Released!! F9F Cougar by Rob Richardson

[MrZippy]

Let me add THANKS ROB! Also just downloaded the Cougar Manual without any trouble from File Factory. Slow for me was only a 29 second wait and it was downloaded in just seconds. I also downloaded the paintkit and will look around for VA-192 photos though sadly a lot will probably be B/W.

I can't wait to get this on the deck of one of the straight deck carriers off Korea in the 1950's with CCP.

Just found these online:

Tough finding ones in color that aren't just models.

 

[tgycgijoes]

Tough finding ones in color that aren't just models.

Just went back thru my history and indeed the Cougar was aboard USS BENNINGTON IN 1956-57 according to their history site. You can't argue with the guys that were really there with their cameras.

USS HORNET had Cougars aboard both as a fighter: VF-144; attack: VA-146 AND the photo birds F9F-8P of VFP-61 Here is one for all you repainters to duplicate This is what happens when you land on the wrong carrier:

 

[tgycgijoes]

F9f-8 va-192

Here is my afternoon/night's work using Rob's paintkit which is very user friendly. You can see this paint scheme in the photo above of the 3 Cougars over the mountains. At first I didn't notice the diamond marking on the tail because its yellow in a B/W photo. It was the hardest part of the whole texture because it has to be applied in two parts that to line up DON'T LINE UP. The port side went together the first try. Then after many prayers and reloads I finally got the right side to work. I am going to use this as a VA-192 Master texture which is why there is no registration or aircraft number on the nose yet. I may do the entire squadron with subtle differences just because I have never done that before. How's this Navy Chief? I think I am going to work over the walkways because they are not black in the photos and they cover up the yellow arrows which they should not do. I guess this is "beta" for the moment. I'll work on it and post updates. When I am satisfied its "as good as it can be by me" I'll download it for approval to post in the Library.

 

[tgycgijoes]

The "Gun Test" in the panel is a Tacpack. When I had the aircraft at KNZY San Diego to take the pictures above it shows the Redtype surrogate that its got Tacpack but just the guns I can see because about the notes about the switches to see weapons. Is this going to be modded further for Tacpack ordnance?

 

[PhantomP]

Beautiful work.

 

[tgycgijoes]

Thank you

Beautiful work.

Appreciate the compliment; my talent came from Him I also use my talents for the Lord.

 

[tgycgijoes]

A Sea Blue Cougar

From photos and other information...here is a Glossy Sea Blue F9F-8 Cougar of VA-192 I have a list made out from the photos that I have been able to find for the aircraft numbers and the only photo I have blue is 211 and 212 so I will be labelling this one as that aircraft with those side nos.and try and find the correct Serial Numbers.

 

[Cazzie]

Thanks for this two-seater Rob

I have the single seat Cougar and have done a Blue Angels paint for it. But there is no Spec texture and I just cannot get that polished aluminum effect I want. The screenshot here is a faux metal effect I put in, but I have another set of textures that normally work with a Spec texture and Alpha.

Cazzie

 

[tgycgijoes]

Metal effect

I have done a repaint for the Calclassic DC6/R6D and created a spec texture by studying other textures. I suggest you download it from the Calclassic website and study what they have done for the polished metal "tubeliners" which is how I by far not a texture expert did polished aluminum or stainless steel effects. They are achieved (hope I am not preaching to the choir here) by overlaying gray/dark gray/black. over the actual texture. Hope that helps what little I can.

 

[tgycgijoes]

Ready For Action

Here is a complete repaint for VA-192 Golden Dragons of "Dragon-203" aboard USS YORKTOWN CVA-10 in the Summer of 1957. The squadron had a mix of glossy sea blue and gull gray textures evidenced from actual photos. The repaint for Rob's Cougar will be available in the Warbirds.

 

[Cazzie]

I have done a repaint for the Calclassic DC6/R6D and created a spec texture by studying other textures. I suggest you download it from the Calclassic website and study what they have done for the polished metal "tubeliners" which is how I by far not a texture expert did polished aluminum or stainless steel effects. They are achieved (hope I am not preaching to the choir here) by overlaying gray/dark gray/black. over the actual texture. Hope that helps what little I can.

That helps and I have made Spec texture, but the aircraft had a spec texture to begin with and mine replaced it for the particular paint I did. Most FSX aircraft have a base spec texture, usually in the texture folder with the bump map textures. Rob's has a bump map, but no spec texture whatsoever. If I were to make one, how would the .mdl even recognize it? And for most metal textures for FSX I used gray base, dark gray alpha, and black spec. Just not working with Rob's Cougar to give that shine I like for the polished aluminum.

Cazzie

 

[tgycgijoes]

My next suggestion

That helps and I have made Spec texture, but the aircraft had a spec texture to begin with and mine replaced it for the particular paint I did. Most FSX aircraft have a base spec texture, usually in the texture folder with the bump map textures. Rob's has a bump map, but no spec texture whatsoever. If I were to make one, how would the .mdl even recognize it? And for most metal textures for FSX I used gray base, dark gray alpha, and black spec. Just not working with Rob's Cougar to give that shine I like for the polished aluminum.

Cazzie

I created spec for the fuselage and the wing for my repaint as well as an alpha and either the mdl ignored it or accepted it because the texture works as you can see above blue VA-192 I didn't get a black aircraft meaning that the mdl didn't recognize the texture or it was in the wrong format from my past experience.

I know that Rob has been following this thread from a PM I had last night about my latest repaint so maybe he will give you some advice since he created this aircraft from the beginning.

 

[Cees Donker]

This model deserves many more repaints! Here's a W.I.P. Just a few thing to improve.



Cees

 

[gray eagle]

Here is my afternoon/night's work using Rob's paintkit which is very user friendly. You can see this paint scheme in the photo above of the 3 Cougars over the mountains. At first I didn't notice the diamond marking on the tail because its yellow in a B/W photo. It was the hardest part of the whole texture because it has to be applied in two parts that to line up DON'T LINE UP. The port side went together the first try. Then after many prayers and reloads I finally got the right side to work. I am going to use this as a VA-192 Master texture which is why there is no registration or aircraft number on the nose yet. I may do the entire squadron with subtle differences just because I have never done that before. How's this Navy Chief? I think I am going to work over the walkways because they are not black in the photos and they cover up the yellow arrows which they should not do. I guess this is "beta" for the moment. I'll work on it and post updates. When I am satisfied its "as good as it can be by me" I'll download it for approval to post in the Library.

Was this one ever completed? If so, can't find it.
Thanks

 

[Cees Donker]

Was this one ever completed? If so, can't find it.
Thanks

It's not been uploaded here! I'm pretty sure of that.



Cees

 

[gray eagle]

Thanks to tgycgijoes for this paint.

 

[gray eagle]

Burner glow effect

I noticed that both the cougar and panther used the same engine,

When in full throttle, would like to see the cougar modded with the same burner glow effect like the panther. Only see a little nozzle flame effect during the spooling then it extinguishes.

I'm sure it would amount to placement of the same effect used by the panther i.e. fx_AfterBurnerFire1.fx

 

[Mike71]

I noticed that both the cougar and panther used the same engine,

When in full throttle, would like to see the cougar modded with the same burner glow effect like the panther. Only see a little nozzle flame effect during the spooling then it extinguishes.

I'm sure it would amount to placement of the same effect used by the panther i.e. fx_AfterBurnerFire1.fx]

The various J-48 versions used in the Panther and Cougar did not have a "Burner" i.e. afterburner, of course, but the combustion section did glow noticeably (forward of the turbine disk) if you looked directly up the tailpipe - it was not visible otherwise, and modulated with power setting. Your picture looks pretty realistic for cruise flight, a little brighter at full power as I recall. The J-48 was a centrifugal compressor design, quite robust and reliable, but had the typical drawback of a "fat" cross section necessitated by the use of a plenum chamber built into the fuselage to feed the dual sided compressor disk.

 

[gray eagle]

Wheel cocks

This is another great work of art by Rob. I enjoy this one as well as the Banshee,

One minor thing is that I wish the wheel chocks were yellow like they were in the Banshee,

 

[Cees Donker]

This is another great work of art by Rob. I enjoy this one as well as the Banshee,

One minor thing is that I wish the wheel chocks were yellow like they were in the Banshee,

Have you noticed that the bulge onder the nose isn't properly textured? Also the stabilizing fins of the Wings should be white on the front.

Cees