DA's TOTALLY TERRIFIC THREAD OF STICKERIFFIC IMPROVEMENTIFICATIONS. and stuff

[+daddyairplanes 8,744]

i havent checked the A or R but yes, the E goes into a deep stall  if it manuevers too agressively  and AI just doesnt recover. player flying i have to drop flaps to landing and firewall it to hope to recover.

and yes, this photo was about 300 ft to impact. three three shots at having her as a wingman to a Viper. given the mentioned problems it didnt work well so i said fu..... it and snapped that shot.

[+daddyairplanes 8,744]

California Dreamin....

I'll get to The Other Woman tomorrow...

[+daddyairplanes 8,744]

a note to the skinners out there veteran or aspiring

im aiming to standardize the decals for all marking possibilties, so that provisional wings can be built up

unlike fighter squadrons, tankers didnt generally deploy as one whole unit. rather units would contribute aircraft and Airmen to a provisional unit. say 3 or 8 per

my goal is to have others be able to create provisional units by pulling the tga out of the folders, renaming then sticking in the new folder with zero ini dancing.

hopefully i remember to whip up a video while i do ODS (sorry that will be for ODS team only to replace the old skins).

the idea is easy. the execution isnt too hard....... so long as you pay attention to what you do

[+Coupi 4,279]

Hello DA, 

If you are interested for skinning this later... 

I took these photos in 1994 at the Mérignac Air Base BA106 near Bordeaux city.

This was the KC-135R #23577 named "Loaded Dice".

Best regards,

P. 

[+daddyairplanes 8,744]

AWESOME!!!!

while im not going as in depth with the R as i will with the E, the 100th in the early 90s is one of my planned upcoming projects. between being the only old school tail (Square D)  to being one of the few tanker units even outside of AMC to have nose art at teh time (heritage nose arts from WW2 didnt hurt their cause) and finally local presence during the Yugo tours of the 90s theyve been high on the list for a bit now

since the models are so similar, the decal placement, template and majority skin work translates between the three well. only the engines will need major rework on the A and R and everything else will be dialled in.....

[+daddyairplanes 8,744]

tightened up decal inis (made them all the same after little change here and there and bunches of unneeded entries)

now working on skins, then just have a few (under 30) tga corrections and additions to make

took a look at the newest work versus the older version. i'll let you all guess which is which

 

[+daddyairplanes 8,744]

been a slow week for progress on...... mcuh of anything

trying to wrap a portion of this that i promised someone.  then final tweeks to the Jersey boys (and Chicago too) and this one might be ready

and no, im probably not adding mission markings. the way its set up to get it all in, even the desert storm marking is really small (white thing below the unit patch)

[+daddyairplanes 8,744]

gotta quit monkeying around

gotta be done in time for football ya know. who brought the cheese fries?

[+daddyairplanes 8,744]

so i was trying to decide what unit/noseart to add for the loading screen on the E(82). then i discovered that this gem lasted exactly two days. the artist (who is also the author of the Painted Ladies books) went in and did it on a saturday. it went to the paint shop to be stripped and painted AMC grey on Monday, making it the "shortest lived nose art in the Air Force".

and so a finalist for (82) was selected.

(92) already has been picked since near the start of this project

 

[+daddyairplanes 8,744]

the E models are just about ready for the general public, im literally waiting to hear back from an Air National Guard Wing about their history. a standard nose art across their fleet, and i have 4 made, with 2 more known to exist but not what they are. if no word by next weekend then out of the paint barn they come

meanwhile, after some RL business, modding goes on.  the R needs some love too, although its not getting as much as the E did

APU fixes

original

new

[+daddyairplanes 8,744]

oh yeah some engine work too

[+daddyairplanes 8,744]

everythings going nice and smooth, then you get one part that wants to get difficult.......

and the outboard looks to be just different enough to cause a headache too.  well at least when R_003 is done _004 will be a copy/paste job.....

[+daddyairplanes 8,744]

almost.....

[+daddyairplanes 8,744]

meanwhile, this one is up and waiting approval....

 

[+daddyairplanes 8,744]

why is it soooo hard to get decent info on tankers from 1992 to 1995?  took about 3 hours to find the boss bird from 92, and you'd think that would be heavily documented

[+Nightshade/PR 6,917]

That's a nice looking bird.

[+daddyairplanes 8,744]

14 hours ago, Nightshade/PR said:

That's a nice looking bird.

 

well thank you

funny thing bout that pic.  i forgot about the 3 decal per mesh rule. yeah, me the freakin decal whisperer . had the tail fin, the tail code, tail number  and special tail nums (as seen above) for left and right. the regular tail num was just one decal.

started getting mad when the "22 ARS" was showing on the right side.  played with naming. played with the decal ini. finally pull up my hand and count them out. naming off each decal

regular numbers, one two three

boss bird. one two three.... four. dammit

had to redo the tail stripe tga to include the MO code we're all better now

Edited October 14, 2023 by daddyairplanes

[+daddyairplanes 8,744]

FB can be hit or miss for info and assistance with this little hobby.

but when its a hit, its a solid hit. like someone having a plaque featuring all 7 nose arts on the 22d ARS's tankers in 1997

then when one guys was clipped on teh right side, causing issue with finishing the last one, another guy is able to provide different pic of same plaque.

and the problem child

 

[+daddyairplanes 8,744]

this one is being a straight up muder mystery/1000 piece puzzle

esp the wings, as i still havent found any top views

also, anyone know if the MPRS is available in another mod? i could have sworn i saw someone add it but now cant remember where

 

[+daddyairplanes 8,744]

the last part of my (public) R journey

then it will be back to Idaho......

Edited October 20, 2023 by daddyairplanes

[+Jimbib 688]

Indeed, the upper wing surfaces of Metrea's N572MA seem to be quite elusive. In the absence of a better view, here are a few shots that may help in the meantime:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/139215327@N04/53055913768/sizes/6k/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/139215327@N04/53113972056/sizes/5k/

https://www.wiltshiretimes.co.uk/resources/images/17005870/

If you go to google earth and check out the civilian cargo ramp at the south end of March AFB you'll find N572MA parked up on the most recent image of the history feature. I've boosted the curves in PS a bit to help the pattern stand out:

Also, this link has FS codes for the Aegean Ghost colour scheme to help you dial in the paint job:

http://davecoleysemporium.co.uk/contents/en-uk/p11143_Arcus-enamels-7001-_HAF-Aegean-Ghosts_--Paint-set.html

[+daddyairplanes 8,744]

your sir are a damn steely eyed missile man!

i also had been basing off of Metrea Simulations pics of their virtual plane (via artstation); thats proven not to be too accurate oddly enough https://www.artstation.com/artwork/zDgdG6  photos for the sides have been good though

im pretty comfortable with the colors as they are now, and have to make some adjustment due to model (like both side airbrakes being mapped to the same spot) but overall this is way more than what ive had so far

just the blurry pic alone should get it dialed in abit more. once im done with medical emergencies and the 100th ARW in 1998..........

 

[+daddyairplanes 8,744]

gettin back on track at Mildenhall....

[+daddyairplanes 8,744]

10 of 15 done, churnin through nose arts like a

of course i gotta ask if youre

[simonmiller416 1,158]

Gosh, I'd say you're really good at working with chrome surfaces (the reflective area in front of the engine, I don't know if that's the right thing to say)

I've tried to do the same thing on an E-7, but look bad.

Great work!