Looking for a modeller for a very unusual scenery mdl

Ford Friendly · Post by **Ford Friendly** » 27 Jan 2009, 06:05

Hi guys.

I've been playing around with Misawa AB and have a need for a piece of scenery that I KNOW has never been seen before in any FS version.

It's an antenna - ex., 40* 43' 22.39"N 14* 19' 42.57"E
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wullenweber

I grant you that it's an unusual design need, but there are roughly 24 sites in the world that could make use of this object. It's definitely large enough to be used in the real world as a visual point of reference and most are within a few miles of military airports.

I have a couple better pics if anyone is interested in taking a shot at this.

Shoot me a pm if I've peaked your interested.

Post by **VulcanDriver** » 27 Jan 2009, 06:32

Have you seen this?

http://www.fas.org/irp/program/collect/an-flr-9.htm

Good pics at the bottom.

RAF Chicksands is now the home of the UK Intelligence Corps.

Ford Friendly · Post by **Ford Friendly** » 27 Jan 2009, 06:46

Yeah, I have all sorts of pics from various real world installations.

I just need to find someone willing to take a shot at this.
(I've vaguely simulated it with some RWY-12 objects, but there has to be a better way.)

Post by **Firebird** » 27 Jan 2009, 07:42

So they have one of these at Elmendorf, eh?

Ford Friendly · Post by **Ford Friendly** » 27 Jan 2009, 07:49

Like I said, about 24 locations.... including Misawa, Elmendorf and Guam.

Some have been dismantled, others only partially so.

There's a Russian version also.

KevinJarvis · Post by **KevinJarvis** » 27 Jan 2009, 15:39

Ford,
I know a couple of guys with the talent to do this. Let me contact them and see if they'd be interested.

BASys · Post by **BASys** » 27 Jan 2009, 16:12

Hi Folks

AIUI
Majority of these were all dismantled
either late last / early this century.

As of 2007, only the Elmendorf and Misawa arrays remain in service

HTH
ATB
Paul

Ford Friendly · Post by **Ford Friendly** » 27 Jan 2009, 19:07

Kevin, I appreciate this.

Paul, I'm just looking for a scenery object to place. The fact that I was stationed at numerous places where these were makes their current, real world status irrelevant to me as far as FS is concerned. Call it "retro" or consider that people still fly obsolete a/c, in real life and in FS - I want to have them in my sim at various places because I want to differentiate certain areas in my si from "the default" (and "because I want them

).

BASys · Post by **BASys** » 27 Jan 2009, 20:57

Hi Folks

Ford -
My apologies,
my post should have reflected the retro potential.

It was just I'd previously looked at incorporating these huffduffs.

Only to discover they'd been removed
since our source-imagery had been taken.

HTH
ATB
Paul

Ford Friendly · Post by **Ford Friendly** » 27 Jan 2009, 21:28

No apologies necessary.

Factually, there ARE still operational non-FLR-9 "Huff-Duff's"/Wullenwebbers active in various locations both with and by non-US personnel. There are also dormant antenna installations still standing.

Obviously, you found them of interest at an earlier point. Considering that most of the FS-world is represented by default buildings - including most airport buildings, HAS's, and bridges - why should "reality", such as it is, argue against having them as FS scenery (not that anyone is specifically arguing that)?

Case in point, Hanza, Okinawa. Neither the FS9 nor the FSX landclass is accurate, either as a default or in any add-on I've evaluated. The Hanza/Torii Station antenna site was demolished and the land turned into farmland. During and immediately after WW2, that same area was an airfield, one of a few on the island. Traces of the airfield remain, but there's little to no visual evidence remaining of the antenna site. While I was on Okinawa, back in the 80's, you could see the "elephant cage" from certain spots on Kadena AFB. In FSX, what one sees flying over the site is inaccurately represented/generic farmland-mixed-with-residences. I like flying in the Okinawa area because I get great frame rates, there's a fair bit of a/c activity, and I can practice flying to some of the other islands. (Re)placing the antenna would provide "something" to that scenery area that I think is lacking. (Similar feelings, for me, occur near Imperial Beach(Ca), Winter Harbor(Maine [north of Bar Harbor]), Rota(Spain), Adak(AK), Augsburg(Germany), Edzell(Scotland) and on and on. Like I said, there are at least 24 places these could make a visual difference in a sim.).

The point being, these are unique scenery elements that present an opportunity for someone to "do something different" scenery-wise. If I had the skills, I'd have made something myself already - it's actually the primary reason I tried gmax more than once.

JohnStinstrom · Post by **JohnStinstrom** » 22 Feb 2009, 03:24

Hi Ford, I fooled around with those a while ago when I was doing my North Island scenery. I ended up trying a photo background for that with mixed results. Here is the base model and it could me modified if think you want to risk a frame-rate hit.

Ford Friendly · Post by **Ford Friendly** » 22 Feb 2009, 15:29

John,

Hat's off to you. While that may appear to have been a "simple" and possibly "inadequate" solution for you, it is almost exactly what I was looking for.

Having been stationed at numerous "elephant cage" locations, I can say that most people don't notice the real details of the antenna's themselves [eg., actual size (diameter), # of antenna rings, # of reflector rings, building inside rings or not] on the ground. When flying, they appeared mainly due to the visual "distortion"/breaking up of the area immediately around them - and then only as one approached (there was always restricted space overhead/above them). They are/were most noticeable from low altitude (especially when silhouetted against the sky) and at something of a distance - maybe out to 5 miles - except for the large claered grassy area that was always present (being the "ground plane" for the antenna.)

What you made will definitely "suffice" for the locations I want.

Thanks a bunch!

Ford

JohnStinstrom · Post by **JohnStinstrom** » 22 Feb 2009, 23:38

You are quite welcome Ford. As you say, they are not all that visible and except where they are near the end of the runway, like Misawa or Elmendorf, they are largely overlooked as you climb out or concetrate on the the piano keys coming in. If you end up placing these around the world I hope you will upload your work to Avsim so everyone can enjoy it.

Ford Friendly · Post by **Ford Friendly** » 23 Feb 2009, 22:00

Began playing with the Security Hill area at Misawa which would have looked just WRONG without the Elephant Cage.

Here're a couple shots - nothing fancy.. just "atmosphere".

Real world

Trying to duplicate that shot in FSX

Looking towards the airfield

Obviously still needs a fair bit of Instant Scenery work and quite possibly some more SbuilderX landclassing work, but it's definitely along the lines of what I was hoping for.

I have no idea if the geodesic/satellite dome.bgls made by Instant Scenery while running FSX will work in FS9. If someone wants to pm me I'll send them and the Elephant Cage.bgl I made to whomever pms me first in order to check them out.