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[cuccos19]

As one of the most important Finnish stock (and mod, too) campaign fighter, the Brewster B-239 would deserve a much refined 3D, I think. It is a very pleasant aircraft to fly, and surprisingly effective in combat, too. It would be so nice to update this birdy for "today's standard".

[Herra Tohtori]

Well, there isn't much that should be changed. Most of the pertinent details seem to be modeled more or less correctly. It's obviously based on same model as the F2A-2 but it seems like the parts that make if a B-239 instead are all there.

Perhaps the spinner could be a bit sharper, and the details for machine gun bulges on the wings could be refined.



This is the F2A-1 ortho drawing, which was the basis for B-239 (most modifications are not apparent externally). The bottom window was apparently either painted over or covered/replaced with sheet metal on Finnish Brewsters. And the exhausts were not on the sides of the nose, but rather under the engine cowling.




This image seems to illustrate differences between different F2A models.



Exhausts well visible here.

[cuccos19]

Well, I didn't really ment to change it's basic form, rather refine the still existing very rough stock version to a nice and smooth one. Like the Bf-109s, or the MiG-3 is a very good example, beautiful 3D work on it especially comparing to the (terrible) stock one. The worst part of the stock version B-239 is maybe the spinner and engine/engine cowling. It's simply not round, still looks like the original in 2003.

[HotelAlpha]

I agree with Herra. I guess a nice Brewster skin of the Finnish AF in HD would make the necessary "Improvements", as well as the Spiner fix 

[cuccos19]

I don't thinks so, sorry. Look at these, the stock version's spinner, propeller feather's "root"/joint and the shaft is terribly ugly. Square everywhere, not round. The engine maybe can refine with a better skin, but the others, I doubt it.

Anyway I think it was first (Forgotten Battles, 2003), and the F2A-2 and British/Dutch B-339/Buffalo came with Pacific Fighters (2004).

[Herra Tohtori]

Well as always with requests - if you ask for something, you should provide some references. In this case, it would be good to show some pictures of the areas you think are lacking in detail, so that someone with skill in modeling doesn't need to scour the internet for that information.

PA_Jeronimo might be interested in looking at possible upgrade of the B-239 as part of his project to improve engines, cowlings and propellers.

The changes in the nose area should probably include following:

-better rounding
-tighter fit between engine cowling and the main fuselage (in the images, it fits pretty flush with the fuselage)
-slightly different position and size of exhausts
-more detailed machine gun ports and carburettor air intake on the top of the engine cowling
-correct propeller spinner (slightly smaller, round, and more pointy)
-correct propeller (blades, hub, and drive shaft)
-more detailed engine (Wright R-1820-G5)

Other possible issues worth addressing:

-wing profile (very flat upside of the wing in current model; I don't know the exact wing profile, but the shape of the aerofoil's upper surface should be visible here - these are F2A-2 / B-339 model, but they used the same wing)



-wing root / fuselage joint (more detail in conjunction with improved wing profile)

-wing machine gun bulges (just need a bit more detail)

-presence of gunsight in the cockpit for the external model

You can see a lot of details in this video:



The rest of the aircraft - overall shape of fuselage, cockpit canopy, etc -is more or less right. Granted it could always be "rounder" and smoother, but changing the shape significantly like that would basically require re-doing the whole aircraft's texture mapping and getting that to match with the original skin mapping would be a challenge to say the least.

[cuccos19]

Huh, well... as I didn't really thought a big change only some "smoothening", I didn't searched for reference. But now - I didn't even remembered - I found a complete book about Finnish Brewster on my HDD (and some other Brewster "Buffalo" books too). I cannot find it's DL link now, but if someone needs, I will send it in email. Tomorrow I will find some pictures, too.

[Herra Tohtori]

Huh, well... as I didn't really thought a big change only some "smoothening", I didn't searched for reference. But now - I didn't even remembered - I found a complete book about Finnish Brewster on my HDD (and some other Brewster "Buffalo" books too). I cannot find it's DL link now, but if someone needs, I will send it in email. Tomorrow I will find some pictures, too.

Well there's no easy way to just do some smoothing on an existing 3D model, because that would require basically doing subdivide on the whole mesh and then manually adjusting vertices so that the overall shape becomes smoother... it's probably easier to model the whole part anew, using the old model as initial reference and pictures of the real thing to put the details in correctly.

Good example would be the cowling machine gun ports - they're raised in the XF2A-1 and B-239 models, and flush with engine cowling in the later models (F2A-2, B-339). The exhaust placement with the B-239's Wright R-1820-G5 export engine is also a relevant detail, I don't think it's quite right in the current model.

Details! Isn't that the whole point of a request like this? It's much more likely that some of the skilled artisans of SAS1946 will be willing to tackle the task if the makers of the request provide as much information as possible and outline the reasons for the request.

[cuccos19]

Okay, so here is the book about the Finnish Brewsters, plenty pictures, even good pictures from Finnish pilot gear/suit.

Suomen Ilmavoimien Historia 01 - Brewster model 239
Brewster F2A Buffalo Aces of World War 2 (Osprey Aircraft of the Aces 91)
The Brewster Buffalo (Profile Publications Number 217)
Aero Journal Hors-Serie ? 7 - 2004 - Brewster Buffalo
F2A Buffalo (Monografie Lotnicze 10)
Kagero Monografie 02 - Brewster F2A
Squadron Signal in Action 81 - Brewster F2A Buffalo

If I find more I will put it here.

[Mick]

... please be aware that changing the 3D modelling of a plane sometimes means putting all previously released skins directly in the trash bin ... 

This was the case for ex with JapanCat's new Zero 3D ...

[cuccos19]

Ahm, yes it can be an issue. I don't know how others play, I usually pick one skin, or using the "basic" one (stock or what comes with new modded aircraft, summer/winter/desert), they are usually fine. I try to minimize the size of the game, and using Modact and only those aircrafts, what are "close to my heart". That's also stand for the skins, very few aircraft where I have more than two (but most of them have empty skin folder). I rather a pilot skin fancy guy, mostly every nations have better pilot skins than the stock one, unfortunatelly the Finnish pilots are stock ones, I couldn't find better skins for them.

[Herra Tohtori]

... please be aware that changing the 3D modelling of a plane sometimes means putting all previously released skins directly in the trash bin ... 

This was the case for ex with JapanCat's new Zero 3D ...

Yes, that's the case with a major re-modeling that includes a completely new UV map. If it's more like the engines, cowlings and propellers upgrade project or the updated Bf 109s project, then typically the old textures will have compatible mapping.