FSD freeware T-38A...first skin WIP

norab

I looked at that one....but I can not do it. Too many swoopy, curving lines. I have the worst luck doing curvy, swoopy lines and having them come out looking nice and crisp. Mine always look very jagged, rough and pixelated.

OBIO
 
Made some changes to the last skin I did.....the bottom of the plane should not have been done the way I did it in the screen shots above. The bottom of the plane should be the lighter gray. Found a couple pics of the plane showing the bottom....so I corrected it.
 
Falcon

Your hi-res panel texture really brought the VC in this old freeware bird to LIFE! Took a bit of tweaking, and still have one area to finish tweaking.....but the improvement has been well worth the effort.

I have been flying this bird since right after I got FS9, which was just a couple years ago...maybe going on three. It is high time I rolled it into my Aircraft Restoration Shed and give it the going over. It is a really nice model, gets great frame rates...just needed some TLC and an oil change.

Oh, I am also working to get the trim characteristics of the Talon to get the plane to trim out easier. In stock form, one click of up or down trim would send the Talon climbing like a cat or diving like a submarine. I am slow lowering the elevator trim efficiency to reach that sweet spot. One thing I don't know..is there a way to adjust the amount of trim tab movement to make the trim adjustments smaller....instead of one click giving one inch of trim tab movement, for example, can it be adjusted so that one click gives 1/2 inch of trim tab movement? Maybe I should pose this question over in the Flight Dynamics forum.

OBIO
 
OBIO said:
Number 7 in the bag! I found this scheme on a model company site....it was for a model of the T-38C that, at the time the page was published, had not been released yet. A possibly fictitious C model skin on an A model. Perfectly reasonable to me!

Again, not 100% accurate in every detail...but close enough to add some enjoyment to this bird. The price is right in any case.

OBIO
Click to expand...
Not fictitious at all. They have a few bird painted up like that at Randolph AFB. They look pretty cool when your used to seeing the dark grey/white camo all the time. They also have a few all grey birds that are very glossy.
 
Yeah, I found some real pics of the Talon in that two-tone gray scheme and was able to correct the skin in terms of how the lower surfaces were done. I also have a couple pics of overall gray Talons....one is in a medium gray and one in a darker gray....both are nice and glossy. Working on the medium gray one and a Portugese skin now...well, not now...doing housework now.

OBIO
 
Okay, this is actually the 7th new skin for the Talon. Portugal, in white. Next will be a Portuguese AFB bird done up in blue...based on a Talon gate guard at the Portuguese Air Force Academy at Sintra. A very striking blue plane it is. Will make for a nice Portuguese flight team scheme.

OBIO
 
Markus

Thanks for the info on the German T-38s. Did not know that they were still on American soil. I knew that German jet pilots began their flight training in T-38s at Shepard AFB, just didn't know that roughly 38 of the Euro-NATO JJTP planes were owned by Germany.

And to return the favor for your efforts, I will post the link to that 508 page thread on Women in the Military. I bookmarked it in about a dozen places so that my wife could not easily get rid of it. I am up to page 40.....

http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?130786-Pictures-of-women-in-the-military-police%28read-the-1st-post!!!%29&

Tim
 
Warhorse

There has been a little lull in my simming these last few days. Been busy getting things set up for my dying father-in-law to come home for how ever long he has left in this world. That is done, he is home, situated. I will be home alone for who knows how long as Deb will be staying at her sister's place helping to care for her dad. I will have plenty of time to work on the T-38...will be putting some time into the project this evening. Have a Turkish Talon halfway done...very simple scheme...white with Turkish national insignia and a really cool bee image on the tail. I just posted a thread in Newshawks looking for info on the exhaust flames....I want to give the Talon the most realistic exhaust flame set up I can.

Tim

Oh...I will most likely package up the project and upload part one in a day or two. I have some more skins to do or finish...but I don't want the package to get overly huge. Part 1 will include the tweaked MDLs, effects tweaks, panel and VC tweaks, and 6 to 8 new skins. Part two would include another 6 to 8 skins. With 12 to 16 skins for this plane, I think there would be enough to make anyone happy.

Oh...off the top of your heads...how much difference would there be in the flight characteristics of the T-38 and the F-5? The flight dynamics on the FSD T-38 are a bit lacking...but Piglet's F-5 package has some sweet flight dynamics. Maybe I could take the FDE from Piglet's F-5 and swap them into the T-38. Or maybe the IRIS F-5 FDE instead of Piglet's F-5. What do you guys think?
 
OBIO

Sorry to hear about your Father-in-Law. You and your family are in my prayers.

There's no rush on the T-38A, naturally. Family always come first.

Since you started your project, I've pulled the T-38 (both versions) from the hangar. Although I also have the DSB and FlyLogic F-5, and the DSB F-20, I decided to try out the Virtavia F-5.

I like the FDE of the others over the FSD T-38, so yes it could use an improvement. I don't have Piglet's (yet), so I can't compare.

Thanks

--WH
 
Later this evening/tonight...I will be uploading an initial release of the FSD T-38 Restoration Project. This initial release will contain tweaked MDL files for both models that fix the transparency issue when the lights are turned on and makes the canopy more visible and more real looking. 7 new skins in 32-Bit Extended 888 format...highest resolution possible in FS2004. New effects. And a vastly improved VC panel image and sharpened VC gauges...along with some tweaks to make the VC more usable in FS9 (Garmin 500 GPS).

Later I will be releasing an update/expansion pack that will include another 6 to 8 new skins, new flight dynamics and a better effects set up, and even more VC/Panel tweaks.

I want to get the Restored T-38 Talon into the hands of those who have been looking forward to this package. Please feel free to test the crap out of it and give me feed back on things that could use a bit more improvement.

Right now, I have to get moving and spend some time at my Sis-In-Law's helping Deb care for her dad.

Tim
 
Tim, family is the most important thing, take care of that first and more prayers going up
 
Guys

Thanks for the prayers for my father-n-law.

I am going to hold of on the upload of the T-38 package for a bit...I want to get the VC enhancement done completely and the tweaks to the panel.cfg finalized. Also working to get some better flight dynamics in place.

I want to make sure that when this thing gets into your hands, it is as close to perfect as possible.

Tim
 
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