Ju87G-2 Stuka Kanonenvogel mod for Men of War: Assault Squad

Mod:
This mod add the Junkers Stuka Ju87G-2 "Kanonenvogel" to the game Men of War Assault Squad.

This plane can fly and is stronger than vanilla planes (it can continue to fly even after receiving few shoots from AA guns), but it's still destructible and will explode in multiparts.

Release V3 of the 7 january 2014 (tested on MowAS/version V2.05.15).
The download link is here: Moddb.com

Weapons:
It can fire with his 2x BK37 (Bordkanone 37mm) + 2x MG17 in front, and with his double Mg34 "Mg81z" at the rear of the canopy.
To had fun, even it's not historically correct, I've added 2 bombs ETC50 (50kg) under each wing.

Sounds:
I've made a lot of new sounds for it (real DB603 engine sounds) called just for this plane, which give a better immersion than original (especially for air attack).
Notice also that this variant of Stuka had not Jericho siren (to surprise the enemy tanks)

Variants:
I've made 2 details: fuel tanks, and flame dampers.
I didn't made "enumerators" on it (to had randoms marking numbers) because most of the German plane had letters. So if i find time, I will create later a complete collection of new enumerators with various colors and letters type. To compensate, i've modified a lot of very good and historical skins from the best skinners on Asisbiz.com

Historical Stuka skins:
- 5 skins for Desert (real camos of desert Stukas but not the Ju87G2 which arrived after 1943)
- 5 skins for Europe / summer fights
- 5 skins for Winter fights

Demonstration mission:
I've created a little AI scripted mission to demonstrate it's use in game: you will find it if you click on skirmish missions and in the last menu "kanonenvogel" you will find a button "desert mission":
In this mission the Ju87G2 will take off, attack a allied convoi in the desert, and then land back on it's airfield after it's mission (sometime not, if the bofors AA shoot him too much ;)

(Notice there is still little problems that i didn't have the time to solve before the release (like flames outside the plane after shooted by AA, or the 2 front mg's firing effect centered under the plane), and I hope i will find solutions and post soon a new tweaked version)

History:
With the G variant, the aging airframe of the Ju 87 found new life as an anti-tank aircraft.
This was the final operational version of the Stuka, and was deployed on the Eastern Front.
The reverse in German military fortunes after 1943 and the appearance of huge numbers of well-armoured Soviet tanks caused Junkers to adapt the existing design to combat this new threat.

The Hs 129B had proved a potent ground attack weapon, but its large fuel tanks made it vulnerable to enemy fire, prompting the RLM to say "that in the shortest possible time a replacement of the Hs 129 type must take place.

With Soviet tanks the priority targets, the development of a further variant as a successor to the Ju 87D began in November 1942.
On 3 November, Erhard Milch raised the question of replacing the Ju 87, or redesigning it altogether.
It was decided to keep the design as it was, but to upgrade the powerplant to a Jumo 211J, and add two 30 mm (1.18 in) cannon.
The variant was also designed to carry a 1,000 kg (2,200 lb) free-fall bomb load.
Furthermore, the armoured protection of the Ilyushin Il-2 Sturmovik was copied to protect the crew from ground fire now that the Ju 87 would be required to conduct low level attacks.

Hans-Ulrich Rudel, a Stuka ace, had suggested using two 37 mm (1.46 in) Flak 18 guns, each one in a self-contained under-wing gun pod, as the Bordkanone BK37 (37mm), after achieving success against Soviet tanks with the 20 mm MG 151/20 cannon.

These gun pods were fitted to a Ju 87 D-1, W.Nr 2552 as "Gustav the tank killer".
The first flight of the machine took place on 31 January 1943, piloted by Hauptmann Hans-Karl Stepp.
The continuing problems with about two dozens of the Ju88P-1, and slow development of the Hs129B-3, each of them equipped with a large Bordkanone BK 7,5 cm (2.95 in) cannon in a conformal gun pod beneath the fuselage, meant the Ju 87G was put into production.

In April 1943, the first production Ju87G-1s were delivered to front line units.
The two 37 mm (1.46 in) cannons were mounted in under-wing gun pods, each loaded with a six-round magazine of armour-piercing tungsten carbide ammunition.

With these weapons, the Kanonenvogel ("cannon-bird"), as it was nicknamed, proved spectacularly successful in the hands of Stuka aces such as Rudel.

The G-1 was converted from older D-series airframes, retaining the smaller wing, but without the dive brakes. The G-2 was similar to the G-1 except for use of the extended wing of the D-5. 208 G-2s were built and at least a further 22 more were converted from D-3 airframes.

Only a handful of production Gs were committed in the Battle of Kursk.
On the opening day of the offensive, Hans-Ulrich Rudel flew the only "official" Ju 87 G, although a significant number of Ju 87D variants were fitted with the 37 mm (1.46 in) cannon, and operated as unofficial Ju 87 Gs before the battle.

In June 1943, the RLM ordered 20 Ju 87Gs as production variants.
The G-1 later influenced the design of the A-10 Thunderbolt II, with Hans Rudel's book, Stuka Pilot being required reading for all members of the A-X project.

INSTALLATION:
- Extract the "kanonenvogel" folder and place it in the "mod folder" inside your Men of War: Assault Squad game directory

Normal Path to the game "Men of War - Assault Squad":
- DvD version: C:\Program Files\1C Company\Men of War Assault Squad
- Steam Version: C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\common\men of war assault squad

Then launch the game and activate the mod (the file on the left side should pass on the right side).
After that, you will have the possibility to use this new aircraft Ju87G-2 in the Game editor.

Special Thanks and credit list:
I want to thank's for their valuable advices, and without their help, I would probably would not have happened :
- Cromtec, Zeke, Dilust, GeneralJ927 and Ty's (DCG mod) from Digitalmindsoft forums for their good advices.
- Normand and Zlatorog for their for their good advices and their great help to improve my skills with 3DSmax (thank's for your max models examples)
- Vengefulnoob (Zeid Issa) who helped me on some scripts issues (def files, ammo, guns, foresights..).

Thank's to all the players for their good comments and votes on moddb.
Don't forget to give me your feedback to improve this plane,if you like it!
Regards.
Bassmaniac

Copyright:
The historical skins of this mod have been made by several great skinners, and come from the internet site: Asisbiz.com
A huge work in 3DSmax was to "unwrap" each part of the plane to use these good skins.
(some desert and europe historical skins of Stukas Ju87B, Ju87D and Ju87R have been modified to be usable for this Ju87G-2 (wich was used mainly on the Russian front, later after Afrika Korps leaved Africa)

Important:
Except the skins, this mod is my work, and i passed a lot of my free time on it (3d model, sets, scripts, sounds, etc...). I don't agree others modders to use my work without my permission: I can agree (or not) the use of this work only to who ask me gently BEFORE in pm, and if my name appear in the credit list.