I am one of the people Chris sent the HS-123 to for testing....and all I can say is that this plane simply would not stay in the air. Why? Because I was so busy looking at all the detail Chris added to the VC cockpit that I forgot to fly the plane. From seeing Chris's earlier VCs, I can honesty state that his mastery of the art of modeling has improved greatly....and the VC in this plane clearly shows that improved mastery. You won't find a ton of clickable switches, a ton of electronic gizmos...and that is how is should be. The HS-123 was not a technologically advanced aircraft and did not come equipped with Garmin 1000 systems, did not have auto-pilot or navigational computers...and Chris has kept the VC simple in that regard, but he modeled a lot of detail into that simple.
External modeling is very nice as well. Heck, Chris even got the shape of the airelons on the upper wings spot on. The fuselage and wings are superbly smooth without any of the dark areas from poly smoothing.
The texture mapping on this plane is superb. I have not begun any repaints YET, but I have looked at the texture files and Chris did a great job of laying out the files. The parts are mapped in a nice size to allow for a lot of detail to be added to the paints. Having seen enough texture files during my short skinning career, I know the agony of trying to add details to a plane when the fuselage and wing areas are mapped at a rediculously small scale. This plane will be a repainters DREAM!
OBIO
Oh, wait until you guys see the detailing Chris put into the exposed parts of the guns. Best looking guns I have seen on ANY aircraft.