Microsoft FS2004 Piper Cub Liverie

[GarryJSmith]

Hi Good People,


Long time since my last post on the forums - Had some major health issues for a while but getting over them after several months of rest and recuperation.


I am now at a stage in my recovery that Edward and I thought it was time for a bit of light duties starting off with some repaints of the Default Microsoft FS2004 Piper Cub J-3 aircraft.


A sad little aircraft for FS2004 that was an important aircraft in aviation history but seems to have lacked a bucket or repaints.


After setting up a blank master and doing some tests I discovered why this aircraft has a lack of repaints - the texture mappings are some of the poorest I have ever encountered. Mirror Mappings everywhere - and lots of it sloppy, distortions and stretched areas to fit poorly cut areas - lots of them inverted, stretched or flipped and even worse no real logic to some of the mappings.


Here is an image of what I had to work with as a basis for my repaints for this girl:

As you can see, this mapping makes repainting this girl extremely limiting - a real challenge to give her a bit of vibrancy and suitable eye candy to make her a nice visual flying model.

We started off the repaint project with just a few liveries in mind - then a couple more, and some more - decided to round it off at 15 then 18 then 20 - we stopped there


Anyway, the 20 FREE liveries are now available for your flight sim entertainment and hopefully enjoyment - Surf to http://www.ford-tri-motor.net Click on the Other Aircraft Button and follow the link to the Piper Cub J-3 repaints.


Regards


Garry and Edward
Your Ford Tri-Motor Project Team.

 

[Maarten -]

Hi Garry,

How wonderful to see you're back! Even better to see that your health is improving.

Thank you so much for the liveries. They look great.

All the best,
Maarten

 

[Navtech]

Nice to see your recovery is in progress
Yes the Cub is a iconic aircraft .. thank's for the repaints

 

[zswobbie1]

Hi Garry, & welcome back.
I actually quite like the rendering of the paint that you had to work with.
Not a joke, we had one of our Airlines painting one of their Boeings like that.
So,
wait for it......

Would it at all be possible for you to release an annotated texture?
It could be of interest to the youngsters we are mentoring at our VA.

Much Regards, & good to see you up & in action again

Robin

 

[GarryJSmith]

Thanks Gentlemen for your good wishes.

zwobbie1 - Not sure what you mean by "annotate" - if you mean words or corporate names etc then not possible for most of the surfaces for this aircraft because of the mirroring and reversing of the textures for the aircraft - can get away with A H I M O T U V W X Y for letters and 0 1 8 for numbers and only have them so that they can be reversed on the other mirrored surfaces - ie 808 will work but 801 will be 108 on mirrored surface or if using letters HAT will be TAH on the other side.

There is a tiny, slightly distorted area on the belly just forward of the landing struts - and a larger area in the virtual cockpit view at the rear upper surface of the cockpit.

if you have a look at the Africa livery you will see that I could squeeze in Thomas African Tours just in front of the landing gear on the belly and for the interior VC view - if you look to the rear upper cockpit area you will see a large Ford Tri-Motor Project advert.

Regards - after midnight down here in Australia so better hit the sack.

Garry

 

[zswobbie1]

Hi Garry,

I thought of the names of the parts as you have done. Just as it is if great, Is it possible to loose the mirrored names?

It could be great having an aircraft with it's parts labeled. Is there any where it can be done?

Have a great evening..
Robin

 

[GarryJSmith]

Hi Robin,

With this particular Piper Model and texture mappings - no it is not possible to get rid of the Mirror Mappings - to be able to do a repaint with parts named etc it would require independent texture mapping images for each part that you wanted to label. Good aircraft model developers map each and every part of their models with independent texture areas but whoever developed the Piper model and mappings for Microsoft did it with economy in mind - one texture image to cover the entire aircraft and parts.

Regards

 

[GarryJSmith]

Bonus 6 Pack of liveries

Hi Good People,


The Piper Cub liveries are being downloaded at a high rate - great stuff - good to see the aircraft have a bit of a revival in FS2004.


Therefore, Edwards and I decided to add an additional 6 pack of liveries:

A bit of bling for the Emma Field livery and an additional 5 military liveries. All of course repainted to match the vagaries of the texture mappings and therefore not accurate detailed textures, but at least some more meaningful eye candy for this girl in the sim for your entertainment.


You will find them at: http://www.ford-tri-motor.net click on the Other Aircraft button and follow the Piper Cub link......


Regards and happy simming


Garry and Edward - your Ford Tri-Motor Project Team.