Swordsman422

I'm waiting for the -135-GR Early and -95-GR to tackle any gull grey schemes, but I really like that 1978 VF-142. 1st Tamiya 1/48 F-14A I built was in that livery. I might have to take it.

Successfully guided a cow bomb into a bunker for the first time. Nice to have the GBU-24 working now and ecstatic that my first successful drop with it was from HB's F-14A. I'm so glad we got Bombcats!

I rolled back and reupdated. I dunno what happened first time around. My network could have hiccupped. It's fine now.

That's the only install I have. I'm going around this corner one more time.

It may be working for others, but I even ran a repair and no dice. Here is a couple screenshots of the list with no VF-11 or VF-33. And just for gits and shiggles, the F-14A coremod livery folder. I'll try rolling back and reupdating.

Ran the update and I'm not seeing either of the new liveries on the list.

Please see this thread for discussions on the F-14D, it's technology, and why it's a no for the foreseeable future.

Oh, man, my favorite VF-213 liveries for the A were the ODS and mid-90's paints. These understated schemes just scream "I work for a living" to me, and I love that. Plus they work for the late 135-GR.

Yeah, CVN-71 should get some use with VF-41, VF-84, and my next stop VF-14. While -84 did use this livery on the '93 cruise on Roosevelt, the specific roster I'm covering they were technically homeless and waiting their turn on the chopping block. Aside from 200, 202, and 210, all of the CVW codes had been painted over, in some cases messily, and there were no carrier titles. While that may not seem too great for -84, it's perfect for DCS because not everyone has the SC module, but everyone should have the John C. Stennis and won't have a ship/airwing mismatch for missions and campaigns. If we're being exceptionally nerdy... ...one of their final acts was to shoot some footage for Executive Decision aboard CVN-74. Plus I'm just generally not sorry about choosing their final paint scheme as a subject.

Work continues with the base paint variations: In the background, the overall medium grey to be used by 202 and 210. The midground is the overall light ghost grey for 200, 203, and 204. Finally, in the foreground is the half-painted look of 201. Next is a comparison shot between two TPS variations. In the foreground is the standard TPS used by 207 and 212. 207 will also have a scroll of Jolly Rogers history on the tail. In the background is the TPS variation used by 211 and 213, which differs by lacking the medium grey upper surface on the nose and canopy. I have more stencils and placards to place, then modex numbers and bunos for all aircraft.

And then I reread the post and realized you were asking after the VF-41 livery instead. Sorry about that...

As with the recent VF-41 livery, some of VF-84's aircraft during their final year in service were painted overall medium grey (FS 35237) with light compass ghost grey placards (FS36375). I have references of 202/BuNo 160390 and 210/BuNo 160405 painted this way. A few of the other aircraft were overall light ghost grey with gunship grey markings, or TPS, or in the case of 201/BuNo 160480 the whole front fuselage being darker than the rest of the aircraft. Afterburner, Furball Aero, Superscale, SBDecals, and Fightertown have all offered color reference plates as well, which are easier to work with because you can't really trust photos as color references. Below are both a photo and a built model of 160390. I mean to do a mixture of these, so I have 4-5 base paints to cover all the variations in the squadron.

Whole squadron per usual. I just happened to start with BuNo 160390. For the record, I was already talking with all my previous effort.

With VF-41 done, I guess I'll give them a partner. Not exactly the same period but close enough:

Uploading these now. VF-41 1999-2001. 12 liveries for 11 aircraft. The pack will be broken up into 6 parts because of file size restrictions.

Upgraded my Photoshop and am on the next project. Very beginnings of VF-41 1999-2001. It'll be a bit generic to cover OAF and OEF operations on TR and Enterprise, so no carrier titles or crew names. 11 aircraft will be included.

I fall under the umbrella of "everybody," and I have no great love for the Jolly Rogers (84 or 103) or holiday liveries of any kind since they present the problem of existing for only a few weeks at a time, so I am inclined to agree with Lance. The second of those two VF-102 liveries, the OEF scheme, actually has been covered before and is available in the download section.

No worries, mate. Thanks for keeping a lookout.

Furball Aero put out a decal sheet covering that VF-32 livery from the Lebanon cruise. I have a copy of it and can scan the tail art.

Yeah... I made those. Thanks.

From an article in Aviation Weekly about the Sparrowhawk HUD upgrade for the F-14B: "On top of all this, the system had to be more reliable, more maintainable and, in the case of the HUD, surpass the performance of the more sophisticated HUD in the F-14D, which was built by Kaiser Electronics. Reliability was key. Specifically, mean time between maintenance actions (MTBMA) had to be improved over the current rate of 50 hours, and the program goal is to reach at least 750 hours MTBMA." https://www.aviationtoday.com/2003/11/01/new-hud-for-the-tomcat/

If nothing else, the raw tedium of editing 8 texture files 10-12 times per livery is why I haven't been more prolific. I'm willing to help pull this effort forward, but I think a lot of us are holding up to see how this feature shakes out. If it's handled poorly (which I doubt) I won't have a lot of interest in contributing more.

I'm looking at the PS CC sub right now. A lot of what has prevented me from doing more is that my CS4 isn't up to spec anymore, so I get a lot of errors in the layers I have to manually repair, which is a tedious pain. But my financial situation is now to the point where I can spare $20/month to upgrade.

You're right Nealius. I had thought we had CVW-1's OEF deployment covered. We have CVN-71, VF-102's complete stable for that cruise, and I thought appropriate skins for VFA-82 and -86, VMFA-251, and VAW-123 but nope. All of those are from separate cruises on different ships. I'm a bit frustrated by the gap we have in our available carriers and surface combatants. A lot of us like 1970s ops and we're missing so much. CVN-65, the Kitty Hawk-class, CV-67, and the early Nimitz class are all absent, as are A-7s and pre-TRAM A-6s. We're getting the Forrestal-class but the first one to operate Tomcats was USS Ranger in 1980. And nevermind the collection of cruisers and destroyers before the Tico and Arleigh Burke... This really should be a community effort. My talents are modest, but I'm willing to help out.

I haven't had any issues with either the GBU-12 or GBU-16. Were you within the release parameters and did you have the laser latched? If I'm bombing, I only go to the pilot's seat for release and then return to the RIO's seat for bombing.