Mirage F.1

[beedee 0]

Some progress :

fuselage geometry refined (windscreen frame shape, size and shape of main gear bay and doors, speed brakes, minor corrections to fuselage cross sections, cannon ports), now poly count is down to 2600 without sacrificing visual appearance (aimed at 2500 including all hidden selections), flight model optimised for AI and joystick users, introduced (new?) de-lagged scripting techniques by randomly desynchronized loop runtimes per ingame object (although no lag observed before, despite many continuously animated parts). Finally I started texturing on universal parts such as engine nozzle, gears and gear bays. Camouflaged parts will come later; texture switching works for different camo patterns.

loadouts: I worked on a separate joint weapon pack for my various airplane packs; an AM.39 Exocet ASM is already included in the pack, as well as AS.30L, SAMP 250 & 400, Matra 155, BAP100, Matra R.550 Magic, R.530F, Super 530F, Super 530D and many others. My weapons will be merged with Hardrock's forthcoming ACES (AirCraft Equipment Standard) project.

ACES uses a different approach for weapon loadouts than the common pseudo-proxy solution, which offers true flexibility - you can individually chose a weapon for each of the planes' hardpoints.

My new textures on front gear:

Some more screenies:

(due to some irritations once again: please ignore the main textures; the spanish camo textures are borrowed from a FS2000 model (256x256 8bit if I remember correctly) just for testing, will be replaced by entirely new ones in the final model - crisp and without those strong shadows below wings and elevators)

P.S. does anyone know how I can make the single vertex at the radome tip non-shining? Sharpening ("U") and "Vertex properties - Always in shadow" have no effect

[hellfish6 7]

Wow! I can't wait!

[Ex-RoNiN 0]

She looks absolutely beautiful

[ran 0]

This gorgeous beauty resurfaces just as I'm back

I just love it.

Excellent job beedee.

[Imshi-Yallah 0]

Truly most excellent.

[FireflyPL 0]

hi Ex-RoNin,

yes of course.

hi RuN,

yes, I'm already doing a Mirage III-and-derivates pack parallely to the F.1 pack. But had no time to compile some stuff for another MIII-thread yet; also would like to stick with the F.1 first as it's difficult for me to maintain more than one thread at a time.

If you'd like to have a little preview, some early pics from the MIII-pack that I posted before in "Combat Photography" long time ago:

Double Seater Mirage IIIBE

IAI Kfir C2

Kfir is not Mirage III. Its modified version of strike fighter Mirage V.

[beedee 0]

Hm, not exactly. "V" (or "5") was just a marketing designation by Dassault. Technically a "5" is just another version of the Mirage IIIE airframe. Originally, Mirage 5s were stripped down versions of the IIIE after Israeli specifications for use under middle-east weather conditions. There was no need for those sophisticated and expensive all-weather avionics of the "european" IIIE versions. First versions of the "5" even had no radar and only simplified avionics, which cut down maintenance time from 35 to just 15 hours per flying hour (F-4 Phantom 50 hours, F-104 Starfighter 40 hours!). The avionics compartment behind the cockpit in the long IIIE-fuselage (apart from engine and radar biggest structural change from IIIC to IIIE) was used for another fuel tank to increase range. Also two additional hardpoints were added under the aft fuselage to utilize more of the high lift potential of the delta wings.

After the French weapons embargo, Israel managed to get the blueprints, so they were able to manufacture copies of the M5s themselves. These copies got the designation Nesher (and Dagger for export) and in the course of time were upgraded by israeli/american avionics.

Due to the french embargo Israel almost completely shifted to american technology. In the early 70ies IAI designed a successor for the aging Mirage IIICJ-5-Nesher fleet -the Kfir- as a total conversion. In general it was a Mirage IIIE/5/Nesher airframe (which are identical indeed) equipped with a stronger american General Electric J79-GE-17 engine, saw-toothed leading edge wings, canards and strakes, a flattened, tub-shaped nose section and state-of-the art israeli-american avionics and weapons. To incorporate the bigger engine, the fuselage aft section had to be redesigned. It was shortened and has a bigger diameter. Another characteristic of the Kfir is the auxiliary air intake in the tail root for the oil pump of the J-79 engine. Furthermore 2 more hardpoints (for a total of 9) were added below the intakes (but this might be only from C2 and later on, I'm unsure). The main gear got bigger wheels requiring a new gear bay doors layout. (If you might want to compare again, all these details are already featured in my Kfir model)

So far a Kfir is a straight Mirage III derivative, you agree?

Other famous derivatives of the Mirage III are the South African Atlas (Denel) Cheetah or the Chilean ENAER Pantera.

In comparison, the Mirage F.1 airframe is totally different from the Mirage III airframe in almost every aspect, though it shares a familiar look - mainly due to the shape of the intakes. Even the Atar 9K-50 engine of the MF.1, shared with the Mirage 50,  has a different afterburner design which is slightly angled upwards (the engine had to be de-centered below the main spar of the wings)

[FireflyPL 0]

Yes I know all of this, nevertheless its not Mirage III but sure Kfir is its far descendant.

[hellfish6 7]

Yes I know all of this, nevertheless its not Mirage III but sure Kfir is its far descendant.

I think he just explained very well that the Kfir IS the direct descendant of the Mirage III.

[FireflyPL 0]

I think he just explained very well that the Kfir IS the direct descendant of the Mirage III.

No he used word

derivative which means not original; secondary.

Kfir is descendant though not directly because there were several aircrafts between those two (first Mirage 5 and Nesher). Of course there are minor differences but in Kfir there are far more differences to Mirage III, so its not direct derrivative but rather longer descendant to it. I know most people won't see the difference

[calm_terror 0]

The Kfir is also slightly bigger then the mirage III

but yes the kfir is an different jet then the mirage V even

[mattxr 9]

i no its an oldish topic but any news with this bird

[hardrock 1]

it's not dead that's for sure

beedee will tell you more

[Blue_Flight 0]

Jeah i saw it on your page hardrock. So beedee is within your team now, great

[lukemax 0]

Ace, but how is the Eurofighter going?

[Tomislav 0]

Ace, but how is the Eurofighter going?

click the link in hardrocks signature and you'll see

[beedee 0]

At the moment my job keeps me rather busy. In my little spare time I tried to improve the flight model and AI behaviour (results to be added to ACES), so not much 'visible' progress yet, sorry.

[spetsnazcu 0]

any words on this yet?    I remember your mini eurofighter prank...     lol still waiting on the darned planes

[eestikas88 0]

mini eurofighter wasn't by beedee if i remember correctly.

it was Hardrock

[sv5000 127]

Was all pumped about this, then i saw the dates of the posts......

[chris330 0]

At the moment my job keeps me rather busy. In my little spare time I tried to improve the flight model and AI behaviour (results to be added to ACES), so not much 'visible' progress yet, sorry.

Don't worry about it. It looks superb so far.

To be honest I think someone who has demonstrated the level of skill you have could probably do better manufacturing new textures instead of photograph ports which is what appears to be on the model in the first few posts.

I really hope you get to finish this, but don't do it at the expense of your comittments in your private life

[beedee 0]

Hello,

in the last year I reworked the model a lot. I also created many gizmo mapped textures for it; unfortunately, each time when I got new insights from reference drawings and photos I made the according changes to the model mesh, which means I had to redo the textures again.

The MF1 has 3070 vertices at the moment but a lot of eyecandy, like auxiliary intake doors and intake cones, first stage vane, some engine nozzle and flame animation steps from idle to full afterburner, full set of flaps, slats and spoilers, airbrakes and so on.

However, RL will keep me from doing any big steps this year.

Here's a couple of WIP pics:

MF1 with one of my latest texture mappings

And here the "mapping" textures from above, with some cheap camo colour over it (With OFrP pilot and roundels borrowed from Footmunch's F-16):

F.1CT bomb truck with driver (first stage compressor vane visible)

I forgot to colour the tailplane...

Hard turn after a touch-and-go manoeuvre, disengaging afterburner, airbrakes full, flaps set to 60%

[-HUNTER- 1]

Was that video the one of Mirages flying over a road in Tchad?

Yes yes I wanted to post something about that aswell, that is absolutly insane, but very very cool!

And an iraqi one would also be sweet, but offcourse its up to you guys!

anyway this is looking really nice allready, I hope they fly nice!

[imutep 0]

Hi,

geat, great

I was so free and post the Screens on the best german OFP-Site.

People are afraid, to see new Screens of your work.

Keep it up

Bewst wishes

Imutep

[[aps]gnat 28]

Lovely work ..... !