Scorch00 Airtanker Conversion Projects

[Scorch00]

The C-130 project took a lot of time up, but I think it turned out to be a very good pack that got put out. But since that's been released now I've got back to work on updating the FSN AT-802. A ways back I was able to get permission through a contact to update the 802s. The updates largely initially, were to remap the wings so that more accurate liveries could be done for them. Since the mapping was mirrored and specific markings and such could not be properly applied to the wings or they wouldn't appear properly. That has since evolved into a more substantial exterior update. Being as the FSN 802 is the only version available. I decided to take on the task of adding my PBR treatment, and what will end up being mostly a complete overhaul. The only exception being the panel. Which is outside of my knowledge base to attempt to fix/update. So the proposed package will have 4 aircraft within it. The conventional geared 802 and the amphibian. But I will also be adding the 2-seat versions as well as seen in the development pictures below. Currently these are all WIP photos and don't represent the final aircraft. There's a lot of work that still needs to be done with them. There will be overhauls to the exterior model and addition of PBR, 2-seat versions added, updated flight dynamics, updated sounds for the PT-6 turboprop engine, and a few other bits to help update it. A lot of people have requested this and I'm glad to finally get around to doing it for the community. As of this week the work is still progressing well on them. These are only the firefighting variants. I am not planning on the spray versions. Liveries aren't finalized yet. But the release is planned to at least have liveries for US, Canada, Australia, and a few other EU countries. The original repaint pack I released for them will be re-released at some point updated for the new parts/updates.

AT-802F:

AT-802F-2 (2-seat variant):

AT-802AF:

AT-802AF-2 (2-seat variant):

 

[Invader26BMS]

Need Info

Blue Air Training now has a ship for the pack. I likely wont do many more repaints. But each version will have a with and without tanks option.

Where can I get it??

 

[Scorch00]

Blue Air Training now has a ship for the pack. I likely wont do many more repaints. But each version will have a with and without tanks option.

Where can I get it??

The OV-10D+ has been shelved for the time being. A number of other projects are ahead of it. A number of things will change with it also as I've learned a considerable number of things to help improve the quality of the version when it is released.

 

[Scorch00]

AT-802A Ag Workhorses:
I'm back to working on more things for the AT-802s, I will share some development photos later, but the firefighting versions of it were released some time ago on here. I am back working them to create the Ag versions with a couple different equipment versions of the single and 2-seater. They will have the traditional spray bar system as well as the seed spreader and the assorted equipment externally for the ag versions.


Sikorsky S-61N:
There are several different versions of the SH-3/S-61As around, but there weren't any of the larger younger sister helos the N models. Going back through my old hard drives I did happen across my small Hovercontrol file storage I had. And as luck would have it, it had several versions created for the S-61N airframe by David Hardcastle. So, to bring them from FS9/very early FSX, I am converting them to the P3D standard. New mapping, PBR, and lots of bits have been added, adjusted, modeled, and attached to several versions right now. Now I am currently only focused on the firefighting fixed gear variants of the S-61. Maybe at some point later I can maybe work this into the remaining versions I have in the archives. I'm not sure entirely how many external models I'll do for the fire versions, but currently. I already have 6 of them with an assortment of external equipment/tanks. Seen below are some of them with most of the new things added and updated to them. I wanted to give them a good once over to hopefully reintroduce them to P3D. So far, they are looking mighty fine if I do say so myself. Still a lot of stuff to do with them.

 

[Victory103]

Great work on that S-61 and it doesn't look that bad given her age. I trying to figure out MCX more on the AI conversion side.

 

[Scorch00]

Great work on that S-61 and it doesn't look that bad given her age. I trying to figure out MCX more on the AI conversion side.

It really doesn't, the updated 4k textures, bump maps, and addition of PBR really does wake them up quite a bit. I was pleasantly surprised. MCX is a great tool I feel. It's served quite well for a lot of the stuff I've been able to do with aircraft and scenery. Combining it with Blender, has been my bread and butter for getting stuff done. Once you figure out how to use it that is. There's a ton of tinkering with it to learn it.

 

[Scorch00]

I haven't done a lot of updates on any of the projects I'm working, but rest assured there's been progress and more added. There are several others not listed, but these are the 3 main projects I'm going to be working on in the comping weeks/months.

AT-802A:
The agricultural variant of the AT-802 is likely going to be released before the end of March I'm thinking. I'm sure a lot of people will be looking forward to that. But that project ended up being considerably larger than I anticipated. Largely due to the addition of more functional things to make it very close in function to the real Ag 802s. Night lighting was overhauled to allow for night spraying as well as incorporating things that work with Lorby's CropDusterX. Liveries have also been finalized, modeling work will likely be completed late this week and then cleanup and getting it ready for release. The 802 is a cooperative project and will be released in parallel on FSX as well as P3Dv4+. I will release the P3D version while the other partner in the project will release the FSX variations.

Sikorsky S-61N:
The S-61 project has stayed relatively stagnant while work on the 802 advanced. Largely due to most of the work remaining on it being minor possible model adjustments and the remaining liveries. Currently, there looks to be possibly 15 liveries spread across 5 or 6 model variations of the S-61Ns. I will be including a couple external tank versions as well as a clean slick version for those wanting it, but not necessarily for firefighting operations. The S-61Ns have a lot of external updates, including PBR, 4k textures, rotor stow straps, bump maps, and added in dynamic rotor flex for them,

*Sikorsky S-70 Firehawk*:
This is a new addition to the model line up I'm working on. I gained permission from Jagl04 to modify his mod of the CeraSim UH-60L that created the S-70 Firehawk. Many thanks to Jagl04 for his permission! The CeraSim product will be required still for this mod as well. Being the Firehawk has become increasingly used in aerial firefighting in the western United States, several variations of it now exist. 10 Years ago only Los Angeles County Fire operated the Firehawk. Now 5 more agencies across California operate the platform. Cal Fire, San Diego Fire, Ventura County Fire, and Santa Barbara Fire and the Orange County Fire Authority. Lastly the 7th operator became the state of Colorado. All of which use similar external equipped Firehawks, but some are equipped differently. So this resulted in my attempt to try and make those variations of them. I plan on doing all the current liveries being used on the Firehawk across all those agencies. The Firehawk is indicative of a certain modified UH-60/S-70 Blackhawk. These modifications are done by a combination of United Rotorcraft and Kawak Aviation Technologies. It is different than other firefighting Blackhawk helicopters. As it has a specific landing gear and 1000 gallon external tank fitted to it along with multi-role mission equipment such as rescue hoist, FLIR, and NVG capabilities. I will be teaming up with another community member here to tackle all the liveries. As we both have done previous livery work for the Firehawk mod. This likely will be put out before the S-61 as there is more work to still be done on the S-61 compared to the Firehawks. On top of the external modifications I will also be adding PBR to the models too for use in P3Dv4+.

PBY Catalina/Super Cat:
This project sprang up in interest because fire versions of the Catalina do exist. But there was not a comprehensive package that included all of the main configurations used in aerial firefighting. There were 3 main versions used in firefighting. The PBY-5A, PBY-6A, and PBY-5/6 "Super Catalina." The Super Cats as they were known, were special versions produced by Steward-Davis and used largely for aerial firefighting. They had specially modified fuselages and removed the Catalina's R1830 engines for the R2600 found on the B-25 Mitchell. Raising the Cat's performance by 1000 horsepower and more streamlined fuselages. The PBY-5As with the Super Cat mods had a specially modified vertical stabilizer to account for the extra torque created by the newly installed R2600s. The PBY-6s did not need the tail mods as they already had enlarged tail surfaces stock from Consolidated. So these fire configurations will largely be done on the old alphasim PBYs. A complete revamp of the model is being looked at currently. Including a completely new texture map for the models to allow for considerably better repainting of the aircraft.

Firehawk WIP Shots:

 

[Scorch00]

AT-802 Agricultural variants have been uploaded here on SOH and elsewhere. Both for FSX and P3D. The project was heavily delayed as my PC died in the early part of March. It's taken me a bit to replace it and recover most things from the old PC and move them to this new one. Not everything was saved. But a good portion of it was luckily. Development resumed again the first week of April. Now that the 802s are out in the world. I have gone back to updating firefighting aircraft.

And that next project as presented previously is an update and expansion of Jagl04's fantastic mod for the Cera Sim UH-60L Blackhawk. With his permission I've created several new models that now exist as "Firehawks." The Firehawk designation is uniquely tradmarked by United Rotorcraft for their modification kit to the Blackhawk helicopters that adds a gear extension kit, 1,000 gallon water tank with retractable snorkel, and all sorts of other multi-role mission equipment. Back when the mod was first released, only Los Angeles County Fire used the Firehawk. Now, not only has LA County expanded the number of aircraft it has, but 5 other agencies in California alone now use them and/or are acquiring more of them. Colorado has also joined in purchasing Firehawks. My plan for this pack is to cover all of the current or soon to be used variants of the Firehawk. The agencies that will be covered in the pack will be Cal Fire (all 13 aircraft) LA County Fire (all 5 aircraft), Orange County Fire Authority (2 aircraft), San Diego Fire Department (1 aircraft), Santa Barbara County Fire (1 aircraft), Coulson Aviation (1 aircraft), California Army National Guard (1 aircraft), Ventura County Fire (2 aircraft), Colorado Department of Forestry Prevention & Control (1 aircraft). So a lot of aircraft, 27 total. Community repainter "Delta" is also assisting in adding all of Cal Fire's 13 aircraft for this pack. The models added all represent the versions now operating as Firehawks. The S-70A, S-70i, S-70M, UH-60A, UH-60 L, and HH-60L. The mod by Jagl04 remains largely unchanged overall, just a few cosmetic changes, remapping of the Firehawk tank and bits, and the addition of PBR and the slew of different external configuration models.

LA County Fire C-16 (N160LA) S-70A:

Orange County Fire Authority C-1 & 2 (N411FA and 412FA) S-70Ms:

Ventura County Fire C-4 & 5 (N60VC and 70VC) HH-60L:

 

[K5083]

Thanks for continuing to upload these and sorry about your computer woes!

I tried your new Ag models over the weekend and they are very nice. They did cause a name conflict and sim crash at first because I had installed one of the Ag repaints that Eli uploaded last December and you used the same title, but once I deleted that, everything went fine. You might want to include a note in the readme about that. Otherwise they feel great and the cockpit holds up well in VR.

August

 

[Scorch00]

So just a bit of an update from me. I had a series of things go on and one of those being the loss of my development machine I was using. So I was down for a bit in terms of developing and flying for a bit. But the new machine is running great! Most stuff was luckily saved, but some stuff was lost. In the middle of that I saw that the forum went through an update. So I decided to wait before I tried updating any new projects until I was familiar with the new layout. So there will be a series of aircraft coming from me on here soon. The Firehawks were completed, but uploaded elsewhere while the forum upgrade was occurring as well as a 737 Fireliner update. So those will come eventually here too. But the first project that will make it here now will be the upgraded DC-10 VLATs. These are for both FSX and P3D. The pack will come with 11 liveries. 4 of 10 TAC's aircraft in the original 1st gen livery, 4 in the 2nd gen livery, 2 in the gen 1 livery for Australia, and 1 in the gen 1 livery for Chile. The FSX versions however have all the updates P3D's version got, minus the addition of PBR. Both FSX and P3D versions should be available here by the end of today I imagine.

 

[Aharon]

These are for both FSX and P3D. TThe FSX versions however have all the updates P3D's version got, minus the addition of PBR. FSX versions should be available here by the end of today I imagine.

I am SO GLAD. Thanks a zillion for considering needs of FSX users who refuse to give up FSX.

Will you have same plans for MD-87 for use of FSX, too?

Regards,

Aharon

 

[Scorch00]

I am SO GLAD. Thanks a zillion for considering needs of FSX users who refuse to give up FSX.

Will you have same plans for MD-87 for use of FSX, too?

Regards,

Aharon

The MD-87 I'm currently updating will be for P3Dv4+ only. BUT, the updated textures are compatible with the V1 release I did for FSX/P3D. I don't believe there will be that many things someone would need to do to have them work in FSX. That earlier version also has the tank fairing attached to the model. Just the textures on that version aren't nearly as accurate as these new ones are.

 

[Aharon]

The MD-87 I'm currently updating will be for P3Dv4+ only. BUT, the updated textures are compatible with the V1 release I did for FSX/P3D.

Thanks for cool answers

Regards,

Aharon

 

[Scorch00]

Here is the MD-87s in their current state in P3Dv4.5. They will have PBR and a number of other updates to them. Including new 4k textures, updated corrected model, updated performance/weights, exterior lighting updates, VC position was also updated, and a few other small details. The tank fairing was designed by our Jeremy Ulloa (tankerguy72). I've just reattached it to this model as I did with the original v1 release of them. These are the development shots of the updated aircraft. There will be 8 total repaints. All 7 of Erickson's MD-87s along with a Chilean contract livery flown in 2023. These did operate in Australia in 2020 as part of an emergency deployment due to the horrible firestorm that season, but none of them received any special Australian markings for that deployment. The Chilean contract livery is previewed below.

T-105 Chile Contract Markings:

T-101 @ KPTV (Porterville AAB):

More images of T-105:

 

[Scorch00]

I have 3 posts/updates incoming and each will probably have their own post since I'm concurrently working on 3 projects. The first update is for the Sikorsky S-61N.

The S-61 project to me, has been painfully slow. But I'm also using it as a testbed for a lot of new things I've learned as it's an old platform a lot of it needed to be built up as a process, so I've been using it as a self teaching project. But it's got to the point now where I need to look into messing with it more seriously. Lots of paints and things have been done for it, as well as making custom 1000 gallon medium and long line buckets, external retardant/water tanks, one of which that expands and contracts while filling even. 2 large issues still remain with it, one being the cockpit, which I am working to try and update. The other is a strange issue where all the sounds will play with it, except the startup sounds. I've tried looking at the AIR file, aircraft.cfg, even changed panels, and sounds and it still will not play them. So there's obviously something I'm missing there. So there is quite a bit riding on this project, which makes me want it to work out even more. The S-61s will have 6 models int he pack. 3 core models that will have a slick body and 2 others with the external tanks attached. The other 3 models will be the radar nose version of each of those models. So the clean version I've made specifically for heavy lift operations, or in the case of firefighting, carrying a bambi bucket. (seen below).

 

[Scorch00]

The 2nd project update is for the Veneaviones Turbo Commander 690B. The Turbo Commanders were converted for use in P3Dv4+ by George Arana (eurostar350) and I'm just making a few minor adjustments to them and being that I have my hands on them, a slew of firefighting related repaints. But, there will be a plain white version included for others to easily repaint. The stock repaints for previous versions will still work on this as well. Granted these are already pretty outstanding freeware aircraft and I've had every iteration of them since FS9! Aside from things like PBR that were added by George, I am adding a few additions such as some missing flip down landing lights on the wings as well as a separate mapped version for people to use that has the belly mapped for adding banners to the belly as the old mapping makes it a huge pain to do this easily. That can be seen below. When they are released it will be both the 690B and 690B WL versions. Everything else on them has been left stock. Just slightly updated for the newer sims. Currently, I have 11 firefighting repaints planned for it and several are WIP. Seen below is Neptune Aviation's first Air Attack 690B. Operators I will cover will be several aircraft from here in the US on USFS contracts, as well as several for Canadian operators and a few for Australia. The list of those aircraft are below:

AA-12 N8PQ (USFS) - WIP
AA-15 N4717V (USFS) - Completed
AA-17 N700PQ (USFS) - Not Started
Neptune Aviation AA Ship N690TG (USFS) - Completed
AA-490 N911KC (Kern County Fire) - Not Started
Bird Dog 51 C-FZRQ (Airspray) - Completed
Bird Dog 58 C-FMCX (Airspray) - Completed
Bird Dog 104 C-FNRP (Buffalo) - Not Started
Bird Dog 136 C-GDAA (Conair) - Completed
Bird Dog 376 VH-ATF (Australia) - Not Started
Bird Dog 273 VH-LVG (Australia) - Not Started

 

[Scorch00]

Last update is for the newly added FS KBT P-3A Orions aka : Aerostar. The "Aerostar" is a specially modified version of the early P-3As by Aero Union Corporation. 10 aircraft were converted by Aero Union during their operation. They've changed hands and have been split up in recent years and only a few remain in flying condition as they struggle to remain in existence since they've had a troubled time since Aero Union's demise. KBT's P-3 were fantastically built, like their Electras. Those may know I was able to update their Electras and create the tanker versions of their aircraft. In the case of the P-3As, they are already airtankers. So work on these largely just came down just updating some cosmetics and small model changes to keep them updated. This will take some updates from the Electra package and have been added to the P-3s. The biggest updates are the addition of PBR, new updated more accurate 4k textures, and updated cosmetics of the retardant tank. My plans with these as I said, were largely just to update the cosmetics, since they were already great modeled airplanes by the Team at KBT. So a majority of the aircraft doesn't need to be changed. In terms of what all will come with it for paints, there will be a lot. I plan on doing all 10 of the converted aircraft, including those two aircraft lost in the line of duty. Things have been completely redone for font scripting and such from other versions I think released. I think one may be able to tell the difference in that aspect when looking at these prototype images. They will have all their progressions of minor livery changes over the years as they've changed ownership. Seen here is the advanced prototype with the updated 4k textures and a lot of the updated changes already installed.

T-00 (1990s Aero Union)

T-27 (2010s Aero Union)

T-23 (2021 Airstrike Firefighters)

 

[Aharon]

Gonna love beautiful posters!!!

 

[Scorch00]

I might make a separate post for this, but figured I'd look at mentioning it in this thread first. But I'm currently looking at other aircraft to update. I popped by CalClassics to inquire about Greg Pepper's CV-580s. I think some of their team is present on here, so maybe this will catch their eye. But I was working on possibly doing a PBR update and some cosmetic updates to the 580. In particular making the non-radar nosed tanker variant that was used by Conair and Saskatchewan. As an overall deal to the update, I'd also be doing both the tanker, regular, and cargo versions of it as well if there was a want for that. There is an active thread on CalClassics about someone who's trying to update the 32-bit gauges for it, but if I can maybe squeak in an exterior update I figure it would be a welcome one. Since I'm already working my way through the Allison T56 powered airtankers. The complete plan would be to leave it mostly how it is internally. The only thing that would be updated would be the exterior and hopefully that interior that's in the works. I'd just update and throw my repaints I did for the original version for the updated one. The only things physically that change would be the nose and the updated tank. I've contemplated doing actual windows. But nothing set in stone as it's just a prototype and not sure I can even get permission to take it any further than this. It's a great unique plane, and is not in service anymore in Canada and there's a lot of people that still want to fly this plane either as a tanker or the traditional versions.

CV-580 non-weather radar nose tanker prototype:

 

[Scorch00]

Just another update to post as I've been pretty busy on projects lately and I have no plans of slowing down in the next month or so and as a result there are a slew of projects in the wings coming.

S-61N Project:
The S-61N was released this past weekend on SOH and my other upload location that I typically use for releases. So far that has gone well. The helo ended up not exactly where I would have liked it to be, but it's still cool to have that helo in P3D. Including all it's little additions I added to it.

Rockwell 690 Turbo Commanders:
This project is likely to be right on the heels of the S-61 release. I have it just about done, I still need to touch up some of the paints with it and send it off to beta testing. The Turbo Commanders are based on the Veneaviones Group's 690B. These will come with both the winglet and non-winglet version. As well as an extra variant I included that has a separate mapped belly version for repainters that maybe want to apply a banner to the belly of the 690 if they wanted to. I did this as some of the firefighting versions have this and the old map for it didn't yield good looking results, so I just remapped a version. A good portion of the update work does not belong to me, but to George Arana (Eurostar350). He updated the whole aircraft to P3Dv4+ standards with PBR, etc. I've just added my touch to it by tweaking some of the contact points, added a smoke generator for firefighting operations, and added some missing flip down landing lights on the wings and external night lighting. As well as that different included belly mapped version. There are several liveries included from the stock aircraft including a blank white. But the rest of the paints I've added are obviously those aircraft used in Firefighting. They include operators from the USA, Canada, and Australia. There are 11 addon liveries and I think a total of 13 or 14 overall including the stock and all white paints. The original liveries from the original Veneaviones Turbo Commanders will still work on this version. So if people wanted to move those over they could. Nothing else with them has been changed to any large degree and would still function as a civilian used one would be. No special modifications were done to these minus the smoke generator addition.

KBT P-3A Aerostar:
Most conversion work for this has been completed. I've added in bump mapping and all that wonderful PBR stuff for these too and it just bumps them up a notch I feel. KBT did a great job with these and just squeezing that extra bit of glamour out of them does a lot for these great models. I've also incorporated some of the updates from the Electra to them as well. External lighting was also updated quite a bit for them. The large amount of work remaining is doing the ton of repaints the Aero Union converted P-3s flew in in their years of service. There were 10 of them converted total. And they've flown in various stages of minor differences in paints, ownership, and markings. So I wanted to try and include all of the operational liveries they've flown in. So there's quite a few of them. 23 or 24 paints to do I believe. I'm more than half way through them. So as the Turbo Commanders release, these again, wont be much further behind them.

Convair CV-580:
This one I know a lot of people are probably looking forward to. I have done a lot of work on a prototype to add in some details and have successfully added actual windows to the fuselage of a tanker variant. I am starting with those first as they are my primary interest. But based on interest in the community I am extending the updates to the cargo and passenger versions of the 580. Also, I will be adding the variant to all versions of the ones equipped with the Hamilton Standard propeller instead of the Aero Products ones. So there will be versions of all 3 with the HS prop too. But not much else has been done on them. It's just been a passing project when I have the time between the other stuff I'm working on. It will pick up though once I get a lot of these others out of the way.