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  1. #1
    Senior Administrator huub vink's Avatar
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    Another question.

    The Gloster Gauntlet by Frank Elton is definitely showing its age, however it is the only Gauntlet available. I had some hope Nigel Richards would do a Gauntlet after he had finished the AVROs, but now I can only hope Nigel is still okay.

    I have tried to repaint Frank's old model, but the model is as flat/dull/matt as can be. So my question is: Is there anybody here, handy enough to make the model reflective with some minor gloss?

    In the past I has several handy tools based in Ivan "Archisoft" Hsu's MDLC model converter, but they all refuse to work under Windows10 and I'm simply not clever enough to learn how to do this with MDLmat.

    With some shine on the metal front of the Gauntlet hope to be able to extend the life of Frank Elton's beautiful Gauntlet with a few extra years....

    Cheers,
    Huub

    PS The Gauntlet was the last RAF open cockpit fighter.




  2. #2
    Yes it is possible with mdlmat:
    line 1 and 11 fuselage and wings
    line 4 and 10 engine cowling

  3. #3
    Senior Administrator huub vink's Avatar
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    Thanks for pointing out the right parts vinci! But as said I'm simply not clever enough to do something which makes sense with MDLmat. I have used OBIO's tutorial to at least get an idea what I was doing, but as you can see, the model doesn't do what I want it to do.....

    (I told it to shine, but it only became transparent...)



    What was life simple with a tool for dummies like "shine" by WahWuzDah (?). You just entered a value for shine and gloss and sometimes it did what you wanted. The other times you just had bad luck

    Cheers,
    Huub

  4. #4

    Here ya go Huub....

    If it's not shiny enough give me a shout.

    Cheers

    Shessi
    Attached Files Attached Files

  5. #5
    Senior Administrator huub vink's Avatar
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    Thanks Shessi, The level of shine is great, but my original question had two parts. Is it possible to make the model reflective as well? (in my attempt the alphas made the texture transparent). As I would like to do something similar with the Gauntlet as I did with Bulldog. With some metal reflection you can achieve a higher and more dynamic contrast in a repaint.





    Cheers,
    Huub

  6. #6
    SOH-CM-2024 Mick's Avatar
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    Hi Huub,

    Actually, there is another FS9 Gauntlet by Chris Herring. I don't have the time to check them out together to see if it's any better than Frank Elton's model.

    Yes, it's possible to add reflectivity to a model, but not in Win10. Ivan Hsu made a little DOS program called Shine that would add reflections and/or specular gloss. Jeff Delhaye gave it a Windows user interface and called it Shiny. Shiny works great in the virtual XP Modet of Win7pro, and I run Win7pro. I also have the Elton Gauntlet. So...

    The attached Frank Elton model is reflective and has specular semi-gloss. If that's too glossy I can make one with semi-matte. If it needs more gloss I could make one fully glossy.

    One caveat: on some models (but not most) adding reflections can ruin the VC by making the instrument plane and therefore the panel and sometimes other bits of the VC interior reflective. There is a way to fix that, and I have instructions, but I don't understand them; it's all beyond my ken. When necessary I've had to ask L'Iguane to do that step for me. (I've also made models reflective for him.)

    I hope the attached model works properly. If not, I could send you a copy of the fix instructions, if you think you could use them. Or maybe you could get L'Iguane to do it for you. With any luck that step won't be necessary. I haven't time today to test it for myself. I have too many errands to do today and not enough time to do them.
    Last edited by Mick; April 20th, 2021 at 08:55.

  7. #7
    Senior Administrator huub vink's Avatar
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    Thanks Mick, that was indeed the small tool I was talking about. Jeff Delhaye was also known under the username "WahWazDah" and his small interface is still available in the library. However the working part is Ivan Hsu's MLDC, which doesn't work under Windows10.

    Frank Elton's model is typical a model which has all the problems you can imagine. The prop disk has become solid as the Alpha's don't make the blurred prop transparent anymore, which also cause the well known problem in the VC. But the part which I wanted to be reflective looks really good.

    About Chris Herring's Gaunlet; you are correct, he did one but I assume he released it as payware. Chris was allowed to use Razbam's site to present his products, but since Razbam went into DCS stuff, the models done by Chris aren't available there anymore.

    Nevertheless thanks for all the efforts so far, I hope there will be solution to convert the propdisk and VC back again. I'm convinced that with a powerful program like ModelConverterX it must be possible. But do far I haven't figured out how to do it.

    Cheers,
    Huub

    BTW did you notice that a little bit of shine completely hides the sharp "folds" in the wings?




  8. #8
    SOH-CM-2024 Mick's Avatar
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    Well, here's the VC fix instructions that I don't understand how to follow.

    I see that they were originally posted by Jamie, who is very much still with us.

    I remembered Jeff D's handle verbally, but I couldn't remember how he spelled it!

    Maybe the VC fix will also fix the prop. If not, maybe you or Jamie can adapt the process to do that.

    I hope so!

  9. #9
    Senior Administrator huub vink's Avatar
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    Thanks Mick so far I've read the document twice and tried to understand it only once.....
    The principle is clear, but how you recognise the parts in a semi binary code is still a complete mystery for me.

    As said, Jamie is still around and very active so when I still don't understand it after the fifth time I have read it, I might ask him.

    Cheers,
    Huub

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