I did some snooping and found resource photos of the airplane in Sea Blue, which was a glossy lacquer finish at this period. There is also a very nice selection of source art over at Wings Palette, one in particular that really blew my skirt up.
IMHO
Overall, this is an extremely nice model, well suited for P3Dv3.1 with it's dynamic reflections, but waaaayyyy to clean for me and looking very much like an FS9 portover until one looks closely for the occasional panel line on the expansive wing, jet like fuselage and beautifully sculpted nacelles. I found it slightly distressing when such a fine model was offered with no alpha layers, or detailed bump map applied. It seems like such a pitty get so close, then omit details that would make this a truly magnificent airplane. I'm not meaning to be dis-respectful to the fine people over at Virtavia, so don't take me wrong. My observations are meant to be a constructive analysis.
I've thrown together a very preliminary alpha layer set, and to my joy, the airplane responds well to the P3Dv3.1 light engine. I also remembered I had a very nice Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp sound set laying around, which livened things up considerably....heh...heh.
All she needs now are some rivets, panels and bumps to bring out the life in these exquisite contours.
I was not able to locate the "supplied" paint kit. If someone could point me in that direction, I'd be eternally grateful.
Last edited by gman5250; February 4th, 2016 at 22:51.
He who knows nothing is closer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors.
Thomas Jefferson
Intel Core i9-9900K Coffee Lake | Cooler MasterAir Maker 8 CPU Thermal Cooler | ASUS ROG Strix Z390-E LGA 1151 | CORSAIR Vengeance RGB Pro 32GB 288-Pin DDR4/3200 | EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB | SAMSUNG 860 EVO Series M.2 1TB SSD | Mushkin Chronos 240GB 2.5 SSD | WD Black 2TB 7200 RPM |WD Black 5TB 7200 RPM | CORSAIR HX Series HX1200 PSU | Windows 10 HP 64-bit
Okie Dokie...I got the PK from the freeware site. Really a nice PK too...Thanks.
From what I can ascertain, the model is set up using more or less conventional settings, so the canopy glass and all of the other bits should respond to alpha very nicely.
Cees, I think I got the shine a bit deep, but it's a first rough. I also noticed that the bomb bay inner doors are white, and the landing gear doors are zinc. I'll have to dig a bit and find some dates, but the spec would probably call for all white at the time the airplane saw service. White was for identifying hydraulic fluid leaks easily. After the aircraft had been in service, there will surely have been maintenance paint work done as specs changed. Later aircraft would have white wheel wells.
The cockpit paint spec is another thing I'll dig in to. At this period the spec may have been green lower, with flat black from the bottom of the panel up. Not sure on this 'till I do some checking.
FYI to the other painters. The anti glare panel, if any, would have been a clear anti specular paint (matte) over the blue, rather than flat black.
He who knows nothing is closer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors.
Thomas Jefferson
Intel Core i9-9900K Coffee Lake | Cooler MasterAir Maker 8 CPU Thermal Cooler | ASUS ROG Strix Z390-E LGA 1151 | CORSAIR Vengeance RGB Pro 32GB 288-Pin DDR4/3200 | EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB | SAMSUNG 860 EVO Series M.2 1TB SSD | Mushkin Chronos 240GB 2.5 SSD | WD Black 2TB 7200 RPM |WD Black 5TB 7200 RPM | CORSAIR HX Series HX1200 PSU | Windows 10 HP 64-bit
Working on putting together a video of this model in action on an old Essex Carrier but I somehow managed to screw up half my clips and will need to redo a good bit to get everything organized right. Then the fun and time consuming part comes, compressing and editing! Actually, compressing FRAPS clips are the biggest pain, editing is not that big of a deal. Will post as soon as I get it all ready in a day or two.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
I took the day and put together a fundamental set of bumps and a gloss Sea Blue skin. I don't have the data yet for accurate rivet placements, but even the basic set is a significant improvement for a great plane. I've got some other big projects on the fire, but I'll be picking away at a set of detailed bumps and specs for this one.
He who knows nothing is closer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors.
Thomas Jefferson
Intel Core i9-9900K Coffee Lake | Cooler MasterAir Maker 8 CPU Thermal Cooler | ASUS ROG Strix Z390-E LGA 1151 | CORSAIR Vengeance RGB Pro 32GB 288-Pin DDR4/3200 | EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB | SAMSUNG 860 EVO Series M.2 1TB SSD | Mushkin Chronos 240GB 2.5 SSD | WD Black 2TB 7200 RPM |WD Black 5TB 7200 RPM | CORSAIR HX Series HX1200 PSU | Windows 10 HP 64-bit
Great work and indeed a great improvement.
Cees
Just thought I'd chime in here on the Savage. The Virtavia Model looks great. I did however have the opportunity to hear a lecture from a former Navy pilot about the peculiar aircraft. They have a static Savage on display at the National Museum of Naval Aviation in Pensacola, Florida. The fellow giving us the tour used to fly many Navy aircraft during his military career, to include the Skyraider during Vietnam. So, I'd assumed he had been in the "s**t" at least a few times. According to him the Savage was a piece of trash. He stated that it had been hastily designed, for reasons I can't remember, at the beginning of the nuclear age. He told us the story of his conversations with Savage pilots who simply stated to him that if they had gotten a bogie on their six, they would just push to full throttle and so many parts would come flying off of the Savage, that it would knock the bogie out of the sky!. We all laughed. It was a great tour and at the end my son and I thanked him for his service.
P.S. - I have been thinking of purchasing the Virtavia Savage. Would you great folks recommend it??
OS Vista 64 Home Basic
WD 1.5 TB HD
EVGA 550Ti 2GB MEM
GSKILL RIPJAWS 8GB RAM
Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHZ
XION High Performance 1000W PS
FSX/Acceleration
OS Vista 64 Home Basic
WD 1.5 TB HD
EVGA 550Ti 2GB MEM
GSKILL RIPJAWS 8GB RAM
Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHZ
XION High Performance 1000W PS
FSX/Acceleration
There's no question that the Savage had significant issues, largely due to rushing it into service so quickly without getting all the bugs out. North American was/is known for their unrelenting craftsmanship but even the best companies can suffer low QC during any rushed projects (ie: the B-29 among many other types). It ended up becoming a good aircraft but by then, it was clearly outperformed by the incoming A-3.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Here's my freshly put together video of the Savage. Enjoy!
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjV...yvKVsqDv2-5blQ
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Windows 7 Professional 64 bit, 16 Gigs Ram
Cooler Master HAF 932 Tower
ASUS P7P55D Deluxe
Intel Core i7-860 Lynnfield Quad-Core 2.8 GHz LGA 1156
ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB 128-Bit GDDR5
SCEPTRE 27"
WD Black 1 TB
ASUS Xonar DS 7.1
CORSAIR K95 RGB Platnum XT, PBT double-shot keycaps, Cherry MX Blue
Logitech M510
Cees, if you want a set of the preliminary bumps, PM me. I did the panel lines from some good line drawings, so those are relatively accurate. The rivets are an estimation, based on the panel lines, but I need some good drawings with structural placements to really dial in the correct placements.
Last edited by gman5250; February 6th, 2016 at 08:18.
He who knows nothing is closer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors.
Thomas Jefferson
Intel Core i9-9900K Coffee Lake | Cooler MasterAir Maker 8 CPU Thermal Cooler | ASUS ROG Strix Z390-E LGA 1151 | CORSAIR Vengeance RGB Pro 32GB 288-Pin DDR4/3200 | EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB | SAMSUNG 860 EVO Series M.2 1TB SSD | Mushkin Chronos 240GB 2.5 SSD | WD Black 2TB 7200 RPM |WD Black 5TB 7200 RPM | CORSAIR HX Series HX1200 PSU | Windows 10 HP 64-bit
I have uploaded five repaints to dropbox
I'll leave these there for a day. If you're interested?
https://www.dropbox.com/s/drc9upwv9g...aints.zip?dl=0
Cees
Many thanks to you gents for putting in the time and effort to bring the AJ up to pro status. It's very much appreciated. The paints are terrific and I love that deep gloss blue. It just screams 1950s NavAir.
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