Well the time has come that I announce the project I have been working on for the past few months.
I am working on building an accurate, F-16A cockpit for BMS.
I have felt for a while that with BMS being THE F-16 Simulator it should really include the original F-16 cockpit as well. And I’ve made it my mission to do what I can to help make that happen.
I’ve called this project “Block 15” because that’s what I primarily plan to build, but I will probably also make a Block 10 cockpit as well, which is mainly just re-locating some instruments, and a few other small changes. This will be useful for modelling the Block 10 aircraft that the IDFAF recieved under program Peace Marble I, otherwise known as the Netz.
My expertise is only really in 3D modelling and PBR texturing so while I’m sure I can get it visible within BMS, I may need help to get it in a basic flyable state, and of course thats not even starting on proper custom avionics to represent the original Viper. But we will cross that bridge when we come to it.
For me as a 3D moddeler, I need good refrences to work from, with just photos and vague drawings I didn’t feel like I had enough information to make something to the level that BMS demands.
It is with that in mind that I scoured europe for an F-16A cockpit that I could get access to, and settled on the wonderful little museum on the Belgian Airbase of Florennes. The Spitfire Museum (named after its centrepiece: a beautifully restored Spitfire FR Mk.XIVc) was extremely welcoming, helpful and willing to let me photograph and measure their F16A and more conveniently let me 3D scan their F-16A simulator cockpit, which normal museum visitors are allowed to sit in! The sim was used for flightcrew training and then when the MLU came along apparently it was put in storage and was brought out to go into the museum. I have compared measurements from the real aircraft cockpit and the sim and they are exactly the same so I am sure that the proportions are correct.
I spent an entire day at the museum and captured as much data as I possible could. That data resulted in the following 3D scan of the cockpit.
Now, the scan is clearly not perfect. It’s a bit lumpy in a few places, and a few other places have some odd holes. But since this is just a template for me to use to get the proportions and layout as accurate as possible, its more than enough information for me. I’m particularly pleased that the scan agrees with my hand measurements to an accuracy of about 3mm over the length of the whole cockpit. Which for me is precise enough!
Eagle eyed viewers will notice a few odd things. For instance next to your right knee there is a 3 column Caution Light Panel as found on a Block-10 jet, but the rest of the cockpit is clearly Block-15 as can be seen from the gauge layout. I suspect this was a Block-15 simulator and some missing items have been filled with parts from the Block-10 real aircraft they also have in the museum.
I also scanned and measured the canopy frame and attempted to take some measurements of the canopy itself, although none of that data has been processed yet so I’m unsure how that came out.
Anyway, This is just the start. I will try and update weekly with how I am getting on.
I’d just like to thank the Spitfire Museum Florennes again for their help in making this project possible. I wasn’t going to take this on unless I could get access to real hardware to measure and scan and they went above and beyond to help.
SOBO Out!
