Late '50's CVA-42 FDR Carrier?

Crazy

It's nice to have another crazy, obsessed soul like me here on the SOH :dizzy::biggrin-new::encouragement: LOL!!!! That way the rest of the guys don't think I'm the only one doing an entire squadron's multiple skins, ports of call etc.
 
tgycgijoes said:
It's nice to have another crazy, obsessed soul like me here on the SOH :dizzy::biggrin-new::encouragement: LOL!!!! That way the rest of the guys don't think I'm the only one doing an entire squadron's multiple skins, ports of call etc.
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:ernaehrung004:

Yep, I just finished up the details on the F4D and did 5 paints for it the other night for the Modex/BuNo combos I know for the cruise. Lost power last night for a couple hours so didn't get much done. I wanna to redo the insignia on the F2H-3's and finish those up this weekend. I've got 12 Modex/BuNo configs I know for that plane. And maybe learn how to do dirt on skins so I can finish up the 2 HUP-2's I know were on the cruise.

I found one source that said there were only 3 planes from VFP-62 on the cruise, 601-603, but I could swear I saw a picture of 604, too. But that could be a replacement for 603 which ran into the barrier during the cruise, also saw a picture of it dumping it's wingtip tanks because they weren't transferring fuel, and I imagine he had to dump the tanks because he couldn't dump the fuel before landing? I have BuNo's for 602 and 603.
 
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All dressed up but nowhere to go

I just downloaded the free Alphasim/Virtavia FSX T-28C Trojan and have AICarriers re-installed in FSX, vLSO re-installed, Carrier Convoy Planner set up too. I have a few older carriers installed to fly on and off again while you finish up the Midway. When its complete if you need help with those programs when you are ready to fly, just PM me.
 
Just wanted to say I'm still here. I was able to figure out how to clear off the deck of the FDR (1960+ Coral Sea model). (Though I'm actually starting to think Gary's Essex angle deck Essex model might be a better fit, slightly shorter than Midway class, but much closer with the elevators config). I also fixed up the 2D deck crew textures, as many of them had been alpha channeled a little too aggressively and were mostly transparent in incorrect places.

I did it with a combination of MCX and GMax, selecting triangles and deleting them. I was very happy MCX retained the texture callouts of the ship when I sent it out and read it back in. I still haven't figured out how to make the hangar deck a platform. Also, writing the model out of GMax also increased the number of texture vertices for some reason, I'm not sure why.

My next step is to figure out how to make deck configurations of aircraft including 3 or 4 F2H-3 Banshees, maybe a photo banshee or two, a couple F4D's, a HUP, a Skywarrior of better quality than what was on the ship previously, and a couple Skyraiders to round it out. I'm imagining freeware versions of the Virtavia Skywarrior and Ford would work, the HUP model I'm using should work as AI. Are there any AI Skyraiders? I'm imagining the "Piglet" Skyraider is a little heavy for AI purposes? If anyone would like to help with this part of the project I'd appreciate it. I ain't so good at model creation.

Finally, has anyone figured out how to make Steam Edition have reasonable, or any, smoke effects? I notice they don't work in Steam (they do work in Boxed FSX). I've read if you turn it down to medium quality it works, but the smoke then looks like bubbles. Haven't tried it myself yet.

FReZTcm.png
 
FlyingsCool said:
Just wanted to say I'm still here. I was able to figure out how to clear off the deck of the FDR (1960+ Coral Sea model). (Though I'm actually starting to think Gary's Essex angle deck Essex model might be a better fit, slightly shorter than Midway class, but much closer with the elevators config). I also fixed up the 2D deck crew textures, as many of them had been alpha channeled a little too aggressively and were mostly transparent in incorrect places.
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I had a look at Klaus' FDR and the sketchfab original (which has since been removed for download) but as they were derived from World Of Warships they are INSANELY detailed and complex for FSX. It took me hours just to adapt the gun emplacements and create a hurricane bow at which point I gave up.....and interestingly I did wonder if it would be quicker taking one of my Essex Hulls and just enlarging and adapting that to create an FDR so you might be on to something!

Cheers
Gary
 
gp183601 said:
I had a look at Klaus' FDR and the sketchfab original (which has since been removed for download) but as they were derived from World Of Warships they are INSANELY detailed and complex for FSX. It took me hours just to adapt the gun emplacements and create a hurricane bow at which point I gave up.....and interestingly I did wonder if it would be quicker taking one of my Essex Hulls and just enlarging and adapting that to create an FDR so you might be on to something!

Cheers
Gary
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That'd be freakin' awesome! Savin' my butt again... I keep hopin' for an SCB-110 Midway/FDR model (Coral Sea SCB-110a was closer to Midway SCB-101. I don't think the Optical Landing system was added till 1960, but I'd be down with it if it had it... I can send you a PDF of the '57-'58 Med Cruise book if you're interested. FDR did SCB-110 in '55. Not a ton of pictures in it (largely the women the sailors met on the cruise, haha - cause... Navy). But there's a little good info.

aj7ura8axah41.png
 
Flight Ops

Thank you for that utube video. I was down in CIC when this was all going on or in Flag Plot 2nd tour so I never got to see flight ops that close and personal. Its not the same as the still shots in the cruise books. Didn't realize how little clearance the flight deck crewmen had hooking up an F8 Crusader. My thoughts were: "what idiot engineer" ever made it so close to the deck.
 
Certainly some of the best footage one will ever see of the cat hookup operations prior to present day "Flush Deck Nose Gear Launch" or "Fandangle" as it is called, with its launch bar replacing the bridle / Van Zelm bridle arrester lanyards, as well as the Repeatable Release Holdback Trailbar replacing the old, one time use holdback plug.

One gets mesmerized watching these young folks working the hookup - close attention and you realize they are kneeling / lying on the non-skid coating of the Flight Deck. anyone who has ever seen this stuff will remember that the stuff is ROUGH AS HELL! You think kneeling on a cement or asphalt surface is painful? Try non-skid --
 
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You got that right

Mike71 said:
Certainly some of the best footage one will ever see of the cat hookup operations prior to present day "Flush Deck Nose Gear Launch" or "Fandangle" as it is called, with its launch bar replacing the bridle / Van Zelm bridle arrester lanyards, as well as the Repeatable Release Holdback Trailbar replacing the old, one time use holdback plug.

One gets mesmerized watching these young folks working the hookup - close attention and you realize they are kneeling / lying on the non-skid coating of the Flight Deck. anyone who has ever seen this stuff will remember that the stuff is ROUGH AS HELL! You think kneeling on a cement or asphalt surface is painful? Try non-skid --
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Bring up a towel or two for some sun on the flightdeck...not only is it rough but it gets hot too. A blanket and a towel on the catwalk was a lot more comfortable to catch some rays. The pilots may fly the planes but without the flight deck crew the pilots, crew and planes couldn't do the job. Like the generals may get the credit for winning the battle but the soldiers did the winning. All we sim aviators have to do is [SHIFT+U] to get it all done in a blink of the eye. :loyal:
 
Late '50's SCB-110 CVA-42 FDR Carrier?

Just wanna say I haven't forgotten this project. Fixed the insignia on the F2H-3's over the weekend (and then realized, after creating 12 repaints from the base one, that I need to add a rescue flag to the fuselage, too :dizzy:)(but that won't take long). I've created all the BuNo/Modex combinations of the planes on the cruise that I'm aware of. So I should start uploading paints soon. If anyone knows how to figure out the other planes I'm missing, as well as tie pilot to airplane so I can add their names, that would be awesome.

Next step will be to add some deck configs to the carrier now that I figured out how to remove the planes that were there. I'd like to find freeware/lighter weight versions of the planes rather than use the Razbam payware ones that I've created paints for, to make wider availability for people. The Alphasim/Virtavia ones will be fine since there are freeware models of those, though I don't know if there are FSXisized versions of the A3D and F4D's? Would using a non-FSX version of a model affect framerate? Mr. Scrub has made an F2H, though I'm not sure if he created the F2H-3/4 models or if his are F2H-2's?

Anyone know of any freeware AD-6, AD-5N, and AD-5W Skyraider models out there? I'm imagining Tim Conrad's would be a little framerate heavy to put a bunch of his AD-6's on the deck.

How about an F2H-2P?

All the planes needed are:

F2H-3 Banshee with wingtip tanks
F2H-2P Banshee with Wingtip Tanks
F4D-1 Skyray
A3D-1 (if possible) Skywarrior
AD-6 Skyraider (single seat)
AD-5N Skyraider (multi-seat Night Attack)
AD-5W Skyraider (multi-seat Early warning guppy model)
Piasecki HUP-2 (I can use the model that I'm already using, though I really wish I knew how to map the surfaces, so I could add top and bottom strips so the markings on the top and bottom could be created effectively. Right now it just has left and right side, so creating the text and markings where the texture gets really stretchy is well nigh impossible, for me anyway).

And I soooo wish there was an SCB-110 Midway/FDR carrier model available.

How do you fold the wings of an aircraft model for use as a static scenery model?

Oh, I also need to start creating ship routes for the cruise. Anyone know where I can find the ship movements for the FDR from July 12, 1957 - March 1958? Unfortunately, there is a project currently digitizing the ship logs for 1956-1963, so the ship logs are unavailable at the moment. I have the cruisebook, but the only date and real info is her departure date to join up with the Sixth Fleet, though it doesn't say if that's from Norfolk or Mayport.

It started in Mayport, FL, made a stop in Norfolk for supplies, then headed to Gibraltar... Cannes... Paris???.... Barcelona... Greece... Athens... Corfu... Rhodes... Cannes for Christmas (again?)... Swiss Alps for skiing (port?)... Genoa... Rome (while they were in Genoa?).... Palma, Majorca.... Gibraltar... Home...

That's what the cruisebook says anyway.
 
FlyingsCool said:
A couple of shots of the changes I made to create the FDR. As noted, I'd like to change out the A-4, E-2C and Intruder to more period correct aircraft if anyone has any suggestions. S2's were occasionally seen on the deck at that time, too.




ViNvfs6.png
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Nice looking "Swanky Frankie" :encouragement:
 
gray eagle said:
Nice looking "Swanky Frankie" :encouragement:
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Thanks :)

Sadly, wrong SCB for what I'm hoping for, but, one step at a time :)

I was able to clean off the deck though. So we can now put whatever deck layouts we want on it. I left the 2D people, and fixed up their textures so we don't have zombies with half their bodies missing as they wander the deck.

I didn't do much to the ship itself, just worked on the textures and modified the effects.
 
I should be releasing the aircraft textures for all the planes I've done over the weekend. I'm going to release them per plane. For instance, I think there are twelve different texture sets for the Razbam F2H-3. Except for a couple of planes, all the BuNo/Modex combos are correct for the cruise.

If anyone knows where I could get a list of BuNo/Modex combos for the ship, I'd appreciate it. It would be nice to make the squadrons/detachments complete. As I said, the last time I looked, the ships logs are unavailable because they are part of a digitizing project. Which is cool because when they are done it'll likely make them easily accessible. I don't know where else I might look. I continue to peruse the internet looking for pictures from the cruise. I think there's a video available, too, so I might get that.

I'd like to also release the FDR ship I've modified from the version created by Lazarus from Virtual Navy's model. How would I ask for permission to do so?

I've been having a lot of problems landing on it, but I don't know if that's my own lack of skill, set up of the planes I'm flying, or something to do with how the wires are set up on the ship. So I'd appreciate it if somebody would test it out for me.

Next step in the project are to create deck layouts of aircraft and start to develop AI Ship routes for the cruise.
 
FlyingsCool said:
I should be releasing the aircraft textures for all the planes I've done over the weekend. I'm going to release them per plane. For instance, I think there are twelve different texture sets for the Razbam F2H-3. Except for a couple of planes, all the BuNo/Modex combos are correct for the cruise.

If anyone knows where I could get a list of BuNo/Modex combos for the ship, I'd appreciate it. It would be nice to make the squadrons/detachments complete. As I said, the last time I looked, the ships logs are unavailable because they are part of a digitizing project. Which is cool because when they are done it'll likely make them easily accessible. I don't know where else I might look. I continue to peruse the internet looking for pictures from the cruise. I think there's a video available, too, so I might get that.

I'd like to also release the FDR ship I've modified from the version created by Lazarus from Virtual Navy's model. How would I ask for permission to do so?

I've been having a lot of problems landing on it, but I don't know if that's my own lack of skill, set up of the planes I'm flying, or something to do with how the wires are set up on the ship. So I'd appreciate it if somebody would test it out for me.

Next step in the project are to create deck layouts of aircraft and start to develop AI Ship routes for the cruise.
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Try here

https://www.navysite.de/cruisebooks/

Scroll down to USS FDR and there are links that will show the embarked squadrons you may be interested in.

Hope that helps,
 
FlyingsCool said:
I should be releasing the aircraft textures for all the planes I've done over the weekend. I'm going to release them per plane. For instance, I think there are twelve different texture sets for the Razbam F2H-3. Except for a couple of planes, all the BuNo/Modex combos are correct for the cruise.

If anyone knows where I could get a list of BuNo/Modex combos for the ship, I'd appreciate it. It would be nice to make the squadrons/detachments complete. As I said, the last time I looked, the ships logs are unavailable because they are part of a digitizing project. Which is cool because when they are done it'll likely make them easily accessible. I don't know where else I might look. I continue to peruse the internet looking for pictures from the cruise. I think there's a video available, too, so I might get that.

I'd like to also release the FDR ship I've modified from the version created by Lazarus from Virtual Navy's model. How would I ask for permission to do so?

I've been having a lot of problems landing on it, but I don't know if that's my own lack of skill, set up of the planes I'm flying, or something to do with how the wires are set up on the ship. So I'd appreciate it if somebody would test it out for me.

Next step in the project are to create deck layouts of aircraft and start to develop AI Ship routes for the cruise.
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PM sent, re testing.

dl
 
gray eagle said:
Try here

https://www.navysite.de/cruisebooks/

Scroll down to USS FDR and there are links that will show the embarked squadrons you may be interested in.

Hope that helps,
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Yep, I have the cruisebook, but, it's not so deep into the details of the cruise... Lots of pictures of pretty ladies though :) (Navy :kilroy: .. Times were different in the '50's)

But I did get a lot of good information out of it. It did give a vague idea about the cruise, but I'd really love to read the log books of day to day activities and cruise details.

In perusing other log books, I was amazed at how many court martials there were.
 
FDR

Tom,

I'm using it in P3D V4.5 - the markings on the flight deck are a bit blurred out of focus (edges of lines) at least for me.



Capture.jpg



When comparing the flight deck stripes to the "42" looks crisp and clear whereas the stripes look a bit blurry.
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