Some great Iraq/Afghan photos

[lasersailor184]

On some forums you have the ability to hit a button and see any post you've ever made.  Or a list of them.  So you write Tagged so you can get back to the post later in time without having to search through all of the forum.

[midnight Target]

Originally posted by lasersailor184
On some forums you have the ability to hit a button and see any post you've ever made.  Or a list of them.  So you write Tagged so you can get back to the post later in time without having to search through all of the forum.

Thank you.

[Cobra412]

It's an F-15E from the 492nd FS, RAF Lakenheath.  A/C 220 is a fairly new bird to the Heath.  We received that bird about 4 years ago straight from the plant.  It's also definately not a game photo either.  There isn't a game out there that gets half of the F-15s features correct.  Nice photos though.

[Furball]

Originally posted by Cobra412
For starters that's not a F-15C.  It's an F-15E from the 492nd FS, RAF Lakenheath.  A/C 220 is a fairly new bird to the Heath.  We received that bird about 4 years ago straight from the plant.  It's also definately not a game photo either.  There isn't a game out there that gets half of the F-15s features correct.  Nice photos though.

you based at RAF Lakenheath?

Used to go up that way quite a bit, had friends of the family that lived up there.

I hate Norfolk, it smells of cow crap and its boring (apart from all the airbases there)

One of my earliest memories of it was standing near a restaurant where we had just been, a sudden rumble in the chest and the sky blacking out, and seeing an SR71 Blackbird on final approach there. what a sight.

[Cobra412]

Furball not anymore.  I'm stationed at Edwards AFB now in F-15 Flight Test.  I left the Heath in October of 2001.  

The Heath had a nasty smell to it too during the summer.  If the winds blew just right the base would smell like pig watermelon from the local farms.  Seemed most places smelled like that due to farms but I got use to it.  

I may try to go back there some day.  I actually liked it alot there.  Except for the lack of high speed interenet in my area and well lack of 24hour convience stores.  

Oh and that bird 220 was being built during 1997 but wasn't fully completed and recieved till a couple years later.  I can't remember if it carried a 1997 or 1998 tail marking though.  You can also tell this is a combat mission due to the tanks.  The tanks are WRM tanks which we only used during combat.  Basically they are disposable drop tanks.  Also those are all live weapons onboard.

[anonymous]

Originally posted by Cobra412
Also those are all live weapons onboard.

"not a good day to be a bad guy".

[Sandman]

Originally posted by Cobra412

Oh and that bird 220 was being built during 1997 but wasn't fully completed and recieved till a couple years later.  I can't remember if it carried a 1997 or 1998 tail marking though.  You can also tell this is a combat mission due to the tanks.  The tanks are WRM tanks which we only used during combat.  Basically they are disposable drop tanks.  Also those are all live weapons onboard.

Well... if it's a combat mission, I'm wondering who took the picture. That looks like some sort of kinematic flare coming off of it.

If not a game image, some sort of CG artwork?

[Cobra412]

Sandman it's hard to tell just how many flares the aircrew punched at that time.  That large glow could be a total of 4 to 5+ flares being jettisoned at once.  The heat blur is coming from the right area though where the flares would be loaded.  

If you look just behind the LANTIRN Navigation Pod you'll see the heat blur I'm talking about.  The reason this stands out is how the E's are normally configured with chaff and flares.  The LANTIRN Targeting Pod is too long for them to load flares on that side so they always load them behind the NAV Pod.  The chaff/flare DSAs are all the same and you can load anything you want but if they have pods on they have to load them this particular way.  If not they'd run into the possible chance of having a flare hit the tail section of the Targeting Pod which is the ECU.  This would end up rendering the pod useless if it were damaged and render their mission mostly ineffective.

Another thing to note is the Aircrews names.  They don't exist in this picture.  Why is that important?  Well ever since Kosovo and the F-117 incident we have been removing the names of the aircrews and crewchiefs off the aircraft while in combat.  

One other thing to take note of is the GBU-12 seaker head assemblies.  Their angles are correct for the maneuver he is pulling.  I've played many games out there that depict the F-15s and not one has ever modeled the airframe and weapons in that much detail.  Also another thing is this is a standard loadout for the E in combat.  4 x GBU 12s on the CFTs, 2x 120s on stations 2A and 8B,  2x AIM-9 on stations 2B and 8A and last but not least the JDAM on station 5.

[Sandman]

No question... the attention to detail is there.

It's just the contrast between blurred areas and sharply focused ones and the lighting that makes me think it's artificial.

I agree... probably too much detail for a game, but it's not beyond the capability of some 3-D artists.

[Hawklore]

Originally posted by Sandman
Interesting shot here:

Yeah and that one scares the Shiat out of me..

[Cobra412]

Sandman.  Well if this was an artist that added in the flares I have to give them credit for attention to detail in the shadows.

They would have had to take an extreme amount of time to place some of the shadows like they did.  A few areas stand out.  One of them being the intakes, channels between the intakes that lead down to the main fuselage, targeting pod shadow, nav pod shadows, JDAM and centerline shadows, shadows on the left CFTs GBU-12s, the right CFTs lower GBU-12 aft fin assembly, left CFT lower rack mounts, left CFT rubber seal, both external tanks shadows, and last but not least the light going between the tank/pylon radiating onto the flap and aileron assembly.

If this is infact an artist they did an awesome job.  It does look like their may have been some imperfections in the photo but not so bad that it stands out as a fake.  On the forward part of the left CFT in front of the 492nd patch there is a green area.  This could have been someone scanning the photo.  Any mishandling could have left oils on the film in that area and discolored it.  That could also be what is causing some of the blurring forward and below the navigation pod.

[Saurdaukar]

Originally posted by SunTracker
Spoken like a true gentlemen from the slums of Phili.

You ever call me a gentleman again and Ill e-kick your ass.

[Sandman]

Originally posted by Cobra412
Sandman.  Well if this was an artist that added in the flares I have to give them credit for attention to detail in the shadows.

They would have had to take an extreme amount of time to place some of the shadows like they did.  A few areas stand out.  One of them being the intakes, channels between the intakes that lead down to the main fuselage, targeting pod shadow, nav pod shadows, JDAM and centerline shadows, shadows on the left CFTs GBU-12s, the right CFTs lower GBU-12 aft fin assembly, left CFT lower rack mounts, left CFT rubber seal, both external tanks shadows, and last but not least the light going between the tank/pylon radiating onto the flap and aileron assembly.

If this is infact an artist they did an awesome job.  It does look like their may have been some imperfections in the photo but not so bad that it stands out as a fake.  On the forward part of the left CFT in front of the 492nd patch there is a green area.  This could have been someone scanning the photo.  Any mishandling could have left oils on the film in that area and discolored it.  That could also be what is causing some of the blurring forward and below the navigation pod.

Well... the lighting part isn't so hard... once the model is "constructed" and the light sources identified, the computer does the rest.

[Gunslinger]

Originally posted by Hawklore
Yeah and that one scares the Shiat out of me..

Hawk you should try it flying around the Island of oahu.   FREAKIN BEAUTIFULL!

Helos...specifically hueys with open doors in good weather are SOOO much fun to fly in.  They're not goin all that fast compared to air planes and the view is just astounding.

My old job in the corps I used to have to take regulare helo missions to mountain peaks around the goldwater range in arizona.  We had to fix and maintain repeater sites.  I allways loved it when I got the side facing gunners seat.  You got the wind, the view, and the fresh air.....


The only thing I wish I did in the corps besides getting my jump wings is helo casting.

Jumping out of helicopters over water fully loaded and swimming to shore to give someone a very bad day.



PS

Cobra you got orders yet?

[Cobra412]

Well Sandman if this is infact a game I wanna see it.  Not even games such as LOMAC come close to this kind of detail.  They are suppose to lead the market when it comes to Modern Combat Flight Sims and detailing.  After seeing their work and their mistakes I can tell you that it's not theirs and they are the best out there.  

Here's a few other things to ponder.  The lower UHF antennas.  Ones a shark blade and ones a standard blade antenna.  That is highly uncommon when it comes to games.  These shark fin antennas are rare especially on the lower fuselage position.  Their were known batches that were prone to failures and would break off.  Mind you this is a brand new F-15E.  This means that the shark blade antenna had its TCTO complied with.  Which means it's a new style shark blade antenna.

Also not trying to be an arse but here's a link stating who took the photo and that it's actually a copyrighted photo from the U.S. Air Force.


F-15E Strike Eagle