WIP Naval F-4s

[+daddyairplanes 10,248]

figured i would show some of the progress on my Navy Phantom project. based on stock TW bird but with new skin and reworked decals. doin Atlantic Fleet first, then will do Pacific later on. new decals for all stock squadrons, based on year. also makin a little accurate but within the confines of how i'm doing this it will be "historical lite"! much thanks so far to mppd, blade and storm for the help they have been givin me.

VF41 circa 65-66

 

Red Rippers circa 65, need to change tail though

 

VF31. the only on skin markings are the warning markings on the nose and the new walkway. with a little tweekin darker walkways will be added on as tga to those squadrons that actually had them.

 

have a functional tga to cover the radome. looks great on J model and is decent here except for the IR fairing. note in last two pics that the windscreen frame is gray as in RL, the anti glare is tga along with the markings on the air scoops (all part of the radome tga.)

 

if any one has ideas on the meshname for the housing i would appreciate it. Blade already suggested rwr_nose like on the D but no joy. will post more later but it took me around 35 mins to upload these the connection is so slow here. also looking forward to a care package from the wife with a few more reference materials for the 60's era and N's in the 70's.

[+daddyairplanes 10,248]

another thing i noticed, if you keep the tga names similar to stock in your decal.ini but do not have it in the folder the game seems to pull it from stock. in the last shot i have not worked on VF33 Tarsiers tail yet nor gotten as far as i would like on Buno's (damn RL) yet the game is poppin em on there. my fuselage insignia, nationname and squadron name are combined though into one, hence why the sides are empty. not a prob in the end but interesting.

[topcat II 6]

Thank You for your work!!

[Blade 353]

if any one has ideas on the meshname for the housing i would appreciate it. Blade already suggested rwr_nose like on the D but no joy.

 

Just ran a quick test with the F-4B. I successfully put a decal on the undernose fairing by using 'rwr_nose'. Perhaps you could post the decals.ini here, so that we could take a look at it to see if there is something wrong.

 

Bl.

[+daddyairplanes 10,248]

[Decal033]

MeshName=rwr_nose

DecalLevel=0

DecalFacing=RIGHT

FilenameFormat=F-4B\USNGrey1\bln

Position=7.0,0.0

Rotation=0.0

Scale=10.0

DecalMaxLOD=3

 

[Decal034]

MeshName=rwr_nose

DecalLevel=0

DecalFacing=LEFT

FilenameFormat=F-4B\USNGrey1\bln

Position=7.0,0.0

Rotation=0.0

Scale=10.0

DecalMaxLOD=3

Reverse=TRUE

 

decal pretty much covers from tip of radome to eventually the canopy rails. the tip of the fairing in the last shot is added to the skin itself. curious what level do you have yours on?

Edited February 6, 2012 by daddyairplanes

[Blade 353]

Now I’m getting puzzled. The entries you posted seem to be OK and I guess that the decal is OK as well (otherwise it wouldn’t appear on the nosecone). If you use these same entries in case of the nosecone, and the decal appears there without any problems, then it must also work in case of the fairing.

 

curious what level do you have yours on?

Do you mean DecalLevel? I already deleted the entries, but all I did was creating a simple green tga, then copied and renumbered one of the fuselage insignia entries in the decals.ini, modified the ‘MeshName=’ and ‘FilenameFormat=’ lines and increased the scale, so I guess the DecalLevel was 0. What is the level you use in case of the nosecone?

[mppd 16]

A very good start. I'm already thinking how to convert the skins and decals to work with the 1st gen version...I also have found that some weapon .LODs will not be used - the sim reverts to the default version if it has the same name. I always change the .LOD part name now.

[Blade 353]

A very good start. I'm already thinking how to convert the skins and decals to work with the 1st gen version...

At least you don't have to worry about the nose fairing issue, because, as far as I can remember, the undernose fairing on the 1st gen Phantoms is not a separate mesh.

 

I also have found that some weapon .LODs will not be used - the sim reverts to the default version if it has the same name. I always change the .LOD part name now.

I also ran into this problem while creating repainted versions of the stock F-4 droptanks.

[+daddyairplanes 10,248]

ok i am an idiot. did the orignal placement for the radome decal on the J, then transfered to to B's decal.ini, then added the rwr_nose entry without consulting that the other entries were DecalLevel=1 not 0. bad part of my current shift is i have more time to work from 7am to 9-10 am, but the mind is a little shot while from 7-9 pm i am getting ready for work, eating and trying to get some in game work done. never ini edit when tired people!

 

again thank you very much Blade. i think this will take the skins from multple skins for the different nose styles to one skin, one tga per squadron. or no tga for standard white noses( i believe the color looks better for the black radome as a decal)

[Blade 353]

Glad to read that you managed to solve it.