FS9 Martin T4M Torpedo Truck Upgraded

[Mick]

A new entry has been added to Add-Ons Library, category FS 2004 Military - Props

Description: This is David Wooster's old 2006 model upgraded. It's been completely reskinned and now has the 3D model visible in Virtual Cockpit view, providing the view from a real VC when looking outside the aircraft. This is the complete aircraft so you don't need the original version. Both wheel and float versions are included. It has all but a couple of the original skins plus several new ones. The big improvement is the skins. I've learned a few things about painting textures in the seventeen years since I painted the original release.

To check it out, rate it or add comments, visit FS9 Martin T4M Torpedo Truck Upgraded
The comments you make there will appear in the posts below.

[ian elliot]

Thanks for this Mick. mostly im a European theater man, but i find this craft a fun and fascinating plane to fly from an era i dont know much about. The wheel'd model with the Oakland paint is my favorite at the moment, and im enjoying cruising around Frisco bay

[normb]

Thanks for a great oldie upgrade! I enjoyed the original release, and this one is great also. Majestic biplanes from the golden age.

Thanks again,
normb

[leuen]

A further enjoying enhancement of vintage skies! Thanks Mike. I assume that these aircraft were land based somewhere. But it's quite difficult to find out, where their bases were located. Google search refers mostly to aircraft carriers. Maybe someone might suggest suitable listings or documents. Would appreciate any advice.

Bernard

[Mick]

A further enjoying enhancement of vintage skies! Thanks Mike. I assume that these aircraft were land based somewhere. But it's quite difficult to find out, where their bases were located. Google search refers mostly to aircraft carriers. Maybe someone might suggest suitable listings or documents. Would appreciate any advice.
Bernard

In those days the carrier squadrons (later carrier air groups) were shore-based at North Island in San Diego, California, which was the home port of the Battle Force (later designated the Pacific Fleet.) In those days there were no carriers in the Scouting Force (later Atlantic Squadron and still later Atlantic Fleet.) The carriers would sometimes have exercises in the Caribbean or visit Atlantic ports but they lived in San Diego and came through the Panama Canal when they went east. Fleet carriers wouldn't sail regularly in the Atlantic until the advent of the Neutrality Patrol on the eve of WW2, when the T4M was long gone.

The floatplane torpedo squadron (VT-9) and utility squadron (VJ-2) were both based aboard the tender USS Wright, home ported at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

The tender USS Heron, a unit of the Asiatic Fleet, was home-ported at Subic Bay in the Philippines. The plane I painted apparently belonged to the ship's company rather than any squadron.

It seems curious that while the large and formidable Battle Force and Scouting Force, and the Base Force with so many patrol squadrons, were simply elements of the U.S. Fleet, the Asiatic Fleet with just a cruiser, a few destroyers, some submarines and a few river gunboats working in China, was designated as a fleet and had a full admiral in command.

[Jorge]

Awesome, Mick!

Bernard, see if this has what you're looking for. I've used the site before to help with the reference needed for some of the Navy updates I've done so far to Paul Clawson's aircraft. I admit, however, using the colors from Brian's Color Charts -- which aren't seen as the best, but they work.

http://www.wings-aviation.ch/21-USNa...t-Basis-en.htm

Just scroll down until you get to the "M" section, then click on the T4M.

You can go around the website and find quite a few things, to include what unit and aircraft was on what carrier. That's where I got the info for the Saratoga planes I did a while back.

You can also find out some history since some units changed designations over time. The VJ-6M Marine T4M, for example. You won't find info on that unit, but you will find some stuff on wikipedia for the unit that it became which was VMR-152. In the history section it says they were originally formed in 1922 as VJ-6M at MCAS Quantico, VA. They went on to be the first USMC squadron to field the R4D -- the famous "Dakota" in WW2 -- hence the VMR designation as per the system in use back then.

Nice thing about the reserve units is that they tell you where they were at in the picture and/or underneath.

On some aircraft, like the T4M, they even tell you the BuAir numbers at the bottom so you know what serial numbers were used. Cross referenced that with the Joe Baugher stuff for the paints I did.

Takes some digging, but you can find some stuff if you know where to dig.

Enjoy!

Jorge
Miami, FL

[Mick]

Thanks for a great oldie upgrade! I enjoyed the original release, and this one is great also. Majestic biplanes from the golden age.
Thanks again,
normb

If you flew it you noticed that I turned the trick you taught me to make the 3D model visible in VC View just like in a real VC (unless you look down into the cockpit.) It sure beats that old "invisible cockpit" view!

I was sorely tempted to ask David to make a VC for these models (if he even has the source files after seventeen years and several computers) but the whole reason I had time to do all the new skins is because he's too busy with real life matters to have any hobby time right now.

[Mick]

Thanks for a great oldie upgrade! I enjoyed the original release, and this one is great also. Majestic biplanes from the golden age.
Thanks again,
normb

They had some nifty unit insignia in those days and that Golden Gator is one of my favorites. I don't know if the Golden Gate and SF-Oakland Bay bridges were in FS9 straight from the box (I recall that some bridges were missing, at least before the patch.) But someone did a nice scenery add-on that has both bridges, with the Golden Gate all in its red primer glory. I read that the plan was to paint it gray after the primer dried but the people of San Francisco rose up in a clamor, crying "No! Leave it red! We like it that way!" And it remains so to this day.

[ian elliot]

evening flight

[leuen]

Mike and Jorge, thanks for your tips and comments. These will help to place the planes as AI on appropriated airfields. North Island would certainly be one of these places. I didn't have thought about this.

Bernard

[Mick]

Mike and Jorge, thanks for your tips and comments. These will help to place the planes as AI on appropriated airfields. North Island would certainly be one of these places. I didn't have thought about this.
Bernard

Here are a few more, the reserve bases. I only listed the cities in my earlier post.

Boston Reserves - Naval Reserve Air Base Squantum, across Dorchester Bay from Boston.

New York (Brooklyn) Reserves - Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn.

Oakland Reserves - the municipal airport at Oakland (Not at NAS Alameda, just up the shore.)

Seattle - Not sure but probably Seattle's civil airport.

And a few others:

The Marine Corps plane was based at MCAS Quantico, Virginia.

USS Heron was based at Subic Bay, P.I., where the USS Jason had been earlier.

The Dahlgren plane was assigned to the Naval Proving Ground at Dahlgren, Virginia. I suppose Dahlgren had an airfield but I'm not sure, its aircraft may have flown from some nearby field.

The Lakehurst plane, naturally, was based at NAS Lakehurst in New Jersey, the east coast home of lighter than air aviation.

Like you, I've populated some of the bases with AI T4Ms. I have them at North Island, Squantum, Floyd Bennett, Lakehurst, Oakland and Pearl Harbor. And maybe one or two other places that I can't recall right now. The Marine plane will go to Quantico if I ever get around to developing Quantico, which has been on my to-do list for many years.

[huub vink]

Thanks Mick, your efforts are appreciated as always!

Cheers,
Huub

[Jorge]

Dahlgren NSWC
Airport Code: KNDY

There's really nothing there, but simple enough that you could replace the default buildings with some nice vintage library objects.

Airport needs "piping" to have A.I. use it, though. Then again, I think that's the case for many of the default military airfields. As long as you keep everything close to the stuff already there (ramps, runways, etc.), there's no reason not to be able to use the default terrain backing for the grass.

I remembered this one since it was one of the few I was going to work on for PW.

Jorge
Miami, FL

[Shessi]

Many thanks Mick, always liked the TT, and these inter-war ac..good stuff!!

Cheers

Shessi

[leuen]

Thanks Mike. I didn't expect so much informations!

Bernard

[Mick]

Dahlgren NSWC
Airport Code: KNDY
Airport needs "piping" to have A.I. use it, though. Then again, I think that's the case for many of the default military airfields. As long as you keep everything close to the stuff already there (ramps, runways, etc.), there's no reason not to be able to use the default terrain backing for the grass.
Jorge
Miami, FL

Here in the New England/New York area where I've developed all my sims heavily (Golden Wings, Classic Era and Jet Age) I've found that the military bases were all very sketchy in FS9. Some have become civilian or joint-use airports and they are ready for AI because there are a few flights there in the stock AI traffic files. But even those don't have much there, usually a few autogen buildings that look like office buildings, nothing that looks much like a terminal, and nothing that could pass for a hangar. The only airport-looking structure is a tower. So to re-militarize them you not only have to delete the civil AI flights, but add in all the hangars and other base structures. And if a military base was closed when FS9 was being developed, there's nothing there at all.

I suppose the folks at Aces Studios figured that if we were interested in military aviation we would've bought CFS instead of FS.

One thing I had fun with is the long-closed Naval Air Station at South Weymouth, where the Navy moved when Squantum, which had evolved from a reserve base to an active duty air station, became untenable with the advent of jets. (Runways too short and no room for expansion, and dangerously close to Boston's Logan Airport.) There's no AFCAD file and it's doesn't show up on the Select Airport menu, but the runways, taxiways and ramps are there, inviting the creation of an AFCAD and placement of appropriate buildings and other scenery objects. With the pavement in place and the ground flat and clear of trees, it's a great head start. In FS54 it's populated with planes from the Dark Sea Blue period and in Jet Age it's full of planes in Light Gull Gray over White.

[AVP]

Thanks Mick, another must have.