To conclude this special week - and till another one soon
another plane is taking off under Spanish skies (and other too as some of the versions included here like Turret M Ba65 never served in Spain).
3dModel and Java Files: Dreamk
The default skin is mine (and I'm really not a good skinner) - Nashprod has been ill these last days, so skins will need to wait till is he feeling better - we all wish him all the best and to return fast to full health
Download at:
http://ifolder.ru/27880535or
https://www.mediafire.com/?ym7wimyc61uh6q2(updated 29/12/11 - All the updates are now included in this main download)
7 versions are included: Ba65 K14 monoposto, biposto, Arcone L and Turret M, Ba65 A80 monoposto, Arcone L and Turret M
In order to add the 7 aircraft, add to the air.ini file:
Ba65A80ArconeL air.Ba65AA NOINFO i01 SUMMER
Ba65K14ArconeL air.Ba65AK NOINFO i01 SUMMER
Ba65A80TurretM air.Ba65TA NOINFO i01 SUMMER
Ba65K14TurretM air.Ba65TK NOINFO i01 SUMMER
Ba65A80Monoplace air.Ba65AM NOINFO i01 SUMMER
Ba65K14Monoplace air.Ba65KM NOINFO i01 SUMMER
Ba65K14BiplaceEarly air.Ba65KB NOINFO i01 SUMMER
if you want, you can after that add to the plane_ru.properties file the following lines:
Ba65K14ArconeL Breda 65 K14 Arcone L, 1936
Ba65A80ArconeL Breda 65 A80 Arcone L, 1936
Ba65K14TurretM Breda 65 K14 Turreta M, 1936
Ba65A80TurretM Breda 65 A80 Turreta M, 1937
Ba65A80Monoplace Breda 65 A80 Monoposto, 1937
Ba65K14Monoplace Breda 65 K14 Monoposto, 1936
Ba65K14BiplaceEarly Breda 65 K14 Biposto, 1936
The mod is a 4.10 one and uses DiffM
As always cockpit specialists and FM gurus are wellcome to try their hand at improving this plane - no need to ask permisison for that.
I hope to have now eliminated all the bugs but the problem of "solitary modding" is that one does't always pay attention to minor bugs
There are also 2 minor 3D mistakes that I will correct only after I get adequate documentation - the Turret M seems to have been asymetrical and not symetrical - I received just yesterday a photo of such a turret but on a Ba 65 prototype - I need still to check what was exactly its shape on the K14 and A80. Similarly the A80 Arcone seems to have been equiped more frequently with an Arcone O than wity an Arcone L, with the gunner seated and not standing and the gun base position raised so as to enable to rear part of the gunner position to be covered by a metallic sheet. I began all these mod by following the material in the Ali d'Italia Ba65 book - a lavish book, high printing quality - but a lousy source of badly refurbished information - till I put a hand on an old article in Aerofan on the Ba65A80 and on part of the original "catologo nomenclature" of the Ba65A80 Arcone.
If someone has a copy of the "Ba65 e aviazione d'assalto" or of the original italian manuals "catologo" or "instruzioni" for the various plane - I'd appreciate a scan of the pages dealing with these tureets and the adjacent fuselage section.
The canopy struts also seem to have been a little less heavy than previously thought - I will probably update them soon, and then introduce also the slight variation often seen in the moving blister foreward struts.
Ba65 Take off instructions:
This plane was
nose heavy with bad forward view from the cockpit and a relatively low power engine. This made often take off and landing with these planes a quite interesting experience - to say the least - On the K14 there was more torque than on the A80.
The aircraft was very heavy and with full load it was difficult to take off and quite difficult to climb. I have tried to model all these:
Once again, taking off from concrete runways is easier than from grass lanstrips. Try to learn from the the AI taking off.
Open the cockpit before taking off, you'll get a better view and it will be easier to take off.
To take off push your throttle slowly till 40% - if you push too fast or too high you'll find yourself on your nose. Let your aircraft run and take speed, increasing the throttle progressively. Correct the torque effects on the rudder and by pushing the stick slightly forward and towards right. Your plane will take off by itself after a suitable run - for a fully loaded turreted Ba65 or even a fully loaded Arcone L Ba65 you'll need the full length of runway and sometimes may be even more if the runway is short (or to take off with a reduced bombload, as in historic reality).
In air trim your plane adequately. remember, that the plane was intended to be a level bomber, a reco plane and an heavy fighter. And without bomb it can really act as a fighter. But as a fully loaded bomber it lacks engine power.
Look at the AI piloted aircraft to learn about the abilities and limitations of the various versions.
If you have a bombdoors mode that you need to activate, remeber that you need to open the bombay doors before bombing.
The dive bombing was an experiment in Spain with installation of underwings bomb racks (due to the structure of the bomb bays you cannot used the internal bombload in dive bombing).
The mod includes more historically correct Italian ordnance and a tentative to improve the existing Spezzionera - Now that at last I have got the original documentation for the various kinds of Spezzoniere, it's obvious that more work still needs to be done (3d and Java) till, we have real Spezzionere in Il2 - but this will need first some thinking about how to do it.
One last word:
This mod has its own story - the initial idea was to import the wonderful Ba65a80 created by Manuele Villa for FS2004/FSX - Manuele very kindly gave me his formal agreement to do that - however when looking at Manuele's model, I let myself being misled by info spread by "some well known source" to think that this model was beyond Il2 limitations and requirements.
I know now that it was a mistake - I could have imported it (and may be I'll do it at some point as a "high quality upgrade") - Lesson: in Il2 modding, never trust people who tell you "don't" till you don't check by yourself.
I went then to check whether I could import the freeware William Dickens' older FS2004 model - but his model had 3d problems and at the end of the day it was easier to create from scratch, and in the same run then add the other versions that never have been yet modelled. However their models was an inspiration and I used them all along as a 3d reference to check each of my steps. It was an invaluable help.and they deserve credits.
This package is freeware.
This software may be freely used, copied and distributed with the following restrictions:
1) The 2 readme files document must be included in any redistribution.
2) DO NOT place these files anywhere that requires a fee for downloading.
3) DO NOT place any of these files in any commercial package or any CD collection without the authors consent.
Theses files should not cause any problems with your computer, but we accept no responsibility if you think it does.
Thanks to Oleg Maddox and Qtim for creating Il2 and opening the gates to Mod creation, to Kumpel for his matrix tool, and thanks to SAS for enabling modders to share their knowledge on Il2 modding.
Create!
Enjoy
Update log
First update 25/12/11- it appears that in most cases the bombs appeared as US bombs instead of Italian bombs - Here are the corrected java classes for the 7 planes, enabling to display the correct ordnance
If you have downloaded the Ba65 before the 25/12/11, copy the files contained in this archive in your Ba65 directory, they will crush the former classes.
Ba65_Update1.rar
https://www.mediafire.com/?oj6qm9823eng08e
or
http://ifolder.ru/27796262Update Number 2
The Ba65 A80 versions have now front edge slats, as was historically the case, activated together with the flaps.
Copy the files (meshes, him and java files) to your Ba65 directory (respecting the files locations present in the archive) Ba65_Update2.rar:
http://ifolder.ru/27830454
or
https://www.mediafire.com/?d911rko89rr3o6m3dfix 27/12/11
Corrected Mgun hooks entry on the new wing file
Put these corrected Mesh files in your Ba65/3do/plane/ba65 folder
http://ifolder.ru/27858495