Virtavia Neptune for FSX

[511Flyer]

Hi JOhn. An interesting link to the RAF Neptune. The one with the large 36 on the fuselage, also sports the Sqdn badge just underneath the cockpit.

If you do manage to get one repainted, I'd love a copy.

[BobK]

I have the Virtavia P2V model and overall I'm quite happy with the purchase even though I bought it before it went on sale; at 50% off it would have been a real bargain. I own a number of planes from Virtavia, and I'd say it's about middle of the road for them; I have better from them (T-34C, Do217) and I have worse (won't mention names here).

As it happens I had an opportunity to crawl through the P2V owned by the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum in Reading, Pennsylvania this past weekend at their annual WW II weekend and while doing so took a couple pictures of the panel. Virtavia's is quite close to the original, including the powder blue color of the cockpit. The side panels were less accurate, but overall they did a very good job on it. Maybe the most notable difference is the model has switches for the landing lights etc on both the pilot's and copilot's yoke pedestals, while the prototype has them only on the pilot's pedestal. That's close enough, in my opinion.

Oh, and the real thing doesn't have the row of simicons on the upper left.

[J0hn]

Just reviving this old thread to mention that I found a number of UK repaints for the Neptune, though I can't remember where they were, I can upload them if required.

I'm quite sure that at least a couple are fictional coastal command repaints (maybe because it's the wrong variant of the Neptune) but they do look nice.

Some screenshots to follow, I think.

[J0hn]

Here we are - painter given as Dave Gore:













Well I like 'em!

[DaveB]

Y E S.. W E L L..

IMO (which isn't worth much I know).. I think he'd have done better going for late Shack or Nimrod schemes. The first one would have looked better had the panel lines been toned down but I'm still not struck on the 'Coastal Command Camo' type paint on the Neptune. The second is very Neptune. The last one.. lets just say it doesn't work for me in any shape or form.

As long as you like 'em.. who the hell cares
ATB
DaveB

[J0hn]

Yes, I agree - the middle one is the only one that looks like a realistic representation. The third one is supposed to be a training scheme.

Compared to some of the real paint jobs I've seen on non-UK Neptunes I think all three have something going for them!

[511Flyer]

If you do upload them John, I'll gladly take them. I managed to snip two schemes from the 36 Sqdn image page on Google.





As you can see, the first one is the same dark blue as the first repaint. There is even a Squadron badge. May even be 36, but too small to see in screenshots.

Dennis. Ex 36Sqdn. (and 511)

[J0hn]

Hi Dennis

I'll upload them after dinner

I'll also have a look and see if I can change the paint on that blue one to something resembling the original. Depends on how they've arranged it.

[J0hn]

Here ya go, Dennis - and anyone else who wants them:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B467nN ... sp=sharing

Only 1.88MB zip file, so a quick download. Might be able to do it with Ctrl-S. I can, but I don't know if that's because I uploaded it or not.

Important!

Right then - these bloody things are rubbish!

Why? - Simple:

1: He has used dds files, where all the current ones are bmp.
2: He has referred to texture files such as *.common and *.shared, when they don't exist.
3: Even if they did exist, they would be in the right format (bmp) whilst his are in the wrong format (dds).

I bloody hate when guys do this, I've lost count of the wallies who've wasted my time with it.

You are welcome to download them and do any format converting etc that you like, of course - I'll leave the file on my Google Drive.
As is, you will get black props, black glass, various other textureless bits, including 90% of the VC cabin.

Sorry, Dennis.

[DaveG]

FSX will read either BMP or DDS. DDS is more efficient and is most common