Scepheo, thanks for these. I've been struggling with getting the nose section to look right, and the pictures of PBM-1s are a great bonus. CrazyCarBoy, what game does your friend work for?
Some work on the high polygon model, half of the jbeam's been redesigned, still trying to figure out a lot of stuff.
Dam this looks good, looking forwards to this one to be finished , gonna be one excellent addition to the game!
Alright, so as progress is made, I'm starting to wonder about the cockpit. I want to make a working yoke, rudder/brake pedals, and levers for the flaps, gear, throttle & mixture control and bomb bay control. 2 issues arise with that: 1- I don't know how. 2- I have no clue where the landing gear lever even is! It's not mentioned in the manual I have, as it's for the regular PBM-5, not teh amphibious version. Can someone help with that?
From what I read here, it looks like it is controlled by a switch mixed in with the rest of the switches in the pilot control panel, rather than a lever (or maybe that is what you meant). Hope that helps.
I planned on comparing schematics from the flight manual to real pictures of the PBM-5a's cockpit, to find the one extra switch or lever. Turns out there are two different schematics there and none look like the remaining Mariner's. Then again, it looks like a mix between a submarine hunting version (S/S-2) mixed with the amphibious one (a). Still, I think it might be one of these: -The one circled in red seems to say " LANDING GEAR ", but the text is too blurry to tell. It's definitely mixed in with the rest, but there seems to be text underneath it as well, saying something else I cannot decipher. -Either one circled in yellow could be it, as easily as they could be the parking brake, which I also need to find. -The green ones I just can't identify, but seem to say "LANDING, UP, DOWN, GEAR", but could just as easily say "random, ON, OFF, thing". PS I tried to send a message to the Pima Air & Space Museum, but the email they provided seems to be incorrect, as it will not send. Anyone know how one could get in touch with them and/or someone who flew in a PBM-5a?
I thought I'd share some of the work I've done. Both radar pods are done, as is the fuselage (With the exception of the interior), and the landing gear, horizontal stabilizer and windows. Plus a couple of tiny details. After taking those pictures, I've added the shock absorber for the main landing gear (Which I had forgotten).
Wings are pretty much done, as are the wing floats. Flaps and ailerons will come eventually. But first, the engines.
A couple of updates. Vertical Stabilizer, Elevators and Rudders were made during the weekend. Horizontal Stabilizer modified and wings modified. Monday: Most of the engine nacelle, including the air intakes was made. Flaps and what had been done of the acelle previously were either deleted or heavily modified. My friend PA_Jeromino from the IL-2 1946 modding community SAS1946 helped me out by sending me the engine core for the R-2800 along with a row of 7 cylinders (separately), which I used to make a proper twin-rowed, 14-cylinder R-2800. Before anyone mentions it, I am aware of the backfaces. I can't make the normals consistent until the section's finishied, as it'll flip some sections that are right.
Another update. As you can see, exhaust stacks have been made, as well as landing lights, and details have been added to the gear. Bombload is 12x500 lb, same as the real thing.
