E-2 Hawkeye and C-2 Greyhound

[John Young]

Thanks Mark. I think you are right about Aircraft 3. I've found the photo again. It was uploaded in June 2019, but the photo was actually taken in 2016.

That's boring then, 3 French E-2C's in plain grey it is.

John

[gsnde]

Sometimes too much realism is depressing. I wouldn't mind a bit of inaccuracy here the slightest.

From mobile hence short

[hawk_sh]

Hi John

Are these 3 schemes still current please?

Aircraft 1 (165455) - Flottille 4F anniversary scheme (April 2018 photo). (Jan 2020 no Special Scheme)

Aircraft 2 (165456) - tiger stripes to the outer tail fins (June 2017 photo). (May 2018 no Special Scheme)

Aircraft 3 (166417) - tiger scheme to nose/cockpit, engines and tail (May 2019 photo). Ive seen 2 pictures from Feb 2017 with no scheme on which is odd as i thought they would leave it on longer. and you have seen an image with it on in 2019

Much thanks

Mark

It seeems that Aircraft 1 (165455) still has that special tail as of late January, see that hangar photo in the facebook post from 23rd january:
https://www.facebook.com/aeronautiquena ... _9ugYBAda8

[TheFoufure]

165455 wear special livery for US training during 2018 (Operation Chesapeake).

[Tranquil]

As of 11th January 2020



Much thanks

Mark

[hawk_sh]

As of 11th January 2020



Much thanks

Mark

11th January is the upload date of the picture. I doubt that this is a current picture.
The tail looks worn. It should look freshly painted since in September last year Aircraft 1 still had the special scheme.

The picture on Facebook shows a politician holding a speech in the hangar bay of the Charles de Gaulle with the aircraft as a backdrop while on a current deployment.

[John Young]

Well spotted Hartwig - you can just see the top of the fin to confirm the anniversary scheme. It really illustrates the problem of trying to determine current paint schemes.

Thanks.

John

[bismarck]

Playing around with WET FDE, using Ed Aviation model.
Landing is OK, start working on Take-off.
Hope to achieve something useful for the new beauty...



Giorgio

[John Young]

Thanks Giorgio, but I can't use the Ed Aviation FDE directly since it's copyright to him. Steve is working on a "wet" FDE using MAIW source files.

John

[bismarck]

Great!
His result will be better than mine for sure!!!

Giorgio

[John Young]

I was in two minds about increasing the polygon count to make the rotordome more round, but Steve's suggestion that I should rather clinched it for me. Blow the additional 386 polygons, it was a no-brainer having done it and applied it retrospectively to all the models. Instead of 18 sides, it's now 40. I've also tweaked the final LOD to push it out further and changed it's colour to a lighter grey to stop it disappearing.

This is Japanese contingent. 15 aircraft in total, 10 x 4-bladed prop "C's", 1 x 8-bladed prop "C" and two new "D's":





Next are the 3 French examples:



I couldn't resist the 2018 Tiger scheme, which we know has since been removed. The Anniversary scheme however is still present, as observed by Hartwig's eagle eye. However, since some users might not want the slightly retro Tiger, I have also produced the present day unadorned texture in plain grey as applied to 165456 (aircraft 2) as an alternative:



This is the anniversary scheme on aircraft 1 (left side):



and the right side:



Finally the Tiger:



I'm going to return to the US Navy examples next. There's still a lot there to paint there.........

John

[delta_lima]

Looks insanely gorgeous, John.

Rotordome looks effectively round.

Thanks for your hard work.

[asdro]

@John

Can you please list which animations the models have?

I know that the NAAI 707-E3 AWACS has animation of the Radar at or above FL260 i think.

[John Young]

- Animation of the radome above 300ft radar altitude (no point in animating it if you can't see it)

- Wing fold (optional models)

- Tail hook (triggered by radar altimeter on approach) for a "wet" FDE

- Flaps half at take-off

- Crew heads

John

[TimC340]

You've animated the toilet...? Ah - no, I get it!

[John Young]

Actually Tim, I'm quite used to animating toilets. The last one was on the F-35B on top of the fuselage.

[Joecoastie]

Actually Tim, I'm quite used to animating toilets. The last one was on the F-35B on top of the fuselage.

Well played, John. Well played.

[MIKE JG]

Beautiful as usual. I only come here for the teaser shots these days!

[TimC340]

Actually Tim, I'm quite used to animating toilets. The last one was on the F-35B on top of the fuselage.

Touche, John!

[John Young]

The US Navy Hawkeyes seem to rotate around the fleet every 2 years or so and get repainted differently each time. I've given up on VAW-123 (Screwtops) having spent 3 hours trying to find photos of current schemes that match the Scramble serials. A pity really because I wanted to paint the blue spiral on top of the radome. However I think I have managed VAW-116, VAW-117 and VAW-124 after a lot of checking:

VAW-116 "Sun Kings"







VAW-117 "Wallbangers"







VAW-124 - "Bear Aces"







I'll have a go at VAW-120 next, which is the Fleet Replacement Squadron (Training) and appears to have 14 E-2Cs/Ds. I don't think we need more after that, or I will be flooding the parking at Norfolk. I still have the Greyhounds to add in too.

John