WWII airfields.
 
I thought it was time to post an update on the FSX Hobbs remake. I've been a busy boy this past week or so. :icon_lol:

Here is the airport as it looks now. All runways, taxiways, aprons and parking places, windsocks and roads are in the correct positions and all links working for AI traffic.

b_190743.jpg


The stock FSX fire tower is almost identical to the control towers (three of them) used at Hobbs so that saves some modelling time. ;)

b_190441.jpg


Here's a shot on the apron looking at one of two AI B-17s I have making trips to the nearest airport and back for test purposes. Some nasty looking clouds in the background too!

b_190553.jpg


It needs the buildings adding (a big job), some statics placed on the apron and some realistic traffic plans made. I have been promised some stripped down A2A B-17s for AI and static use which will use the same skins as the FSX version so people will be able to reskin them if they want to.

It's looking good so far even if I do say so myself. :icon_lol:

One question I do have that I have not been able to find an answer for yet is did the USAAF have runway lights in the early 1940's? At the moment the field is unlit at night and I am not sure if I should add runway lights or not. Any suggestions?
 
That is looking great Larry. :applause:

Once I get the AT-11 done, I hope to provide a low poly AI for this Training Center as it was used extensively to prepare the pilots, bombadiers, and gunners for the B-17's.
 
Ok here is the progress so far on models... all will be included in a ww2 library BGL so we can populate some other stateside bases as well.

No textures yet... just drop me a PM and I will send the library BGL.

Still need textures.. but these should be the proper size. You can use these to place in the scenery and I will deliver updates.

Wondering how the heck I color a asbestos covered building.. lol.. white looks not so good in FS... maybe an eggshell white. :isadizzy:

Should have the base hospital, mess and special operations buildings in similar form tommorrow.
 
Ah I forgot to mention... I used a copy of a B-17 C/D gmax file to scale the hangar.
 
That is looking great Larry ... :applause:

Eggshell white or anything like that ... keep in mind we get lots of wind and sand blowing here and the high plains desert sun can be brutal in longer light days.
 
Thanks Crashaz and I will PM you with my email address shortly for the files.

A pure white (255, 255, 255) washes out badly in FSX so I tend to use 245, 245, 245 as a max. value. The same goes for black too and I use 10, 10, 10 for that.

For asbestos I would use a mottled grey. Try adding some noise and Gaussian blur to something like a 20 or 25% grey.

As to the size of the buildings I can scale them if need be when I place them using ADE. I also have Instant Scenery if need be put prefer to place using ADE. Talking of which, I can place either model files (.mdl) or BGL files from a library using ADE.

Making a library sounds like a good idea and I will start adding a few things too. I am also going to try and keep all textures for the buildings I make to a single sheet to cut down on draw calls.

I re-installed GMAX here yesterday and after messing around for an hour or so started on a building and managed to knock out one of the munitions igloos before bedtime. I will post pics shortly. I am now at the stage where I need to figure out how to apply materials and do the UVW mapping. I have not touched GMAX in at least 18 months so I am a bit rusty plus all my other modelling was done in Blender so I am having to learn GMAX as I go. ;)
 
This is what I have in GMAX at the moment.....

b_101525.jpg


...and this is what it looks like now.....

b_193723.jpg


The igloo would have been buried I guess and I could have modelled it that way but it looks like the blast wall supports were only half buried and I have no idea how to model the earth pile or if it is even necessary. We could always claim the airport is from a time before the structures were buried. :icon_lol:
 
Time for another update I guess.......I have been busy placing Crashaz's barracks hut (about 45-50% done now and no tex's on it yet) and if you look closely at the right side you can see the railroad spurs I added too (gonna need some waggons ;) ).

b_154647.jpg


After a lot of aggravation and operator error I finally got UVW mapping figured out in GMAX and I also totally rebuilt the munitions igloo model from scratch as I was having so many issues with it I figured a fresh start would be better all round. This time I included the dirt covering/back fill too.

b_154808.jpg


It's not in the right place obviously, I just dumped it there to test it out and so it was easy to find. ;)

With 150+ scenery objects placed so far I am still getting 30 FPS on my rig which I am very pleased about.
 
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