LanceCriminal86

The problem with the TF-30 replacement was that it was tied with the Air Force's F100 program, which itself was having issues. When reliability couldn't meet what was specified the Air Force apparently lowered the required hours, but the Navy wouldn't accept it. So the Air Force pressed on with the F100 in the F-15A which had its own issues, and the Navy kept the TF-30 as the Tomcat program was already under heavy scrutiny and embattled and I guess the Navy wasn't about to start over again trying to get a new engine. The proposed F100 based engines (F401) would, on paper, have had almost the same uninstalled numbers as the GE F110 at 16.5K dry in Mil and 28k in AB. But looking at how much the Air Force had to deal with before their F100s were improved by the 80s in the F-100-PW-200 and later 220 updates. It's funny how much <profanity> is talked about the F-14s engines while the Air Force was dealing with almost the same issues in the Eagle, including the afterburners stalling the engine out, and didn't have a "fix" until the early-mid 80s themselves. But in that light had we gotten the F401s for the F-14, there's a decent chance it would have had the same problems. However, the same remedies for the Air Force could likely have been applied as those updates to the F100 could be applied to existing engines, and the Navy would have been updating F401s instead of having to find another motor.

The only acceptable response. I need to build up a financial warchest to hire someone like Meteor to remaster/re-record the cheesy music from those old Great Planes tapes.

And to be clear, there will not be an "early" Vietnam E like those that started showing up in 66-67. "Early" in this case is still effectively post-war, but are those "early" serial jets (66- to ~70-) after they received the mentioned modifications. So don't expect to see the original short gun muzzle, hard-wings, missing/terrible APS-107 RHAW, etc. Like with the F-14A, "early" is a relative term and doesn't include those original F-14As with the IRST from Block 70 that deployed during Frequent Wind in '74.

Time to dust off old faithful

Again, the US version of the -95GR was only WISHED for, the "Early" F-14A as laid out by the Heatblur devs and pointed to in the FAQ, is still a 135GR but from the 80s. Hence, I continue to use "Earlier" because it is NOT a -70 or -75 as built and introduced around '72-'74. At most it's been petitioned to allow for the removal of the ALQ-126 jammers and an ALQ-100 only option for the TCS, which would allow you to functionally get as close to a -95 as we'd get, but it is not the roadmapped, acknowledged variant. The only iteration close to the -95GR will be the IRIAF jet, which functionally will still be the 135 with some systems turned off like TCS, reduced jamming strength, no mounting external fuel tanks, etc. There's also a difference between "a weapon could technically be carried" and that weapon being within the scope of the time represented by the F-14 modules. Not to mention if ED has not created/implemented said older versions of the weapons, then you're asking HB to stop and focus on recreating older versions of weapons which ED will have to take over anyways, and then figure out how they were implemented in the aircraft, symbology as needed, and any other functional differences in how the weapons are employed.

You need to go read the threads again because that is not the jet represented. The "earlier" F-14A will still be early/mid 1980s, and no the F-14 was not set up to simply run every previous variant of weapons in inventory.

Because you asked, all Hill One schemes have been deleted. The only Phantoms provided will be covered in Anime characters of ambiguous gender. *I kid* But in all seriousness the 110th TFS F-4Es from the late 80s through the retirement in 1991 were my main muse working on Hill One jets, and you should see the scheme in a few different interpretations around the area behind the cockpit. The more standard scheme the anti-glare gray along the canopy continued straight to the rear of the canopy hump, and then in an acute angle came back forwards and down across the intakes in a curve. Some of the 110th jets instead had a simpler iteration where it just curved down along or behind the canopy. Some jets with Hill One had a more sharp/crisp scheme while others had a more "feathered" edge and overspray look, and you should see variations over some of the different squadrons and countries that used the scheme. Hill one will appear on both by the way, the 110th being an ANG squadron had the early block jets that fit right into the initial module's serial range both with and without the APS-107 antennas, and of course other squadrons that had TISEO jets will be added when it's time. Turkey in particular seemed to eventually go with a darker, almost Gunship Gray coloration eventually so I need to hunt around and see if they actually shifted the color or if that's just folks using HDR or post processing, or just digital photography better capturing the tones. But to me it looks like a much darker gray than what the Air Force used, even on freshly painted jets. Again the intent here is to at least have a general representation of the schemes and the export nations, with more focus on the standard schemes pending any dynamic number implementation or other method to support multiple jet numbers in a simpler format for online folks and I suppose mission/campaign makers. Eventually, and maybe with release at a limited scale, some more specific jets should be included either with significant history, special anniversary paint jobs, or just because they looked cool or had something unique about them in the weathering or scheme. And of course whenever a community paint kit comes out, there will be tons of more specific jets people are going to make for their Dad/Uncle/Grandad etc's old squadron, or countries that flew Cs or Ds but not Es, probably going to see F-4G skins. And of course the inevitable blasphemy when people start doing Navy or Marine skins, which I *personally* think should result in revocation of your module license but I'm not important so I have no say.

You're not killing an ICBM with anything aircraft carried during the F-14's service life. At that time the only things remotely standing a chance to kill an ICBM were the Nike family of missiles, some of which being nuclear tipped.

Australian leased F-4E skin C A N C E L E D Keep it up and the Kiwis will get a fictional Phantom first and maybe even an All Blacks one to boot

No, the new VR body is in the Mods/aircraft/f14 folders. You can change the textures in there and probably tie them to a livery using the model viewer to generate the LUA lines, but it's only visible in the cockpit. The external body is still the old one.

If you check the thread above it actually isn't, it's a stick from an MI-8? apparently, which itself looks like someone saw a B-8 and then went home to make their own. I've got a Virpil F-14 and love their base/extension, and was originally planning the Warbrd stick myself, but after seeing the thread about a printed one I'm strongly considering that instead.

It's the default texture/skin, of all the ones GA chose for the video versus, I don't know, the pair of beautiful VF-31 jets that were added recently, I have no idea.

D had a Kaiser hud, Sparrowhawk was the B(U) HUD that came very late before the last cruises.

Glowing Amraam's choice of F-14 skins was disappointing to say the least, especially considering the available options.

As someone with a Virpil base and the 200mm extension I am very much interested in this. I've found myself tempted to get a decent resin printer anyways, and I think it might be neat to print it in resin. Do you know if anyone has printed sim grips in resin in the past? I understand for certain applications the printed plastic can be stronger or more durable but would there be specific known downsides in terms of strength? I had also been considering trying to print some F-14 style grips to frankenstein on my X-56 throttle. Another instance where there are nice grips for the F-14, but so far no throttles of consistent, good quality. I'd love to see some more sticks like this, your video was very easy to follow and there are a bunch of modules coming up where printed sticks that work with a Warthog or Virpil base would be appreciated. Specifically I haven't found any WW2 style grips for Virpil, and we have a certain F4U Corsair coming up in the possible near future. And while they are all potentially a good ways off, it would be neat to have ones for the A-7E, Intruder, and F-8 as well. Wasn't the A-6's grip also B-8 style?

1) This is a discussion on liveries for the F-4E 2) Those are bold words for someone who hasn't seen the folks that contribute to HB's testing crew in full swing 3) This is a discussion about F-4E liveries

First thing I look for is APS-107 antenna on the tail, and serial number. If I see 71- or higher I know it's a TISEO/later jet and I leave it alone for now because I'm trying to focus on the earlier jets. A portion of the early Es and then the ones made after '68 lack the APS-107 antenna but for me it's a quick indicator, and as said there are some other tail and antenna differences that the later TISEO/DMAS equipped jets had.

No, they aren't doing any of that. The F-4F wasn't the only jet referenced, they also came over and referenced US Es. German skins only mean exactly that, E's with German/F-4F skins to represent them in DCS, but they are not being modeled full fidelity.

They had around 10 F-4Es that stayed in the US for training German crews, I believe they were at George AFB but I think the Luftwaffe also had some training happening at Holloman.

The later TISEO jet could maybe be stretched, but I have a feeling that some systems are still going to be off because again, we're talking later jets/upgrades that were done after Vietnam.

The actual German F-4Es that stayed in the US for training F-4F crews will definitely be in and they are historic. But the F-4F skins and most other foreign operator/export skins would be considered semi-historical because the plane underneath isn't 100% that export variant. But the skins will be as faithful as possible. Unless everyone suddenly doesn't want any export skins at all provided...

There will be some export country skins but not dedicated export variants as far as systems/weapons.

No, just skins for the export countries. Some of them had Es straight the same USAF specs, but others stayed with hard wings, different electronics, or later frankenjets with new radars. The latter will not be represented outside of as nice of skins as we can get made. I think Egypt, some Greek jets, and some Israeli jets were received basically as-is from the US and should match what we are getting, but don't expect dedicated Fs, E/EJs, or any of the other exported Es in terms of systems/functions.

Heh, you've seen screenshots from the video, I'm talking the full monty renders and better closeups. Nevermind when we really get rolling with the paint jobs.

Not for an F-4 from years after Vietnam