B24D Project for IL2
 

Since a few of us started working on the B24D we figured we'd post our progress thus far.

I would like to stress that the B24D will not be included in 4.11.

One of the default Skins
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1..._Render_01.jpg

Bombardier and Navigator Station
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...24D_99_WIP.jpg

Waist Position
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...03_2011_06.png

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...03_2011_05.png

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...03_2011_04.png

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...03_2011_03.png

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...03_2011_02.png

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...03_2011_01.png

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...03_2011_00.png

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...From_Waist.png

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...Wip_75_New.png

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...Wip_73_New.png

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...ist_Wip_57.png

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...ist_Wip_56.png


Ball Turret WIP
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...03_2011_07.png

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...03_2011_06.png

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...03_2011_05.png

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...03_2011_04.png

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...03_2011_02.png

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...03_2011_01.png

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...03_2011_00.png

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...01_2011_05.png

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...01_2011_02.png

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...01_2011_01.png

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...01_2011_00.png

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...o_06_27_00.png


Top Turret
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...rtin1Jul11.jpg

Part 1

Part II

Consolidated Turret
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...A1Jul11Top.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...1Jul11Top1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...Jul11Right.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...1Jul11Left.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...1Jul11Back.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...Jul11Back1.jpg

Cockpit
As soon as we have something we are happy with we will update this post.

Great!!!
 

Looking good. thx.

Looks awesome! Keep up the good work!

Wow!!!!!

Looking great.

Can't wait to fly her.

Far Out man!

Awesome!

Omg!!!!! Great work!

looking gooood?
Its looking truly amaizing!!! !!! !!!

Absolutely fantastic work!

cheers,
vils

Wow! Very good details on that plane. Thank you.

Love the update. Keep up the great work Guse! :)

Can we have a B-26 instead? ;)

Seriously 'Guse, I know how long you have been working on this and the attention to detail is incredible. Who'd ever think this would be such an all encompassing hobby?

Back to the post, brilliant work and progress, keep drinking the coffee and remember, there is a life outside of IL2 and work.......same as you though, I think I've lost sight of it now ;)

Cheers, MP

LoL! You added the ball casting seam hardware.

Stop before you blow a gasket ;)

Howdy Buster


Glad you stopped by. I like the seams myself ...

:shock: That's detail!

Obviously you guys share a vision for a realistic B-24D model.

You are on track!

I am looking forward to flying with you guys in missions with this beauty! :mrgreen:




Fireskull

B-24d
 

Wow Monguse, looks like pictures from the official handbook, truly amazing. :)

Looks like I might be updating my manual after all. :)

The slowest part of all this is doing research.

Mapping/texturing is a close cousin.

I like the "aging" on the walkways btw.

Does this project include a possible B-24J flyable in game as well?

Thanks for your work and dedication. It looks quite incredible.

B24J .... in due time. I have to focus on this one project.

Thanks again guys

Thank you so much. If I can help you anyway (creation of missions for example) don't hesitate to ask.

Amazing work looks amazing will look forward to this plane being added. well done

Excellent news, and great work. I see that you are still working on the pit and tail-gunner's station, but what else will you have to do to finish? (FM, external 3d changes, other detials, etc)

This will fill a lot of gaps, and will make a nice playmate for the Pe-8 ;)

good work! :-P i hope they let you put it into il2 1946

Team D not only will "let" it be put in, they support the effort.

[QUOTE=Romanator21;305893]Excellent news, and great work. I see that you are still working on the pit and tail-gunner's station
QUOTE]

What do you mean? You saw the tail turret.

As to the 'pit: there is one, but it is in pieces at the moment (new seats and panel).

Since I'm not a programmer (just a model/texture guy), I can't speak to the timeline. I also can't guess what the impact will be when the accuracy bug clamps onto Monguse. I'm an accuracy hound, but he's from another universe :)

No way I ever wanted to know this much about an airplane.

Ok, yes, I thought I was still looking at the top turret :-P So, one station left, that's not bad at all.

Keep at it then. From personal experience, it's easy to get discouraged or bogged down in details when modeling in 3D. That MiG-15 in Blender still is just a fuselage and wing ;)

My fault really: I could only pass on one pic of Martin. Several pits are very old projects, and it took jumping in with Monguse to get them going again. The Martin was "complete," but at about 6k polys, it needed liposuction. After cutting so much away, the mapping made no sense, and that's what I'm redoing.

Before I suffocate your hopes with excuses, you should know that Monguse completely built the waist (ain't it sweet), and completely rebuilt my old ball (you're seeing mostly his work now) in the time it took me to make the tail turret. The nose is all his work. I had a very, very rough J nose that I abandoned when I saw his.

I think there's hope :)

Sorry for shanghaiing the thread.

Impressive!!

Fantastic work guys!!!:cool::cool:

any news?)

Yes we are still working on it and has not been abandoned.

i remember monguse is a good man and developed much much skin italian and american yes now i not stay in hyperlobby because jirifojtasek banned me in permanent mode but i remember all this pilots.b24 and b26 working also in italy.
http://digilander.libero.it/edi68/b26a.jpg
B26 marauder wing dammage continue to fly photo in italy.
http://www.ww2incolor.com/d/449571-2/B+26+Marauder

Looking good. thx.:-P

will the new flyable B24D be in a Official Release 4.12 etc ...

The way I think is up with TD in patch 4.11, It should be release in 4.12, But first whoever worked in the B-24D, Very awesome and great job, now try to contact TD for the B-24D in the game.

The guys working on the 24D know the folks at TD, it's a small community after all.

;)

It has Team D support. Monguse and I are both in contact with them. If you're wondering, I'm the hold-up :) I'm fighting with the Martin at the moment.

Pit is last on list. I have one, but it's rough compared to the bar Monguse set.

We'll get it sorted. I'm new-ish at this, so can't give any educated ETA.

okay, thanks for letting me know. And I hope the B-24D will be in the game of Il-2 Sturmvoik 1946 :cool:

It's been our intention all along to get the B24D into the game as an official release.

Monguse, please show to us some new pictures!!! PLZ PLZ PLZ!!!)))

Tail turret is done barring any problems Guse finds. I've finished re-mapping top turret. I'm slugging my way through the texturing now. Will try to make some progress this weekend.

Seriously at some point they'll release a video of the Lower Ball Turret in action.....gentlemen (and ladies) you will be very impressed at the detail of the work involved...it's incredible!

Cheers, MP

MP, you should know ;-)

Wonderfull indeed astounding
many many compliments

Is that for IL2????It's too god to be real!

Holy smokes! Looks great guys.

any update on the b24d?

More will be posted when the time comes.

A Thing of Beauty
 

"A thing of beauty is a joy to behold." This is the work of a craftsman. How many hours have you dedicated to this project? When I fly it I will try not to bend it!:grin: (or let anybody put nasty holes in it) :rolleyes:Thanks!

From my part around 30 months off and on. Off while waiting for official documents to arrive. Countless of hours perusing photos, drawings, manuals, books and film. Close friends visiting existing B24's with tape measure and camera in hand. Countless emails to museums, restoration projects and collectors of old manuals.

For me it's next to impossible to even guess how many hours. For Buster, it's been a longer ride.

Hope everyone enjoys it when its released.

have you any desire to do B17 after end work of the B24?
there you can use some materials from B24, textures, models ...

I feel, that on the day, when a B-17 is flyable in IL-2, its the day of the end of the game.
I mean... as long as we are all waiting for something, it can't end. :D

there is one person who was involved in B 17 ( and DT has contacted with him ), but now it seems gave up it (((

it would be great if Monguse with his friend continue work on B17

but it's a lot of work

Too bad... looks like a good start.

he just said that after a while he again takes up the cockpit B17, but he had enough strength only to the pilot cockpit

Excellent work on this. We can finally have a complete, flyable, American heavy bomber in IL2. The B-24 may have been the box the B-17 came in, but it was every bit as important.

Weren't there a few attempts at doing a B-17 in the past? Must be cursed.

As much as the B-17 is a great bomber for the 'wish-list', trust me, when you see the work and the attention to detail that have gone into making this B-24 flyable and with all the detail that 'Guse has put into it, the B-24 will be a great addition to the game.

The detail is incredible and some of the extra bits of work that have gone into parts of this bomber will leave many open mouthed!

Looking forward to D-Day (Delivery Day!), cheers, MP

I still think the choice of B-24 is brilliant. The B-24 served in numbers in all theaters that the USAAF was involved with. We can use this plane from Burma to the Solomons to Europe to Italy and the Desert. The B-17 saw wide use too... but it was primarily filling the ranks within the 8th Air Force over Western Europe and the B-24 was used in greater numbers elsewhere.

The B-17 has been started several times to the best of my knowledge. It's about as cursed as the Spitfire XIV.

Just thought of something
 

I was reading the post again and am looking forward to flying the B-24. While I was daydreaming I remembered a little piece of information regarding the flight characteristics of the B-24's Davis wing. It was not a rigid structure and the wing tips would rise approximately 9 feet as the lift came on.

Does the game engine allow for this kind of dynamic? I had not thought to check the Liberator in game for this behaviour.

I think the wing load may be modelled in the software so that a dive in a loaded B-24 but I am pretty sure that I have never seen wing flexing. It would be incredible to see in this version of IL2, but I don't even think it appears in CLoD so I think we should just be happy that we will at-last get a flyable four0engine heavy!

Nice idea though!

Cheers, MP

I do want to stress that there are two of us on this project. Buster is a great artist and the work on the other areas is extremely well done.

Thanks Guse. Back at ya. Does anyone remember when A2A Simulations promised to rebuild Rowen's BoB and, later, B17II? Some tiff (over rights?) killed the second project.

That B17II announcment is when I started my part of the B24 (the ball turret Guse reworked). So, I don't really rmember how many years (maybe 6) I was fiddling with the B24 before Team D introduced me to Guse.

Research is the killer. Anyone who fears modeling or texturing would do the community a great service by becoming dedicated researchers--not just someone who throws links at us, but someone who is willing to understand a subject and distill it for the modelers/programmers. I spend about 3/4 of my time researching.

By the way, loved the comment about the B24 being the box the B17 came in. Got quite a laugh out of that. I didn't used to care much for the 24, but it certainly has earned my respect since.

I'm glad you're taking the time to do this for the community at large, guys. Sounds like a gargantuan task. I'd be happy to provide a tiny donation through paypal if it's appropriate.

Good luck on the rest of the work! Can't wait to see it flying :cool:

Thanks but we are doing this all for free.

All we ask is patience.

I was just curious if wing flexing, etc., was possible within the game engine, not so much to try to produce more headaches for anyone. Another little idiosyncrasy, that appeared in the Spitfire was the ailerons working like trim tabs and warping the wings, causing the aircraft to roll in the opposite direction. I don't recall the exact circumstances but high speed and extreme control movement seem to ring a bell. Again, just a point to ponder.

Thanks, Airfoil

This seems almost finished! Next week?

:) ok, ok, I'm getting out a here.

Really good looking though!

If I remember right... that was with the early fabric covered control surfaces. Not 100% sure either.

Completely flyable B-17 I count minimal 16 months to done.
Too much work, too much time.
Maybe one day as said Caspar, but this day will be end of classic IL2.

Important is have flyable B-24´s.

Since it won't make it into 4.11, is there any chance for a 4.11 "hotfix" if it is ready before 4.12...? :)

Some damned fine work there!

It'll be nice if there were some maps big enough that are worth flying over for the Lib, though.

The Solomons for one will work.

And very historical too! I can't wait!

With regards the Spitfire, Jeffrey Quill in his excellent book on his test flying and the development of the spitfire said that they 'expected' to run into aileron reversal issues as the mach numbers increased, not that any examples of this phenomenom had occurred; this is why the wings of the 20 series of Spitfire were redesigned and strengthened.

As far as I am aware, no case was ever documented of aileron reversal - indeed if it did, well, the Spitfire probably would have been so far above it's Vne that it either would have broken up under stress or never pulled out of the dive.

And for reference, the fastest Spitfire - the PRXI that got to mach .89 - did NOT have the new shape and strengthened wing.

Ice - the fabric aileron issue was one of becoming almost immovable at IAS above 400mph. Turns out that the thickness of the trailing edge has much to do with this. The static air trapped inside the fabric aileron would, thanks to bernoulli's principle, expand and cause the skin of the aileron to balloon; this in turn increased the trailing edge area. Once the metal ailerons came about, the ballooning stopped and the control problems virtually disappeared (it was still an effort to move ailerons above 400mph but that's just due to the force of the airflow - they at least would move with a bit of elbow grease).

Just found this gem. It's looking really nice guys. :)



Wheels

How about This?)
up from author model)

Sita

Looks good, who is the author?

That looks really good to my untrained eye. Is that a B-17?

They may want to black out that logo at the center of the control stick...always tricky with company names.

Messer...

http://forum.aviaskins.com/showthread.php?t=2231

if i remeber all correct, it's B17 G

Oh well! Il-2 comes to its end! As long as there is no B17 flyable, its not finished... but now...

I certainly hope not :(

We need D, E, and F versions! ;)

by this moment, pilot cockpit in very good condition... not very close to final, but work slowly goes forward.
i dont know what Messer want to do, have he enough strenght for made other position ( gunners and navigator) or not... but pilot cockpit he want finish and send to DT... if they can take only one position in the plane...

BTW i saw sketches tail gunner position...

may be some way B17 will come in to a Game!)

one more question, ball turret from B24, they are the same as those that were placed on B17? )

Sita

Yes the Ball turret is the same A-3 Sperry Turret for the B24 and B17. The supports is different as is the gunners aiming hand hold. There are also small differences in the inside which could be edited to reflect a proper A3 used in the B17G.

As I was looking trough wiki, the D is a good point to start. Cause isnt the C and E possible out of the D, without large rework?!

All what is different, are the engines and the Ball turret is missing in the other versions?

The D had also two different ball turrets, one from Bendix and the later one from sperry

I think the bendix was just the remote one that used the periscope. The B17E also had it. It survived as the B17G chin.

Why the interest in the C, E Backbird? There were only 9 Cs built, and I think all stayed stateside as trainers (I have that PoM, which also covers very early D). From what I've read, the E wasn't much different from the D, and I think most of those were used to train crews as well.

I'm not against spinning off for some other versions. I'd love to find time to make a Lib I (with the 20mm gun pack) and Lib II (with the BP turrets), especially the sub chasers. Not much in the way of targets for those though (well, shipping of course). Besides, we have no info on the innards of the short nose of the LB-30 and Lib I. By the way, the panel for the C is more like the LB-30 and, I'm guessing, the Lib I. There isn't much in the panel that could be salvaged from the D. Not impossible, but definitely would need some effort.

I'd also like to do the H Pathfinder.

i ask about ball turret because, maybe if work will go well , may be some how, you can give it ( turret i mean) for this B17G ... or DT by they self include ball turret into B17 ...

or some other kind partnership under work of B17?)

Sita

My guess is that yes, we will be working together.

with pleasure)

Here is to working together (beer glasses clink)

not last version...


I think it will be difficult! but it must be done!)

Sita, I'm banging out the B24D pit at the moment. I like your 17. What is the poly count/texture size of yours at present. I'm curious, as ours is at 9K polys and about 8 Meg textures.

at now (how Messer was told me ) polycount - 9689
textures - something about 7 mb ...
we are working on sealing textures)

Yes please.

Thanks.

need one? )))

any news on this very important project? :D