I've had an upgrade to this cockpit bubbling away in the background for a while. I've already got rid of the ring of 'lug nuts' running along the forward frame stiffener. And the odd vertical element to the upper front 'shade' along the upper forward windscreen has been removed. Based on long study of what photos I could find online.
In the image below, the main background is my current P-40B/C, based on the old stock 'pit from ages ago, which was pretty bad in so many respects. (The DT Hawk cockpit is a better foundation upon which to build all hawk 75s and 81s, and the P-40B and C.)
Here are some of the issues needing work regarding the canopy framing.
On the right side is an inset image of this Hawk 75 cockpit. The upper arch is too flattened; the real thing is a perfect section of a circle. Missing is the upper, central, longitudinal frame bar. The openeable left side panel required the left longitudinal frame bar to be wider, so as to accommodate the hinge; here the L and R bars are of equal width. Overall, the framing is a bit too massively thick and/or wide; the real thing had a surprisingly delicate appearance.
On the left are two inset images. Highlighted here, via the pair of yellow lines on the sliding canopy in the lower panel of these, is the incorrect inward taper of the upper canopy toward the rear, as modeled for the interior. The upper inset shows this plane's external model, revealing the correct constant width in cross section along the full length.
The lower central pair of images highlight the incorrect location of the view hooks, represented by the red boxes in the lowest panel. The CAMERA hook is on the left, nearest the headrest, and the CAMERAAIM hook is forward of that. Compared to the pretty correct pilot head placement in the external model, we see that even the CAMERAAIM hook (invoked via the gunsight view key) is too far aft! For the 'normal' view hook, the pilot would have to almost sever his neck to place his head there.
This highlights my long standing practice of placing the view hooks farther forward. The old stock placement would represent what I jokingly refer to as the East L.A. lowrider seating position.
It's inaccurate, and it often and unnecessarily causes a poor view toward the rear, and in any event tends to reduce situational awareness.
Also revealed in the bottom central pair of inset images is the interior canopy model having, proportion wise, a stretching in the fore-aft direction. Conversely, it's not tall enough. Note the difference in the aft glazing width along the bottom edge. Both the fore and aft panels on the interior model are too square, not so relatively tall as they should be.
I know. I pay attention to details that in the end are pretty minor, and which most players would either miss or happily overlook. This could be why I rail on about cockpit improvement needing to be put at a higher priority than the creation of yet more planes.
Below is a snapshot from the mesh viewer utility of my 2019 installation of the IES D-520 'lantern' sight into our current M.S. 406. An accurate sight model which I would like to put into the French Hawk 'pit. Maybe I'll shortly jump onto this, at least.
And ultimately it would be nice to have the British GM-1 sight and the American N2A sight appear when those nations are being flown for...
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Topic: Curtiss Hawk 75A-2 (Read 2369 times)
