…for which people can now be very glad, because it means no more seabird related puns for a while.
Under the new “MSFS Scenery” tab on the top toolbar (or more directly here) you will find a download page and some screenshots for RNAS Twatt, where I have given up tinkering and poking and decided to set it loose on an unsuspecting world.
I’ve also uploaded it to flightsim.to, but whether they’ll approve it or not, I cannot say, with that name attached!
Enjoy, ignore, be sarcastic about and/or tell your friends about, as you will.
In association with this release, the scenery libraries page now also has links to the MSFS libraries required to see and use Twatt properly, but that’s still under the FSX/P3D tab at present. I shall sort that out as soon as I have more time.
Tag: WW2
Tern, Tern Again…
Finished? No. Not quite . Quite a lot of it still needs poking, prodding and generally tweaking, but it’s reached a point where I think it’s worth letting other people who might be interested have a poke at it themselves again, as well.
Continue reading “Tern, Tern Again…”‘Tern’ing Over a New Page
Following on from the previous post and some natter on both Twitter and the Dreamsofwings Discord, I’ve uploaded a new “buildings complete, some other gubbins” build of HMS Tern / RNAS Twatt in Orkney for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 (not FSX/P3D), which is now available via this link.
Please be advised, however, that because this includes all the models I’ve converted so far (whether used in this scenery or not), all the vehicle models that stiz has kindly updated with new materials and made a bit smoother for me (whether used in this scenery or not), the file size is “quite big”.
Because this isn’t a release and there are still a number of outstanding problems with the scenery that are bugging me, I won’t go into detail on the airfield, its origins, use or much else right now, but it’s hopefully the first of a few. Possibly not as many as I did for FSX/P3D, though, I’m afraid. Plus SODE doesn’t yet work in MSFS (due to Microsoft/Asobo’s decisions) and I can’t yet make a SimObject do what I want it to myself. That’s one of the things I’m working on for X6TW.
Ah… Blutions!
I nearly entitled this blog entry “Battle of the Bogs”, but it wouldn’t be entirely accurate, as the problem I’m having right now isn’t the lavatories – I’ve got them (everywhere…) – it’s the washing, brushing and showering bits – in military parlance, the “ablutions”.
Continue reading “Ah… Blutions!”Lest We Forget
It’s easy to let it slip the mind, while we discuss mid-20th-Century combat aircraft and places to fly them to and from, that these places were born of necessity and were the places that many lived, fought from and died at, or flying to and from, in the real world.
This week marks the 75th anniversary of “The Longest Day”, 6th June 1944, when Allied troops landed in Normandy, France, to begin the liberation of Western Europe from its German occupiers.
I hesitate to use this as a reason to make a political statement, but as the world lurches back towards nationalism and isolationism in the early 21st Century, please, take a moment. Remember why these places existed, what those beliefs have created in the past and remember those who put their lives on the line, many of whom never made it back home, to give you the freedom to make these choices today.
Many thanks to Spencer Trickett of Skytoons Aviation Art for permission to post his D-Day commemorative image here.
Morris at the Gym?
It’s been a while since I posted anything again, so here’s a quick update; mainly about WW2 Halfpenny Green and trucks… Because I never mention them, right?
Halfpenny Green first. I’ve been working on the domestic side of the road again, this time adding the still-extant Gym/Church (Dwg 16428/40+15424/41) to the layout.
As you might expect from me, this led on to other things, including a Cinema 8891/42 and the whole set of a
16428/40+15434/41+8891/42. These are now in the IJP_WW2_RAF_Domestic library, in both brick and rendered versions, along with the also still extant Squash Court 16589/40.
I still need to do the WAAF Ablution block (16339/41?) and Standby Set House (unknown drawing number) which are on the farm site, plus the Petrol Pumphouse, Batmens Quarters and Officers’ Mess, all of which are also still extant on site but on local drawing numbers which no-one seems to have, unfortunately. At some point, I need to go and beg the campsite owner to let me hunt for traces of the timber construction Sick Quarters, but the rest of the extant buildings are on the farm site. I also need to approach airfield management for permission to get to the outside of the cinema (which is a VERY unstable ruin) to see what I can photograph and work out of that, as it bears no dimensional comparison to any of the cinema drawings I’m aware of. It’s too fat and too long!
The other thing I set out to do was that I found a nice photo of a USAAF runway control vehicle based on a Morris GS8 4×2 15cwt truck chassis, which I thought would make a nice change from the generic towed caravan that I put everywhere using SODE. I haven’t made the RWC vehicle yet, because I got a bit sidetracked… By General Service Open, Covered and cab roof versions, along with all three models including Explosive Ordnance Disposal red mud guards.
Excuse all the extra white space, please – the system currently has two screens attached and it seems to be confusing my graphics packages.
Anyway. These are currently only in “Mickey Mouse Ears” camo (c1 in my model nomenclature) apart from one test EOD vehicle in Royal Navy blue for HMS Tern/RNAS Voldemort (“The Airfield That Shall Not Be Named!”). These have their own “IJP_WW2_RAF_MorrisVehicles” library, as there are more Morris models to come and RAFVehicles is getting really rather overloaded! Should I break that up into smaller libraries, bundle them all together, or leave it as it is? You tell me! 🙂
A Little Detour to Little Walden
Not content with releasing one scenery today, I’ve also uploaded Little Walden in Essex, which was used by both the 8th and 9th Air Forces, both as a bomber and fighter station. This high usage was in spite of the fact that it was one of the last airfields constructed during the war. It can be found here.
Raydon Redone and Re-uploaded!
The airfield that I was due to release before the whole mess with the Contact Form kicked off, RAF Raydon v2 is described as “Raydon Redone” for the simple reason that it has been. Completely, from the ground up, over a scan of a period Aerodrome Reference Plan.
Following a brief period under the auspices of the 9th Air Force, Raydon (Station 157) was passed to the 8th Air Force and the 353rd Fighter Group, who remained there until the end of hostilities in Europe. It’s now available under Flight Simulator / Historical / USAAF on the top bar of the site and includes SODE controlled objects, as well as a simple AI flight plan using the A2A WoP3 P-51D Mustang.
RAF Banff Version 1.0 Release
It’s been a while coming, but I have finally uploaded Version 1.0 of my RAF Banff scenery, which can be found for download here or via the top menu bar under Flight Simulator / Historical / RAF Airfields.
Banff was home to a Mosquito Strike Wing of Coastal Command, operating against shipping and shoreline (primarily) targets across the North Sea and Norway. Situated a very short distance inland from the Moray Firth, this scenery includes many new custom objects, as well as SODE integration and a mesh blend file, to avoid cliffs around the aerodrome. Therefore, there are a couple of new library downloads to go with this.
Ian Elliot’s Matching Scenery
Not one of mine, this time, but there’s a new scenery now available to download for the WW2 collection: RAF Matching Green (USAAF Station 161) by Ian Elliot.
Home to the 391st Bombardment Group’s B-26 Marauders, a model for which is coming along nicely by Milton Shupe and associates, Ian’s scenery for Matching uses all the libraries available here and can be downloaded from the file library at Sim-Outhouse (free login required).
You can find the discussion thread for Ian’s scenery at the SOH forums here and the B-26 thread can be found here.