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Repaint Kit for Challenger II by Bill Lyons

jackryan172 said:
Anybody know where I could find one? Is there anybody out there willing to do one for my bird?

Sean
Click to expand...

As far as I know Bill never made paint kits for any of his planes.

Worse, his texture mapping seemed to be done with the idea that nobody would ever want to repaint any of his planes. Things like mirrored sides and surfaces often make it impossible to paint hos planes with markings that are any different, at least n pattern and location, from what's on the original skins.

On the other hand, the Challenger should be simple to repaint within limits. so simple that there would be no point to having a paint kit. Simple because there's only one texture file for the entire plane; limited in that there are only one wing and one stabilizer side on the plane's single texture file, meaning that you won't be able to have different colors on the tops and bottoms, or any markings that would look backwards when mirrored on those surfaces.

The good news is that the fuselage sides and vertical tail are drawn and mapped separately, so you can put on things like registration numbers and they won't be backwards on one side. That presents unlimited possibilities. So, no paint kit required. Go to it!
 
OK for the next stupid question, can anyone recommend a how to for aircraft repaints? Im a complete newbie to this process, but Im willing to learn.

Sean
 
Do you have a program in which you can work with layered files? This makes things much easier!

Gimp is a freeware program which should do what you need. But there are many picture editing programs like photoshop which can do the same.

You can also make repaints with MSPaint, but this is very complex and the possibilities from paint are very limited.

The textures need to be saved in an exteded format before they can be use in FS2004. For this you need a program like DTX1 bitmap manipulator by Martin Wright.

When you google on "FS2004 repaint tutorial" you will find many tutorials.

Cheers,
Huub
 
jackryan172 said:
OK for the next stupid question, can anyone recommend a how to for aircraft repaints? Im a complete newbie to this process, but I'm willing to learn.
Sean
Click to expand...

I can't imagine a need for a multi-layered imaging progran for something as simple as this plane's single, very simple texture file.

Layers? LAYERS? We don' need no stinkin' layers! Not for this job anyway.

Layers are great if you're making a paint kit for others to use. For simple repaints they just bring in additional software to complicate an otherwise simple job.

This is an excellent example of a plane for a beginner to start with, using nothing more complex than MS Paint, like so many of us started with.

First, though, you have to get around the fact that MS made FS so that it can't "see" standard Windows 24-bit bitmaps. It can "see" 256 color bitmaps, but they severely limit your color choices. (256 colors sounds like a lot, but it isn't when you want shades that aren't among the 256.)

The only new piece of software you need is DXTbmp. freeware from Martin Wright Graphics:

http://www.mwgfx.co.uk/programs/dxtbmp.htm

Martin's DXTbmp page explains the program in such detail that it looks far more complicated than is is! You don't have to know how it works, just how to use it. Those instructions are in the program's Help files and are much simpler!

Don't forget to grab the DLL files that you'll need to make DXTbmp work:

http://www.mwgfx.co.uk/graphix.htm#dlls

Once again Martin explains more than you need to know on the DLL page, so don't be intimidated. You don't have to know how they work or what they do. Just download them, install them and forget about them.

If there's anything else you need to know you'll find it through Martin's home page:

http://www.mwgfx.co.uk/

DXTbmp comes with MS Paint as the default image editor. If you have something better that you'd rather use, you can easily select it as the editor. For a simple job like the Challenger, Paint should get you going just fine. I used it exclusively for a couple years and I still use it for simple tasks, which means the majority of pretty much every repaint I do. (I use Paint Shop Pro 7 for more complicated stuff, and very occasionally Sierra Snapshot Express. I don't think there will be any complicated stuff involved in repainting the Challenger.)

What DXTbmp does is allow you to work in a format that any graphics program can use (like regular Windows 24-bit bitmaps) and save them in a format that MSFS can see, like the DXT formats or high quality 32-bit extended format.

It also lets you work with the alpha channel. That controls either reflectivity or transparency, depending on which one the model is built to use, For the Challenger you can forget about the alpha channel. There is nothing on the Challenger that needs metallic reflections or transparency. You can learn about the alpha channel when you get into more complicated projects.

NOTE: Beware of DXT formats! All three DXT formats are very lossy formats, meaning that they become corrupt very easily, losing resolution and fidelity. Every time you work on a DXT file and save the changes it gets little more corrupt. Colors shift, and they shift unevenly across the image; odd jagged edges appear along angled lines, fine detail becomes fuzzy. BAH!

The solution is to always work in 32-bit extended format while you're saving changes and checking them out in the sim, then making further changes. If you have a very old confutor with very limited storage capacity, and/or that handles large texture files with difficulty, you might want to save your final product in DXT3 format, but make sure it's really your final product, because any further changes will lead to some corruption. If you have a fairly modern confutor, you can just keep your final textures in 32-bit format and they'll look amazingly crisp and clean on the model in the sim.

Another tip: DXTbmp allows you to save your textures with or without mipmaps. Set it to save without mips! Mipmaps are multiple versions of an image with more or less resolution. The idea, back in 2003, was that the confutors of the day were hard pressed to display a lot of detail, so as the plane got further from the eye point, lower resolution mipmaps would display and thereby reduce the demands on your system. This is seldom if ever an issue with modern confutors, but what IS an issue is low-res mips kicking in when the plane is too close to the eye point, making it look all soft and fuzzy. So, mipmaps? Mipmaps? We don' need no stinkin' mipmaps!

OK, so install DXTbmp and the DLL files, load up the Challenger's texture file, and have at it!

It's even less complicated than I've made it sound. Fiddle about to your heart's content and pretty soon it will all seem so simple that you'll be painting planes like crazy. Just try not to become so obsessed that you no longer have time for anything else.
 
Motormouse said:
No.. you need to zip dive it and read the readme.. someone got their Challengers mixed up
Ttfn
Pete
Click to expand...

Ah, I see. I never would've known that because I never would've thought to download the paint kit, even if I wanted to paint the plane, since the model is so simple to paint. As it is, I don't know why I ever bothered to get the model, since that whole genre of ultralight aircraft is far too modern to appeal to me. I've never flown it and probably never will.

I guess back in those days I thought I'd live forever and have time to fly every plane anyone ever modeled. Kinda like how in years past I thought I'd live forever and have infinite shelf space and would build every model that was ever produced in 1/72 scale. So I have a hangar drive filled with planes that I'll probably never fly, just as I have abasement full of plastic kits that I'll never build. At least I don't have any significant money invested in the digital models! About the only payware digital models I ever bought were the Lyons packages, and the Challenger is the only one of those that I ended up not maintaining interest in.

Anyone wanna buy some plastic kits cheap? Cheaper in bulk...
 
Well I made a go of it and butchered it up right proper. I am no artist I have discovered. My hats off to you all that can do it.

Anybody want to take on a "simple" paint?

Sean
 
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