The Thomas Ruth Antonov AN 225

[tommieboy]

Tommy

[Jafo]

What-ifs can come in all sorts....but I might draw the line at a 'Thunderbirds' version...doubt a 225 would be all that fun...in a formation of one...

[tommieboy]

Formation of one? In that case, Fat Albert would be the way to go.

[CG_1976]

A Cuban Airforce An225 would be a hoot lol.

[Jafo]

A Cuban Airforce An225 would be a hoot lol.

That's the sort of reason why I've spent all this time making the Paint Kit. [over a month]
The original had no actual correct specs...the metal 'shine' was 2004 vintage ...stripey grey and flat.....you know....the bright bit stays in the same place no matter where you turn.
Doing a multi-layer 4096 Kit means everyone can have a go at it...

BTW, CG....what are you doing with my cat? [Tessa looks identical]...

[Jafo]

I think I'm right to upload the Paint Kit. It'll be 3 parts...Main, Left Wing and Right Wing, with bumps compiled separately...shouldn't need altering. Each part will handle the bitmap, alpha, spec and spec alpha. I had to combine layers logically to reduce the size. You can easily exceed mem capacity with multi-layers at 4096....it gets all panicky when you can't 'unmerge' and you think you've lost the lot...
They'll be in PSD format as that's handled by both PS and PSP ...

[Jafo]

Had to stop sooner or later...so I've uploaded the Paint Kit here at SOH.

I'll get around to upping some paints too, but I'm thinking of doing it all again with the AN-124 from Thomas too...

[Jafo]

I saw there was a Lufthansa one around...so did a bodgy reload of it using a rough variation of the kit....
I kinda prefer the 3 decks...cos it's big enough for 3 decks..

[delta_lima]

Had to stop sooner or later...so I've uploaded the Paint Kit here at SOH.

I'll get around to upping some paints too, but I'm thinking of doing it all again with the AN-124 from Thomas too...

That's superb news. I didn't have the heart to say it, but I like the -124 even more than the -225!

I remember seeing these at airshows in the 80s. I remember taking a picture same day as this, almost same angle, at the Abbotsford Air Show in 1986:

http://www.geocities.ws/smalnbrg/abb...6/a86a124b.jpg

They were pretty impressive: (again, not my photo)

https://www.jetphotos.com/photo/6573779

I curse having lost some amazing 80s era negatives in a move.

Thanks for bringing these great friendly giants back to us!

dl

[Jafo]

That's superb news. I didn't have the heart to say it, but I like the -124 even more than the -225!

I remember seeing these at airshows in the 80s. I remember taking a picture same day as this, almost same angle, at the Abbotsford Air Show in 1986:

http://www.geocities.ws/smalnbrg/abb...6/a86a124b.jpg

They were pretty impressive: (again, not my photo)

https://www.jetphotos.com/photo/6573779

I curse having lost some amazing 80s era negatives in a move.

Thanks for bringing these great friendly giants back to us!

dl

No dramas, dl. It's a bit of a hobby messing with kits...and converting this one to work with the 124 could be 'entertaining'.
I've never seen them in the flesh....tho the 225 did get to Perth once....that's still 2000 miles away from where I am.
My biggest issue is I have so many versions of the kit...as it gets too big to manage and if I add them up I'm gonna need a bigger boat...er...hard drive...

[Jafo]

I'm having a re-think about the different specs etc between the wings and fuse...and am again doing things with metal effects...the Lufthansa version has got me redoing stuff. I may have to upload a metal-specific kit as it's a bit different so far....ignore the Qantas wings...just being slack....



Edit....here's a finished go at it. I think it's done...shall transpose to my Qantas one and see how that turns out...

[aeronca1]

I've never seen them in the flesh (124)

Many years ago, I was sitting outside my apartment on a very warm summer day and suddenly I heard this extremely loud noise. Recognizing the sound of jet engines I started scanning the sky. A bit off in the distance I saw a 124 heading for the airport. The airport was miles away and normal flight patterns were also a good distance away from my apartment building. I had never heard an engine/engines that loud outside of a military base. Needless to say, some of the dead must have been awakened that day.

[Txmmy83]

thanks for the HD paintkit

[Seahawk72s]

Still to do the first version...but this one's done....
After that I'll compile the kit for upload...

Attachment 81939

Can you share how you got the exhaust effect..? Beside the smoke, the heat/flame effect..?

Will you be releasing any of your repaints..?

[Jafo]

Can you share how you got the exhaust effect..? Beside the smoke, the heat/flame effect..?

Will you be releasing any of your repaints..?

I setup a few staged effects to throttle for '4' engines....FSX can't count to six....and ran them from the smoke section of the aircraft.cfg ...so they don't interfere with 'lights'.

It's a bit of home-grown xml, along with a really long-winded way of adding trails likewise to wingtips etc. Not an expert with complex xml...so did it the hard way...but it works...

I'm now happy with my metalwork...so will upload the paints soonish.

I'll also upload the effects...and smke section etc...along with my 2D panel....also soonish...

[Jafo]

The Aeroflot version...again required more tweaking of the metalwork....

[Jafo]

I just started looking into the 124 properly...and in mere hours instead of days I have sussed out the wings - almost.
Near enough a copy of the 225 graphics...with only a few differences to the Paint Kit. [they're simpler].

Next step is to see how to transpose the fuse to suit....likely to be a bigger pain tho...

[Jafo]

Wings were a doddle....looks like back to square one with the fuse. The existing paint kit is a line drawing.....not the ideal way. I sort-of have it aligned to the door openings...but I see a few more weeks yet...

[Jafo]

Why creating a HD paint kit can take 'a while'. First thing is to map model openings [doors etc] as they need to be correct. So far I've done the 7 passenger doors, and set some universal datums to connect the various 'bits' of image...next is the opening nose, then it'll be the opening tail. Differences of HD detail can be seen between the white fuse and the engines...which are pinched from the 225...



Once all the openings are right I can see how well the old paint kit matches them...and then use it as a template to set my 1 pixel lines...

[Jafo]

56 undercarriage doors later....just the ones on the tail door to go....

[Jafo]

It's slow going....but there's light at the end of the tunnel.....

[Jafo]

I know I need to get back to the 225 and upload some paints...but I got caught up with the 124.

Getting rid of the 'jaggies' and aligning the stripes a bit better does wonders....

[Seahawk72s]

I know I need to get back to the 225 and upload some paints...but I got caught up with the 124.

Getting rid of the 'jaggies' and aligning the stripes a bit better does wonders....

The anticipation of not one but two great aircraft gets the blood going...

[Jafo]

Still not quite done with the lines...but moved on to correct the alpha...and create a full-size spec...8 times larger than original.
Haven't done the bumps yet...as will need to finish the lines first...then update the alpha and spec....[it never ends]...

[Txmmy83]

and here is a nice (payware) sound add-on for the AN 225
http://skysongsoundworks.com/product...roducts_id=252