BoNidle

Thanks. The stripes are challenging, the worst part is wrapping the stripes under the belly. My previous release, "Desert rats" took about 4 hours solid to get it looking right. The "Spicer" Sabre took longer than that when all added up. The 366thFBW was comparatively easy to do. I do like the 1950's USAF colour schemes though.

3 updated: "Peg O My Heart", "366thFBW Nellis 1956", and "Gen Spicers ATC" plus two new additions "Dreaded Gumboo/Sweet Rose" and the same aircraft after it was transfered to the Taiwanese Air Force in 1955. Submitted to User Files for upload. I recreated "Dreaded Gumboo/Sweet Rose" at the request of Eric Yocum whose Dad was the crew chief for the aircraft: Wally Yocum. Check out his website www.yocumusa.com/sweetrose/

Thats a relief, I don't want to upset anyone. The "collisions" with real life occur quite often. Through skinning for the IL2:46 sim I got to correspond with several WW2 P-51 and P-47, pilots plus provide some illustrations for a book on the history of the 368th Fighter group. Its a big part of why I do this. Check out Erics website, it's a treasure trove of research photos and just incredibly interesting all round. You will also see my skins on there under my real name. http://yocumusa.com/sweetrose/

This is awkward, I suppose its unavoidable that clashes will occur, but I feel I should give you the heads up out of courtesy. I did this skin for the crew chiefs son: Eric Yocum and updated it for his website a few days ago, I was intending to release it in the next couple of days with some others including the same aircraft when it was handed over to the Taiwanese air force. I don't want you to think I'm trying anything underhand hence this post.

Nice.

This bit mate, it was quite reflective, in fact you can clearly see the fuel dump pipe reflection in it.

Amazing work! I honestly thought the third image down was a photo of the actual aircraft when I first saw it. Really impressive. Are you going to add some metallic shine to the heat plating where the red fuel dump pipe sticks out by the exhaust? That area on the Sabre was quite polished in appearance.

I've been eyeing this Sabre scheme for a long time but the stripes always put me off. It turns out that I was right, they were a right faff! But worth the effort I think. The original aircraft flew with the 21st FBW out of Chambley AFB in France between 1955 and 1957. It was flown by the C.O. Col Robert Rowlands. I have no idea as to the origin of the nickname (anyone?) I have depicted it as an operational aircraft without the mirror finish of the current airshow performer....although that may follow. Just uploaded to User Files.

Hello Rob, if I may offer a bit of advice? Firstly yellow is a bit of a challenge (to put it mildly) to depict with any gloss finish due to the lighting engine making any gloss finish have a "metallic" appearance, hence the "gold leaf" result. At the moment I cannot find a work around so have to live with it and use a green overlay on the SPEC layer. Thats why the yellow ID bands on my korean war Sabres are essentially a matt finish. If ayone can solve this they will be my hero! All colours suffer from this to one degree or another and also require a green SPEC layer overlay. Experiment with transparency to try and find a good balance. Feel free to have a look at one of my SPEC layers to see what I mean. With regards to the paint sheme you have chosen: It looks like you have made a bit of work for yourself with regards trying to join the black stripe trim on the nose decoration. If you look at your profile illustration, the stripe sweeps forwards towards the gun plate, in a very slight 'S' shape, whereas you have it sweeping backwards in a curve. That is why you are having the problem in trying to get a neat join. Trying to line up stripes in that area is challenging due to some distortions on the 3D model that need to compensated for. Believe me I know. I have spent many hours pulling my hair out trying to make them work. Hope you accept this advice in the spirit that its given. Beware, you are very likely to end up skinning waaaaay more than you are flying.

Just finished updating "Mike's Bird", "Mig Mad Marine", "Jolley Roger" and "El Diablo" for DCS 2.5. Still striving for the operational metal finish without inadvertently going flat grey. Submitting to User Files tomorrow.

"El Diablo" on the prowl.

Problem cured! Used the DCS_updater.exe command to "Clean up" followed by "repair". Sorted. Hoorah!

Thanks chaps. With regards to the shade of yellow: I'm afraid that is down to the lighting engine which, although superb, does tend to make the yellow look too bright in direct sunlight. That said the period photo does give an incorrect impression as to just how "orange" the yellow used was. But taking the observation on board, I have adjusted the shade very slightly for my latest releases and may come back to "Mavis" in the furure.

Thanks chaps. "The Huff" is always a popular one. "Mikes Bird" is coming soon Basco1.

Thanks chaps. Hello there Basco1. Its been a while. Hope you're well. I hope to have some more back out there soon.

Once again here's the latest version of "The Huff" modified for DCS 2.5 Caucasus map. (I've lost count how many times I've revised this one!) Should be up at User Files soon.

A re-re-re-re-release upgraded for the great new Caucasus map. New metal finish, modified fuselage ID band which is now to more accurate dimensions in that its slightly narrower. I'm trying to depict an in theatre operational aircraft so I've not gone for an airshow "mirror" finish. Just submitted to User Files. More re-re-re-releases to come hopefully. (As always, constructive criticism welcomed.)

Sorry about the image debacle. Every photo hosting site I try sucks! Anyway I have just submitted "Mig Mad Mavis" to User Files so it should be up soon. See what you think. Nice to be remembered for the "IL2" years, thanks. Hard to believe my last release for the mighty "IL2" was some nine years ago!! Good times on an awesome sim. Cheers Bo

How about now?

Thanks. Now i stand to be corrected on this as I am far from an expert, but I believe mipmaps allow the model to retain its detail the further away it is. As I was on this thread the dust started to be blown off my memory and I recalled I used to use DXT 5 to save textures and DXT 1 to save spec. This FSX forum thread gives a better explaination. https://www.avsim.com/forums/topic/470865-guide-mipmapping-and-optimising-textures/

Is this what you have in mind? (The name colours in your attached illustration are incorrect by the way) I should have this released soon.

I found an old post from a few years ago where I was advising someone else (oh the irony). I have used DXT5 / ARGB / 8bpp / Interpolated Alpha / Generate mipmaps / all for the Diff on this wip F-86 (I tend to always go for natural metal Sabres). However if I save the spec layer in anything other than the DXT3 format I mentioned above I get "crawling" tetures on panel lines. Do you chaps save your spec layer in the same format as your texture? With mipmaps? I'm pretty happy with my results for an "operational" Sabre rather than an "airshow" finish.

I am starting to get back into skinning again after some time away but for the life of me I cannot recall the exact format in which I saved the Diff and the Spec! At present I am saving both as DXT3 / Explicit Alpha / Generate Mip Maps / All The result looks okay but I think I'm saving at least one of them incorrectly. Any help with jogging an aging memory would be appreciated. Thanks.

Uninstalled and reinstalled the module to no effect, problem remains.

No, no custom textures added, which reminded me I hadn't added a couple of my own skins so I transfered these over and they now have the same problem. So far the F-5E-3 is the only module diplaying this anomaly. The F-86 is fine.