F-4B Phantom II, VMFA-58 "Wildcards"

A complete rebuild of my "What If..." Phantom skin from 2006.

This is a reskinning and redecaling of the stock, plane-jane F-4B (no year suffix), using Sundowner's templates (what a masterpiece!!!). New serial numbers and all new BuNum decals have been created. BuNums ARE 100% accurate, in that they are for F-4Bs. Since this is a fantasy skin ... they're purly there for looks. Many new decals, for crew names have been created and added to the canopy rails (these are characters and production staff from the Space: Above and Beyond TV show, with a few 'just for funs' thrown in).

What is unusual for me, is the fact that most of the generic national/service markings are painted on, as opposed to my prefrence for decals. This was done to "open up" some meshes for other decals, thereby greating imporving the historical "look", and accuracy (!), of the aircraft.

This skin/decal set is perfectly usable for ANY of the other F-4Bs (F-4B_65 and F-4B_67), and possibly even the F-4J. Renaming of the skin bmps will be required for use on the other aircraft, however, but their mapping is identical (this =HAS= been tested!). See below for more details & instructions.

The skins are 2048x2048, so users with older, slower machines may need to resize them down one step to 1024; expect some detail loss, but they're still quite beautiful, even at the the smaller size.

NOTE: I've supplied 2 different _1.bmps for use. The one being used right now has the ship name "USS SARATOGA"* above the squadron name. If you do not wish to use that, use the 'no-ship-name_F-4B_1.bmp'. Instructions for switching are in the 'To Install' section below.

Included as well are modified data and loadout inis; the data ini has a new landing light added and the canopy activated via a manual animation key. Use Shift/0 to open and close it. The loadout ini removes the non-existant reconpod,from RECON missions, and replaces it with the 600 gallon tank. All other loads remain stock. The landing gear's RollingRadius has also been adjusted, as I've gotten sick and tired of the 'flat tire' look. The numbers I used can also be used on all the other Phantoms. Other improvements are some additional armor over vital internals. No other changes have been made.

* the SARA was the space carrier The Wildcards was assigned to in the TV show; just keeping continuity <grin>

As always, detailed, step-by-step install instruction are in the enclosed Readme. It's required you actually read it ...

Good Hunting and Happy Landings!

Wrench

Kevin Stein