December 5th - OPFOR Air

WIP Day Part 2 - OPFOR Aircraft

Here’s the second of what promises to be a 3 or 4 part WIP report. When you start a project like this advent calendar it seems like a quick and straightforward job. It really isn't. I went through my bulldozer drive looking at the projects that are likely to be completed and I found quite a few. There are of course some that never will be, but others are driven by outside requirements and really do have a damn good chance of being completed.

When I started modding for ArmA I was solely focused on UK projects. At some point along the way someone asked me, “what is the point of making UK/West addons was when there was no decent OPFOR units to counter them.” The idea lodged somewhere in the back of my brain. Some months later during a testing session I started to understand exactly what my friend had said. We were bombing targets with - frankly depressing - impunity. The more advanced and capable we made the UK aircraft the easier the missions got and the less fun it became. So we started looking for ways to bring back some of the balance. We found several options. One was to make the OPFOR more capable too!

"Here Miggy, Miggy!" - MiG-23MLD

The MiG family of aircraft has always been interesting to say the least. Well from an engineer’s point of view anyway. Mikoyan Gurevich seemed to produce great looking aircraft with some pretty interesting features. The MiG-23 has perhaps the most unusual main landing gear in any modern fighter, the ventral fin and the tiny cockpit give it some pretty unique features but they don’t detract from its performance or capability.

This model was originally started in the last days of OFP. When ArmA came out I started to focus on the UK stuff which meant the MiGs began gathering dust. Eventually I was drawn back to OPFOR kit. Now I know some people will say “focus on one thing” etc. But any modder will tell you that sometimes you just need to go do something different. Just to stop focusing on your model, have a rest and then come back with fresh eyes. I make models to relax. My method of relaxing is to work on something else. I don’t make models to release schedules. I do it for fun, even though I do it for a job too. Yes I know I’m mad.

Anyway the MiG. The MiG-23MLD is the most advanced of the MiG-23 Fighter designs. Yet it’s still not comparable to anything really modern which makes it a perfect 3rd World OPFOR aircraft. The model has full swing wing, with working flaps and leading edge slats. Working – animated at least – airbrakes. Improved flight model making it easier for the AI to use properly which does make a difference in-game. It’s a lot of fun to fly if a little awkward to land manually from the cockpit. The view is very restricted as it is on the real aircraft. Which makes dog fighting a real skill to be learnt to get the best out of it. if you don't take the time to learn the aircraft you can find yourself stalling out or bleeding too much speed in turns. In PVP combat the MiG-23 is hard to beat if you know what you are doing.

As you can see there is still a lot to do on the model. Its lacking in almost all details, I’m too embarrassed to show the cockpit and the landing gear is a mess. But we have some long term plans for the Flogger-K so be assured you will be seeing more of it in the future.

"Give me a lever and a Fulcrum and I'll move the world" - MiG-29 Fulcrum

I've always wanted to make a decent MiG-29. They are just such a good looking aircraft. Not particularly easy to model well but fun trying. Like the MiG-23 the Fulcrum is destined for OPFOR but unlike the Flogger this model was originally made for a Flight Sim 2004. I used to make a lot of commercial FS models before I moved over to OFP. Obviously its been heavily optimized for the OFP/ArmA engine, dropping 23,000 faces in the process. It wasn't especially well UV mapped in the first place so I will have to be UV mapped again for ArmA uses.

Like the MiG-23 the Fulcrum was intended to fill an OPFOR role against the Tornado F3 and in its Multi role format the Tornado GR4 (Although the Su24 is a far better equivalent).

I have planned to modify the basic model into several different variants:

• MiG-29 Fulcrum A
• MiG-29B-12 Fulcrum A (Export Version - very slight changes)
• MiG-29SMT Fulcrum C (Modernised systems with enlarged spin tanks)
• MiG-35

I doubt time will allow much work in any meaningful time frame but as with the MiG-23 we do have plans of which the Fulcrum is a key part.

"VTOL-SKI" - Yak-141 "Freestyle"

"Are you going to sit on that Fence(r) all day? " -
SU-24 'Fencer'

This was another "side" project that stalled along the way. I think it was the Lynx that stole my attention. That and the absence of decent cockpit references.

The feature set includes:

• 2 man crew
• Fully animated wing Sweep
• Animated flaps and slats
• Proper landing gear anims
• TV guided Missiles (planned but not scripted yet)
• FLIR with enhanced laser designator

As with the MiGs I have some plans for the Fencer. But I really made it because i wanted one. I loved Footmunch's SU-24 for OFP and I've always loved the look of it. So i started it as a long lead time projects for ArmA II.

Our plans for ArmA II haven't really changed from when we announced them for ArmA. We're still going to plow on making UK stuff and hopefully their OPFOR equivalents where possible. with a foray into other side projects where possible.