Trainman Posted October 2 Posted October 2 I am currently on a week leave so trying to get as much done as possible. Next is to fix the 3d printer, as it just stop printing tomcat panels. Don't worry I have been stalking this forum for over 12 months, and only just pull the trigger. 1
Woody81 Posted October 5 Posted October 5 Haha! Definitely been a couple of years at least for me. Always seems like everything else takes priority, annoyingly. I've got 6 days off coming up after these shifts so I'll be calling the local laser/CNC shop to see what they can do. Might also have a play with the laser cutter and get some more panels cut/engraved. I've got the files for the tomcat throttle somewhere too so may start 3d printing those, although I had thought about trying to get it done by a metal fabrication place for the weight/feel/durability. I've not even been on the pc in the last 6/8 weeks. Is it possible to miss a virtual plane?! 1
TheRekiker Posted October 14 Posted October 14 Hello, Im new here. I'm interested in slowly building a F-14 Tomcat cockpit. Im currently collecting all the information in this topic by all the awesome builders and enthusiasts. I wonder if anyone is interested in doing something similar to OpenHornet but with the F-14. What I see is that there are many individual designs for the cockpit but there isn't standardisation. I think it would be very useful for current and future builders to have a unified information source so that both the cockpit is more accurate and the build quality improves. We can leverage the knowledge and abilities of individual members of the community to ease the entry level of building the cockpit. What is your opinion on this? 5
Woody81 Posted October 19 Posted October 19 On 10/14/2025 at 7:43 PM, TheRekiker said: Hello, Im new here. I'm interested in slowly building a F-14 Tomcat cockpit. Im currently collecting all the information in this topic by all the awesome builders and enthusiasts. I wonder if anyone is interested in doing something similar to OpenHornet but with the F-14. What I see is that there are many individual designs for the cockpit but there isn't standardisation. I think it would be very useful for current and future builders to have a unified information source so that both the cockpit is more accurate and the build quality improves. We can leverage the knowledge and abilities of individual members of the community to ease the entry level of building the cockpit. What is your opinion on this? Hey! Welcome! I personally think its a great idea collating all the information into something that is easy to navigate and use. There is a lot of fantastic information on here but it can be hard to find what you're looking for. I have recently spent a lot of time jumping back and forth looking for particular things that I know I've seen somewhere or other! Open Hornet has a website does it not? Personally have zero experience coding/website building but I'd be happy to chip in with anything that I could help with. good to give back to a community that has given so much.
Woody81 Posted October 19 Posted October 19 On 10/2/2025 at 1:57 AM, Trainman said: I am currently on a week leave so trying to get as much done as possible. Next is to fix the 3d printer, as it just stop printing tomcat panels. Don't worry I have been stalking this forum for over 12 months, and only just pull the trigger. So I spent some time adjusting the SKP file from Ausmumbles and I've sent it off to a local CNC shop.... Just waiting for them to get back to me with a price..... Who knows, maybe this time next week I'll have a Tomcat jigsaw to play with!!
TheRekiker Posted October 19 Posted October 19 hace 21 minutos, Woody81 dijo: Hey! Welcome! I personally think its a great idea collating all the information into something that is easy to navigate and use. There is a lot of fantastic information on here but it can be hard to find what you're looking for. I have recently spent a lot of time jumping back and forth looking for particular things that I know I've seen somewhere or other! Open Hornet has a website does it not? Personally have zero experience coding/website building but I'd be happy to chip in with anything that I could help with. good to give back to a community that has given so much. Hey, we have created a Discord server to start building and developing the project. Here is the link: https://discord.gg/RYhhMJUhDG 1
Woody81 Posted October 20 Posted October 20 On 10/19/2025 at 11:40 AM, TheRekiker said: Hey, we have created a Discord server to start building and developing the project. Here is the link: https://discord.gg/RYhhMJUhDG https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/wlszanfd21uurkvoln3a7/AB2nwXHKD0358qxAlPBSKd8?rlkey=gt7kxyo9qzgw4yd77gu6bo0hx&e=1&dl=0 1
Woody81 Posted October 30 Posted October 30 On 10/2/2025 at 1:57 AM, Trainman said: I am currently on a week leave so trying to get as much done as possible. Next is to fix the 3d printer, as it just stop printing tomcat panels. Don't worry I have been stalking this forum for over 12 months, and only just pull the trigger. How did you get on with your week off? Much progress? I'm waiting for a local CNC company to give me a quote for cutting the ribs. I'm anticipating it being fairly reasonable and thinking £250 is probably the most it's gonna be. I'll still need the pedestal and seat doing, but I have already started the seat with the jigsaw so probably will just do that by hand. I'll let you know once I do. Getting impatient though as they said they'd get back to me on Monday
Trainman Posted November 6 Posted November 6 I am currently spending way too much time thinking about my entry into the pit.. Rather than measure twice, cut once... I am overthink x 1000, then more overthinking and some more overthinking. I also spend way too much time looking on the web for tomcat part ideas. I will do the pedestal by hand I think. The new part for the 3d printer turns up this week, so I can complete printing out as much as possible. 1
RustBelt Posted November 7 Posted November 7 (edited) 23 hours ago, Trainman said: I am currently spending way too much time thinking about my entry into the pit.. Rather than measure twice, cut once... I am overthink x 1000, then more overthinking and some more overthinking. I also spend way too much time looking on the web for tomcat part ideas. I will do the pedestal by hand I think. The new part for the 3d printer turns up this week, so I can complete printing out as much as possible. It’s unfortunate you went with a sim frame. You could have rigged the seat to slide way back and swivel 90° for entry like in some real sims. They usually use a boating helm seat track. Buy used not new. just do some casters and a door hinge or a piano hinge. Or a car door hinge. Split it one side or the other of the throttle. That’s a full “seam” across the side panel so effectively hidden when closed. although talk about overthinking under building I’m like 2 years now into a damn VPforce custom rig I still haven’t even started. I got the BIG break my arm motors! Edited November 7 by RustBelt
Woody81 Posted November 7 Posted November 7 On 11/6/2025 at 8:37 AM, Trainman said: I am currently spending way too much time thinking about my entry into the pit.. Rather than measure twice, cut once... I am overthink x 1000, then more overthinking and some more overthinking. I also spend way too much time looking on the web for tomcat part ideas. I will do the pedestal by hand I think. The new part for the 3d printer turns up this week, so I can complete printing out as much as possible. I'm gonna have mine as separate left/right/centre parts that can slide on the floor, rather rather than one big unit. CNC came back to me... It was a little more than I thought! Almost £400! Sod it though, I'm doing it. Pick it up next Thursday. 1
Trainman Posted November 7 Posted November 7 15 hours ago, RustBelt said: It’s unfortunate you went with a sim frame. You could have rigged the seat to slide way back and swivel 90° for entry like in some real sims. They usually use a boating helm seat track. Buy used not new. just do some casters and a door hinge or a piano hinge. Or a car door hinge. Split it one side or the other of the throttle. That’s a full “seam” across the side panel so effectively hidden when closed. although talk about overthinking under building I’m like 2 years now into a damn VPforce custom rig I still haven’t even started. I got the BIG break my arm motors! I already had the NLG seat which I was flying VR in. But I found that I could only fly for about 30 mins before I had to stop (eyes hurting, face looking like I had been in a furnace). I like your thinking. I will do some more thinking . The original plan was a heavy duty hinge (I found a TV swivel mount that could be perfect) and open up on the L/H side basically between rib 3 & 4 (counting from the back). If I was 10 years younger I would just jump over, getting older is now starting to impact my simming.. 1
Marcelo_Silva_Santos Posted November 8 Posted November 8 Hi, I saw your post on google, I'm trying to do my 3D model too. Instagram, @santos.silva.marcelo Good Luck for you. Composição 1.mp4 1
Woody81 Posted November 9 Posted November 9 (edited) On 10/4/2024 at 1:38 PM, Elo said: @BULLITT83 Im on board with Rustbelt, my plan is to make every Gauge a real one, and only simulate screens. For the F-14Bs front cockpit, there are effectively 4 screens: -VDI -HSD -RWR -EIG The F-14A has analouge "ribbon" engine gauges (like this C-141 gauge i managed to procure), so you could build that with steppers/servos and have VDI, HSD and RWR as screens with one left for the main display. The way i do it at the moment with my 5 screen desk setup and plan to do it with the pit is using a cheap USB-to-HDMI "converter", which are really just small GPUs, again as Rustbelt mentioned. They come with a performance hit, i noticed about ~10FPS lost with mine. Not great, not terrible. You could also experiment with a proper multi-GPU setup, but i dont know how well DCS will handle that (with something like a GT1030 or RX550 in addition to your primary GPU). Oh and by the way @RustBelt while im sure Helios makes it easier, you can also use the native DCS multiscreen function with the corresponding .lua files. Hey Elo, Did you by any chance get the measurements for those ribbon gauges? I've got an idea, and I'd like to try something but I could do with the sizes to make sure it's gonna be viable. I'm particularly interested in the length of the gauge part (what would be the ribbon) Thank you Edited Thursday at 12:15 PM by Woody81 typo/spelling
Woody81 Posted November 12 Posted November 12 CNC shop came through!! One Tomcat Jigsaw ready to play with! 7
Elo Posted November 14 Posted November 14 On 11/9/2025 at 4:19 PM, Woody81 said: Hey Elo, Did you buy any chance get the measurements for those ribbon gauges? I've got an idea, and I'd like to try something but I could do with the sizes to make sure it's gonna be viable. I'm particularly interested in the length of the gauge part (what would be the ribbon) Thank you @Woody81 Ill attach my panel the Engine Instruments mount to (for the B), if you have FreeCad you can take some more measurements there. I usually use Screenshots from EDs ModelViewer2 in orthographic mode and some reference dimension (Altimeter is 3,25in/82,55mm wide, the side panels are 5,75in, etc) and extrapolate from there. Using that technique i get 102mm for the ribbon length (including "off" flag). The C-141 gauge i have seems to be a bit larger then that, so ive not opened it up yet. Cheers LeftKneePanel.FCStd LeftKneePanel-PartPocket002.stl 1
Marcelo_Silva_Santos Posted Wednesday at 01:02 AM Posted Wednesday at 01:02 AM (edited) Hi, can i have some help? what is the correct position of f-14 principal landing-gear? I have a picture from my autocad, and the information Fs-568.80"/WL-84.13"for the wheel. But some other with the distance between [front land-gear 292.54"]----276,35" ---[principal land-gear 568.80"]. But if the front land-gear is 292.54" (568.80 - 292.54 = 276,26)??? Someone to help? some times i can see that wheel in pictures a little bit to back 3 , my f-14 kit is a little bit to the front 1, but some draws it is 90° with the ground 2. And exist the space of "finger", touching the fuselage in a specific hole in red. Why exist that difference (Plastic model, draw, manual)? On 11/12/2025 at 8:17 AM, Woody81 said: CNC shop came through!! One Tomcat Jigsaw ready to play with! wow it is real man, good luck for you and your job! Edited Friday at 01:13 AM by Marcelo_Silva_Santos I'm wrote a lot wrong 1
Woody81 Posted 17 hours ago Posted 17 hours ago On 11/19/2025 at 1:02 AM, Marcelo_Silva_Santos said: Hi, can i have some help? what is the correct position of f-14 principal landing-gear? I have a picture from my autocad, and the information Fs-568.80"/WL-84.13"for the wheel. But some other with the distance between [front land-gear 292.54"]----276,35" ---[principal land-gear 568.80"]. But if the front land-gear is 292.54" (568.80 - 292.54 = 276,26)??? Someone to help? some times i can see that wheel in pictures a little bit to back 3 , my f-14 kit is a little bit to the front 1, but some draws it is 90° with the ground 2. And exist the space of "finger", touching the fuselage in a specific hole in red. Why exist that difference (Plastic model, draw, manual)? wow it is real man, good luck for you and your job! Hi Marcelo, I'd say your best bet is to find out who the Heatblur Devs are.... they will be much more likely to be able to help with such a technical question. The rest of us are only looking at building the cockpit portion! If I remember correctly towards the very beginning of this thread (first few pages) one of the guys was commenting, it may be worth looking through to see if you can find the conversation and possibly message him directly or tag him in a post. Sorry couldn't be more help.
Marcelo_Silva_Santos Posted 16 hours ago Posted 16 hours ago 1 hour ago, Woody81 said: Hi Marcelo, I'd say your best bet is to find out who the Heatblur Devs are.... they will be much more likely to be able to help with such a technical question. The rest of us are only looking at building the cockpit portion! If I remember correctly towards the very beginning of this thread (first few pages) one of the guys was commenting, it may be worth looking through to see if you can find the conversation and possibly message him directly or tag him in a post. Sorry couldn't be more help. Thank you so much, I saw a nice picture that you have been using as reference. I have the same, but with a very low quality and no stations or measures, just the lines. I will show you my green point from Autocad, i don't know if will help you, i saw your work and is very good, great, but i love it just "how it work and modeling", I don't have you abilities. I'm animator, designer and mechanical engineer, I'm doing this because I love it, I already have it as 3D but full of mistakes in my 3D software, You can see it if you want at www.instagran.com/santos.silva.marcelo i WILL BE HERE A LITTLE BIT MORE TO SEE the end of your job. it Is nice when someone is starting a project like you measuring and taking good references. About my picture, you will see to lines, yellow and blue, different DEV like you told me, is because that I'm using plastic kits as reference too or metal kits. Your project was very important to me I hope to be helping you too. Good luck boy!
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