Seige of Malta - Revisited

[Trout]

So I had this grand idea awhile ago to honour the British and Canadian pilots that served in this hellish place.

[Jabo]

Sounds interesting Trout - I'll be keeping an eye on this thread for certain. Who wants to fly Hoe?

[Trout]

Who wants to fly Hoe?

[Friar]

Have you seen the Il2 film "Faith, Hope and Charity" its a classic..

[Jabo]

Who wants to fly Hoe?

[Trout]

Have you seen the Il2 film "Faith, Hope and Charity" its a classic..

No I have not seen it.

[Friar]

I actually shed a tear at the end. its the only movie I have actually wanted to copy to cd permantly.

[Trout]

Have you seen the Il2 film "Faith, Hope and Charity" its a classic..

Holy crap.

[Friar]

Glad you enjoyed it. It was an award winner.

One of our former members, an excellent guy called Bbloke has a web site dedicated to il2 films. I will try and find you the link.

Friar

[Enforcer57]

Prepare for alot of endless tedious work, but I'm sure you already know that. YOu may wanna consider posting what you already have or including it in a seperate folder with your new project. I'm rigging my current 1947 project (18 mos now) to be flyable in 408 or with mods.

Having flown a few malta cmpns and considered making one myself, I just wanna offer a few observations I made.

Historically, there were actually around 20+ Gladiators on Malta, RN planes that were stored there and assembled by the RAF. At first they only averaged about three operational each day, but that improved after a while. They promoted that idea for propaganda purposes and to confuse the Italians. So you can accept a few losses sometimes. I was gonna hide a few in a warehouse.

Look around for several sources of info on Malta, as there were so many aspects of this cmpn that are not well known. I was wanting to make a project based on a 1944 book I found yrs ago called Malta Story, written by one of the many American Eagle squadron guys stationed there with regular RAF units.

I would highly recommend toning down the skill on the bombers, as well as the speed. Make most of them rookie, maybe an occaissional average flight leader. They will still blast a target quite well, as they were an area attack asset anyway. I would not arm all the flights either. If you do, even the rookie gunners will blow you away nearly everytime. In my bomber formations, I usually leave half the flights unarmed, and keep the others close enough to offer support. It's still hair raising to get through these things.

I believe the DB-3 is often used as an SM79 and there are several skins out for it. You probably already know that though. There is a new AI version being made for mods (maybe flyable at some point), but I dunno when it will show up. Alot of planes seem to be close to being released when they are just abandoned, but last time I went by AAA last week, the SM79 was supposedly still alive.

If you decide to include the supply operation where the tanker SS Ohio barely made it in (Operation Pedastal ), I believe there is a large tanker availible now in that ship mod, but I have no experience with it. Pedastal has been made into a cmpn itself.

Keep in mind that the number of objects affects frame rate less than the number of TYPES of objects.

Go with whatever Ideas you have, but these are just recommendations from my own experience. It's easy to overload yourself as well.

[Trout]

Thanks for the comments & tips Enforcer.

[deadly_magpie]

I hope the S.79 gets released at AAA. I want to make a Pedestal mission pack, it would sure be a nice addition. My Grandpa was on HMS Foresight, cut in half by a torp from an S.79

[Enforcer57]

man, I bet some good stories came out of htat. I hope somebody in your family has taken notes on that. The SM79 is still being worked on, but I think it will be AI to begin with and have to use an existing cockpit if flown. Maybe a cockpit later on. A truly nifty plane.