Northrop Alpha 2 by Chris Herring.

Jorge

Jorge

Members +
I'm not sure if I messed up when uploading, but if all went well you should have the following textures along with some panel and aircraft cfg file modifications by tomorrow:

northrop_alpha.jpgnorthrop_alpha_constant_vc.jpgnorthrop_alpha_fixed_vc.jpg

One texture is meant to be the one at the Smithsonian in Washington, DC, while the other is meant to represent a military C-19 used for VIP transport and based at Wright Field in Ohio. The first VC shot is based on a constant speed prop, while the second is the realistic fixed pitch setup. You'll have the option of either one, or you can make two different folders and have both. It's up to you.

Both panels are not historic, but rather meant to give you the ability to fly IFR "old school" and inspired by the default Vega.

The Lorenz is inspired by the KeDI gauge package and made from an old advert I found online. It's included for reference. Instructions and details are included as well.

Oh, and yes, that's a working induction compass up top courtesy of the default Spirit of St. Louis. More on that down the road, but if you're able to plan a flight with weather and you know the default FS9 magvar for the areas you fly through, you can use the thing the same way they used it back then. Just set the magnetic heading with the gauge to the right, and then read the gauge to the left like you would a constant "backcourse" and you're fine. Main thing is to update the magnetic course as needed during the flight and then center the needle again.

Instructions to install all this stuff as well as credits to everyone are located in the file.

Remember you'll need Chris' original aircraft for this to work.

This is the first of various things I'll attempt to post regarding the work I've been doing on the Platinum Wings project.

Enjoy the vintage skies!

Jorge
Miami, FL
 
Northrop Alpha 2 Textures and Updates

498116574212609748.jpg

A new entry has been added to Add-Ons Library, category FS 2004 Civilian propeller skins

Description: Two textures as well as aircraft and panel configuration options for Chris Herring's Northrop Alpha 2 available at major websites.

One texture is based on the TWA example hanging at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, while the other represents a military C-19 in the colors of Wright Field, Ohio.

Both are meant to be for 1935 or so, but may be earlier.

Original model by Chris Herring. Textures and modifications by Jorge L. Rechani.

To check it out, rate it or add comments, visit Northrop Alpha 2 Textures and Updates
The comments you make there will appear in the posts below.
 
Thank you Jorge. It must have gone good, as people are downloading the package and no comments so far.

Cheers,
Huub
 
Very nice!

It’s good to see some new skins for this little-known model. And a good choice too - they’re both planes I would’ve painted myself if I had the time (and a real confutor to paint with.)
 
Thanks Mick! I'm still working on others by Chris and Ed Cook (civilian ones), though there are one or two military as well thrown in. I'm also trying to "update" as best I can some of Paul Clawson's works. The first one is the Alpha's cousin, the Gamma 2A by Paul. Just have some tuning left to do on the engine through the tuning portions of the cfg file. Mostly the "max" and "min" idle friction stuff. Shouldn't be too long, but we'll see. It's all trial and error.

If it comes out okay, I'll use some of the parameters (except contact point info) for the CFS2 2E by Thicko found here since it's pretty much the same airplane.

Most of the work is on the aircraft.cfg file using a default aircraft "air" file that is closest to what I'm trying to do. Most changes are in the form of percentages in the flight tuning, but that shouldn't be necessary if someone knows how to properly change the default air file to match the values/numbers in the cfg file. If you can edit that well, then the flight tuning can go back to "1.0" across the board.

Though I have Airwrench and AAM installed, I found that -- at least for me -- it was better to just use the default air file as-is for now. I might mess with some air files down the road, but I'm trying to see how many more "default" airports I can finish so I can put them into a zip with the instructions for Platinum Wings. The airplanes are just something I needed to do to get a "break" from the scenery.

Jorge
Miami, FL

PS: What would the policy be on the mdl "shining" of a model? I've been using Martin Wright's MDLShine to alter some of the parameters on Paul's Gamma to see if I can get some "sheen" in case someone wants to do a "paint" job as opposed to a bare metal job. I know it was only bare metal in reality, but I wanted to see if we could mess with the alpha and main colors to get a sort of sheen on the painted areas of Paul's paint job. I guess a TWA job wouldn't be too off the mark either, even though they didn't use this particular "mark" of Gamma.

I've been using Obio's tutorial.

Thoughts?
 
We’ll, as far as shining the model, I did a lot of fiddling with a lot of Paul’s models and he never objected. At first I would ask his permission but as we became friends I felt free to just do whatever and post the results. Other folks also did some fiddling with his models but I don’t know if they asked permission first. My impression is that Paul was OK with whatever we did with his models. He was a big help to me when I got into painting. He even gave me his Paint Shop Pro 7, complete with its phone book sized hard copy instruction manual, when he deleted it from his rig and moved on to the next version. I still use it today.

Where did you find MDLshine? It sounds like something I could use. I just went to Martin’s website and couldn’t find it there. I’ve used Shiny to fiddle with gloss and shine, but I have to boot up virtual XP to run it, and if I have to move to a more recent operating system than Win7pro to get my confutor back running I won’t be able use it anymore.
 
By the way, has anyone heard from Chris lately?

I know that some time ago he had a bout with cancer. Not long after that he posted about a model he was working on, a Martin MB-5 if I recall correctly, then he went silent again. That was quite a while ago.
 
My mistake!

The program is called "MDLMat" found at his site:

http://www.mwgfx.co.uk/index.htm

Just go halfway down. I found it when I saw Obio's tutorial on here at SOH.

Thanks for the info. I tend not to mess with people's stuff, which is why I haven't done much. I figured paints and cfg files were the exception. I was just hoping to upgrade some of the airplanes as much as possible. It's more as a tribute to the original authors than anything else.

No, I haven't seen anything from Chris in quite some time either. Same with Ed Cook and Wolfie. Hope they're all doing okay. Last I saw on a post somewhere from Wolfie was something about a tutorial using FSDS 3.5 to make an F3F, but that post was YEARS ago.

Jorge
Miami, FL
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top