F-16C 480th FS Spangdahlem Skin (Weathered & Clean)

[Ala12Rv-watermanpc]

Great work Texac!! downloading now!!, thanks!!:)

[Tomcatter87]

Perfect - love your new skin, I really avoided using the stock Spangdahlem livery 'cuz it seemed to clean to me. Now it's one of my favourites.

[Texac]

Today the skin has been updated. The changes include new RoughMet textures which don't interfere with the AO layer anymore.

 

The strength of the dry water or dirt spots is now reduced by a bit.

 

I'm currently working on a clean version. I'll be aiming for a release tomorrow or on the weekend!

 

 

[Roughmaster]

4 hours ago, Texac said:

Today the skin has been updated. The changes include new RoughMet textures which don't interfere with the AO layer anymore.

 

The strength of the dry water or dirt spots is now reduced by a bit.

 

I'm currently working on a clean version. I'll be aiming for a release tomorrow or on the weekend!

 

 

Looking forward to this.

[Texac]

This is a small preview of the clean version. So far I have the albedo textures ready, so now the RoughMets are following. 

 

The weathered version will also see some improvements again, specifically the tail. A few rivets were sticking out a bit too much. 

 

[Texac]

Here some in game screenshots of the finished clean skin. The fuel tanks will be replaced with the standard texture. 

 

[fagulha]

12 minutes ago, Texac said:

Here some in game screenshots of the finished clean skin. The fuel tanks will be replaced with the standard texture. 

 

Or you can leave both versions of fuel tanks as a choice 

 

Awesome work. Thank you.

[Texac]

5 hours ago, fagulha said:

Or you can leave both versions of fuel tanks as a choice 

 

Awesome work. Thank you.

I would assume you already downloaded the weathered version so you have them available already. 

 

I have included both clean and weathered fuel tank textures now as an option.

 

The files are uploaded and awaiting approval. I will share the Download link here once they are online.

 

Thanks!

[fagulha]

3 hours ago, Texac said:

I would assume you already downloaded the weathered version so you have them available already. 

 

I have included both clean and weathered fuel tank textures now as an option.

 

The files are uploaded and awaiting approval. I will share the Download link here once they are online.

 

Thanks!

Thank you very much for your work! Awesome job.

Yes, i have the weathered version already  

 

Keep up!

F.

[Texac]

The clean skin is now available!

 

Download

 

 

[extender72]

Great job, thank you! 

[DonJosh]

hey tex,

 

you forgot the bort numbers on the nose.

[Texac]

14 hours ago, DonJosh said:

hey tex,

 

you forgot the bort numbers on the nose.

Didn't we cover this on the first page?

 

I haven't noticed that this problem is resolved by ED. If it is I will update my skins of course. 

[DonJosh]

2 hours ago, Texac said:

Didn't we cover this on the first page?

 

I haven't noticed that this problem is resolved by ED. If it is I will update my skins of course. 

i totally forget about it you are right

[Twist28712]

First, I like your work here.  Very nice.  I wanted to know if you would be willing to make a variant of this with an older Spangdahlem flash.  I've been looking for 91-0339 from it's days in the 22nd FS at Spangdahlem when it was the Stinger flagship like here: https://imgur.com/a/BqYEZ0C

 

I used to be stationed there, worked on these 16s, including the real version of 91-0340 you made in your pictures (I might have worked on 418 once or twice, that was a 23rd jet, sometimes we combined for deployments)

Edited May 4, 2021 by Twist28712

[Texac]

On 5/4/2021 at 11:14 PM, Twist28712 said:

First, I like your work here.  Very nice.  I wanted to know if you would be willing to make a variant of this with an older Spangdahlem flash.  I've been looking for 91-0339 from it's days in the 22nd FS at Spangdahlem when it was the Stinger flagship like here: https://imgur.com/a/BqYEZ0C

 

I used to be stationed there, worked on these 16s, including the real version of 91-0340 you made in your pictures (I might have worked on 418 once or twice, that was a 23rd jet, sometimes we combined for deployments)

 

Many thanks! Also very interesting! I definitely want to do older Spangdahlem liveries from the Stingers and Fighting Hawks squadrons as well.

 

I will place the 91-0339 on my list. A quick search shows me 90-0829 shares the very same tail art.

 

If you have more images to share feel free to do so if you'd like!

[CarloVecchi]

Great work on your skins!

Any chance for this?

 

96-0080 (cn CC-202) General Dynamics F-16C Fighting Falcon Photo by Matthias Becker | AIRFIGHTERS.COM

[Texac]

5 hours ago, soulfreak said:

Great work on your skins!

Any chance for this?

 

96-0080 (cn CC-202) General Dynamics F-16C Fighting Falcon Photo by Matthias Becker | AIRFIGHTERS.COM

Thank you!

 

I'm planning to do a Have Glass scheme as well, yes.

 

The more interest there is in such skins the more sooner you'll see these from me.

Edited May 7, 2021 by Texac

[Twist28712]

On 5/6/2021 at 12:47 PM, Texac said:

Many thanks! Also very interesting! I definitely want to do older Spangdahlem liveries from the Stingers and Fighting Hawks squadrons as well.

 

I will place the 91-0339 on my list. A quick search shows me 90-0829 shares the very same tail art.

 

If you have more images to share feel free to do so if you'd like!

339 wore the Stinger from around 2000 to late 2002.  She went with us to one of the last ONWs and when we got back, half the squadron went and got new paintjobs.  339 came back without the bee, 829 wore it after that, from like end of 2002 on (not sure if or when 829 lost it, I left Spangdahlem at the end of 2003).  If you were interested in doing others, when 339 was the 22nd flagship, 91-0352 was the 52nd FW flagship (same thing, when they got painted after ONW, 352 lost the job to a 23rd jet 96-0082, they traded back and forth over the years).  I don't know what years she wore it, but 96-0080 was the Hawks flagship for a long bit.

 

Just interesting history on 91-0339, when the 22nd and 23rd merged back into the 480th, they gave away a bunch of jets to the 148th Minnesota ANG.  339 was one of them.  In 2018, while deployed, a sandstorm knocked a sunshade down on top of 339 (and like 5 other jets) severely damaging the aircraft.  After extensive work, 3 of the aircraft were rebuilt and 3 others were scrapped.  339 was the last one rebuilt, and she returned to service in January of this year.

[Texac]

@Twist28712 

Small detail, but 339 doesn't have the black sealant or transparency on the canopy mounted, even still today, while pretty much all other F-16C's have it.

I'm curious for what exact reason?

 

I made some progress on 91-0339, The Big 22. Its tail art is pretty much finished on both sides.

 

 

Edited May 10, 2021 by Texac

[extender72]

Very nice 

[Twist28712]

13 hours ago, Texac said:

Small detail, but 339 doesn't have the black sealant or transparency on the canopy mounted, even still today, while pretty much all other F-16C's have it.

I'm curious for what exact reason?

If you mean the black sealant or whatever around all the canopy glass, none were black when I was in, I figured that was newish paint style and all canopies were that greenish-yellow color when I was around.  Looks like she got updated when she was rebuilt, here's a picture of 339 with the 148th in December 2020.  I was Avionics (AFSC 2A352), when I last saw 339 she still had a GAC (General Avionics Computer) that was to be replaced, in the CCIP modification, by the MMC.  A lot has changed since then, I don't know how long ago they started doing that to 16s.  After Spang, I went to the 339th at Mountain Home (another squadron of 16s that no longer exists, they're F-15s now) and those were the same way (only post-CCIP, I got to play with the MMC and color MFDs on them)

 

It could be as simple as some higher up thought it looked cool the way it always was and they didn't want it changed.  You may laugh at that, but we once had to fight hard against a Lt. Col. that wanted us to swap nose radomes between two aircraft because the paint schemes would match better (light grey cone on a darker grey jet and a dark grey cone on a lighter grey jet, he wanted dark on dark and light on light).  We lost that fight, swapped radomes, took 9 people an entire day to get them switched then a couple hours on the next shift doing all the ops checks.

 

I'm liking that tail, looks awesome!

[Texac]

@extender72 Many thanks!

 

I didn't thought there would be such debates about certain parts of the aircraft because they are colored differently.

That's interesting because when I look at other aircraft, with special anniversary paint schemes, they get their control surfaces replaced with unpainted, factory new or gray colored parts which won't fit to the original paint scheme at all. 

But that's cool to know, I support the Lt. Col. interest in paint schemes but even to me that change seems unnecessary.

I do like the canopy frame without the black sealant as well. It looks more clean and polished in a way.

 

I have done some more work on 339 and finished every texture except the wings. I also still need to change the canopy material. 

So far, I couldn't find images showing the sides well lit. I believe there are no squadron and fighter wing emblem markings on the side of the air intakes since it's an older paint scheme, right?

 

I added more detail like holes and rivets to the AOA, ADP and pitot tubes. The nose cone got some more detail with weathering and reworked lightning stripes. And many other small things all over the aircraft. Adding details takes a bit of time since I want to include these for all aircraft so I make sure it's all perfect. 

 

Some screens. For fun purposes I photoshopped the IFF antennas out.

 

[Texac]

I'm close to finish The Big 22. I added plenty of details all around with normal textures and the gold/orange tinted canopy glass.

 

Click on the "Reveal hidden contents" tab to open up the preview images of all the details.

 

Spoiler

 

A sort of sealant applied to the mountings for the HTS and TGP, station 5L and 5R. I tried to smoothen the edges of the position lights by applying something similar. Note the crew lettering on the landing gear door.

 

 

Scratches on the metal plate of the AAR door, with a light normal effect.

 

 

The AAR light.

 

 

Also on the previous liveries, I added the tail or formation lights. I also fixed an AO channel issue with that vent on the tail.

 

 

The right side view for the TGP mounting. I also changed the engine air intake edge to be more accurate.

 

 

I added some texture in form of normals and dirt to the Static Discharger mountings for the wings, rudder and horizontal stabilizers.

 

 

The reworked lightning protector stripes with more texture to it.

 

 

Some detail for the canopy frame.

 

 

In case you didn't know it, just like for the other Spangdahlem liveries, I also added better textures for the internals of the refueling door.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 16, 2021 by Texac

[extender72]

Amazing, great job!