CFS3
Progress on the first of 5 files for the Malcolm paint kit.
Progress on the first of 5 files for the Malcolm paint kit.
US Army, Major, Ret.
Service To The Line,
On The Line,
On Time
US Army Ordnance Corps.
Developing a comprehensive paint kit for these models is a tedious voyage in discovery.
For example, I've wondered why the inside face of the main gear wheels looked so messed up, but the same texture on the tail wheel looked fine. Tonight I found out that the model has a 6 spoke hub while the original texture was drawn for an 8 spoke hub. Redrawing the texture to properly register it with the 6 spokes cleaned things up nicely.
I'm tracking down and correcting most of the mapping issues like this, but there will always be a few that we won't be able to do anything about because of how parts of the texture are being assigned/mirrored onto multiple locations (e.g. the inside lip of the engine cowl).
US Army, Major, Ret.
Service To The Line,
On The Line,
On Time
US Army Ordnance Corps.
And these models were supposed to have been made by professional payware modelers?
Cato said "Carthaginem esse delendam"
I say "Carthago iam diu deleta,sed enim Bellum Alium adhuc aedificandum est"
If you want to tell Bazzar at Aeroplane Heaven their work sucks, go ahead ! Model was from 14 years ago, for cripe sakes ! Just Flight just sold them, didn't design them.Originally Posted by mongoose
I can think of several non payware models made in 2008 which are not nearly as bad. Presumably Just Flight did not mind selling models with these issues. So it seems one can be attacked for making a reasonable criticism of their work?
Cato said "Carthaginem esse delendam"
I say "Carthago iam diu deleta,sed enim Bellum Alium adhuc aedificandum est"
Well, we all have to start somewhere and 14 years is enough time to learn a thing or two. I don't think anyone's first model is comparable to one's most recent work (unless your first model is also your most recent
). If you look at what AH publishes nowadays (see MS2020)...
PS. Not to mention the fact that we happily did pay MS for the stock P-47 which is absolutely worse than this AV P-47!
ACC Member, ETO and PTO contributor & librarian
I am sure that your model will be the best in CFS3 without a doubt.Seriously, I know how much effort you are putting into it.
My real point is that IMHO, payware was often sloppily modeled and more for what I would call 'arcade play'. Let's look at all the excellent work done by GC. MAW came out around 2006-7 IIRC. ETO not long after. Ted had stuff out 14 years ago which is still in use. All of these were free. I would like to include some Mossie PW models (assuming others have them) in missions, and in the past have included FP models. One reason that I am now now reluctant is that there have been criticisms in the past about there quality.
There has in fact been stacks of criticism on various P47 models, and others, before my comment, so I'm a bit at a loos as to why my comment was singled out.
Cato said "Carthaginem esse delendam"
I say "Carthago iam diu deleta,sed enim Bellum Alium adhuc aedificandum est"
I'm willing to put the work in to make these be all they can be. Beyond that, I simply appreciate the "as is" gift that has come our way without any strings attached.
US Army, Major, Ret.
Service To The Line,
On The Line,
On Time
US Army Ordnance Corps.
It wasn't my intention to pick on you or singling your comment out - I merely reacted to the last posts in this thread. Your comment struck me as somewhat incredulous - that AH asked money for this P-47 model in the past. I was only trying to say that is has been a long time and that it is an old model. So, even though it was your comment, it wasn't meant as a personal attack. No harm done, I hope?I am sure that your model will be the best in CFS3 without a doubt.
My real point is that IMHO, payware was often sloppily modeled and more for what I would call 'arcade play'. Let's look at all the excellent work done by GC. MAW came out around 2006-7 IIRC. ETO not long after. Ted had stuff out 14 years ago which is still in use. All of these were free. I would like to include some Mossie PW models (assuming others have them) in missions, and in the past have included FP models. One reason that I am now now reluctant is that there have been criticisms in the past about there quality.
There has in fact been stacks of criticism on various P47 models, and others, before my comment, so I'm a bit at a loos as to why my comment was singled out.
ACC Member, ETO and PTO contributor & librarian
They are still nice models, even though they were made long ago. Wish i would have known more then, i would have bought them all. Still, very nice that Aeroplane Heaven gave us the permission to use these as we see fit now. Still the nicest models we have for now for the P-47,IMO. Regards, Scott PS can't wait for yours Joost ! Rene's are another fine example what can be done with a stock model if time is taken.
Thank-you Major!
The deeper I go the more little things I find. In working on the flaps I discovered that they only extend to two positions, and not the four listed in the aircraft.cfg and air files. Evidently the model animation was never completed to support all of the intermediate extension angles.
US Army, Major, Ret.
Service To The Line,
On The Line,
On Time
US Army Ordnance Corps.
I've just gotten through all the seams, lines, and rivets for the moving surfaces. This is taking a lot of hours to get things lined up precisely.
I was originally making the layers as they would eventually be used to make the final print (transparency levels, blending methods, etc.), but that kept leading to issues as I copied and merged various reusable parts. I had to go back this morning to building everything at 100% nominal, and once everything is finished, I'll set the layer properties to get the final effect.
For those who might want to do other skins using the paint kit, should I have everything set back to nominal, with notes about the various final layer settings I used, or just leave them set as for making the final print?
US Army, Major, Ret.
Service To The Line,
On The Line,
On Time
US Army Ordnance Corps.
My vote would be "Let the skinner decide for him/herself". Depending on the paint job they want to depict it might be necessary to change your values anyway. A note on what your choices are, would perhaps be helpful as a starting point. Good job with this!
ACC Member, ETO and PTO contributor & librarian
The silver lining of having to work on five 2048 x 2048 files is that the small aircraft utility text that is unreadable on most of our aircraft textures can actually be properly depicted.
US Army, Major, Ret.
Service To The Line,
On The Line,
On Time
US Army Ordnance Corps.
Ah, riveting and stencilling - we do like
(Actually, no - painting is much more fun. Good thing is you have to do this only once. BTW, since there is a razorback with a Malcolm hood, any chance of doing 'Tony' or another bird from the 5th ERS? I got a droppable dinghy model somewhere...)
PS. you got a PM.
ACC Member, ETO and PTO contributor & librarian
I'm starting with redoing Silver Lady as an example for the paint kit, but creating other renditions should be pretty straightforward once that's finished.
US Army, Major, Ret.
Service To The Line,
On The Line,
On Time
US Army Ordnance Corps.
Slow and steady progress. Every time you think you've got an area ready to move into the finishing steps like weathering, you see the next thing about the base layers that needs a go-back to improve. Clearly I'm not going to achieve anything like what our texturing legends have produced for CFS3 over the years, but it should end up somewhat better than what we started with. My design intent for the paint kit is to at least let the texturing pros see where everything maps out to on the model, and they can take it from there.
Today I was discovering what might be accomplished through the normal map file. This has the potential to really add the appearance of a lot of details in the model that are not really there.
US Army, Major, Ret.
Service To The Line,
On The Line,
On Time
US Army Ordnance Corps.
Outstanding ! Love to see the P-47 get the attention it deserves. Thanks Andy ! Regards,Scott
Three out of five of the basic textures are done. Once the two wing textures get caught up to the others, I can take a look at applying some localized tarnish, soot, and grime.
She's come a long way from back where we started.
p.s. The full length Invasion Stripes and Kill Markings are from D-Day when this A/C still had the traditional canopy frame. I believe that by the time the Malcom Hood mod was made the upper part of the stripes had been removed, along with the Kill Markings. These are on different layers in the paint kit so you'll have all the different texturing options to choose from.
US Army, Major, Ret.
Service To The Line,
On The Line,
On Time
US Army Ordnance Corps.
OMG MM,
That's just stunning, to think that's on a sim model and in CFS3 is amazing! I like the before and after pics, really shows your hard work.
All this talk of P47's got me thinking about Lanny Lanowski and the 56th FG. I used to live in Colchester, Essex, which is where Boxted (Langham) airfield and the 56th FG were based. Back in 1992 with the 50th anniversary of the USAF coming over to the UK, there were a lot of celebrations throughout East Anglia (the general name for the counties in the East). Like most of us here at SOH I have always been a huge WWII aviation fanatic. I found out that the 56th FG were having a mjor get together in Colchester and managed to get an invite to their first gathering(!). I had always been interested in the 56th, so well read etc. Saw, but didn't meet, Gabby Gabreski, Fred Christiansen and Walker 'Bud' Mahurin. I met and made good friends with Dick Warboys, who was a pilot in the 63rd Sqn, and his wife Carol. We stayed good friends with them and met up whenever they came over for quite a few years after.
And Lanny Lanowski. I used to work from an old USAF airfield also in Essex, and through a colleagues contacts, I got in touch with Lanny, who also lived in Essex. I invited him and his son Krys to visit the airfield, this would have been sometime in 1990-93. Good to meet him, and have a copy of a painting that he had commisoned of his P47 M HV-Z. At the time I didn't know about the 'Silver Lady', and he didn't mention it, so this CFS3 project is very interesting.
He had talked then about a book, but I only bought his book 'Out in Front' recently, and have just finished reading it (he talks about 'Silver Lady' in it). A good insight into his history, but as with talking to him in the 90's, he was still quite bitter both towards the Polish Airforce, for not supporting him; and the USAF who owed him a lot of pay. Having read it I see why he felt like that. The other thing from the book was that I discovered he was born in Lviv, which at that time was Polish, but has been thrust into the headlines recently as it's now part of the western Ukraine.
Cheers
Shessi
Coming right along Andy. Looking great ! Maybe some time someone will have the rest of the AH P-47 series and come forth. Nice to have what we have though. Added some AvH 1% Flight model files to it and handles more accurately now. Thanks for the work. Regards,Scott
Lots of progress on the wing panel lines, fasteners, and rivets this weekend. The more research I do the more features I discover that need to be added. The latest new additions to the textures were the landing light lens, gun camera window and cockpit air intake. I'm using the reflectivity file to simulate the glass effects, and gradient shading along with recessing the normal map to give the impression of an opening that's not really there.
US Army, Major, Ret.
Service To The Line,
On The Line,
On Time
US Army Ordnance Corps.
Awesome news ! Thanks Andy ! Regards,Scott
As it was, post D-Day, when the upper Invasion Stripes were removed and the Malcom Hood was installed.
US Army, Major, Ret.
Service To The Line,
On The Line,
On Time
US Army Ordnance Corps.
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