Silly-billy Author’s note: Yes, this page originally said that the He111H-3 was made by Aeroplane Heaven when yes, it’s Virtavia. The forthcoming AH model is a P and not out yet to use as AI for screenshots. I shall repeatedly call myself a Muppet on the reader’s and developers’ behalf.
Having seen it more times than I’d care to remember, I am more than aware that in the film Battle of Britain, they were actually Dorniers that had been spotted by the two boys standing on the muddy banks of the receded Thames. In this case, however, they really are ‘Einkels – or Heinkels – in the guise of He 111 H-3s made by Virtavia, operating out of Lille-Nord airfield in Northern France, which I have finally got sort-of-ready for release for FSX. It also works in P3D (including v4) and all the screenshots shown in this thread were taken using Orbx scenery.
The actual residents of Lille-Nord, now known as Marcq-en-Baroeul and an operational GA airport using the Southern part of the WW2 site, were the Stabschwarm and three Gruppen of Kampfgeschwader 53, the ‘Condor Legion’, who used the grass airfield for the period covered by the aforementioned film before being moved back East for Operation Barbarossa.
I’ve been looking for a bomber field that I can do for some considerable time, but all the ones I have been able to track down have either been modern airports (Amsterdam Schipol, anyone?) or I’ve been unable to find any trace of them at all. Using a number of resources, I managed to track down Marcq-en-Baroeul as being the elusive place I was looking for, after which I tried to work out what it would have looked like and failed miserably, which is why this one has been in the pipeline for so long.
It still isn’t ready for release, really. There are a number of minor glitches, although I’m working through them as I find answers, and it’s fully working in the sim. I want to have it finished by the time the Aeroplane Heaven He111P is released, even though I’m not aware of any units with P models ever having based there. Like I said, finding information about these things is a lot easier said than done.
Anyway. Why am I writing this long spiel, if it’s not ready for release? Well the answer to that is twofold: One, to post some piccies of how the airfield stands at present, so people who have better resources than me can tell me how wrong I got it. Two, so I can take a deep breath and list all the stuff that I have been putting through Blender, specifically for this airfield. I’ll do the second one, first, because you know, that’s logical.
First up comes one big scenery object – a blast pen big enough to protect a medium bomber. This is the first scenery object I have tried to texture using Allegorithmic’s “Substance” software and I’m not entirely happy with it, so expect a rework, but it is in ‘as is’, right now.
What about vehicles, seeing as that’s what I spend most of my life researching and modelling? Well there are only really two new ones, although there are two more in the pipeline, they might not make this release. First though, we have a repaint; the Germans captured a significant number of British vehicles following the Dunkirk evacuation and, like most people, put them to good use. Therefore, I’ve splattered Dunkelgrau all over the Morris CS, seen here next to Lille-Nord’s ‘petite’ repair hangar.
The two new ones really are German vehicles. The Krupp-Protze Kfz.70 6×4 light truck is best known as a tractor and support vehicle for light Flak and AT guns, but versions of it were also used as troop carriers, plus I have seen photos of them used as aircraft tractors (presumably in an emergency) and the Luftwaffe used them extensively as light transports and ‘crew buses’. They also look quite unique, so are an interesting vehicle to model. I’ve done three; open, closed and one with a MG mount and the MG34 model from the Zundapp motorcycle and sidecar. The open one is visible in the following shot, but the closed and MG variants are also shown, they’re just hiding in the background.
Next to the Krupp-Protze in that shot is the other new vehicle, the Mercedes L1500A 4×4 squad transport – also a Kfz.70 type vehicle, used as a staff car by everyone and again as a crew transport by the Luftwaffe. There’s only an “open” variant of that at the moment, because, quite frankly, the closed canopy looks like a four year old modelled it, even before I make it look worse!
Both of the new trucks are available in Dunkelgrau (Dark Grey) and Sandgrau (Sand Grey) for all four variants.
Next up, we have what is helpfully described by my Blender development folder as “Gubbins and Miscellaneous Junk”! It’s actually my attempt to create ‘scatter’ objects, as I mentioned regarding Hunsdon in my previous post – but this time, it’s German Gubbins and Miscellaneous Junk.
Stripey Sentry Box. It had to be done, didn’t it. Also note that I did remember to turn the sign (and the AO render) around from the British versions, because of driving on the other side of the road.
Lots of Gubbins and one of my purchased mesh Opel Blitz trucks, which will hopefully soon get some compatriots in the load carrying role. I still need to work out what to do as an airfield fire truck, though.
To be honest, that’s about it for new stuff, so I’ll just put the rest of the screenshots of the airfield as it stands here and go back to trying to work out whether the Luftwaffe actually bothered with ground signals, or whether they just used radios to control departures and arrivals. This is proving even more difficult to find out than bomber stations that didn’t become International Airports!
I’ll stop rambling now. All the aircraft seen in these shots are the Virtavia He111H, which is proving to not be too bad as an AI model at all, if you can ignore the vapour trails from the wingtips which seem to be a permanent addition whenever they move.
