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Warbirdsim's "Mustang Tales" Now Available!

Thank you, Mark! I noticed that about the prop on NZ2413 in at least one photo, though in this photo it shows it having been fitted with the 'square-tip' non-cuffed type as well (at least at one time). This photo appears to have been taken quite late (perhaps 1955?), when the aircraft were prepped for long-term storage maybe. You can see tape around the seams of the rudder, over the holes in the fuselage (flare port and mooring point), and over the light on the wingtip. I ended up changing quite a few items to better match the details in the photo shown here, including brightening the blue in the markings and making the numbers larger, though the more I look at it the more items I can see that I can improve on and will do so before trying to get this one and the others released tomorrow.



 
Maybe for me?

Ok - so I'm going to get this out now: I have never been a P-51 nut. Nothing against the bird - it did its part in WWII, pioneered laminar wing design, oustanding performance, etc. I get that - maybe it's just "Mustang fatigue" - it's been modelled to death in scale models, every second scale RC model seems to be a Mustang - don't know - its just what I feel.

That said, I am in absolute awe of the WBS product quality - the VCs in particular, seem to have a "RealAirSimulations Spitfire" feel to them. But it wasn't until this latest pack, with the coverage given to the navalized concept - that has me wondering. Then there's that DaveQ guy, who had to do a RN FAA Korean War paint (you bugger, you!! :cool:) knowing full well how much I'm craving a Seafire FR.47 .... my resolve is slipping ...

So, my real question boils down to FPS performance - I've seen a couple of reviews of the earlier packs stating that FPS performance was suprisingly light, for all the detail. I have an antique-aged Dell Optiplex E220 @ 240Ghs machine with 3.00 GB of RAM, running Win XP, and an NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT. With my Bojote tweaks, and most sliders at/near their highest levels (except for AI), I get regular 30 FPS on stock FS aircraft. With other addons, at a default or well-designed addon field (that itself causes no extra FPS hit) , I get around the following reductions in FPS from the following sample addons:

RAS Spitfire = 0
Flying Stations Wyvern = - 2
Flying Stations Sea Fury = -5
Flying Stations Buccaneer S.1 = -8 to -10
Razbam T-2 Buckeye = -10+

Maybe that helps convey what I'm working with - so can anyone comment on the FPS issue?

Many thanks - regardless of how I decide - WBS and John have much for which to be very proud to a subject that is not only modelled with the highest degree of fidelity - but clearly with the passion that can only come from a labour of love -a very well deserved kudos :salute:.

cheers,

DL
 
Thank you Delta Lima for your very thoughtful post, and I'm especially humbled by your comments!

For anyone who has "Mustang Tales" it would be great to hear what your experience has been perfomance wise and what your computer specs are. We've always wanted to make sure that our aircraft would perform very well on most systems, though we have pushed this a bit with this final P-51D/F-51D set.

Oh, and Dave, I downloaded your repaints for the Seahorse model as soon as I saw them posted and I'm anxiously looking forward to loading them up as soon as I can!
 
John, you have done an excellent job! You're right, the blue was much lighter.
It is believed that NZ2413 had the cuffed prop for most of its life, before being replaced with the square tip blades late in its life.
One of the RNZAF Mustangs, NZ2423, remains extant in a private collection stored in a barn up the road from my place. It is sitting on its original treaded wheels (tyre treads were small squares) sans wings just outboard of the undercarriage and without its prop but with the Packard Merlin still in place. I understand that both the wings and prop are in storage as well. The canopy is clear and pristine, like new, however the cockpit was gutted of most things I'm told. It last flew in 1957. Onè thing I noticed, is that the tail wheel has sunk deep into the wheel well with just one third of it visible beneath the doors. I wonder if the hydraulics had weakened over time causing the pronounced dip. The fuselage was devoid of roundels but with the serial numbers in place. The vertical stabilizer and rudder were off and in storage as well. In its last several years of life it was used as a target tug with an attachment on one hard point for towing a drogue. I have a colour photo of NZ2423 sitting on the tarmac showing the attachment on the hard point and although the wing covers part of the fuselage underneath the canopy, the photo is looking directly to where the roundel should be and I think it would be safe to say that the roundels had been removed from the fuselage at some stage. The bare metal is quite shiny and clean.
Although I don't fly often in FSX, this looks like a must have!
 
One of the fascinations of working on this project has been the immense amount of research which John and others have done on the Mustang to bring out the incredible amount of detail in both the models and textures, allowing each individual aircraft to come back to life exactly as they once were. But research is never over and Mark and others continue to let us improve the detail again and again. But really sorry; here's a spanner - I have never seen an RAF-based roundel where the blue has a green tint! I use R29 G41 B78 (Dull Roundel Blue) from the Simmers Paintshop UK colour swatch set. It matches most closely the photos I've taken of mainly post-war roundels, admittedly in museums. But the blue is quite flat with no visible trace of a tint and about 60% saturated. And I stress, this is only my best interpretation!! Later, in the 1950's when camouflage was re-instated, both the blue and red became quite a bit lighter.


Delta_Lima - Sorry, couldn't resist it! There's also a Canuke in the paint shop for HMCS Magnificent!:salute: Try the Mustang with Lazarus'/Collin Glendinning's HMS Ocean and find out just what excellent pilots those FR47 guys were!!! Fyi I don't get a FPS hit on my rig which also is going a bit grey...!

DaveQ
 
Thank you Delta Lima for your very thoughtful post, and I'm especially humbled by your comments!

For anyone who has "Mustang Tales" it would be great to hear what your experience has been perfomance wise and what your computer specs are. We've always wanted to make sure that our aircraft would perform very well on most systems, though we have pushed this a bit with this final P-51D/F-51D set.

Oh, and Dave, I downloaded your repaints for the Seahorse model as soon as I saw them posted and I'm anxiously looking forward to loading them up as soon as I can!

John I have installed the repaints for the Seahorse model and have found a small fault with the Nowra repaint. The aircraft has the dark blue fuselage texture but the wings and undercarriage are black. When I checked the folder there is no wings dds file only a Photoshop .bmp file. I have sent Dave an email regarding this and am awaiting a reply.
 
John I have installed the repaints for the Seahorse model and have found a small fault with the Nowra repaint. The aircraft has the dark blue fuselage texture but the wings and undercarriage are black. When I checked the folder there is no wings dds file only a Photoshop .bmp file. I have sent Dave an email regarding this and am awaiting a reply.

Thanks for the heads up Aussieman!!

Sorry folks - dragged the wrong file when making up the parcel!! Will post the file straight away.

DaveQ
 
One of the fascinations of working on this project has been the immense amount of research which John and others have done on the Mustang to bring out the incredible amount of detail in both the models and textures, allowing each individual aircraft to come back to life exactly as they once were. But research is never over and Mark and others continue to let us improve the detail again and again. But really sorry; here's a spanner - I have never seen an RAF-based roundel where the blue has a green tint! I use R29 G41 B78 (Dull Roundel Blue) from the Simmers Paintshop UK colour swatch set. It matches most closely the photos I've taken of mainly post-war roundels, admittedly in museums. But the blue is quite flat with no visible trace of a tint and about 60% saturated. And I stress, this is only my best interpretation!! Later, in the 1950's when camouflage was re-instated, both the blue and red became quite a bit lighter.

Thanks, Dave! It means I need to re-calibrate my monitor (it having reset recently), as the blue doesn't appear to have any green in it on my work monitor (actually a Samsung TV), but looking at it on my phone I can see what you are saying (the red is also a bit off when viewed from on another display).

You know, I was curious about the blue. I saw this and the decal sheet used: http://50.116.98.128/~kmodel/index....64-nz2413-p-51d-mustang-1-32-academy?start=10 And judging by how light the blue is in the B&W photo I posted above, I believed that.

However, I remembered I had a color photo of this aircraft as well, in the book by MMP, and it clearly shows the standard roundel-blue being used (including the checkers), and that it should look more like this: http://rnzaf.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=Modelling&action=display&thread=11914&page=1

(Note too that in the first model, the size of the roundels on the wings is not correct, where as it is in the second model).
 
seahorsez.jpg
 
Wow, DVJ, both screenshots are spectacular! Both beautiful and powerful. I finally got the chance to fly the 'Sea Horse/Sea Mustang' repaints this evening, and I'm incredibly impressed, DaveQ, though I'm not at all surprised! They fit the lines of the Mustang so well, and you've done them so well that you can easily get the feeling that they actually existed.
 
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