Martin P4M-1/1Q Mercator for FS9

Very nice airplane, Dave! Launched out of Palwaukee Airport (KPWK) and cruised around northern Illinois. Flies well, nice detail, good paint jobs. Also liked the model options for straight patrol bomber or the Q-bird versions.
 
Definately a keeper... An excellent "pilot's" airplane with lots of power and superb endurance. Nice, clean factory fresh paints to boot! Everything you need for those early morning sub patrols, or just a joy ride in a big heavy bird. Great job, Dave!! :medals:

BB686:USA-flag:
 
Nice looking bird (I didn't realize the Merc had a reverse gull wing). Handles well - big, solid feel yet pretty quick for something this size. Jet engines make a considerable difference during takeoff runs and when extra speed is needed; this was well-modeled. Paint jobs are outstanding. All in all, an excellent product!!:salute:
 
Not to mention the impressive sound... crank up the volume! This bird has two P&W 4360 Wasp Major "corn cob" engines cranking out about 3000 HP each. You can feel the power through the seat if you get it up loud enough.:isadizzy: What a beast! :applause::applause::applause:

BB686:USA-flag:
 
David, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU! for the Mercator. :salute:

I've been pining for one every time a "what-would-you-like-to-see-in-FS9?" thread was started. Finally, we have one!

It will likely be a while before I can install it, but I wanted you to know we all appreciate your undertaking.

- h52
 
All I gotta say is: HOLY CRAP SO MUCH POWER WHEN JETS RUNNING ARGLBRLG

Seriously. 200kts ten seconds after takeoff. That's some mean sprint speed. I love it.
 
I believe the origional designed roles for the Mercator included mine laying and anti ship torpedo attacks so the sprint capabillity was built in from the start. I imagine the extra power was much appreciated when taking off laden with fuel and loads of heavy electronic gear.
 
harrybasset said:
I believe the origional designed roles for the Mercator included mine laying and anti ship torpedo attacks so the sprint capabillity was built in from the start. I imagine the extra power was much appreciated when taking off laden with fuel and loads of heavy electronic gear.
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Exactly so. The idea in 1944 was for a patrol bomber with the speed and firepower to survive in heavily contested air space around the home islands in the planned invasion of Nippon (OLYMPIC/CORONET). Jets had the speed, but not the range early on- the early centrifugal turbojets were notorious fuel hogs, hence a whole spate of composite power projects instigated at the behest of the USN- Mercator, Fireball, XF15C, Savage ect. The cruise-dash dichotomy also extended to some airframe design compromises in the Mercators wing in the use of 2 different airfoil sections for the inboard and outboard sections, giving rise to the unusual kink in the wing, and some demanding stall behaviour as a result. The Navy sure got tremendous value out of the 19 aircraft built, and the type had a much lower loss rate than the other P- ships flying ELINT missions, amazing considering the Mercators got to do the real hairy jobs like tickling the PVO-STRANY over Ukraine from the Black Sea, or into beehives like Vladivostok and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy.
For more reading on the type

http://www.scribd.com/doc/78712872/Naval-Fighters-37-Martin-P4M-1-Mercator

Mr. Wooster, thank you so very much. The Mercator has long been a type of great interest, and your model looks and flys just great in FSX. I'm enjoying her enormously.
 
Quite! Remember the electronics they were carrying were the old vacuum-tubed electronics, with all the added weight of the installation plus spares - and the heat dumping problem as well.

Haven't read the attachment from the previous contributer yet, however, I know P2Vs worked on concert with RB-29s and RB-50s around the PRC and Eastern Soviet Union. Part of the drill called for the AF bird to make the low-level penetration to tickle the air defense net while the P2 hid off the coast recording the emissions and other by-products. My stuff is still in storage in Bwk or I could provide a better source. Regardless, it was demanding flying of the highest order on the part of the elint birds.:salute:
 
Revised dark sea blue

View attachment 66643
Mr. Wooster had asked me earlier today to upload a revised texture set with an alternative mix of the USN dark sea blue. This one has been a pain in the @$$ for modelers for years, as photographic representation changes dramaticly depending on the color, black & white or achromatic film stock, and ambient light. Usually, the blue is represented as a 'navy'blue, which is rather dark and too blue. One of the better scale representations is from the testors model masters range, and IPMS Red-Blue-Green formula; which is significanly lighter, greyer, with more green and less blue and red. This can be seen to good effect in 'Blue Angels' blue, originally a 60-40ish mix of dark sea blue and insignia white. Its still pretty subjective, depending on monitor and graphics card too. So I knocked up a set of textures from Davids original Mercator set, using the IPMS RGB values as a start point, and did each in a slightly different tone or shade to see what a good median is before going into more detail on some re-paints later -I'd like to see what can be done with some panel detail, stencils ect, maybe some 'whiffs' . There is also an extra quickie skin for 121451, the first P4M-1 after the 2 XP4M's, as she was on her first flight in 1949. The textures are saved in DXT3, no MIPS, and a gyppo thumbnail added for the FSX users. View attachment 66642
 
lazarus said:
View attachment 66643
Mr. Wooster had asked me earlier today to upload a revised texture set with an alternative mix of the USN dark sea blue. This one has been a pain in the @$$ for modelers for years, as photographic representation changes dramaticly depending on the color, black & white or achromatic film stock, and ambient light. Usually, the blue is represented as a 'navy'blue, which is rather dark and too blue. One of the better scale representations is from the testors model masters range, and IPMS Red-Blue-Green formula; which is significanly lighter, greyer, with more green and less blue and red. This can be seen to good effect in 'Blue Angels' blue, originally a 60-40ish mix of dark sea blue and insignia white. Its still pretty subjective, depending on monitor and graphics card too. So I knocked up a set of textures from Davids original Mercator set, using the IPMS RGB values as a start point, and did each in a slightly different tone or shade to see what a good median is before going into more detail on some re-paints later -I'd like to see what can be done with some panel detail, stencils ect, maybe some 'whiffs' . There is also an extra quickie skin for 121451, the first P4M-1 after the 2 XP4M's, as she was on her first flight in 1949. The textures are saved in DXT3, no MIPS, and a gyppo thumbnail added for the FSX users.
View attachment 66642
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Just a couple of comments about the color Dark Sea Blue. First, Blue Angels Blue is a completely different color, specially developed for the Blue Angels (hence the name "Blue Angels Blue.") It's much lighter and brighter than Dark Sea Blue. It has no relevance whatsoever to a discussion of Dark Sea Blue.

Second, Dark Sea Blue weathered in sunlight, drastically if exposed long enough, so if it was out in the sun for a very long time would get much lighter, duller and grayer. The color in your textures looks like a very close match for the color I saw and photographed on the FJ-1 Fury and HO3S at the New England Air Museum before they were restored, when they'd been sitting in outdoor storage in direct sunlight for thirty or forty years. Operational planes didn't look anything like that. Due to their being operated in highly corrosive, salty sea air, naval aircraft finishes were always carefully maintained and would never have faded anywhere near that much during a plane's active service life. Dark Sea Blue might have been a bit less blue than the original textures (or not, depending on your monitor settings,) but it was a real dark blue, not a washed-out medium gray.

For an excellent, accurate example of Dark Sea Blue, look at the samples provided in the color plates in Volumes Two, Three (and Four?) of Maj. John Elliott's excellent series, "The Official Monogram U.S. Navy & Marine Corps Color Guide." Elliott is regarded by historians as the most authoritative source of color and markings information on U.S. Navy and Marines aircraft. He went to a lot of trouble to produce highly accurate color information for the plates in his books, and Monogram went to a lot of trouble to render those plates accurately. You can rely on the accuracy of those plates. And if you look at the Dark Sea Blue plate and at David's textures, you've got better eyes than me if you can spot any difference. (Again, with the possible exception of possible slight differences due to monitor settings.)

While it's true that this color was a pain to modelers for years, it's not any more. Major Elliott has done the heavy lifting and shared the results of his research with us, so now all we have to do is pick up his books and look it up. I know and respect the IPMS as a generally reliable source of information (though they are far from perfect) but you can take this to the bank: if John Elliott and IPMS disagree about something to do with U.S. Navy or Marine Corps aircraft colors and markings, then Elliott is right and IPMS is wrong.
 
201 Hits!! I TOLD folks this bird would be noticed. [/QUOTE said:
Not to mention another 781 downloads from FlightSim.com

By the end of the day there might be over 1000 downloads between the two sites.
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