Sikorsky S-43 Repaint

[TARPSBird]

I d/l'ed Bill Lyons' "Golden Hawaii" package mainly for the Sikorsky S-43 which is a really nice plane. I planned to repaint it to a late-1941 Navy JRS-1, but all the exterior surface is on one .bmp file which is all bare metal and portions are repeated for fuselage, main wing pillar, rudder and upper/lower wing and tail surfaces. This is fine for an overall bare-metal or one-color plane, but not for a blue and gray military paint job with rudder stripes. Any repaint experts know of a way to do this, other than asking the maker to re-map the textures? I got the GH package as freeware but at this point I'd pay just to have the textures re-mapped so I could do my Navy bird.

[Stratobat]

Hey TARPSBird,

If I'm understanding you correctly, the textures aren't mirrored in the traditional CFS2 sense, but rather mapped so that mulitple parts draw their texture from the same section/ portion on the bitmap?

If that's the case, I think the only way to get around it is to ask the Designer to re-map the textures :confused:

Regards,
Stratobat

[Willy]

I bought it when it was first released, had the same idea about a JRS-1 repaint and hit the same brick wall. I posted over at Bill Lyons' old forums about it and he told me that due to the way he mapped the textures, he didn't think a repaint in other than close to the original would be possible. He did wish me luck though.

About all I could do was what became my MercAir repaint. I took the Hawaiian flag off of the main texture bitmap and redid the lettering one.

Willy

[TARPSBird]

Willy & Stratobat,
Thanks for your responses. Bat, you are correct that portions of the bare-metal .bmp file are shared by several different surfaces on the aircraft. This is much different than normal textures where you have upper and lower wing and horizontal stab surfaces and both sides of the fuselage and vertical fin. Even with "mirrored" textures where you have to do reverse lettering on some surfaces or symmetrical plane #'s like 101 or 808, you are at least able to do a complete camo paint job. Well, it's not likely that Bill would re-map the textures so I'll do the JRS-1 paint job on the old Pegasus Aviation S-43 like I planned in the first place! :icon_lol:

[Willy]

Pegasus Aviation S-43??

Hmmmm, I never knew Pegasus did a S-43. Any suggestions for locating one?

Edit: The only one I could find is a FS98 version.

Willy

[Stratobat]

Well, it's not likely that Bill would re-map the textures so I'll do the JRS-1 paint job on the old Pegasus Aviation S-43 like I planned in the first place! :icon_lol:

Ask him, you never know... Nothing ventured, nothing gained ;)

Regards,
Stratobat

[TARPSBird]

Willy, that's the one. It's real old and primitive compared to the Golden Hawaii bird (uses AF textures) but it flies OK and at least I can paint it. Actually, I get as much enjoyment from tweaking the textures as I do from flying the plane. :)

[Stratobat]

It's real old and primitive compared to the Golden Hawaii bird (uses AF textures) but it flies OK and at least I can paint it.

Hey TARPSBird,

Are you painting the textures and then saving them back as .AF files, and are you having any problems getting colours to show properly?

Regards,
Stratobat

[Willy]

Hmmm, worst case is that it sounds like a candidate for AI use. I think I'll download it and check it out myself.

Tarps, are you painting it as the Pearl Harbor survivor that belongs to the NASM now? That one has an interesting story about it's Pearl Harbor service on 7 Dec 1941.

Willy

[TARPSBird]

Stratobat, the textures are 256x256 AF99 type which I convert with Martin Wright's Bmp2000 utility. To get the lettering and insignia correct you have to stretch them a bit (the fuselage at least) to 256x512. I am just now getting back into this after leaving it alone for over a year so I'm re-learning stuff. And no, I haven't had any problems with colors showing properly on any of the AF99 textures I've worked with.

Willy, I was planning on painting the plane as one from NAS Pensacola about the time of Pearl Harbor. I have a photo to work off of. The NASM plane would be another option, although I thought it was in storage for the time being (?). The Pegasus plane would definitely make a good AI, it's very simple. It's at Flightsim.com, file name "pegsk43m.zip". :)