More "Warbirdie" Cockpit Mods and Repaint Updates (Download)

[Bomber_12th]

Inspired by Stiz's work, and spurred on by a message from JoeS745, last week I decided to put a temporary halt on repaints and just focus on making some VC texture modifications and updates to my existing repaints released thus-far.

As displayed below, I went about re-doing the gauge faces to match some of the various restorations I know and have covered, to provide the similar look/appearance (including WWII-era accurate limit markings on the gauges (a bit more limited than the modern gauges)). For instance, in the cockpit of the real restored G-TDJN, there is a mixture of modern and period instruments, but they were all re-faced to have a matching period look, with the radium-colored details, and that is what I strove for here. I have made two different sets of gauge textures, with the difference between them being the artificial horizon - in one option, the artificial horizon matches the appearance of the modern (but re-faced) artificial horizon in G-TDJN. The other option provided is a recreation of one of the common WWII American artificial horizons. Also, I re-did the canopy framing textures, painting them black (which all five of the Texans I have made repaints of so-far have), and while I was at it, I made a few other modifications to other cockpit items, to be a bit more WWII-era/warbird restoration correct (this also has included making changes to the VC glass textures to reflect the changes as well). Furthermore, I made some gray cockpit textures, with the other mods included, for my repaint of VH-NZH.

On top of the cockpit texture mods, both internal and external, I took the opportunity to make improvements to all five of my existing repaints, correcting items that I didn't find until after their release (such as some major corrections to the specular texture for G-TDJN, some added stencils for the Heave Ho and Fantasy of Flight repaints (as well as other improvements), and more).

I'm still trying to decided how to put this all up on the various flightsim library sites (it is a very large file set, altogether). For the time being, you can download the who kit-and-caboodle here (this includes everything/all five of my updated repaints, and you don't need to download anything else): (Link removed - current/updated files will be able to be found at Avsim, Flightsim, and Sim-Outhouse).


VC Texture Mods - Period and Refaced Modern Gauges Ver.1:





VC Texture Mods - Period and Refaced Modern Gauges Ver.2:





VH-NZH Updated Cockpit Textures:





New Period and Refaced Modern Gauges and VC Glass Textures With Default/Stock Cockpit Textures Option:




Various Screenshots:

[Bomber_12th]

Repaints Covered, Shown With Updates to Cockpit Textures and Other Imrpovements:

[Bomber_12th]

As noted in one of the text files included in the .zip file, for any repainters, please feel free to re-use any of the modified VC textures provided within these files for use with your own repaints.

Here are some conditions to take note of:

- In order to change the color of the interior canopy framing on the exterior model, you will need to make those changes in the t6_t.dds and t6_s.dds main textures.

- The external model cockpit utilizes the t6_c.dds file, and not the internal VC textures (which range from vc1.dds through vc8.dds).

- With the modified black canopy framing VC textures and gauge modifications, I have also modified the vc_glass.dds texture to reflect these changes (as seen in all of the repaints included). I have however also provided versions of the gauges and glass textures for use with the stock/default cockpit textures.

[pilottj]

Thanks for the updated cockpits John I think the old AI is more approriate too. I don't suppose the A2A boys can add a Cage knob to the AI, as it is a good idea to cage the AI prior to aerobatic flight.

[Bomber_12th]

Note also that the textures for the roll-bars have been modified on a few of these as well, painted interior green or gray, rather than black, matching the individual restorations.

[Bradburger]

Very nice work John.

Many thanks!

Cheers

Paul

[robert41]

Thanks John. A great aircraft is looking even better.

[JoeS475]

Oh wow, these are incredible John! Really adds so much to your already immaculate work... Time to go flying again!

Thanks,

Joe

[Lewis - A2A]

Great job, I do like it when its a double in and out repaint and hope the interior help files we provided will help with more and more of this

cheers,
Lewis

[Tim-HH]

What a great modification!

I was quite happy that A2A has chosen a modern cockpit with a GTN 650 an even an autopilot. But after a few flights I began to miss the classic WWII-era gauges. Your new textures bring a lot more atmosphere to the VC. Now I can enjoy the best of both worlds, so to speak

Thanks a lot for your stellar work, John!

Greetings
Tim

[Paul K]

I have yet to get the Texan ( will do this week, I promise ) but from a brief initial look at these mods, one thing immediately sticks out - the vintage A.I. That's exactly what was needed. Sorry, A2A, but the default Cessna-esque one looked a bit incongruous amongst the other instruments.

Thank you, John.

[bastins]

Yet more beautiful work from John. Thank you for these!

[Bomber_12th]

Thank you all for your messages and feedback!

Does anyone have any criticisms/critiques of the modifications? What you might like to see differently, or added?

There were a few small issues I spotted in my work on the grey cockpit textures for VH-NZH, that I have now corrected (mixture knob and throttle button). Also, when I was originally working on the canopy textures, I made the canopy handle red, as they are typically painted, but without any paint chips it didn't really look the part/match the rest of the cockpit. So I was working on adding some paint chips, but never was fully satisfied with the look, so I left the handle bare metal instead. I have however now been in the process of getting a nice paint-chipped red (and yellow) handle back on. All of these corrections/improvements will be included in the "Version 2" uploads of the above repaints to the main file library sites.

[rsgunner]

John

The modifications are great!

I see a lot of work has gone into them.

I have a request. Would make the psd green(zinc chromate) layer available as a download?

Russ

[bastins]

Does anyone have any criticisms/critiques of the modifications? What you might like to see differently, or added?

This could very well be my own misunderstanding, but the "Modern Re-Faced" and "WWII" artificial horizons both appear to be the same black and blue AI. Was the WWII AI perhaps intended to be the all-black version?

Other than that, I wouldn't mind seeing some PSD files as well if you'd be so willing . The vc_gauges in particular; it'd be nice to play with and vary the aging of the gauges.