Mod Madness

I've been making changes to my copy of Strike Fighters.

There's a huge community of people who make add-on planes for the game and I am availing myself of the resources!

Pics below the fold to save people some loading time!





First is the previously mentioned A-6 Intruder.  This is a change I made, the AoA indexer lights were not coming on at the right speeds at all.  It's now fixed.

A-6A, late 1965.

On power, on glideslope, a little right.

On center, on speed, 2 wire.

A-6B Interior.

Externally, not too different from the A-6A.  The A-6B was the Navy's version of the Wild Weasel, they called it "Iron Hand".  The DIANE attack computer was replaced with electronic warfare equipment.

A-6E front office.

A-6E letting loose with twenty snake-eyes!

A-6E TRAM on the cat.  TRAM stands for Target Recognition and Attack Multi-sensor.

A-6E TRAM cockpit.  The same cockpit is used for the SWIP too.

A-6E SWIP, which is a TRAM bird with upgraded composite wings.  SWIP means either Systems/Weapons Improvement Program or Shit! the Wing Is Plastic!

Recently the developer added a bunch of AI planes.  Among them was the F-104A and three versions of the F-104C.

Royal Jordanian Air Force F-104A.

USAF F-104A

USAF F-104C with Project Grindstone (expanded weapons load), Project Seven-Up (upgraded engine) and Project Pronto (RWR added) mods.

Not recent additions, but the same process makes them flyable.

CF-104 circa 1962.

CF-104 circa 1976.  Canadian Starfighters went through the same upgrades as USAF aircraft did.

Bundesrepublik Deutschland Luftwaffe F-104G.

Some mods are juggling an existing model with different stats and changing the markings.  The AV-8A is essentially the stock Harrier GR.1 model with USMC markings and the engine data pulled from the Harrier GR.3.

AV-8A Harrier

Sometimes TK does research to get things right and misses that the markings are not period correct.  So the skinners step in and fix 'em.  The game encompasses 1956 through 1984, and squadron markings can change a lot over that time period.

F-14A from VF-142 in pre-1978 livery.

This is the post-'78 paint scheme for VF-142 Ghostriders, and it was the only scheme for their F-14's to come with the game.

VF-41 was also messed up.  The "Northern Sabre" campaign is set in September 1979 and VF-41 from Nimitz is one of the scenarios.

These are the markings that came with the game.  VF-41 stopped using them almost a year before the campaign date.

The October '78 Markings and what the bird should wear for the timeframe.

In January 1981 the national insignia lost it color and turned black.  The Ace on the tail gained a red stripe though!  This is also a depiction of Fast Eagle 102 flown by CDR Kleemann and LT Venlet on August 19, 1981.  They got a Libyan Su-22 with an AIM-9L.

Then there are the labors of love where the modder made the entire plane from scratch.

CF-5A Freedom Fighter, 1972 mod.

F-5E Tiger II.  Here in USAF markings, something hardly encountered in the wild.