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I worked on the model it's about 95 % completed but do I need to make the attachment extension for the pylon? more texture work

Double Dutch

for you, this is a semi interesting shot on an airfield. for me, it was Wednesday...

F-5E Tiger II, Republic of China, better known as Taiwan.

Cold War Warrior

Hands up who likes skinning ? Ahhhh, lots of you, well define skinning. To me it means creating as accurate a representation of the real thing as possible, colours, lines, rivets, vents etc, etc. But what about all the other bits ? you know, landing gear, wells, interiors of airbrakes & god only knows what else our great model maker has put there for us. But before all that comes the research....countless hours going through books searching the net for actual "in use" photos, even contacting crews that were involved at the time.( btw I've just sold off 145 of my books and deleted nearly 35,000 photos of stuff I'm no longer interested in.) Trust me I DO LOTS of research !! So to me skinning is much more that just replacing a few lines, rivets & some "historically correct " serials or whatever. But what really pisses me off big time is when somebody does that to an already available skin, mod or whatever and then tells you to overwrite the original authors work.....you have no rights to just say "my work is better than yours, so we dont need yours anymore. In my view a separate version should be made available so that the end user can make their own choice of what they like best, I know you can advise folks to backup their originals but some folks just are not clever.....Trust me, I know. The updated ODS30 mod is a perfect example of how to do things, its been created as a standalone mod with all the needed parts included within...... no overwriting of any-one's original work already in the downloads section. Some of you have been asking why I no longer post my work......well, the above has happened to me too often. Even the aircraft I've re-modelled from the old Alpha Sim freeware get a complete rebuild and remapped, I never use ANY of the original textures. Hard fact is unless you've skinned from an all black with green lines texture map showing the locations of the various parts, you are not a true skinner, you cant call enlarging a skin and the retracing all the lines etc for the higher resolution "your work". Your work is when you've had to position those lines and everything else in the first place.....just copying the old stuff is no effort at all AND if the original author got it wrong then so have YOU...no improvement whatsoever....good for the ego but not for the holy grail of accuracy, historical or otherwise. Sooo, what's caused me to say all this stuff? Well basically it's the ODS30 mod that caused me to notice it, I know I've painted a shed load of planes over the years, but I was shocked at how many are still using my original work in places, I know this because I used make custom brushes for "generic" stuff like access panels, hinges weathering & "stuff" shall we say. They are very easy for me to spot. I also painted a lot of aircraft I had no real interest in, so they just got a "something like" skin just so we could get it released. It's amazing how many are still being used. But before you all think I'm pissed off by this, well I can assure you I'm not ! I don't know if to feel flattered that some of this stuff is still passable all these years later or should I feel saddened that nobody has taken the time to cure all the inaccuracy's that I originally produced. The work being turned out by our current full on skinners and model makers is just simply awesome, way better than any of the old stuff. Just look at ravenclaw's weapons, holy moly, they make a lot of the models they are attached to look really poor. ( as a side note for DA, ravenclaw and I have worked together for many years, sharing max files, templates and generally doing everything we can for the good old F-4) There are a lot of models in the download sections that are perfectly good, they just need some nice new clothes.......not a few rivets etc but a total redraw It's all well and good doing "historically correct" (that always makes me laugh) but if the skin itself is not right well what's the point? Happy days.

Can't you ask that same question about all other prototypes/ single use aircraft in the server? The more the better. + I really like the vautour

Somewhere in the South Atlantic

For this one, yes please, so it could be properly loaded under the EA-6B wings (on the stock EA-6B model, the attachment extension is part of the ALQ-99 pod, not part of the pylon, so if we replaced the stock ALQ-99 with your better looking one, we would need the attachment extension): For this one, not necessary, because if I understand correctly, this version is loaded predominantly on the centerline station without attachment extension:

IIIC from the IAC...Flown to the sounds of Big Country.....

It could be done by fake pilot. IIRC one of our argentinian friends made such new noses for some Mirage. Perhaps one of them would fit to the Vautour.

Dambusters Over Dhimar! Well, Paran actually!

exactly what I think too. Not only the F-15s, also the (original TMF) F-16s.

BAC Thunderstrike S.1 - No.100 Squadron, RAF Strike Command, 1970

Which were made from my originals.......lol, it's amazing just how much of this old stuff is being reused over and over. I dont have a problem with it, but it's about time some-one did a "complete" redraw of of all these old birds.

Sud-Ouest Farandole II - EC1/5 Vendée, Armée de l'Air, 1957 When the straight-wing Sud-Ouest Farandole I lost out to the Dassault Ouragan for a production order they quickly schemed an improved swept-wing version known as the Farandole II utilising the same Hispano-Suiza Nene 104B engine. Working at speed the Sud-Ouest team flew the first prototype in October 1950 and the scintillating performance soon attracted the Armee de l'Air who ordered 150 production aircraft almost immediately leading to the cancellation of the Dassault Mystere IIC. Entering service in November 1952 the Farandole II was considered to be an interim type but served until 1960 with the Armee de l'Air and until 1974 with the Israeli Air Force who were the only export customer.

Well... I guess I can agree, and maybe say "okay" to this. I know I did the Super Hornet PSDs (even had to update them recently), but it's there for other users to make, and I encourage (though not well) because I don't want to do every freaking skin for the plane by myself. That's what the templates are for, for other people to create their own skins, and maybe make me look like I need to improve, which I'm not sure if I have to or not. But it's a flattering thing to see your work though being used and people liking it.

What about the new Sukhoi series? Another 2 weeks*? (*) Five years

I just want to drop a little thanks to all the mod makers here at CA. The last 2 weeks have seen a plethora (sp?) of new or imporved mods for the game. Been a long time since we've had so many 'all at once'. This will end the year on a high note for the community, even given what hells are happening around the world. Keep up the good work, everyone. Keep the faith Thanks Again!

the original work is quite good as the basis. i did the improvements i could. i very much think my bare metal areas are better esp on that wierdly mapped piece on the right side, and ive got the feeling (sure i'll be corrected if wrong) that color picker feature off a photo was used years ago rather than hunting down the hex or RGB values for the listed Federal Standard paint numbers. and "3 rivets and a serial " feels kind of personal. i do 4 rivets and historically accurate serials in all seriousness, my main thing bringing to the table is the research. all the really good modders here spend dozens if not hundreds of hours on their projects. i just spend alot of my time hunting down the serials that were assigned or the proper unit markings rather than a "such and such Fighter Squadron" back in the Tactical Fighter Squadron era. theres a chunk of it in the old ODS and its been a big part of why i do my mods the way i do do i use the same templates as before? yes. why not if its out there. do i copy and paste from joe baughers site? no, because often its not the right info. thats just my little quirk (for the most part) problem there is that the old stuff is still quite good. there are few current modelers on BPAOs level or skinners on ravenclaw007s level. the ones that are active dont feel the need to reinvent that wheel at this time, they have their own wheels they're inventing. my biggest pet peeve is all the stuff that was done in 2006-2009, is in the markings of either that time or the 1970s, and with a grab bag of 100 serials for a unit of 24. maybe the reference materials are better in the last decade than when these were all made. maybe i have more time on my hands than they did. but theres alot of good work out there with minor flaws that scream to those that do pay attention to those details. call it number counting rather than rivet counting.

I think we'll be the last ones joining the party cause we have a serious delay caused by issues in real world, but we're getting there...:)

F-2GN Super Fury, Bundesmarine, West German Navy, 1982

uh huh. as the song book says, FLY NAVY! But not at night.......

Somewhere in this murk at about 2 miles, is a boat waiting for me. Pucker Factor of about 83 on this landing... Not even close..... Go Around time.

Master Mue, could you please .... Do exporter for Blender 4 ??? Times are changing. The new Blender has a lot of features that you won't find in the old versions and it doesn't even make sense to compare it with Max 2009. It is a very modern 3d creator. I do not desire miracles. Let this exporter work like the one for 2.79, but save us from transferring files to older version of Blender .... Please, we beg ... .

Chrome

A splash of color out in the Med.

late to the party, but still made it

Blue Sky Thinking

This is good for me too as I can never remember! Keep in mind it is very difficult to keep formation this way as the AI seems to transit fly as if they are all inlines...

And more will come in two weeks

European Air War is a classic flight simulation game that immerses players in historic aerial combat during World War II. With authentic aircraft and realistic missions, it offers an exhilarating experience. Engage in dogfights, strategic bombing, and air superiority missions as you navigate the skies in this iconic and timeless air combat simulator.