One Day Project...Alpha Douglas Boston/A-20 enhancement

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OBIO

Retired SOH Admin
I am working on a one-day project to bring the 2D and VC panel of the freeware Alpha Boston/A-20 up to snuff. Heck, over half of the gauges on the VC panel are just painted on....not good! So, I am working to rectify that. Using the stock Lockheed Vega and DC-3 cab files, I am putting together a custom set of XML (or is it XLM) based gauges for the A-20.....modifying some of the single-engine Vega gauges into twin-engine gauges, pulling some of the twin-engine DC-3 gauges over. I have that part done....pretty sure at least...and have a new A-20.cab created. I have the bulk of the 2D panel reworked and have a lot more gauges on the VC panel...need to get them into proper position and size and such. Then will work on some useful pop up windows.

I love flying the A-20 (I'm American....I call the plane by its American name....those on the other side of the pond can freely call it the Boston Mk eye eye eye if you want to...but that just sounds odd to me) but hated the rather dismal VC panel and felt that the plane deserves better. Granted the VC isn't up to today's standards....but it's the only one we have at the moment, so might as well make the best of it.

Will get back to work on the project and hopefully have it uploaded by this time tomorrow....depending on how many Honey Do things my wife comes up with.

OBIO
 
Sounds great OBIO! I will enjoy putting in some Havoc time once you tow them out onto the ramp.:salute:

Joel
 
2D and VC gauges are all in place. Now to the pop up windows (GPS, Radio stack..will use the C172 stack, throttle, starter, that sort of stuff). Have the VC panel bmp repainted to remove the painted on gauges. I found the Alphasim paint kit for the Boston 3/A-20 while digging around in my archives the last couple days....they are in PSP format, so I will need to reinstall Paintshop Prop and save them in PSD format.

OBIO
 
OBIO said:
2D and VC gauges are all in place. Now to the pop up windows (GPS, Radio stack..will use the C172 stack, throttle, starter, that sort of stuff). Have the VC panel bmp repainted to remove the painted on gauges. I found the Alphasim paint kit for the Boston 3/A-20 while digging around in my archives the last couple days....they are in PSP format, so I will need to reinstall Paintshop Prop and save them in PSD format.

OBIO
Click to expand...

Tim, fire them over to me, I'll do it for you, save you the reinstall time.

Matt, you have no will power!!
 
I admire your courage Obio. :applause:

Maybe we should have a little patience though, and save our energies for a REAL A-20 that will literally...

WREAK HAVOC!
 
Nigel

I figured that until a better A-20 comes along, I might as well make the one we have more usable and enjoyable. That is what I do with most of my projects...take an older plane, give it some new paints, new effects, revamped gauges.....make them more usable and enjoyable. It's kind of my Modus Operandi if you will.

Tim
 
AndyG43 said:
Tim, fire them over to me, I'll do it for you, save you the reinstall time.
Click to expand...

Andy

I need to reinstall PaintShopPro anyhow...have a number of paint kits that came in PSP that I need to export as Photoshop format.

But thanks for the offer anyhow.

Tim
 
OBIO said:
Nigel

I figured that until a better A-20 comes along, I might as well make the one we have more usable and enjoyable. That is what I do with most of my projects...take an older plane, give it some new paints, new effects, revamped gauges.....make them more usable and enjoyable. It's kind of my Modus Operandi if you will.

Tim
Click to expand...

I know.

And a grand job you do too. Power to your elbow! :applause:
 
you're right.... i have no will power... i have a will though... and power! so combine the 2 and i have.... ahh screw it.... nada :icon_lol:

might have to weather up that paintkit to a suitable level :icon_lol:
 
The package is up under the FS2004 Panels section of the Warbirds library. Easy peasy lemon squeezy...what ever the heck all that means....saw it in one of the Austin Powers movies..hopefully it isn't one of those obscure British profanity things that us Amuricans just don't know about. Like "bugger".....I have heard so many Americans use that word and the vast majority of them have no idea what it means...I do...and I use it because I can say something nasty on web forums and not get censored...how freakin cool is that.

OBIO
 
OBIO said:
The package is up under the FS2004 Panels section of the Warbirds library. Easy peasy lemon squeezy...what ever the heck all that means....saw it in one of the Austin Powers movies..hopefully it isn't one of those obscure British profanity things that us Amuricans just don't know about. Like "bugger".....I have heard so many Americans use that word and the vast majority of them have no idea what it means...I do...and I use it because I can say something nasty on web forums and not get censored...how freakin cool is that.

OBIO
Click to expand...

Think I'll download the bugger and give it a whirl. Thanks mate. :applause:
 
OBIO said:
The package is up under the FS2004 Panels section of the Warbirds library. Easy peasy lemon squeezy...what ever the heck all that means....saw it in one of the Austin Powers movies..hopefully it isn't one of those obscure British profanity things that us Amuricans just don't know about. Like "bugger".....I have heard so many Americans use that word and the vast majority of them have no idea what it means...I do...and I use it because I can say something nasty on web forums and not get censored...how freakin cool is that.

OBIO
Click to expand...

We even have TV ads that make great use of 'Bugger', being the second most used word in the Australian language.
:applause:
 
OBIO said:
The package is up under the FS2004 Panels section of the Warbirds library. Easy peasy lemon squeezy...what ever the heck all that means....saw it in one of the Austin Powers movies..hopefully it isn't one of those obscure British profanity things that us Amuricans just don't know about. Like "bugger".....I have heard so many Americans use that word and the vast majority of them have no idea what it means...I do...and I use it because I can say something nasty on web forums and not get censored...how freakin cool is that.

OBIO
Click to expand...

Thanks for this Tim, looking forward to adding it to my Boston.

You're ok with the "easy peasy ..." thing; but I know what you mean about obscure terms; I used to work with a lovely lady from New Yoik, who was married to an ex-RAF officer. One Monday morning she came into work and asked us "what does 'tosser' mean" (for the record, it is a milder form of w****r); when we told her she blushed, said that she thought it meant posh, and that it explained why her vicar had been a little off with her for a couple of weeks. Needless to say we spent the rest of the day trying to teach her other 'harmless' words she could call the vicar!! :icon_lol: And, of course, there was the infamous Miami Vice episode with Phil Collins ......

'Bugger' is one of those words that has lost a lot of it's force, partially due to the influx of Wombat's countrymen over the years.
 
AndyG43 said:
'Bugger' is one of those words that has lost a lot of it's force, partially due to the influx of Wombat's countrymen over the years.
Click to expand...


That's true Andy, I grew up in that wonderful land of Vegemite, Kalgoorlie stout and good hearted buggers. But we 'Pommies' are just as guilty ourselves when it comes to changing the actual meaning of the word.

"well I'll be buggered" term often used when pleasantly and genuinely surprised by some event or fact.
"it's a bugger"; some difficult task or situation, not always unpleasant, rather, difficult to accomplish - (I often use it while working on Ardour sounds).
"old bugger"; term of affection, endearment and often, leg-pulling towards a wise old mischievous friend or aquaintance.

Anyway, I'm buggered if Obio is going to appreciate this thread being turned into some wierd 'limey' list of language quirks, so I'd better leave it at that and...well...bugger off I s'pose.



Oh bugger! nearly forgot; nice panel Obio. :applause:
I bet you're as much of a bugger for Guinness as the rest of us are, so here goes :guinness:
 
well bugger me i'd better go grab the bugger!......

then you can all wait for me the lord-chief-high buggerer to do some buggering work and splash some paint onto the bugger :icon_lol:

all the buggery aside nice job pal, will take her for a fly later, perhaps it'll inspire to to finish this control tower for Nuneaton and in turn finish Nuneaton....

Nigel i know what you're thinking... "you daft....." final word most likely starts with M and ends in laka :icon_lol:
 
Matt Wynn said:
well bugger me i'd better go grab the bugger!......

then you can all wait for me the lord-chief-high buggerer to do some buggering work and splash some paint onto the bugger :icon_lol:

all the buggery aside nice job pal, will take her for a fly later, perhaps it'll inspire to to finish this control tower for Nuneaton and in turn finish Nuneaton....

Nigel i know what you're thinking... "you daft....." final word most likely starts with M and ends in laka :icon_lol:
Click to expand...

Nope. It starts with 'B' and ends with 'er' :icon_lol: I'd never use the 'other' term for a great little buddy!



edit; Get splashing some paint!
 
Hey OBIO, great job on the A-20. Thank you. Do you know if anyone did an early U.S. Air Corps texture in polished aluminum?
 
Looking forward to it Obio, I'm currently rebuilding my system from scratch so shouldn't be long now. I'll just say, if your tempted to try Norton Utilities, DON'T, completely FUBAR'd my registry. I'm usually a die hard Norton IS fan, but this has tainted me.

Sorry, rant over, I'm looking forward to trying all the stuff I've been missing out on for the last few weeks, this included, just not entirely sure what an A20 actually is, lol.

As for buggeration, fine, just don't startup the whole 'fanny' thing, such confusions can lead to sexual harassment cases being brought forth swiftly.

My fav is the old 'dog's bollocks' phrase, an interesting origin too.

ta muchly you silly sod,
Jamie

PS. did I just start a 'sod' tangent too, lol.
 
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