Grumman F-14A block 75/95/110/135

Radium

Hello Gentleman,

Just to let you know that while I’m hardworking on my KF-21 Boramae (that should be finished circa January 2024), I am happy to announce that my next project will be… F-14A !

I know many people love the Tomcat. Honestly, I neither dislike it, nor am fan of it. Nevertheless, after Mitsubishi F-1, KF-21, I thought it was nice to make a common fighter aircraft.

About F-14B we will probably delete it , in favor or F-14A late block (135) assuming that all F-14B became F-14D and none of them were as capable as late F-14A.
About F-14D, maybe later !

and D, nothing sure for now. It will depends on my motivation, but nothing is impossible !

Please understand that I will not make every possible Squadron.

For now, I aim for :

And…

Stay tuned,

Radium

Credits :

Radium : Project owner
Digle : DB and integration
Topolo : flight model support (OFM+AFM)
Mav_JP : Documentation support + AFM support + Code support
Okayasugf : Technical support, unwrapping support, good ideas finder and greatest supporter
Max Waldorf : Integration support
Molnibalage : Documentation support
Sierra : blocks technical specs support
JollyFE : Ground support equipment support
the_tr00per : Ground support equipment support
SOBO-87 : Kind support and documentation
Migbuster : Kind support and documentation

huffer2

@Radium
I will stay tuned!

qawa

YESSSSS !!!

okayasugf

@Radium YESSIR!

SpbGoro

Great news, thanks Radium!

arkady86

She’ll be back… and she’ll be beautiful! Thank you Radium!

Nick Taylor

Hey Radium,

Hope everything is fine on your end. Nice to see that you’re still so much dedicated to your hobby.

I do understand that you can’t make every possible squadron … and what about VF-14 Tophatters?

alt text

Just kidding,
Nick

Radium

@Nick-Taylor Hello Nick,

Long time ago, I was into VRS F/A-18E.

I even flew in some virtual squadrons and at this time, the very only combo that people felt like the must was : F/A-18E + Pula airbase + VFA-14.

For this reason, I don’t feel like I want to do VFA-14 livery !

Radium

okayasugf

@Radium I think they can edit dds files for their own textures?

Radium

@okayasugf Hello,

Usually, I am not good at it, but I will try my best to make a user friendly paintkit.

Radium

molnibalage

Will the new F-14 include the AIM-54 and the pylons?
If new AIM-7F/M comes other aircraft can also benefit from this.

Radium

@molnibalage Hello,

Question is : You see what I usually do for my 3D models. I always, always do custom pylons and payload, so yes.

Radium

buraktunahan

@Radium Thank you very much, Radium. The best news I got today.

All my dreams are coming true one by one. First F-15, now F-14…

Don’t worry about the paint. F-14 is the most charismatic fighter ever. I can’t wait to paint it. I’m already thinking of painting all the fleets for myself over time. If you allow me, I will share the skins I made for myself with the BMS community as I complete them. Of course, this depends on your permission.

Note: I expect Kaan from you in the future. Hopefully, if nothing goes wrong, its first flight is planned for December 27.

Radium

@buraktunahan Hello,

Well, For F-15, BMS dev team did a nice cockpit, I don’t plan to make a cockpit for F-14A, I am not good at it ! I know there is a F-14B cockpit somewhere, and maybe also one for F-14D, but not sure where they are and who made them. Mkinge made something I think, Nizmo too (for this last one, not sure how legit is his model).

I have no issue allowing you to make some repaints, if you want. The only condition is that it shall be made available for everyone, I will be very demanding on this point ! In my own tradition, I always want things to be released for everyone.

If Mitsubishi F-1/T-2 wasn’t released like that, it was only because I knew BMS4.37U3 would be deployed three weeks later !

Honestly, there is absolutely no chance that I will make Kaan. No offense, I really don’t want to insult your country and you here, but I don’t feel any form of sympathy for the design of the aircraft, and I have to say that with the level of insulting comments I received (except from you), on another forum, I really don’t have a good mindset to open my heart to Kaan’s fans.

Btw, I got informed that maiden flight is delayed at least for February or March 2024.

This is clearly different for Kızılelma, Akıncı and Anka-S, which are really interesting operational designs, sign that I have nothing against neither your industry, nor your country.

Cheers,

Radium

buraktunahan

@Radium Hello Radium.

First of all, thank you for letting me paint the F-14. I’m looking forward to your F-14. I am sure you will model it perfectly. I wish you success in this matter.

I see what you mean about sharing. Those who have known me for a long time know. I also shared a lot with the BMS community back in the day. (F-18 skins, F-16 skins, Eurofigter skin, F-15 skins, F-18 / F-16 / F-15 cockpit skins, aircraft carrier skin, etc.). But I think differently about this now. I can explain it like this:

DCS is a commercial product. In DCS, the aircrafts are owned by a commercial company. And this company allows its products to be painted and modified by end users in the first place. It even encourages it. He shares his paint kit files with us. DCS publishes the changes on its official website.

The situation is different in BMS. At BMS, planes and cockpits are modeled by artists like you. So each plane or cockpit has a real owner. Paint kit files are mostly not shared. So there is no explicit permission to make any changes in BMS like there is in DCS.

In addition, the artist who owns that plane / cockpit shares with us the most beautiful shape of the plane in his opinion. For this reason, I believe it is unethical to make any changes to the aircraft without permission from the owner. Because if I did so, I would be usurping someone else’s very valuable labor. This is just like “what you do is not beautiful, it should be like what I do”.

In the past, I would make changes and share the planes and cockpits at BMS without anyone’s permission. But I now believe this was a mistake. I truly apologize to the owners of those planes and cockpits in this regard.

I already share the latest versions of my own planes and cockpits in the screenshot section of the BMS forum. If the owner of the plane or cockpit I painted asks me for my files, I will be happy to give them to them. Whether or not to publish is the decision of the owner of the aircraft or cockpit.

As for Kaan;

Kaan is just a fighter at the beginning of its journey. The second prototype has been produced and is still being developed. Static tests on the ground have been completed. Tests of the ejection seat (Martin Baker) were completed in UK. First deliveries to the air force are planned for Block 0, 5 years later, in 2028. So, just like the F-22, its shape will change and mature more. Maybe your mind will change during this time or another modeler will add it to BMS.

With my best regards.

Radium

@buraktunahan Hello,

So, about F-14A repaints, we fully agree. I simply wanted to make it as clear as possible, because one of the reasons that pushed me to leave BMS dev team was that I indeed wanted to keep the full authority when it deals with releasing my models.

About the second topic, while it’s not a Kaan’s thread, here is some perspectives that I want to recall :

Kaan is not an aircraft for now. It will probably be soon, but as long as the plane does not fly, we can’t name it a plane, at best, an ongoing fighter aircraft project.
I am very open minded when it deals with 3D models (I did Lavi for example). Here, Lavi performed lots of test missions, 3 aircraft were built, and the whole weapon system proved to be operational, even air refuel rests were accomplished.
Everywhere, I hear Turkish people claiming that Kaan wll equal F-22 and F-35… Well, some humility is necessary in this kind of context : when you look at the budget, the workforce and skills necessary to make both aircraft, from the biggest fighter aircraft industry in the world, I trend to doubt about it. Only China did something close.
For the design of the aircraft, yes, I don’t really like it (I hated YF-22 design, I just adore F-22 how is it right now). I am sure it will evolve, this is what I tried to explain somewhere else, where I was explained that I was a unskilled douchebag.
I also doubted about the fact that Turkey had an operational homemade relaxed stability fly by wire system. Officially, even TAI talks about “fly-by-wire with parameter limiting” for Hürjet. As I explained, “fly-by-wire with parameter limiting” is what we have on A320. It’s a very different deal on a fighter aircraft, that requires a relaxed stability fly by wire system… Does it means that Turkey will not have it ? No. I am sure you will make it, and maybe you already have it, there is no evidence of it available.
All of this makes me… Unconfortable with Kaan. Doing a fighter aircraft and maintaining it is extremely hard. No doubt that Turkish could make it. I just would like to see more humility from Turkish community, like what I see for your great UAVs. However, I wish the best life for your aircraft.

Radium

qawa

@Radium I think is possible to put in our “to do list” … it could be the third in our workline

VDK

@Radium said in Grumman F-14A:

About F-14B and D, nothing sure for now. It will depends on my motivation, but nothing is impossible !

Radium, whats the difference, from an 3D modeller perspective, between F-14A and B/D ?

Because, if i’m not wrong (and please, correct me if i am) the external difference is basically the engine nozzle right? So… if you make a F-14A you are “basically” 98% of completing a F-14B/D right? (please, correct me if i am wrong)

Did you change the aircraft data too? (like performance charts)

Thanks! And i’m looking foward to see your work again mate!

Scorpion82

@VDK
The D also has a different chin pod to accomodate the IRST, in addition to the TCS.

Radium

@VDK Hello !

That’s a very good question.

There isn’t indeed a lot of structural differences between a A, and a D.

Nevertheless, there is still some (I admit), tiny differences. The way I work, I will have to make two different dev branches., with different texture templates etc… Even 98% is same, it’s still different, and a high number of possible issues. So, it can be a nightmare.

I recently did several multiversion projects (Su-27, Mitsubishi F1/T-2), which are very tiring: I want first to start by a single version : F-14A.

This does not means that I will not do F-14D, I just want to tell that it’s not in the plan for now !

Radium

Grumman F-14A block 75/95/110/135

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