As the nature of things progress...

[Bushi]

He's put everything into that plane to test your abilities as a "Tutor Driver", mate. She'll be a handful on slightly rough water I'm sure.

BB686

At the moment, I'm cruising down the west coast of Africa.. just made the crossing back to the main land from Gran Canaria.. Most flying done between 2500 and 3500'.. FS should have a "realism' option for cleaning out sand clogged air filters!!!

Flying this airplane off water will be yet another adventure.. With 250 mies of range.. and I'm assuming LESS with the canoes strapped on... hmmm.... Short hop training sorties seem appropriate.

So far, I have found the following variants..:

-621 Trainer with uncowled Mongoose engine, two pits, square rudder,and tall wire wheels.
-Same airplane but on floats.
-621 Trainer with uncowled Mongoose engine, two pits.. and later smaller fatter wheels.
-Same airplane on floats.
-621 Trainer with uncowled Lynx engine, two pits.. rounded rudder and tall wire wheels.
-621 Trainer with uncowled Lynx engine, two pits plus gunners position.. rounded rudder and tall wire wheels.
-621 Trainer with uncowled Lynx engine, two pits plus navigators position.. rounded rudder and tall wire wheels.

and I'll stop now... because THAT isn't even HALF the variations of this wonderful airframe!

No wonder Nigel calls it "THE AVRO PROJECT"

He has certainly taken on a huge project... one that can 'evolve'.. because trying to release all of this at once.. whew...




Cheers.. and lifting a glass in respect of Sir Nigel..

Dave

[nigel richards]

Dave

LOLOL!

How many models/variants?

Simple; the answer is 12.




I think...

NEW TEST PACKAGE should reach all team testers on Monday.
('Beast from the East' also brought some unexpected RW 'Hysteria from Siberia' to otherwise sunny GREECE)

[michaelvader]

Good evening Nigel,
did you have found a solution concerning metric gauges certainly fitted in the polish and czech (later german) versions?
If not I will try to make you some gauges - just a question of time and perhaps if I can find some original pictures of the metric gauges that might be used as I m not sure if they would be of german origin.
The polish certainly used gauges of their own but I must search to find pictures about old polish instruments
As ex sailor the float plane will be fine for me to fly arround the brittany coast.
MMMM and that with so amazing sounds
Yours
Papi

[Mick]

How many models/variants? Simple; the answer is 12...

This assures me that you won't be intimidated when the Vought Corsair comes to the top of your list!

[nigel richards]

Good evening Nigel,
did you have found a solution concerning metric gauges certainly fitted in the polish and czech (later german) versions?
If not I will try to make you some gauges - just a question of time and perhaps if I can find some original pictures of the metric gauges that might be used as I m not sure if they would be of german origin.
The polish certainly used gauges of their own but I must search to find pictures about old polish instruments
As ex sailor the float plane will be fine for me to fly arround the brittany coast.
MMMM and that with so amazing sounds
Yours
Papi

Ah, the Licence-built AVRO 626 Prefect (Czech Tatra T-126).

Well Papi, as you know - I have created the textures for this version also, although only one aircraft ever left the factory.
As much as I'd like to, I really can't see myself building a NEW set of metric gauges/textures at this stage of the Project, my friend. :-)

This assures me that you won't be intimidated when the Vought Corsair comes to the top of your list!

Intimidated? Why I'd be delighted, Mick! :-)

There's a very wise saying by those fine Gentlemen of Scandinavia:

"Why settle for one flavour when there's smørrebrød!"



...oh, and helped along with a dousing of OUZO of course!

[nigel richards]

[Sascha66]

Would it be possible for you to add an observer?

[Flyboy208]

Having been watching your project in the shadows of The FSX side of things Nigel , this will be one amazing series of aircraft when released. Might just have to re-install FS9/FS2004 ..... Amazing work ! Mike

[nigel richards]

Would it be possible for you to add an observer?

For FS9; regrettfully impossible, Sascha - we're right at the poly limits already. :-)
Hopefully this will be do-able for FSX native.

Having been watching your project in the shadows of The FSX side of things Nigel , this will be one amazing series of aircraft when released. Might just have to re-install FS9/FS2004 ..... Amazing work ! Mike

Well thank you, Mike - as soon as the FS9 models are completed, we'll be taking the project FSX native.
Wombat666 has impressively had the models performing well in P3D - v3, but by going native, we'll have all the added advantages . :-)

...and headaches, I expect - but what the heck! In for a penny...

[wombat666]

Going native is fine where I come from!

Back OT, as the project stands now, it will not work in P3Dv4.1
Tried it with several variations but it just is not recognised, no real surprise there but I just HAD to have a go.

[nigel richards]

Going native is fine where I come from!

Back OT, as the project stands now, it will not work in P3Dv4.1
Tried it with several variations but it just is not recognised, no real surprise there but I just HAD to have a go.

LOL! Then I reckon we should turn this into a real corroboree when we successfully go native FSX.

Good on ya, wombat666!

[MZee1960]

Beautiful aircraft ! Looking forward to flying her in FSX !

[nigel richards]

Beautiful aircraft ! Looking forward to flying her in FSX !

Thanks Mzee! :-)

[Sascha66]

For FS9; regrettfully impossible, Sascha - we're right at the poly limits already. :-)

No surpriese there )) The model is amazing!

[nigel richards]

No surpriese there )) The model is amazing!

Thanks Sascha - good to have your enthusiam on the team.

Testers: Still getting the 'Floater' suitably tuned for its test debut, hence the delay, Gentlemen. :-)

You'll also be testing the RCAF version completed a couple of days ago.

[huub vink]

Wow! That beauty really colours your day!

Cheers,
Huub

[nigel richards]

Wow! That beauty really colours your day!

Cheers,
Huub

Bless you Huub! :-)

I promise you the paintkit when we reach the finishing line - have always admired and enjoyed your talented artistry!

[huub vink]

Bless you Huub! :-)

I promise you the paintkit when we reach the finishing line - have always admired and enjoyed your talented artistry!

Are you sure? The result might be worn and very weathered . I know myself, its hard to stop when I'm having fun......

Cheers,
Huub

[nigel richards]

Are you sure? The result might be worn and very weathered . I know myself, its hard to stop when I'm having fun......

Cheers,
Huub

That is precisely what I was hoping you'd say!

Love it when texture artists start talking dirty...

[darrenvox]

good looking rcaf bird..

[wombat666]

Are you sure? The result might be worn and very weathered . I know myself, its hard to stop when I'm having fun......
Huub

That is almost word for word the occasional criticism I get from 'er indoors.

[Bushi]

Once again just playing around with the textures on the little 621.

Yes, I know it's NOT the newest version.. but it's the one I'm flying (and the only 621 trainer I have), so I'm going to play with it.. :-)

I haven't used the "SHINE" utility to gloss it up, but just adjusted the alpha to give a bit of a sheen. Problem with adding a specular shine to a model.. is that with me (unless I'm doing something wrong) it gives the WHOLE model a gloss shine.. which gives VERY shiny tyres.. and what can look to be a WET pilot in an aircraft where he is so prominent like this!!! LOL

So, sky blue fuselage with for now, my base white wings. just to see..... Some striping and a civvie reg will come.. and that colour may not be final.


oh.. and then red and aluminium although I'm not all that pleased with the shade and shine... is easy!



cheers
Dave

[Mick]

...I haven't used the "SHINE" utility to gloss it up, but just adjusted the alpha to give a bit of a sheen. Problem with adding a specular shine to a model.. is that with me (unless I'm doing something wrong) it gives the WHOLE model a gloss shine.. which gives VERY shiny tyres.. and what can look to be a WET pilot in an aircraft where he is so prominent like this!!! LOL...
Dave

Looking good! Nice work!

As for Shiny, I would only use full gloss for skins like aerobatic team planes that are polished to a gloss that looks like you can sink your hand into it (which is not the sort of think I typically paint.) For normally glossy finishes I use the semi-gloss setting.

Likewise, I find that matte finishes look best with the semi-matte setting; the dead flat setting makes the plane look, well, too dead flat, like a matte photo on a cardboard cutout. (Thanks to Shessi for teaching me about that.)

I don't like to use the alpha channel to depict a glossy finish because it makes the surface look metallic - which is what it's supposed to do, but doesn't look quite right to me on anything but a metal surface. Gotta admit, though, that your screenies look very nice!

[Bushi]

Looking good! Nice work!

As for Shiny, I would only use full gloss for skins like aerobatic team planes that are polished to a gloss that looks like you can sink your hand into it (which is not the sort of think I typically paint.) For normally glossy finishes I use the semi-gloss setting.

Likewise, I find that matte finishes look best with the semi-matte setting; the dead flat setting makes the plane look, well, too dead flat, like a matte photo on a cardboard cutout. (Thanks to Shessi for teaching me about that.)

I don't like to use the alpha channel to depict a glossy finish because it makes the surface look metallic - which is what it's supposed to do, but doesn't look quite right to me on anything but a metal surface. Gotta admit, though, that your screenies look very nice!

Thanks,
And yeah.. I backed off the alpha to pure white for the red and blue painted surfaces.. with those aluminium doped wings on the red one still having the metallic sheen. I like the blue, and will be adding some white 'cheat line' strips and reg. BUT, maybe Nigel will grace me with a paint kit once we get the final model sorted out. This was just for fun... a little distraction. And might look quite nice as an expensive toy when mounted on floats! I might even try and do an "almost impossible to do it right" gloss black finish on fuselage and wing leading edges.

I have re-downloaded SHINY as it went kablooey with my hard drive meltdown. I think I still need MDLC117.zip from flightsim.com before I can use it again. Maybe not.. it's been a LONG time!! :-)

Anyway, finished up the white on the blue fuselage a few minutes ago.


Dave

[Mick]

Wow! Very nice!

Silver dope and silver paint give me fits! I have never come up with a really suitable rendition. That really annoys me because I've panted so many inter-war US naval airplanes that in some time frames had their metal parts painted in aluminized silver lacquer and always had their fabric parts painted in aluminized silver dope, which looked alike, but not that much like bare aluminum. Gahhh!

It's like halfway towards metal, being made of clear dope or paint with aluminum powder as the pigment. It looks metallic without looking like real bare metal. Some of the difference is due to the absence of the color variations usually present between different bare metal panels, and some it just because aluminum powder in a carrying fluid doesn't look quite like solid aluminum sheet.

Ted Cook came up with a pretty decent impression on his Saro A17 and some other planes that looks acceptable by itself and a bit better with just the slightest hint of a very light gray alpha channel. (R=192, G=189, B=192) For reasons I don't understand, it looks better on some models than others.

The effect I try for is like the radiator paint that I remember from my childhood, when many homes had steam heating with those old, stand-up radiators that we don't seem to see anymore.

Your silver surfaces look good in the screenies. If they look that good from all angles, I think you've hit on something really good. If you don't mind my asking, what RGB values are you using?