Scorch00 Airtanker Conversion Projects

[Scorch00]

Progress has slowed due to the holidays. I largely put development on hold for any of the other projects and am only passively working on the Electras when I have free time to get to them. It's largely those small details I'm adding at the moment. Once I'm satisfied with them, then I'll move onto other parts of the pack. I've added an additional repaint to the pack. A 2nd repaint for operator Conair. I wasn't aware, but I received some info that stated Conair had an earlier Electra, T-53 that they had in the 1990s and was sold to Airspray, registration was C-FZCS, and became Airspray's T-487. It was added to this pack to make the total 13 aircraft. I am going through and adding in things that were provided to me by BendyFlyer on his Electra updates as well. The sounds have been updated to his, as well as I've enhanced some of the sounds, like the reverse sounds. Some other things will remain the same as the Firefighting Electras are lighter and are a bit more peppy than their Pax counterparts were from what's been said. Here are some images of the most recent updates to them. The pack will try to represent most of the versions of the L-188ATs in service. With the L-188A, L-188AF, L-188C, and L-188CF.

Airspray T-481 (L-188C)

Buffalo Airways T-416 (L-188CF)

Buffalo Airways T-417 (L-188A)

Conair T-60 (L-188AF)

Conair T-53 (L-188AF)

 

[Scorch00]

We're in the late stages of development for the Electras. Beta testing this past weekend resulted in finding some bugs that are being addressed. As well as some updates I wanted to also add in after some discussion with community members. Some aircraft got revamped textures completely, and the rest benefitted from some background texture fixes/additions. Updates to the panel also made last minute additions to them. If the one texture glitch can be addressed they should be hopefully released this coming weekend.

 

[Scorch00]

I've decided to continue the F7F project within this thread to keep track of it as I go. Much thanks to Milton for allowing me to update his fantastic version of this Grumman Cat!

Livery work has largely been complete. But I will be going back in later in the project to add in some more details on things. But the large work on the repaints has been done. Each operator will have two liveries. Cal-Nat Airways, Sis-Q Flying Service, SV Flying Service, and TBM Inc. are the represented operators in the release. The original pack came with a TBM and Sis-Q livery done by tankerguy72. PBR has been successfully applied to the model as well now. Seen in the images below.

TBM Inc :

Sis-Q Flying Service:

Cal-Nat Airways:

 

[Scorch00]

The F7F Tigercats have been released here on SOH! Many thanks to Milton Shupe for allowing me to update his fantastic F7Fs!

Onward to other projects! Some time back I was able to modify the DC-6 and DC-7 from Cal Classics with their permission into the airtanker versions. I am going back and updating those models for P3Dv4/5 with PBR and updating the textures and some things with them. Seen below are the two prototypes for one version of several for the DC-6 and then the DC-7 (my personal favorite).

TBM Inc. T-68 DC-6F

T&G Aviation T-115 DC-7C

 

[expat]

Beautiful work Scorch on the Tigercat tankers. Any chance you could make available a tank-less PBR model that can be used with USN/USMC paints?

 

[Scorch00]

Beautiful work Scorch on the Tigercat tankers. Any chance you could make available a tank-less PBR model that can be used with USN/USMC paints?

Thank you! I can perhaps look into it.

 

[Scorch00]

It's been a bit. But progress is advancing. I need to stop going back and forth between projects as it's drawing stuff out longer than it should. But between a lot of newer stuff becoming available it's been pulling me off the DC-6 and DC-7s quite a few times. But I am trying to be better about focusing lol. Here are a few more paints that were updated on the DC-6s. The tanks have been updated further on the Sis-Q version in the last few days, but this is the most recent screenshot I had of it in the sim. Right now I have I think it's 3 different configurations of the DC-6 tankers. T-68 was the one I first went to town with and have since moved on to others. I am also continuing messing with the payload sections on the DC-6 as well as the sounds for both the DC-6 and DC-7s.

Sis-Q T-50

Macavia/Sis-Q T-47

Securite Civile T-61

 

[Scorch00]

It's been quite busy. And I've been taking breaks on the DC-6 (which is my primary focus currently), the DC-7 will come next obviously. But with the release of The Milviz UH-1H and Bell 407 I've stepped away from fixed wing briefly to look at them and develop tanks for both of those aircraft. As well as some paints, specifically for the 407. Which, is a nightmare to try and work with that paint kit. But currently the plethora of rotary wing assets becoming available as freeware has my R&D side pretty busy on top of me actually doing the updates to paints and models on the DC-6 and DC-7. So this is what projects are coming.

Milviz Bell 407 Tank Asset for FFX and USFS Contract Liveries (2 more than likely)
Milviz Bell UH-1H Tank Asset for FFX
Virtavia CH-46E Sky Aviation Livery and Sound update
Cal Classics DC-6 Liveries, Models, Sounds, minor other QoL updates
Cal Classics DC-7 Liveries, Models, Sounds, minor other QoL updates

With the DC-6s a lot has been done since the last update. Lots of the models have been updated with the proper tanks now being applied to the right versions of the DC-6 as well as a couple new variations model wise. This was largely due to a couple of livery additions for the older tanker versions used. Not really much to update in terms of visuals just yet except for some of the projects in the works for the rotary wing stuff.

Bell 407 (Keenwild Helitack H535)

Bell UH-1H

Boeing/Vertol CH-46E Sky Aviation (N461WY)

 

[Aharon]

Sorry for bringing up this old thread but am wondering if those planes will work in FSX too, please?

Regards,

Aharon

 

[Scorch00]

Sorry for bringing up this old thread but am wondering if those planes will work in FSX too, please?

Regards,

Aharon

Oh no worries at all. These wont specifically. But my original pack of them is FSX compatible. These have PBR and are not compatible with FSX. But the V1.0 pack that's also available on here is. There is a base package with a few paints in it. The other paints are separate. Airspray has two livery packs that have their whole fleet of Electras, and Buffalo has one as well.

 

[Aharon]

Oh no worries at all. These wont specifically. But my original pack of them is FSX compatible. These have PBR and are not compatible with FSX. But the V1.0 pack that's also available on here is. There is a base package with a few paints in it. The other paints are separate. Airspray has two livery packs that have their whole fleet of Electras, and Buffalo has one as well.

Thanks I will look for it. Great repaints!!

Also I am downloading your QualityWing BAE146 and Avro RJ jet repaints too but am surprised that tankers on the bottom of the planes will not work for FSX as you said.

Regards,

Aharon

 

[Scorch00]

Lots of mini-updates to post! I've been busy!

DC-6 Project: DC-6s are currently in beta testing. So far there have only been a few small issues that have been found and already addressed. Hopefully beta should be completed later this week and be ready for getting them into a release status.

Bell 407 Asset/Repaint Project:
Repainting has been completed, as has the bucket, and the tank asset is nearly completed. I expect to release this after the DC-6 is released.

UH-1 Asset Pack:
I've added in an additional asset for this release and that's the Cal Fire HTSU (Heli Tender Support Unit) that often accompany the Cal Fire rotary assets in the field for support. There will be 16 of them in total that people will be able to selectively add and place using FireFighterX to identify their helispot in the field or just to have some eye candy on the tarmac for your helicopter ops.

DC-7 Project:
Largely has been on hold while I finish the DC-6s. But once that pack is rolled out I can get back to updating textures and such for it. It largely has not had a lot of extras added unlike the DC-6s did. These will hopefully take less time to execute in the conversion/update process.

**New DC-4/C-54 Project:
The prototypes have looked quite good and largely probably wont need to be changed a while lot. Just some updated/additional liveries will go with that package. These will be released after the DC-7s.

 

[Scorch00]

I'm sure people have probably seen by now the Sky Aviation repaint for the freeware released Virtavia CH-46 has gone out. The HTSU and UH-1 water tank for the Milviz UH-1H were both released on Simviation, so if people are looking for that they are over there. I am still working on stuff for the Miliviz Bell 407 too. But I have also been busy working on stuff for both the DC-7 and DC-4s. Here are a few shots of the DC-7s. Erickson Aero's liveries are now completed for all 3 of their DC-7s. I have added some other operators to the pack, but debate is still airing on whether or not I'll release all of those together, or just release the updated pack with updated liveries from the original, and they upload a 2nd file that has additional repaints. Still early out to decide, but it's a thought at the moment.

Butler Aircraft T-66 (circa-2007)

Erickson Aero T-60 (prior to retirement in 2020)

 

[Scorch00]

DC-7s are getting closer to some beta testing. I just finished new propeller blur textures for it as well. I found it used recycled DC-6 effects, which is fine, minus the fact the DC-7 has 4 propellers and not 3. Easy fix, looks a lot better I think. Plus finally got around to converting the exterior parts to PBR from looking out of the interior. Still a lot of small things to look over and adjust. But it's getting there.

 

[Scorch00]

DC-4 livery work has been time consuming as from the original package I did a few years back now I largely redid all textures from scratch and upgraded them to 4k along with adding PBR. Below are some WIP progress shots of the various aircraft that will be included. There are 3 model variations, 2 of which model the two different updated tank designs, as well as a special DC-4 "Super" that was equipped with R-2600 engines instead of the standard R-2000s. 10 repaints as well will be included. Aero-Flite, Aero Union, Ardco, Buffalo Airways, and TBM will come with the pack. There could be more, but with the 4k textures and the prolific use of the DC-4/C-54 I thought 10 would be plenty for now. They all have PBR added, updated sounds, and the model changes. All other aspects of the aircraft remain untouched. As with the other aircraft done by Jens Kristensen I've recently updated like the DC-6 and DC-7. The DC-4 in this respect is freeware gold in my opinion. So grateful he allowed me to update the cosmetics of his aircraft for use in P3Dv4+ sims. Beta testing will probably start relatively soon and I'm hoping to have these out before the 4th of July. As a point of reference T-58 at the end is at the furthest point currently in development while the others represent more early WIP versions.

TBM T-65

Aero Union T-16

Buffalo Airways T-02

Buffalo Airways T-58

 

[Scorch00]

It's been quiet in terms of updates on here lately. But there's still been a ton of stuff going on for projects. Currently I have the entire lineup of firefighting C-130s being worked on. Pack 1 is currently in beta testing. It will include a MAFFS I system equipped C-130E, Coulson RADS XXL tank system on the C-130H, EC-130Q, and HC-130H. Pack 2 will consist entirely of the current military MAFFS II equipped C-130H3s and C-130J-30s. And the final pack will consist of the early C-130As. Pack 1 will have 4 model variations and 9 repaints total. Mostly representing Coulson's currently growing fleet of C-130H and EC-130Q. Seen here are some of the aircraft that will be in those packs once released, they all have some modeling updates due to CS/LM oversight in texture mapping and other details:

MAFFS I Equipped C-130E:

Coulson RADS XXL Equipped EC-130Q:

Coulson RADS XXL Equipped C-130H:

Cal Fire RADS XXL Equipped HC-130H:

Preview of Pack II, C-130H3 equipped with the MAFFS II Nozzle System.

 

[Victory103]

Scorch00, thanks for adding the latest MAFFS Hercs to the fleet, another excuse to fly the now very old CS model. On USFS Tanker 118, I seem to have a missing beacon/artifact on the upper fuselage.

 

[Scorch00]

I looked this over and can't seem to replicate it in P3Dv4. I know this has been partially tested in V5, without issue. Are you using V6 by chance? If so, I unfortunately can't trouble shoot accurately in the new sim as I don't have it on my machine. It's kind of a shot in the dark if it works between all of them effectively at this point.

 

[Victory103]

Only running P3Dv5.3 latest, no issues doesn't take away from the model for me. I just wish I could get the VC updated to a proper H2.5/3 EADI/EHSI that has been requested from CS since way back in the FS9 days, way above my skill level.

 

[Scorch00]

Only running P3Dv5.3 latest, no issues doesn't take away from the model for me. I just wish I could get the VC updated to a proper H2.5/3 EADI/EHSI that has been requested from CS since way back in the FS9 days, way above my skill level.

I've got you. But I totally agree with the update to the cockpit. While updating these there were a lot of texture related issues of things not being mapped or incorrectly mapped. And I have the impression it's been that way since FS9 on some of them. Panels are definitely not in my wheel house either unfortunately.