Virtavia AJ-2 Savage is out!

[gman5250]

I've got the Steve Ginter book on the AJ-2, but there's not a lot of detail in the drawings.

Cees

I'll search that and do some other digging...thanks Cees....

[Cees Donker]

If you need some scans let me know.


Cees

[dvj]

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.

looks great. Love the gloss.

[gman5250]

I saw potential with this airplane, so I've been adding necessary layers that will be generic for all paints. These are bump and specular files that are, at this time, works in progress but as shown here the AJ-2 Savage is coming into focus.

I couldn't resist doing this skin...it sets off the lines so beautifully.

[Cees Donker]

Very nice, beautiful skin. This is a tough one as the transition between the wings and the fuselage is not an easy job, at least not for me.


Looking forward to the bump maps!

Cees

[dvj]

I saw potential with this airplane, so I've been adding necessary layers that will be generic for all paints. These are bump and specular files that are, at this time, works in progress but as shown here the AJ-2 Savage is coming into focus.

I couldn't resist doing this skin...it sets off the lines so beautifully.

Wow, nice work there! See, this is exactly how I expected a product of this price point to look in the first place.

[thunder100]

Will you eventually share the paint?

Thanks in Advance

Roland

[fsafranek]

I came across a site where someone built a model of the Savage. Got a better picture of how it should be!



Cees

Even better. And thanks for the repaints.

[Cees Donker]

Even better. And thanks for the repaints.

Thanks Frank.

Once gman has finished the bump mapping it will be a whole new plane!


Cees

[ColoKent]

THAT does it...I've had it "up to here" seeing all of these excellent screenshots! I'm going to buy this one....

Kent

[Cees Donker]

THAT does it...I've had it "up to here" seeing all of these excellent screenshots! I'm going to buy this one....

Kent

LOL! Repaints, certainly works of art as gman produces, do a lot for models. I love this plane. It has a lot of the lines of a Mustang. Look at the wings and the tail.



Cees

[gman5250]

LOL! Repaints, certainly works of art as gman produces, do a lot for models. I love this plane. It has a lot of the lines of a Mustang. Look at the wings and the tail.



Cees

I'm doing more detailing on the bumps and spec. You're right Cees, the wing/fuse joints and many of the small items are difficult to nail down...no labeling.

This plane is really fun to trap.....

[gman5250]

Will you eventually share the paint?

Thanks in Advance

Roland

Absolutely Roland,

The paints, bumps and the specular files will be available on this site only. Just to keep everyone up to date, the bumps and specular files will go into the shared folder, so all paints by all authors will be upgraded by installing my mods. If a painter does their own specs and bumps, those will go in the actual texture folder for that specific skin and will override the shared folder.

[gman5250]

I think I've worked out a good generic specular map, as well as detailing out the bumps. The gloss blue looks just about right from what I can gather from source photos.

I went back and tuned up this skin, changed a few details and pointed it at the correct model.
Thought I'd throw in a couple of final shots before I hand the prelim bump files off to Cees and anyone else wanting a set to work with.

Prepar3Dv3.1 | REX TD w/Soft Clouds | ASN Live Weather

[Sundog]

That is a very cool paint scheme. Also, thanks for the texture upgrades as well. I'll definitely be looking forward to it's release.

[fsafranek]

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.

I provided the specs during development but...

Anyway, "Going into the 1950's, the floors, walls, pedestals, control stick up to grip, and console sides were painted an "Interior Green" color similar to but darker than zink chromite green. All surfaces from the bottom edge of the main instrument panel and up were to be a flat (non-specular) black.

"Navy Air Directive 01.1, March 25, 1954 revised the colors to be used in aircraft cockpits to replace the green with gray. (You can do this easy enough with a color replacement tool to change the green to a gray)

"Navy aircraft go in for a PAR (Paint and Rework) service about every two years. So anything flying by 1956 would have had the cockpit color changes. That said, a directive in 1955 changed all exterior coloring from Sea Blue to the new white and Light Gull Gray (FS17038) scheme. So by late 1956/early 1957 any aircraft that flew would have been repainted to that new scheme. At the same time as the exterior color change to gray/white the gear bay interiors and struts were changed to glossy white to make hydraulic leak spotting easier. Prior to that the bays were the green color (then gray for a couple years) and the struts were the "same color as the nearest fuselage"."

If someone feels adventurous I did some testing before release and changing the green bits on AJ-2_gear_1 and AJ-2_gear_2 in the shared folder will give you the white gear bays that the gray/white aircraft would most definitely have had. (Actually I'll ask Phil for those two masters and do it the easy way.)

[Ferry_vO]

With all these repaints I'm thinking of buying the Steam Edition for just $12, and if I like it I can always add the DLC later.

[jeansy]

I think I've worked out a good generic specular map, as well as detailing out the bumps.

nice work, do you want to visit the A4?

[Cees Donker]

I'm doing more detailing on the bumps and spec. You're right Cees, the wing/fuse joints and many of the small items are difficult to nail down...no labeling.

This plane is really fun to trap.....

Indeed, she is fun to trap!

Cees

[gman5250]

Cees, I've got a good prelim set of bump, panel and spec files for you. I'll zip those up and send them.

After working with the PK further, I discovered multiple layers of parts files for the various interior parts that might have been green or white, depending on when the airplane was in service. Nice of the Virtavia team to provide those.

Screenshots:
The early Sea Blue with specular files working alongside the texture/alpha setup. The light rendering with DR enabled is extremely effective and really responds to specular/alpha combinations. As the airplane moves in and out of clouds, the color/light thrown by the layered textures change dramatically. Learning this new "canvas" is becoming very inspiring.


Prepar3Dv3.1 | DR Lighting Enabled | ASN Live Weather | REX TD/Soft Clouds

[Cees Donker]

Looking forward to see what these will do with the repaints!



Cees

[fsafranek]

I've fixed the white gear wells and struts using the master textures. Since these textures
weren't a part of the paint kit I'm just awaiting the go-ahead before making them available.

[Cirrus N210MS]

i may need to get this now The screen shots on the website didnt make it look so great now the user pictures on here really show how nice the model really looks

[gman5250]

I've fixed the white gear wells and struts using the master textures. Since these textures
weren't a part of the paint kit I'm just awaiting the go-ahead before making them available.

Excellent...thank you for the update.

[WarHorse47]

I'm not a painter. Following these posts and looking at the screenshots has me in awe of what you guys are doing. These new skins look fantastic, and your discussions are adding a whole new awareness and dimension of what goes into them. Thanks for everyone's efforts. Much appreciated.

Cheers