Still Spilling Paint

[Milton Shupe]

Hello Gents ;-)

I really do apologize for all the anguish I have caused painters with the Howard 500. I was early in my modeling/mapping career in 2003-4 and I was trying to map to photo-real textures at the time. That is why there are so many anomalies.

So, the model really is 14-15 years old.

Here is one of the original screen shots of the cargo paint in July 2004.

BTW, here are the textures I run, many from Damian "windrunner" Radice.

 

[Willy]

Milton, no anguish here from your work. It's the Alan Richards/FSNorthwest FSX native one that's been giving me fits. I still have no idea why the cowling bezel will only show bare metal and not a painted surface. I even tried it without using shared textures and still showing a bare metal bezel. Like they say, it is what it is and other than the challenge of figuring out how to make it work, I'd have binned it already.

Damian did some outstanding work on his Howard 500 paints. I've got a bunch of them including a couple that he never released. I think I've got probably around 40 paints for the Howard stashed. Com-Central did a pack of about 34 that they put together, then there's a few others like the SOH-RTW "chase plane".

 

[TuFun]

It was the best model of it's time Milton and Damian's photo real repaints were the best... still is today! It's a classic!!! I've enjoyed the Howard for 14 years minus this year since no flying.

 

[Milton Shupe]

Milton, no anguish here from your work. It's the Alan Richards/FSNorthwest FSX native one that's been giving me fits. I still have no idea why the cowling bezel will only show bare metal and not a painted surface. I even tried it without using shared textures and still showing a bare metal bezel. Like they say, it is what it is and other than the challenge of figuring out how to make it work, I'd have binned it already.

Damian did some outstanding work on his Howard 500 paints. I've got a bunch of them including a couple that he never released. I think I've got probably around 40 paints for the Howard stashed. Com-Central did a pack of about 34 that they put together, then there's a few others like the SOH-RTW "chase plane".

Regarding the bezel statement, my AR version shows an extra folder in his original texture folder named Chrome. It has a couple of variants of chrome_t_dds and a bump map.
You may recall that the I used bezel.bmp for that cowl ring/bezel.
Looks like he remapped it to use chrome.dds ... just a guess.

 

[Milton Shupe]

It was the best model of it's time Milton and Damian's photo real repaints were the best... still is today! It's a classic!!! I've enjoyed the Howard for 14 years minus this year since no flying.

Thank you TF.

Actually, Joáo Paz did the original Howard 500 green/yellow/white textures using RW photos the pilot, David Cummings, took and sent to us. JP did a fantastic job with that. Damian and I hooked up later after I recognized all his beautiful repaints on this and other projects of ours.

 

[Willy]

Regarding the bezel statement, my AR version shows an extra folder in his original texture folder named Chrome. It has a couple of variants of chrome_t_dds and a bump map.
You may recall that the I used bezel.bmp for that cowl ring/bezel.
Looks like he remapped it to use chrome.dds ... just a guess.

That nakes better sense than some of the theories I was coming up with and is probably what happened. Although I was kind of fond the idea of using chicken blood to voo doo it into showing some color.

I'm getting some progress on the htail textures, but I'm sure going to need to tone the alpha down a bit as it's shinier than a lot of chrome at the moment.

 

[TuFun]

Willy if you want to add those nacelle strips, this is the pattern to use... works well for 2k and up.

 

[Willy]

Thanks! That verifies what I was seeing on one of Damian's old paints. I figured I'd give it a shot.

I got a good start on N130P last night. It's the one at Chandler AZ that got caught up in an ownership dispute and while the legal wrangling is going on, it's been heavily vandalized. Fortunately there's a bunch of pics of it before the taggers found it. It's sat out in the desert for a long time now so maybe there's still some good bones there should they ever figure out who actually owns it now and someone would decide to get it airworthy.

 

[delta_lima]

Great news Willy. Looking forward to whatever you paint up for the Howard.

 

[Willy]

I'm starting to see what yall mean about the cowlings, nacelle and the wings. I should be able to get 'em reasonably close.

 

[TuFun]

Took me awhile to figure out the rivets and screws since some had to be shape into footballs. Look at the bezel_t, cowlring_t, and eng_t.
I didn't bother on the lower nacelles due the extreme stretching under the wing.

This one would be a challenge, multi color with thin pin-striping between some of the colors and that tail. This would be a great paint job in 4k!!!

https://books.google.com/books?id=U...ard 500:the airplane turbines killed'&f=false

 

[Willy]

That's serial number 110, N5831Y and the last I heard it was at Lakefront Airport in New Orleans in 2011. It had previously been at the Lone Star Air Museum in Texas. Supposedly it was in New Orleans for Katrina and took a heavy beating. Rumor has it that the it was going to be sold the the guy who has 500HP, 500LN and 137U as a parts plane. The most recent pic I've seen of it was in bare metal and pretty much stripped out. I was figuring on doing it next, but if you want to give it a go, I'll probably be a bit on 130P as I'm using it getting the .pdn files where I want them.

On the 2013 model revision, does anyone know where the rear tip of the fuselage is in the textures? I was checking out my latest changes and discovered that I could easily check the rear tire air pressure. The area circled in red in the pic.

 

[TuFun]

I'll leave all the repaint projects to you. Not able to do any projects until a new computer is built, maybe early next year. No hurry since most of the wip projects I've seen here at SOH takes years to be completed.

 

[Milton Shupe]

That's serial number 110, N5831Y and the last I heard it was at Lakefront Airport in New Orleans in 2011. It had previously been at the Lone Star Air Museum in Texas. Supposedly it was in New Orleans for Katrina and took a heavy beating. Rumor has it that the it was going to be sold the the guy who has 500HP, 500LN and 137U as a parts plane. The most recent pic I've seen of it was in bare metal and pretty much stripped out. I was figuring on doing it next, but if you want to give it a go, I'll probably be a bit on 130P as I'm using it getting the .pdn files where I want them.

On the 2013 model revision, does anyone know where the rear tip of the fuselage is in the textures? I was checking out my latest changes and discovered that I could easily check the rear tire air pressure. The area circled in red in the pic.

Yep, it's a see thru hole.

Bottom center of the htail_t.bmp is where I mapped it but uncertain if that got changed, because I do not know which model you are using. I assume M.A. Richards.

 

[Milton Shupe]

I'll leave all the repaint projects to you. Not able to do any projects until a new computer is built, maybe early next year. No hurry since most of the wip projects I've seen here at SOH takes years to be completed.

LOL For sure; it's not getting any easier, and folks seem to have less patience and tolerance.

 

[Willy]

Thanks Milton!

I decided to quit beating my head against the wall with the Richardson model and am now using two different models in separate folders (for now). A flyable one and another for AI purposes.

On the flyable ones, I'm using the 2013 revision with the htail textures now as at least I can get the engine cowling bezels properly painted with it. So, is there a tail light lens texture that apparently I haven't found yet? But I'm not that stuck on this model if something else comes along that works better for me. I've kind of figured out how to work with the ruddertail textures and while they are kind of limiting in what you can put on the inside surfaces, at least anything I paint there does show up unlike the bezel_t textures on the Richardson model. Besides, who looks that close at the tail anyway? lol

The AI paints that I'm doing are for the original no vc model. I figured that it would be easiest on frame rates and as they're usually viewed from a little distance anyway, the detail isn't so critical, so I can go with smaller texture sizes which also have a lesser impact on frame rates.

I found out that one of the real Howard 500 paint schemes (N500LN's new blue one) is copyrighted by the company that designed it. I've contacted them for permission to repaint the FS Howard 500 in it. We'll see how it turns out, but if the answer is no, then I won't do it. First time I've heard run into that, but when you think about it, it does make sense. They make their living from designing custom paint schemes for aircraft. Much like a payware developer for FS Aircraft makes their money from that. I won't knowingly break anyone's copyright. I didn't like it when mine was pirated either.

 

[TuFun]

Wanted to try that scheme on Tony's Albatross years ago, but same situation. Never did contact them for permission. Also at that time wasn't proficient enough with painting anyways. Would be a tough one to do.

https://www.schemedesigners.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Albatross-N98TP-1.jpg

 

[Milton Shupe]

Thanks Milton!

So, is there a tail light lens texture that apparently I haven't found yet? But I'm not that stuck on this model if something else comes along that works better for me. I've kind of figured out how to work with the ruddertail textures and while they are kind of limiting in what you can put on the inside surfaces, at least anything I paint there does show up unlike the bezel_t textures on the Richardson model. Besides, who looks that close at the tail anyway? lol

The tail light lens texture is glass_t.bmp.

I mentioned above that his model remapped those bezels to chrome_t instead of using the bezel_t (I think).

 

[Willy]

Wanted to try that scheme on Tony's Albatross years ago, but same situation. Never did contact them for permission. Also at that time wasn't proficient enough with painting anyways. Would be a tough one to do.

https://www.schemedesigners.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Albatross-N98TP-1.jpg

Oh yeah, but I figure the hard stuff in life is what we learn from. I like a good challenge just so long as I think I have a chance at overcoming it. Keeps things interesting.

 

[Willy]

The tail light lens texture is glass_t.bmp.

I mentioned above that his model remapped those bezels to chrome_t instead of using the bezel_t (I think).

Thanks again. I was just wondering if I'd missed a texture somewheres. And that's I'm thinking too on his bezels. It makes better sense than anything I'd come up with on it. I like chrome well enough, but sometime you need to just slap some paint there.