Mikey's BUFF

[mikeblaze]

Good day from the very wet Arizona desert. As a rainy day project, since I can't do a couple of outside things at the house, I finally got a tempo for Jake's B-52 source file. I know I owe some Ginas and God knows what else, but I have wanted this aircraft for a long time, and re-building Jake's F-5 gave me the confidence that I could do another one. Aside from my usual gentle tweaking of an already impressive source file, the most significant thing I did was to re-texture it from scratch, and I did it as a two-texture job, given the size of the aircraft.

This is the maiden flight of an already-finished single-LOD alpha model, so we are 'way past the 'just teasing you with some clay models' stage, lol. I present the JMAI B-52 Stratofortress for AI traffic, and this particular aircraft is of the early B/C/D/F variety (monster tail and quad 50 caliber stinger). It has a very generic paint, since I just got the basic master paint kit done today, but all future shots will have the proper paint. The test airfield is someplace I have actually lived in my life, Grand Forks, North Dakota (KRDR). I remember taking pictures of these aircraft back in the mid-80s, standing right at the perimeter fence, and being shadowed by an Air Police armored car. There will, of course, be the current model down the road (not too far at this pace), so the ususal suspects should dust off their Minot and Barksdale sceneries, and pitch in with me on this one.

With regard to the model, Jake had great vision when building this, but I can see anybody losing their mind trying to get this to at least single-LOD state (I think I almost did). I'm just happy to pick it up and get it across the finish line for the team.

Martin, you can cross this one off of your wish list, lol.

More to follow......

[mikeblaze]

Of course, the great thing is I always pick up a few new tricks with each project, and this one is no exception. This aircraft has flexing wings, speed-driven flaps instead of just a default takeoff/landing setting, and spinning turbine blades (essentially prop animation, something new for me). Jake wrote the XML for the wings and flaps, so I can't take credit for them, but I did adjust the wing flex a little bit and learned how to be a little more dangerous with XML. Mike Mac took the summer off, so this will be a great fall project opportunity for his 'big aircraft' FDE. Plus, we might actually finish the long-suffering F-102 and F-106 projects at the same time. I'll hush up now, and let you guys look at some more pictures. I also found a use for Nick Needham's 707 smoke effect.

[gsnde]

That looks gorgeous and is the news of much more than just the day, Mike!

Send from mobile hence short

[mikeblaze]

I just found out that there is another model in progress from one of the MAIW staff; so I am going to hold my project short of the current late-model B-52H, and only do the retro stuff for now. This is my call, since MAIW gave me the opportunity to work on this model, and I don't want to step on anybody's head or scheduled packages. Never fear, there is plenty of retro in this old girl, so the show still rolls on here.

[clickclickdoh]

Is it wrong for a grown man to squeel with giddy joy like a school girl?

[halcon501]

Yeahh mate, it looks fantastic, can´t wait for this one.
Take your time, always MAIW surprises me the things you can achieve specially you Mike.
Thanks a lot

[petebramley]

YIPPEEEEEE

Christmas is coming early

[ruggerfan]

Mike this may be a good offering for my WIP on the retro side. For all of you, I have a work in progress of a proposed base that originally was for NORAD
but later turned over to SAC. I have a thread started on the Retro page. I made the base "later in her career" with some creative license, since I only had
DOD maps to work from. So, she is set-up for both NORAD (needing F-101's, lol) and SAC (B47 and B-52).

[djnocturnal]

Thats cool you were at Grand Forks, my dad spent most of his career in the 80's & 90's at GF. I also did a tour there from 03 to 05. Base is a ghost town now Looking forward to the BUFF!

[ronniegj]

Ron

[mikeblaze]

Good news, I got the green light from the MAIW staff to continue this project through with all models including the late H-model. A big thanks to senior staff, you guys know who you are.....

[miljan]

Great Mike,
I will keep an eye on this one.Something I am waiting so long.



Miljan

[delbydoo]

Mikey is truly BUFF.....nice one mate, really looking forward to this, as I'm sure a whole loada BUFF'ers will be

[clickclickdoh]

I don't suppose I could put some cookies in the mail to get an EB-52.

Just kidding.

Don't hurt me.

..not violating the rules, I promise.

[gsnde]

Good news, I got the green light from the MAIW staff to continue this project through with all models including the late H-model. A big thanks to senior staff, you guys know who you are.....

Mike,

This really is great news. This project has faltered so often, and now it is in good hands. Are you going to make one model with the X-15 attached? I would love that (and if the X-15 finds it's a detached existence during this exercise this would really be .... monster-cool )

All the best
Martin

PS: I will see Roger Waters The Wall tomorrow evening

[Makadocias]

Amazing news!

One of my personal favourites!

Good to know that we will have ai B52's in the future!

Thank you!!!! Thank you!!!

[Sonarboy]

Been waiting for an AI B52 for soooooo long. Well done the pictures look fantastic. Great work

Brian

[Victory103]

Holy BUFF Batman, 2nd only to another model we need in the sim that I'm slightly partial to. One of the few that can be both retro and modern with such a long service life!

[Jon]

Very Cool. Good luck with the project.

[mikeblaze]

I knew I could liven up the forum a little bit, lol......

Here are the later models, a middle-period (post-Vietnam, pre-EVS upgrade) B-52G in SIOP paint, a late-model B-52G with ACC paint (or something close to it, lol) around the 1991 timeframe, and a mid-period (post-Vietnam, post-EVS upgrade) B-52H, also in SIOP paint. The big diff is the engine cowlings, since there are three main variations (2 generations of PW J57 and the current PW TF33). The last B-52Gs were pretty much identical (at least in AI modeling) as the -52H, with the exception of the engines.

The other nice thing about a two-texture setup is that I have plenty of nooks and crannies to include pretty much everything for this aircraft, without referencing my usual vast library of ordnance shapes. There might actually be room on one of the textures for a very basic X-15 for a one-off model; but we'll save that for after the basic aircraft are released.