The A2A Simulations Community

Hello everyone, my name's Neil. I didn't get into to FS9 until a year or so ago and I was given the Shockwave WOP P-51D/H disc as Christmas gift this past year. First let me say how very impressed I am with the sim. Until I got the WOP Mustang I had been using Warwick Carter's handsome P-51D and thoroughly enjoyed it, but the WOP P-51 bumped things up to a whole new level. The cockpit is a work of art and the flight model has taught me a great deal about the real-world aircraft (especially about how weight is such an important factor in the aircraft's handling and manuverability. I'm treating her as if she was a modern day warbird, so I always have to remind myself to delete the fuselage fuel, guns, and ammo). I also think the sound files are first rate. My compliments to the Shockwave team for producing such a superb FS2004 aircraft are heartfelt and sincere; from a lifelong Mustang fanatic I say a hearty "Bravo, Shockwave!"

Now, on to my questions...

First, is it possible to use the skins that many skin artists are producing for the Shockwave WW2 Fighters Mustang on the WOP Mustang? I've found a couple (by Bomber_12th) that seem compatible for both sims, but many for the WW2 Mustang that do not. There was one for Dennis Bradley's long-lost CF-BAU that used to fly out of the CWH Museum at Mount Hope, Ontario as well as a 339th FG Mustang "Worry Bird" that I wanted to use but neither seemed to show up when I went to use them.

Second: skinning. Where's the best place I can learn to make some for myself? I'm eager to learn. I have both PhotoShop 7.0 and PaintShopPro PhotoXI on my system. I did tinker with a 339th FG skin for my own use, but I found that the lettering on the noseart came out somewhat pixilated and coarse looking (see attached image). Can any one recommend a font library that would be suitable, as well as files for WW2 US Stars and Bars and Canadian postwar roundels?

Finally, and this is more of a general FS9 question, is there any way at my end to eliminate the "forward creep" that occurs when doing the warm up, mag check, or prop govenor check while the parking brake is engaged?

Cheers,

Neil H.
Whitby, Ontario

PS. If Shockwave decides to go ahead with a T-6/SNJ Texan/Harvard sim, I'll be one of the first guys standing in line to fire it up

Parking brakes are useless, they are usually broken in the first ten minutes of the plane's life. Use the toe brakes to hold her in place, they are much stronger.

1. The P-51H was only available with the first P-51 package, before Shockwave reworked the external model for the Wings of Power II series. Will skins for the new model work with the old model? I don't know offhand and without looking at the differences between textures sets, but this thread explains that the new model uses more external textures:
http://shockwaveproductions.com/forum/v ... hp?t=10032

2. Incidently, it was either the original release pack or the 1.1 patch that separated the Mustang model into 'combat' and 'civilian' variants as default options. The civilian variants were automatically weighted to be post-war surplus available to civilian pilots, so no guns, ammo or extra radio equipment. The 1.2 patch eliminated the civilian model configuration. I'm sure I still have the 1.1 patch in my archive...

3. There are several 'skinning' tutorial sites that serve a variety of air sims. I know some have downloads like fonts and national markings on PSD files. Here is a link to get you started:
http://www.simmerspaintshop.com/

4. The WoP manual for the Thunderbolt pack says you have to hold down the wheel brakes key while the plane is idling to avoid the creeping. The same advice may apply to the Mustang although I couldn't find it in writing.

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I like Thunderbolts! (Link to MySpace tribute page)


120th Fighter Wing, Montana Air National Guard

Is this the image you were trying to link?

_________________
I like Thunderbolts! (Link to MySpace tribute page)


120th Fighter Wing, Montana Air National Guard

It is standard ops on nearly all prop aircraft to hold the brakes while checking mags.

"For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction."
-Newton's Third Law of Motion

A simple way to overcome this is to set the parking brake. If you are looking for another way to make it so this doesn't happen in FS, then I don't see how as this is hard coded into the air file.

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I've done quite a few repaints for the Shockwave Mustangs, and the simple answer is 'NO'. The D/H model has lower resolution textures (it uses 2 texture files) while the WWII Fighters model has higher resolution textures (5 texture files). The lo-res ones are useable on the WWII version (if this came with the lo-res model), but not the other way round. Some of the paints I did were lo-res, and can be used on both models, but most of them are for the WWII version only. In principle, I've always mentioned this when I uploaded the paints, and so did Bomber 12th/*SPAM*. The ones you can use should then be marked 'for the Shockwave P-51D/H model" or "for both the WoP and WWII models".

Jan kees

The parking brake is not as powerful as the toe brakes and I personally have never used a parking brake when performing a runup. They are just unreliable in general and not strong enough to hold a plane under power. They are barely good enough to hold the plane in place when parked with the engine off, that's why we have chocks.