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F-15 Reporter

Messages
14
Country
indonesia
Surfing around in internet, found bunch of info about p-61 black widow(especially with the MAAM's site), but my model is f-15 reporter, problem is, there is no info about detailed cockpit of this bird. So, i use many of the p-61's cockpit layout altough these birds are different in their roles. I'm completely blind with the second cockpit! Enjoy and inform me, i'm running with the rudder pedals now.
Assembly-vc-01.jpg
Assembly-vc-02.jpg
Assembly-vc-04.jpg
Assembly-vc-06.jpg
 
Lovely work! Which modelling tool are you using? The XYZ gizmo looks different from what I'm used to.
 
if in doubt, a good place to hunt is the scale model sites, those guys are as picky as flight simmers about details :)

From a quickie google i reckon the pilots section remained near enough unchanged from the p-61, with the rear of the cabin totally different and used by the radar operator, who i'm guessing also managed the radios.

Whilst not detailed, this sight has a couple of pics of a model which should give an idea of what was back there
http://hsfeatures.com/features04/f15apb_1.htm


failing all of that .... FSX does need a good p-61 :p :)
 
Lovely work! Which modelling tool are you using? The XYZ gizmo looks different from what I'm used to.
Hi Tom, its Inventor 2012. CAD tool. Lucky me, max do wonderful import for inventor files, but... in triangles.
 
if in doubt, a good place to hunt is the scale model sites, those guys are as picky as flight simmers about details :)

From a quickie google i reckon the pilots section remained near enough unchanged from the p-61, with the rear of the cabin totally different and used by the radar operator, who i'm guessing also managed the radios.

Whilst not detailed, this sight has a couple of pics of a model which should give an idea of what was back there
http://hsfeatures.com/features04/f15apb_1.htm


failing all of that .... FSX does need a good p-61 :p :)
Yeah, lots of my references are from scale models, rc's. P-61's are equipped with (the very first?) spoiler, history tells this bird inovate the air brake, also first american ejection seat was launch from p-61. F-15 reporter doesn't use the spoilers (fighter brake) anymore for this bird are used in photo reckon task only, thats why i don't model the lever and the gauge for the spoiler. Still, blackout with the rear pit which is all the photography equipment are located there.
 
Here's a link to a lot of P-61 stuff, it also has some F-15 material. http://napoleon130.tripod.com/p61blackwidow/index.html
I dug through all of the reference material I have for my P-61B project but could not find anything showing the rear cockpit area that you are looking for. Also, I think the wing spoilers were still used. There was a separate air brake system fitted to later models that is probably what you are thinking of.
Good looking model!
 
Here's a link to a lot of P-61 stuff, it also has some F-15 material. http://napoleon130.tripod.com/p61blackwidow/index.html
I dug through all of the reference material I have for my P-61B project but could not find anything showing the rear cockpit area that you are looking for. Also, I think the wing spoilers were still used. There was a separate air brake system fitted to later models that is probably what you are thinking of.
Good looking model!
This came from the development section of the site:
F-15/RF-61C

In mid-1945, the surviving XP-61E was modified into an unarmed photographic reconnaissance aircraft. All the guns were removed, and a new nose was fitted, capable of holding an assortment of aerial cameras. The aircraft, redesignated XF-15, flew for the first time on 3 July 1945. A P-61C was also modified to XF-15 standards. Apart from the turbosupercharged R-2800-C engines, it was identical to the XF-15 and flew for the first time on 17 October 1945. The nose for the F-15A was subcontracted to the Hughes Tool Company of Culver City, California. The F-15A was basically the P-61C with the new bubble-canopy fuselage and the camera-carrying nose, but without the fighter brakes on the wing.

I'm so curious with the rear pit. , i forgot the site when reading the p-61C conversion to f-15, it is said that the rear pit handles all the photography tasks. Well, for the moment, i'll go with my alternative rer pit, a umm... normal pit. Thanks for the links!
 
Get the model into Max and exported to FSX asap. Don't leave it until you've finished in Inventor or you may find more problems with poly counts and especially texture vertex counts than you can deal with. Just saying.
 
Nice model Madoote, looking great, i'm curious to screenshot of the the entire project when completed.

Here are a couple of links from the [PM] i've send you (on 02-01-2017) Madoote:
- http://www.weather.gov/iln/ThunderstormProject
- http://www.maam.org/p61/p61_rest.htm <- this website is filled with lots of pictures on the inside/cockpit of a P61
- http://www.warbirdsnews.com/warbird...k-widow-february-2015-restoration-update.html
I hope you will find there what your looking for

Other option to search for P61 material are:
- Free online image host (imgur, flick, photobucket, face-recognition-book)
- Lockheed online archive about the P61/F15
- Old pilot P61/F15 handbooks
- Google books
>>
- Wikipedia articles about the P61
-> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_P-61_Black_Widow

The bottom of this page is FILLED with resources and external references.
Look at ALL of them, while remaining focused on your main P61 questions and or P61 topics your want to find.
 
I'm no good judging how polycount works in sim, and how max turn a quads into bunch of triangles(some articles explain this). Now without flaps, elevator, trims, knobs, switces and texture, is this a redline or green? note: i'm using 1 tick of the max's mesh resolution importer, normal is 0, but it reduces the geometry shapes.
adeskinvfileimport-01.jpg
f-15rep-max-restest.jpg
 
The triangle count isn't too high. I'll bet the model is just a few objects in Max, though, and there's a hard 64K vertex limit per object for FSX iirc. So you're going to split some of these objects into smaller ones: separate wings from fuselage, etc.

BTW, your mesh gets reduced to triangles when exported to FS, so don't worry about that.
 
I have a few pilot's manuals for the P-61 if you are interested. Here's a pic of the panel of the P-61B I have tucked away in the virtual hangar of projects I'm messing with.

2012-10-21_20-31-27-250.jpg
 
Yes i wan't it, but my work still far from finish, those manuals would help in coding process, and i'm depend from the fsdk tut's in coding .
That's p-61B's layout, from my reading the F15 conversion took from P61C type layout and it has a different shape
Screenshot_4.jpg

what went wrong with your widow? i see a nice vc here
how i get those manuals?
 
First milestone here,
Screenshot_5.jpg
Screenshot_6.jpg

I'm using gmax to export, since the fsdk plugin in max9 (mine is 64bit) is a mess. So, i must export each part(fuselage, inner wings, wings, etc),
in 3ds to be read in gmax. Note, i'm testing it without snapping every parts, only to test polycount issues. While exporting, i receive this warning,
Screenshot_5.jpg
Screenshot_6.jpg
gmax-warning.jpg
and it keeps popping out to more than 10x, but as you can see the bird works in fsx
 
The triangle count isn't too high. I'll bet the model is just a few objects in Max, though, and there's a hard 64K vertex limit per object for FSX iirc. So you're going to split some of these objects into smaller ones: separate wings from fuselage, etc.

BTW, your mesh gets reduced to triangles when exported to FS, so don't worry about that.
Per object? i can go crazy with max importer, by ticking up the mesh resolution more, i can get a good mesh smooth
Screenshot_2.jpg
Screenshot_3.jpg

this a 5 ticks in max importer, normally i use 1 tick. That's a good news.
 
Don't go overboard! Unless you're using Max 2013, you can use the P3D sdk to export from Max as an FSX-compatible .mdl.
 
Those canopy lips are nightmares,
Adding structural frame inside the shell,
Engines and props!.
Decided by speculate how things are done around the canopy, just to get a logical feel of how structural frame and sheet metals are done there.
Also can't get a figure of what slider type used for the canopy.
Works so far
wip-01.jpg
wip-02.jpg
wip-03.jpg
 
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