A Lockheed "Rounder"

[Terry]

Not to be confused with Taco Air, an even more obscure cargo line founded by Taco Bell to haul ingredients to their restaurants.

Right, they are hauling gatos to the stores.

 

[Willy]

As far as Airtaco goes, Moses found this

http://www.filmarkivet.se/sv/Film/?movieid=172

I got about 3 dozen good screen captures out of it to use as references. For a painter, this was pure gold.

BOAC is in the paint booth at the moment. It shouldn't be there long as once I got the logo done, there really isn't much paint to sling at it.

 

[srgalahad]

Manuele, I really like your Penn RR liveries!

But they may not be as completely fictional as you think. I can't verify it, but I believe that Penn Central Airlines was started by the Penn Central Railroad, which I think is the same company that was also called simply the Pennsylvania Railroad, back in the 1930s. Their early, overall maroon/red livery is one of the alternate decal options in the old Williams Brothers 1/72 scale Boeing 247 plastic kit.

Their livery might very well have evolved into something like what you painted; it has a very late-40s/early-50s look about it. And if they'd stayed in business independently instead of merging into what became Capital Airlines, they might have flown Lodestars that looked a lot like your skins.

So you skins are fictional, but they have a suggestion of reality about them.

As far as I can find, there is no actual connection between the Pennsy RR and the PCA although that was an era of back-room deals...
"Clifford A. Ball, a McKeesport, Pennsylvania, automobile dealer and owner of a controlling interest in Bettis Field near Pittsburgh, won airmail contract route No. 11 on March 27, 1926. In April of the following year, The Clifford Ball Airline began operating between Pittsburgh and Cleveland, Ohio. Famed humorist and performer Will Rogers was known to be an early and regular passenger,[SUP][2][/SUP] but scheduled passenger service did not begin until April 28, 1928. The following August, they became the first airline to serve Washington, DC, from the west, offering their flagship "Path of the Eagle" service from Cleveland to Hoover Field across the Potomac River.[SUP][citation needed][/SUP]

Ball sold his interests in November 1930 to Pittsburgh Aviation Industries Corp., and the airline became Pennsylvania Air Lines (PAL). PAL was reorganized as Pennsylvania Airlines after the Air Mail scandal of the early 1930s. Central Airlines, otherwise notable for hiring Helen Richey, the first female commercial pilot in the U.S., became PAL's main competitor after their founding in 1934. The two companies merged to form Pennsylvania Central Airlines, or PCA, on November 1, 1936"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_Airlines

Penn Central schedules:http://timetableimages.com/ttimages/ca2.htm
Pennsylvania Airlines: http://timetableimages.com/ttimages/pal.htm

The logo similarity is just a typical Pennsylvania 'thing' as the state has been known as The Keystone State since 1802.

Another 'naming' confusion comes with the "Seaboard Air Line Railroad". "The Seaboard Air Line Railroad became one of the most progressive railroads in the country just before and during World War II. While the name 'Air Line' referred to the many stretches of tangent or straight track in parts of the Carolinas and in Florida, including the longest straight track in the United States between Wilmington and Hamlet, North Carolina, more than half of it's Richmond, Virginia to Miami main line ran through the rough piedmont hills of Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina."
http://webpages.charter.net/suzuya/Seaboard.html

... so no connection to the air carrier.

Now their "Orange Blossom Special" scheme would be a great choice for a Lockheed paint...
http://streamlinermemories.info/?p=2372
http://www.getcruising.com/rails/seaboard-air-line.html

Manuele,
here's a link to Great Northern color chips
http://www.gnrhs.org/rs28_page_8.htm
and to the Empire Builder history: http://www.gnrhs.org/75th_anniversary.htm
including links to images

 

[huub vink]

.... During the SM.79CS's intervals !!!

 

[lemonadedrinker]

Hi,
@ Michael really,
Bearing in mind I am a newbie at this ! Others like Willy and David Staff (djs) have offered much more valid advice which should be sought out.
Anyway 1. open DXTBmp and find the Texture set you want to change.
using Send To Editor for each image you want to change..aircraft, wings, parts,.... it will open in Paint, if that's your default....
resize it and and click save as a BMP to a new folder, called ''AirTaxi etc'' which you make to keep these.... ****Paint will call it 'norm' but you will rename it,before closing Paint to the title it has in DXTBmp like fuserear_t etc*****...you do this to all the ones that need changing.

Now you have a folder of your textures for that aircraft and what you do now is, using DXTBmp again find that folder ''AirTaxi etc'', open it and open each texture again saving each as 'Extended Bitmap 888 etc'.... then, by taking the Texture.Metal folder and copying it and renaming it as 'United' etc paste in your new textures which should overwrite the existing and may generate the aircraft for you.
I hope that is roughly how it's done.

Andy.

 

[Mick]

As far as I can find, there is no actual connection between the Pennsy RR and the PCA ...

Ah, yes - about the logos. It never dawned on me that companies with the word Pennsylvania in their names probably all have a logo that's either shaped like that or includes that shape in it somewhere. That kind of slipped by me, especially since it was something of a fad among railroads and steamship companies to get into the air transport market, so I saw the logo and suspected a connection. An that explains why I didn't find any confirmation of the link - there isn't any.

 

[michaelvader]

A Lockheed "Rounder" United Airlines textures

Hallo Friends,
@lemonadedrinker,

thank you for your answer lemonadedrinker,
I yet converted a lot of FSX textures to be used 9n FS9, especially for Manfred Jahn's C-47.
Normally I use for this FSRepaint. What I'm confused is that the texture for this plane has been entitled to be for FSX AND
FS9. When I unzipped it I saw that it not really for the good old FS9.
I made a copy and saved them in an special folder as the original seems to be protected and read only.
So I tried as usual to convert the textures to bmp - allright no problem.
I resized them - no problem
And I flipped them - no problem.
In FSR all seemed to be allright and than on the sim - plof! grey no textures.

So I think than when a release is entitled to be for FS9 it should be and it would be nice to say if other work must be done.

For the moment all my time goes into the F7F 2d panels. So I really will be happy if there will be a release of this nice textures I would not have to rework.

Yours
Papi

 

[Mick]

OK, as long as we're getting into fictional liveries, here's the one I suggested to myself in that earlier post.

New England & Western Air Transport was owned by the Tait Brothers, owners of the Tait Creamery, who also owned Springfield (Mass.) Airport and brought the Granville Brothers to Springfield to build the Gee Bee airplanes. The line served Boston, Springfield, Albany, Hartford and New York City for a few years before it folded in the very early 1930s, a casualty of the Great Depression. It's only equipment was the Ford Trimotor, but had the airline lived longer and prospered it might have flown the Lodestar in the years before and after World War Two.

The Tait Brothers were prominent in Springfield, Mass. during the Golden Age. They were local dairy and ice cream magnates, owned the airport, and, for a while, an airline, they were primary stockholders in Granville Brothers Aircraft and principals in the Springfield Air Racing Association. Tait daughter Maude campaigned Gee Bee Sportsters and her Senior Sportster on the air race circuit with great success.

The livery is adapted from that of NEWAT's Ford Trimotors and isn't very colorful, to say the least. Colorless and boring, to be honest. Minimalist, perhaps, to be kind. But if you like plain, shiny silver airplanes you might like it. Folks from western Massachusetts might like it for its historical connection, but I don't know if we have anyone else who posts in this forum who's from here in the Pioneer Valley or anywhere nearby.

I like it because I grew up within easy walking distance of Springfield Airport and have a dim recollection of it before it turned into Springfield Plaza (itself of historical interest as the first suburban shopping center built around a big parking lot, a model for thousands more that would come to blot our landscapes in subsequent years.) Springfield Airport as built by David and I are among my favorite places to fly in Golden Wings and FS1954, and I will fly the Lodestar from there in this livery.

 

[Mick]

Hallo Friends,
@lemonadedrinker,

... In FSR all seemed to be allright and than on the sim - plof! grey no textures...

Did you convert them to a format that FS9 can read? FS9 can read 256-color and 32-bit bitmaps, but not 24-bit, which is the Windows standard format. Did you save them in 24-bit by mistake?

 

[mvg3d]

Hallo Friends,
@lemonadedrinker,

thank you for your answer lemonadedrinker,
I yet converted a lot of FSX textures to be used 9n FS9, especially for Manfred Jahn's C-47.
Normally I use for this FSRepaint. What I'm confused is that the texture for this plane has been entitled to be for FSX AND
FS9. When I unzipped it I saw that it not really for the good old FS9.
I made a copy and saved them in an special folder as the original seems to be protected and read only.
So I tried as usual to convert the textures to bmp - allright no problem.
I resized them - no problem
And I flipped them - no problem.
In FSR all seemed to be allright and than on the sim - plof! grey no textures.

So I think than when a release is entitled to be for FS9 it should be and it would be nice to say if other work must be done.

For the moment all my time goes into the F7F 2d panels. So I really will be happy if there will be a release of this nice textures I would not have to rework.

Yours
Papi

Hi Papi,
I suppose I can help you describing the process I'm using for txt conversion, I don't know if exists an easier method, but mine works.
I start to paint in Photoshop on a 2048x2048 psd (adding the Alpha channel if necessary) like the Rachael's PK, when done I "flatten" the psd saving it as 32bit bmp, for use in FSX I simply convert it into dds (DTX5) with the last edition of "Imagetool" (the basic MS converter included in FSX) with the PCT option to 100% (this system reduce the quality lost), the program automatically flips the bmp and the work is done. For FS9 the work is easy : the 2048x2048 32bit bmp needs only to be reduced to 1024x1024 32bit, usually I convert my bmps in DTX3 format (always with "Imagetool" with the PCT option to 100%), an user with a powerful PC and a good graphic card may bypass this conversion. However I included in my FS9 release (different from FSX one) also the textures in DTX3 format.

 

[michaelvader]

A Lockheed "Rounder" United Airlines texture

Hallo Mick,
I converted them with DXT1 as I did with the other textures for the other textures before.
I did all as so many times before.
I delated this textures and the entry in the aircraft as really I was a bit un happy to spend time on it between my other work
I'm working on for the moment.
Perhaps one day I will spend against time on it when all my panels for the F7F will be done
Thank you to answer me and to want to help me.
But F7F has priority for the moment.
Every time I look on all the docs you and Milton sended me I discover new details, LOL.
Yours
Papi

 

[mvg3d]

Did you convert them to a format that FS9 can read? FS9 can read 256-color and 32-bit bitmaps, but not 24-bit, which is the Windows standard format. Did you save them in 24-bit by mistake?

Hi Mick,
FS9 can read without problem 24-bit bitmaps only if converted in DXT3 format, since I started to use the last version of "Imagetool" with the PCT option I normally convert all my txts with NO quality loss. I normally use them in my planes when an Alpha channel isn't necessary (normally in camouflaged a/c with non reflective surfaces).

 

[lemonadedrinker]

Hi,
@ papi
Why I thought you might need help I have no idea but it's sorted anyway now!
and in general...
I also had the grey airplane, but by re-saving them with DXTBmp and the 888 option they seemed to work OK.
Another question now....
Is there a way to lower the shine of the metal somehow by altering the Alpha channel?

Thanks in advance,

Andy.

 

[mvg3d]

Hi,
@ papi
Why I thought you might need help I have no idea but it's sorted anyway now!
and in general...
I also had the grey airplane, but by re-saving them with DXTBmp and the 888 option they seemed to work OK.
Another question now....
Is there a way to lower the shine of the metal somehow by altering the Alpha channel?

Thanks in advance,

Andy.

Hi Lemonadedrinker,
A darker color in Alpha channel makes the surfaces more reflective, you can reduce the shine making the color lighter, the white color (no color) is good for painted surfaces....

 

[lemonadedrinker]

Hi Manuele,

Is that done by sending it to Paint as you would the other textures?

Andy.

 

[Mick]

Hi Mick,
FS9 can read without problem 24-bit bitmaps only if converted in DXT3 format, since I started to use the last version of "Imagetool" with the PCT option I normally convert all my txts with NO quality loss. I normally use them in my planes when an Alpha channel isn't necessary (normally in camouflaged a/c with non reflective surfaces).

But when they've been converted to DXT3 they aren't 24-bit anymore; they're DXT3.

Nothing makes FS able to read 24-bit files (except in panels); that's why 24-bit files have to be converted into something else that FS can read.

 

[Mick]

Hi Manuele,

Is that done by sending it to Paint as you would the other textures?

Andy.

Yes, send the alpha channel to Paint or whatever other image program you use,via DXTbmp, just like you do with the main texture image.

Paint is fine if the alpha channel is just a simple gray square. Just be sure that you make the identical change in each texture file's alpha channel. The easiest way to do that is to simply copy a bit from the first one, then patch it into each of the others, then make the whole thing that same color.

If the alpha channel has a complex image, you'll find it easier to send it to a photo processing program where you can adjust the whole image with a click to brighten the image by however many clicks you like, or change the exposure to however many clicks of "underexposed," if your program has that function. Just count your clicks so you can make the same edit to each file.

Sometimes I use Sierra Snapshot Express to overexpose the image. If I want finer increments, I adjust brightness and contrast in PSP7, which holds the adjustment settings from one file to the next, a convenient feature.

Remember that the compiled alpha channel is a 256-color image, so you won't get (and don't need) very fine gradations of shade.

Or just change your aplha image to a simple solid-color square that you can work with in Paint - that will look pretty much as good in the sim.

 

[Willy]

BOAC G-AGCN "Lake Victoria" is pretty much done, just have to double check everything and package it up.

Time to do one, I've kept putting off. Alaska Star Airlines. Found some more reference stuff this morning on another that I've been wanting to do. Postwar Canadian Pacific.

After that, it'll probably be Matson and maybe a 1950ish BOAC (a livery I've always thought was one of the best ones around)

 

[Willy]

If the alpha channel has a complex image, you'll find it easier to send it to a photo processing program where you can adjust the whole image with a click to brighten the image by however many clicks you like, or change the exposure to however many clicks of "underexposed," if your program has that function. Just count your clicks so you can make the same edit to each file.

Yes, I use the old Photosuite IV for lightening up an alpha layer. It has a fog effect that does this quite well. I've got PSP X, but it does a lot of stuff that I have no idea on. But I don't see me replacing Photosuite any time soon. It's the best paint program I've found for "blending" something in.

 

[PeteHam]

Hey Willy,

Here's a short flight up the coast from Vancouver Island to Prince Rupert.

Classic Pacific Alaska Airways.

http://www.vanisleva.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=15800

Thanks again for the amazing textures

Pete.