Military AI Works

I'm spilling the beans on this one early because I could do with a little help please.

I've picked the EA-6B Prowler from the suggestions list and also because I have always liked the aircraft. The model is far from complete yet - all the wing animations are sealed up at the moment while I carry on with mapping the texture. The paint itself is still at an early stage:





I'll be making some load-out variations with a wing fold option and I already have a carrier (wet) FDE working. I'll be making FS9 and FSX/P3D models, but I'm not planning to do scenery or flight plans.

I'm planning to make the 5 aircraft for each of the 4 USMC squadrons and the 6 USN squadrons that were in service in 2014. The full list of squadrons is here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_ ... 6B_Prowler

Unfortunately, Scramble can't help me much with serials, hence the request for help. Does anyone have the serials please for the 4 USMC squadrons and USN VAQ-129,131,133,134,140 and 142 please, circa 2014?

Just to pre-empt the question - will I also make the A-6 Intruder? Possibly, I'll see how I feel about it when I finish Prowling.

John

Lovely.

SWEEEETTTT!!!!!!

Wow. A good news !!

I've checked my old version of Scramble books. But I only have years 2000/2001/2017/2019, sorry.

Hi John,
Fantastic news, I've always liked this aircraft too and your model looks great!
I was more than lucky to visit the Eisenhower with VAQ-140 on board so here are the serials from 2013 if it helps:
163521 AJ-500
161779 AJ-501
161881 AJ-502
163527 AJ-503
If you need some pics of them, jst tell me
Again awesome work and good choice!

Fred

nice looking model John

What a variety of aircraft you did the last months! It is always a surprise when watching this forum after several weeks! Great...

The Prowler is quite an interesting aircraft to build. The main gear animation was a pig and it took me 10 hours to get the wheels into the wells. The 4 crew members and 4 ejection seats were always a worry because they account for nearly 4000 polygons. That pushes the total count to 11,436 triangles, but with a judicious intermediate LOD and only 4 or 5 aircraft per squadron, it should be fine. There are 42 animated parts, which will be fun, when it comes to FSX/P3D tagging.

I'm hoping to find a few nice CAG paint schemes of the period, when I have a look around for them.

John

This is a wonderful new project, John. Thanks a lot!


From mobile hence short

Tremdous news to read on the A-6 series (thumbs up for the Intruder version as well). VAQ-132 was in the air wing I was in, but my closest encounter happened during the last deployment for the USMC models. Here are some BuNos from gonavy.jp:
VMAQ-4 (RM)
( EA-6B )
(Feb. 2013 - Jul. 2013)

VMAQ-2 (CY)
( EA-6B )
(Jul. 2013 - Feb. 2014)
Modex Bu.No.
06-163889
00-163046
07-163526
01-163526
08-163528
02-163528
09-163888
03-163888
10-163046
04-163889

This is great to see Prowlers never die! I have been keeping older versions of MSFS for historical renderings. I look forward to seeing the VMAQ squadrons!

Does it have hover taxi ?


Kidding looks great John

Cheers

Gary

Oups
Sorry for my VAQ-140 serials, you should read beside them AG-50x... My mistake
Fred

No problem Fred. I'm not quite ready yet for the serials so I'll see what anyone else contributes and then produce a list that I can use to go and hunt for photographs for the final paints. Thanks everyone for you kind comments and the numbers so far.

John

Chris, in your list of serials above, VMAQ-4 (RM) has a title, but no serials. Was that intentional or did you miss pasting them please?

John

John Young wrote: ↑07 Dec 2021, 15:59 Just to pre-empt the question - will I also make the A-6 Intruder? Possibly, I'll see how I feel about it when I finish Prowling.

John

It could be cool to have a A-6 of course, but also the EA-6A (dual seats prowler) and the KA-6D (tanker)

for EA-6B, I also have another book with serial, but no units. Only serial list. Its from 2017. I'll check that this week-end.

Such a good news! Something to add to my Carrier set up.

Giorgio

This is what I can gather from photos from Airliners.net, Jetphotos.net, airplane-pictures.net, planespotters.net, and seaforces.org

VMAQT-1
163045 CB-03
163397 CB-02
163530 CB-04
163031 CB-01
162228 CB-00

VMAQ-2
163889 CY-04
163046 CY-00
163526 CY-01
163528 CY-02
163888 CY-03

VMAQ-3
158542 MJ-01
161242 MJ-02
163032 MJ-03
163400 MJ-00
163524 MJ-04

VMAQ-4
161885 RM-09
162936 RM-05
163033 RM-08
163047 RM-007
163398 RM-06

VAQ-129
162227 NJ-910
162935 NJ-903
163048 NJ-900
160788 NJ-905
164402 NJ-900
158810 NJ-901

VAQ-131 In transition during 2014
161882 NE-503
163396 NE-502

VAQ-133 In transition 2014
163404 NG-502
163399 NG-500

VAQ-134
164401 AJ-501
161884 AJ-503
163886 AJ-500
163890 AJ-502
163030 AJ-504

VAQ-140
161779 AG-501
161881 AG-502
163521 AG-500
163527 AG-503

VAQ-142
161245 NK-500
163891 NK-503
163887 NK-501
160434 NK-502

Well done for those. I was part way through the same exercise this morning and found a few numbers, but not as comprehensively as your list. I'll check the photographs as I do the paints to ensure I use the last scheme that was applied.

Many thanks - most useful.

John

Very good dig on all those BuNos! I used seaforces.org for the Osprey repaints I did a few years ago. There was a time when the AMARC was my source for finding old serials and BuNos for retired aircraft http://www.amarcexperience.com/ui/index.php