For those of you who are "collecting the whole series," here are some notes from the shop while I wipe the Cheetoes uh-I-mean grease off my hands.
The textures I included with each model all have unique folder names, and will work across the entire series. So, for example, here is the PIA livery I included with the Fairchild 71 floatplane on the Fairchild 71 landplane:
And here is the Fairchild factory red-on-white scheme that came with the Fairchild 71 landplane applied to the Fairchild FC-2W2:
The result resembles a Fairchild 51:
The factory blue-on-white went out with the Fairchild 71 floatplane, the factory yellow-on-white will go out with the modernized Fairchild 71. (It will include the nose textures, even though the model itself has the engine hanging out in the open.)
The FC-2W2 textures don't work as well on the Fairchild 71 because the extra pair of windows often get in the way of the writing on the side. If you are adding textures to the floatplane models, you will need to add a file named floats.bmp from one of the existing texture folders to your new folder. The Byrd Stars and Stripes model has an extra texture file for the map named map.bmp; the modernized Fairchild 71 has an extra bitmap file for the naked engine block named "engine block.bmp."
I assume most of you are comfortable with adding textures to an existing model, but if not, let me know either on or off line, and I will walk you through it. Since I am Fairchild crazy, and have tons of them in AI Traffic at this one location, I am thinking of putting all but the above files, "outside_glass.bmp", "dut-hull.bmp", "byrd.bmp" and "byrd wings.bmp." into the general textures folder so it only has to load a single copy of each.
Later this week, I will be releasing an update to the "Early Fairchild Series." It will include the following:
1. A revised Fairchild 71 landplane model. When you apply the PIA livery to the current model, you will notice some distortion of the words near the windows. It will fix that.
2. Two new liveries for the FC-2W2 floatplane. They will have Canadian registeries, for our friends in the frozen north. The livery that went out with the original FC-2W2 floatplane build was really for a Fairchild 71, and went out with it as well; so these two will make up for that.
3. It will add Mick Morrissey's bitmap for the 2-D cockpit that was (finally!) included with the Fairchild 71 floatplane to the remainder of the series. It replaces the greyscale bitmap that was included in the initial releases (no more ice!)
4. It will fix the n-number colors across the entire series. (This was my first model to use the n-number decal, and I did not understand where the color came from, until I FINALLY noticed the atc_id_color field in the aircraft.cfg file.
)
In closing, I was given the honor of test flying Jim Douglass' Cirus Moth last night in FS2002; and realized the differences between his (and others) creations and mine. My Fairchilds remind me of the plastic models I used to build; they came out very nice, but were light in details and more generic than accurate, but could be "kitbashed" to represent all kinds of planes. In contrast, Jim's Cirrus Moth reminds me of a scratchbuilt craftsman model; very fine scale and very accurate. A jewel of a work, as are others. I am glad you are enjoying them, and thank you for your kind words.
-James Hefner
