KBT's F/A-18E/F/G FOR FS2004 - ENG INTAKES TEXTURE ANOMALY

[vonernsk]

Recently parked my VRS F/A-18E for FS2004 in the hangar as I found I was getting stressed out by flying it with a massive instructional manual on my lap and not really enjoying touch and goes or ILS approaches with it.

Downloaded KBT's offering and immediately found it a great sim a/c to fly, touch and goes, carrier shots and traps etc.

There were a couple of updates which I installed.

When I look at the E and G versions head-on the eng intakes shade nicely to the rear but end up in a blank unrealistic grey plate.
The F model does not have this prob, the intakes shade on the inside down to a black interior.

Have checked that all textures I have used are up to date and also mdl files, but can find no reason for the above.

Anyone else had this and found a solution for the E and G models?

[pfflyers]

For the 'G' model there's a v2 on AVSIM, ea18gv2.zip, it's listed as FSX, but works fine in FS9.

It has an added bit of texture on the 'sh_cockpit' bitmap that paints the inside of the intakes. You can copy that into earlier paints to fix the Growler.

Don't know of a fix for the 'E'.

edit: Just fooled around a little with my 'E' and 'F' models. Seems the area at the end of the duct was not mapped, no amount of painting would color it.

So, I 'fixed' it by coloring the model black with MDLMat. Now at least there's not a light gray plate at the end of the duct.

[vonernsk]

Many tks for that. At least I know that I did not screw up on installing the upgrades. Any chance of passing on the modded mdls?

[pfflyers]

KBT's readme includes this statement:

"All contents of this Super Hornet are copyright 2004 by TEAM FS KBT and the authors. All rights are reserved and no part of the package may be duplicated or distributed without the expressed, written permission of the authors."

So I can't post them, if you PM me you email maybe I can send 'em if the pack isn't too big.

[vonernsk]

Looked further into this. Found some excellent F/A-18E and F re-paints at GJ Smith's site (gjsmith.net). He has also produced an additional 2-tank model for the E and F (with permission fm KBT).

Downloaded a complete F/A-18E pack and his 2-tank models for the E and the F, from his site and he seems to have solved the problem. Utilised the models from this download in my existing installations of E and F. Problem solved. The G model problem was solved using the FSX update of this model as you advised.

Thanks again for your interest and response to my query.

[pfflyers]

I must be missing something.

I installed GJ Smith's 2 tank model into my existing FA-18E folder using one of my existing textures and I still had the unpainted gray panel at the end of the intake duct.

Ran the model thru MDLMat, changed the model color to black (and took off most of the shine), and now I have black at the end of the intake.

I'll install his RAAF 'E' pack and see if there's a texture update that I'm missing.