HU: CAF CC-129 Dakota repaint

[Wild Bill Kelso]

Time to roll the Goon out of the shed and say 'Hello' to an old friend!

I've just uploaded my repaint of the Canadian Armed Forces (post-1968) CC-129 Dakota #12950 for the MAAM DC-3 cargo variant to AVSIM and SOH.
Can't get enough of these "lightning bolt" liveries! :canada:

The PRU-blue belly part and the stretched tail cone section were quite tricky to align, but as Jan said to me in the SF8 forum when my first clumsy Sabre attempts rolled out:
"That's what seperates the repaint men from the boys..." :wave:

Let the fuel pumps hum and crank her up! :rapture:

http://i603.photobucket.com/albums/tt112/wildbillkelso_berlin/12950_1.jpg



http://i603.photobucket.com/albums/tt112/wildbillkelso_berlin/12950_2.jpg


http://i603.photobucket.com/albums/tt112/wildbillkelso_berlin/realcc129.jpg


Cheers,
Markus.

[Tim-HH]

Great repaint, Markus! Thanks a lot :applause:

The Maam-Sim DC-3 is still one of my favourite airplanes. And it's a lot of fun to create repaints for it...but sometimes it is indeed a challenge :faint: :d

Greetings
Tim

[fnkybnch]

Markus,

I love those lightning bolt liveries, too!

Great paint job!:applause:

[dogknot]

Thanks, WBK!!! :applause: A really nice paint that went straight to my active hangar.

[PeteHam]

Well done Markus, looks great :applause:
:ernae:

Pete.

[Wild Bill Kelso]

Thanks, guys for your kind feedback! :kiss:

It took me a while to find out that no one had done this repaint before. Hard to believe, considering the huge amount of repaints on the MAAM Goon...

Of course a pre-1968 "double-bolt" RCAF version is to be rolled out next.
Currently, I'm still searching for good RCAF-Dak pics (no painted profiles please!) from this era. Any help would be highly appreciated!

Thanks in advance,
Markus.

[Fnerg]

Very cool repaint! I LOVE the old RCAF paints as well. I did some myself for the default DC3. In case you haven't seen them yet, they're here in the SOH library under my alias "Fnerg"

RCAF Dakota "Lightning bolt" liveries (http://www.sim-outhouse.com/index.php?lloc=downloads&loc=downloads&page=downloads&FileUploadName=Fnerg)


(http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/../index.php?lloc=downloads&loc=downloads&page=info&FileID=9926)

[planejunky]

That's a lovely job mate! :applause:

[Wild Bill Kelso]

Thanks again, boys!

In the meanwhile, I managed to get some nice pics from RCAF era Daks.
KN269 will be next:

http://i603.photobucket.com/albums/tt112/wildbillkelso_berlin/rcaf_kn269_2.jpg


Here's a WIP screenie:

http://i603.photobucket.com/albums/tt112/wildbillkelso_berlin/kn269_scr.jpg


Concerning the lettering, I could use some help:

I haven't found out yet if the "ROYAL CANADIAN AIR FORCE" was done with shadowed or black outlined letters (see pic).

http://i603.photobucket.com/albums/tt112/wildbillkelso_berlin/royal.jpg


Any advice?



@Fnerg:
It seems like your Dak files are not accessible fo me right now: got a dead link... Maybe a board issue, as some avatars and smilies currently do not work as well.


Regards,
Markus.

[Wild Bill Kelso]

Dear folks,

just some improvement news:

The lightning bolt zigzagging has undergone some adjustments, same goes for the marking on the cowling.

http://i603.photobucket.com/albums/tt112/wildbillkelso_berlin/kn269_scr2.jpg


A major glitch of my first CF release still needs to be solved:
Lazy as I am, I took the "DC-3 Cargo" model, just because Mark's paint kit deals with this one.
But once in the nitpicker mode, the differences between the civil cargo model and the C-47 variant (note the first window for example!) can't be ignored any longer! So the RCAF KN269 will need the appropriate C-47 model from the "all theater expansion pack", available at maam.org.

I think I owe this accuracy to our old friend...

As the RCAF specialists might have noticed, the upcoming KN269 saw service with the european-based 1 Air Division. A further version for non-overseas purposes will follow...

Cheers,
Markus.

[Fnerg]

Thanks again, boys!

In the meanwhile, I managed to get some nice pics from RCAF era Daks.
KN269 will be next:

http://i603.photobucket.com/albums/tt112/wildbillkelso_berlin/rcaf_kn269_2.jpg


Here's a WIP screenie:

http://i603.photobucket.com/albums/tt112/wildbillkelso_berlin/kn269_scr.jpg


Concerning the lettering, I could use some help:

I haven't found out yet if the "ROYAL CANADIAN AIR FORCE" was done with shadowed or black outlined letters (see pic).

http://i603.photobucket.com/albums/tt112/wildbillkelso_berlin/royal.jpg


Any advice?



@Fnerg:
It seems like your Dak files are not accessible fo me right now: got a dead link... Maybe a board issue, as some avatars and smilies currently do not work as well.


Regards,
Markus.

Hi Marcus, great work. I use Paintshop Pro 8 to do repaints. You can apply the shadow to the lettering by highlighting the word, and applying the shadow effect. You then shift the shadow slightly to the right and down using about 95% hardness.

You can always just look for addons by "Fnerg" once things get up and running better, or you can find them at Flightsim.com.

FS2004 (ACOF) - FS2004 Warbirds FS2004 RCAF Douglas DC-3
[ Download (http://www.flightsim.com/kdl.php?fid=115978) | View (http://www.flightsim.com/zview.php?cm=list&fid=115978) ]
Name: rcaf_c47.zip (http://www.flightsim.com/kdl.php?fid=115978) Size: 36,826,068 Date: 09-20-2007 Downloads: 618
http://www.flightsim.com/m/rcaf_c47.gif FS2004 RCAF Douglas DC-3 in post war colors. A repaint of the default DC-3/C-47 Dakota in various RCAF liveries of the 1950's through 1970's. By Doug Smith.

Also; I was given a math formula to calculate scale in order to get accurate lightning bolt angle measurements. If I find it ( I backed it up to disk somewhere) I'll post it for you. You seem to have gotten yours very accurate though, it might be a useful tool down the road.

[Fnerg]

The DC-3 model is 27" = 68.58cm
The actual plane in real life is 65.5 feet long (786 inches) 1996.44cm
1996.44 divide by 68.58 = a scale of 29.1111111111
so you divide every actual measurement by 29.1111111111
You will note 786 divide by 29.111111111 = 27

A flash line in this paint scheme according to the Douglas specs measures from the back edge of the window, 76"
76 divide by 29.111111111 = 2.6106 inches in your scale

In my grid property settings it is set to inches.
What numbers do I enter into the settings so that each grid "box" represents 1 inch. So when I count the boxes I get 76?

You should not use the grid to measure; its only there as a guide. A grid will help you ascertain part of the unit you are measuring. I measure using a selection against the ruler at the side or top. I then move the selection then add guide marks that make an accurate measurement. Now the reason why I don't use imperial becomes obvious when you have parts of an inch. Each box on your grid must be set to 1/10th of an inch to make sense as we count using the decimal system. As such I'm not sure how to interpret your grid to measure, especially as the grid does not seem to match the measurements at the top.

One word of caution. That drawing does not look like a Boeing drawing. A manufacturers drawing would never have airline logos and measurements relating to them. I would suggest that its was done by an illustrator and therefore its accuracy cannot be relied upon. For some bizarre reason many illustrators make up the drawings and throw in fictional measurements to justify what they have done.

Hope this helps

Mark

[Wild Bill Kelso]

Thanks a lot for your kind help, Doug!

Unfortunately, I'm a painter (well, in real live, I'm a registrar...) and definately not a math nerd! :ernae:

As long as I can grab real photos of an airplane, I''ll better use my sense of proportion to get those pixels properly adjusted... :engel016:

Counting pixels and scaling down mathematical seems to be dangerous as soon as "stretched" textures are wrapped on, like Jan V. :wavey: infamously does on some of his aircraft, e.g. on the MAAM-Dak (tailcone section, cowling, wings).

But nevertheless I'm still not convinced about the lettering's appearance: Is it shadowed or outlined?

Cheers,
Markus.

[Ranger75]

According to the CanMilAir website, standard RCAF lettering was 'shadow down to right'

http://www.canmilair.com/restorations.htm

[Wild Bill Kelso]

Thanks for the HU, Ranger!

So this one is confirmed.

Seems like the conversion of the textures to the C-47 mdl gets harder than I thought, so please be patient on the RCAF KN269...

Cheers,
Markus.

[Tim-HH]

Hi Markus,

I've created several repaints for the C-47 model. If you are interested I can send you the base textures for the C-47 model :)

Greetings
Tim

[Wild Bill Kelso]

Moin, Tim!

Thanks for your generous offer - this will help me a lot!
I'll drop a PM.

Grüße,
Markus.