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Willy said:
I'm all for red. Red lighting is what the surface Navy uses inside it's ships at night in order to preserve night vision out on the decks.
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I agree... I like the effect the red glow inside the model's cockpit gives to the overall appearance of a plane, at night in the spot view... "menacing". LOL! the red backlit gauges are fine with me too. However, in my collection of real life aircraft trinkets, and whatnot, I have quite the collection of aircraft gauges from planes of the same time period. The gauge faces were indeed painted with radium, and under a black light, still come to life vibrantly in all of their multi-coloured glory after all these years. :mix-smi:


I'm voting for historically correct... whatever the Harpoon had in it's day.

BB686:USA-flag:
 
Milton Shupe said:
Speaking of cockpit lights, anyone know for certain if the gauge lighting was a subdued natural (off white) or red. I know in the Howard 500, we used eyebrow lights and we gave them a kind of golden-tannish hue.

I have not done the night lighting yet as I am waiting to complete the panel setup.
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Based on the PV-1 and PV-2 manuals, lighting was pretty consistent with standard aviation at the time. That meant radium paint on the instruments and encapsulated in the ends of the toggle switches and UV fluorescent lighting, back lit instruments had yet to appear. I expect there would also be spot or flood lights, most likely red in color to preserve night vision, for map reading and such.
 
Here is what the Pilot's Handbook says although it leaves a lot to wonder about.

I see no spots in any of the pictures or drawings. Maybe they were fixed and behind something.

Even the flourescents are not visible.

So, any ideas how this should be done?
 
Has anyone got a more readable version of this from the Pilot's Handbook? Although I figured out many of them, some are just plain unreadable.
 
patful said:
I've always been ignorantly curious about gauge lighting for WWII aircraft. Did they have true lighting or just radium-painted dials?

If voting's involved in the gauge-lighting color, chalk me up as being anti-red. Can't see those things worth a hoot. Guess it's my old eyes.
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Me too - anything away from low-key becomes tiring - I never even turn panel lights on when night-flying.
 
Unfortunately I've never been near or in a Harpoon so I can't tell ya what they had however all the aircraft I have flown at night have had 'red' night lighting..

My 172 had an overhead light that would illuminate the whole panel which I could adjust the intensity of and it also had a 'spot' light on the door post that I could move around for certain area's (or map reading etc). When I re-did the panel, I installed the little corner individual 'post' lights on each instrument when I could..

Never flew in my brothers Mustang at night so I can't tell ya what was in that BUT wasn't the military into 'eyebrow' lighting and 'spot' lights for other areas?? My memory tells me like on T-28's that they either had the full 'eyebrow' lighting or a rectangle sort of spot light (s) mounted underneath the instrument panel 'glare shields' and over the consoles underneath the canopy tracks with a red lens..

Anyways, my personal favorite would be 'eyebrow' or individual 'post' lights, RED, intensity controllable if able!!!

Bill
 
LOL Looks like there is no option available to please the many preferences here. :)

Maybe the best thing to do is "make them readable", then give a tutorial on how to alter lights to make them the way you want. :)
 
I'd like all the instrument lights to be a soft, pretty blue, please...

Just kidding! I'll take em how they're delivered. The ship's looking great, that's all I can say!

- Paul
 
I think I'd vote for the radium idea. I've read a lot of books about early aviation and the term "soft glow" is most often associated with instruments during night flying.
 
pfflyers said:
I think I'd vote for the radium idea. I've read a lot of books about early aviation and the term "soft glow" is most often associated with instruments during night flying.
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I like that idea too, however, I could do that for the gauge markings but I cannot do it for the needles or the switches. The reason is that the backlighting is a static map so anything that moves would move into and out of lighting.
 
Milton Shupe said:
I like that idea too, however, I could do that for the gauge markings but I cannot do it for the needles or the switches. The reason is that the backlighting is a static map so anything that moves would move into and out of lighting.
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I sent an email to a tanker operator of the harpoon I asked her about the panel lights. Should have a reply soon.
 
Milton Shupe said:
I like that idea too, however, I could do that for the gauge markings but I cannot do it for the needles or the switches. The reason is that the backlighting is a static map so anything that moves would move into and out of lighting.
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Not sure how he did it, but the Bull Stearman has the radium types. Three textures with the green glow are set aside for the gauges and needles.

I'm happy with whatever you put out there, Milton. You always manage to give us amazing works of art. Thanks.

Pat
 
patful said:
Not sure how he did it, but the Bull Stearman has the radium types. Three textures with the green glow are set aside for the gauges and needles.

I'm happy with whatever you put out there, Milton. You always manage to give us amazing works of art. Thanks.

Pat
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Is that FS9 or FSX? Is it freeware if FS9?

Gauge needles and switches ... maybe something can be done in the gauge itself for night light. Dunno, I am not a gauge designer. I am trying to cobble together the best I can with the gauges in our inventory. I can change gauge code, no problem; I can assemble panels; I'm just not an xml coder although I understand most of what's going on.
 
tankerguy72 said:
I sent an email to a tanker operator of the harpoon I asked her about the panel lights. Should have a reply soon.
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Thanks TG; greatly appreciated. However, I suspect their units have been somewhat modernized ... however they may know what theoriginal stuff was.
 
Ah yes; I have that awesome aircraft. Just never flown her at night I guess. :)

I looked at how he implemented the gauge needles and switches and the night lighting is done with a night bmp for each gauge and needle to show the green. Simple to do but I'm no texture artist. :)
 
Milton Shupe said:
Ah yes; I have that awesome aircraft. Just never flown her at night I guess. :)

I looked at how he implemented the gauge needles and switches and the night lighting is done with a night bmp for each gauge and needle to show the green. Simple to do but I'm no texture artist. :)
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I wasn't trying to nudge you into doing it, Milton! Was just pointing out that it was possible. Looks like tons of work to get that effect. I'm curious how long it took him to build that aircraft.

Pat
 
patful said:
I wasn't trying to nudge you into doing it, Milton! Was just pointing out that it was possible. Looks like tons of work to get that effect. I'm curious how long it took him to build that aircraft.

Pat
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LOL I know Pat. Not a problem

Over two years to build if I recall correctly.

Tons of work for sure. :) The key is that many of these highly detailed freeware and payware aircraft are small planes with a few gauges. I haven't seen many highly detailed stuff in a 3 or 4 multi-engined aircraft, large populated panels and cockpits, and lots more model. Look around, they are mainly single-engine fighters and GA aircraft. There are good reasons for their approach .... mainly time and simplicity. The work that goes into these smaller aircraft is just as complicated, time consuming, and involved as anything I do, but I don't have to take things to those levels, fortunately.
 
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