Thunderbolt

[Ivan]

Hello All.

Attached is a fairly major update of my Republic P-47D-27 Thunderbolt that was released a few years ago.
Since then, the original seems to have disappeared from the libraries.
The version here has had a few improvements from the last (and possibly only) release but really needs a few more checks and updates before it meets current standards.
A re-release is in the plans but all the other changes that are needed may take a while.

The most obvious changes are
Textured Engine
Improved shape of the Canopy Frame

and of course the Alpha Transparent Canopy Glass needed by Aleatorylamp and his friend Udo.

- Ivan.

[smilo]

my old copy is on a now defunct hard drive.
am happy to have this updated version.
thank you, Ivan.

am now looking forward to Udo's shiny textures.

[Ivan]

Hello Smilo,

I believe I might still have a copy of "Smilo's Hammer" on a flash drive somewhere.
I will send it to you if I find it.
Just keep in mind that although this is better than what I released years ago, it has a lot of little things wrong with it when compared to the information that I have today.
It is just a SCASM update of the version that was sitting on my Game Computer because Aleatorylamp and Udo needed one really badly. The updates for CFS would not even show up in FS 98, so I didn't think it would matter to them.

From what I can tell, the first version was released in 2003 and I did some updates in 2011 and that was probably the last time I touched it.

From what I have been reading recently about the differences in propellers, there are probably a few things that need reviewed.

- Ivan.

[smilo]

understood...
i'm still happy to have the visual update
and will wait for the air file improvements.
as you said, it's been a long time.
so long in fact, "smilo's hammer"
has left my memory banks.
sorry, i don't remember it.

[aleatorylamp]

Hello Ivan,
Well, thank God that with AF99 et al (SCASM, AA, etc.) you don´t
get glue or paint drying up when you´re interrupted - although you
do loose concentration...

So now with the older kids there´s more time, and also, with the
greater amount of more exact information available I ´m sure that
re-taking the Thunderbolt for further attention will be an enjoyable
and well worth-while challenge.

Cheers,
Aleatorylamp

[Ivan]

understood...
i'm still happy to have the visual update
and will wait for the air file improvements.
as you said, it's been a long time.
so long in fact, "smilo's hammer"
has left my memory banks.
sorry, i don't remember it.

Hello Smilo,

Last night, I was working on my version of Eric Johnson's P-39D and was looking for the some files.
Ivan's Workshop is a very large place and there are many places that don't get visited very often.
In a remote storage area of the Workshop, I found a crate with an interesting label on it.
It was too small to contain a complete Aeroplane or Project but looked like a bunch of pieces to a Razorback Thunderbolt.
The pieces were to a very old (probably initial release) of the P-47D-23 Thunderbolt which has been out of production for a very long time.
This was around 2:00 AM, so my Engineers and Technicians were all rather annoyed when I called them up to see what could be done with what we had.
Although that particular D-23 was out of production, the team looked to see if those old pieces could be completed with spares from the current (soon to be replaced) P-47D-23.

The current production airframe parts actually fit without any great problems and the result is what can be seen in the screenshots.

Not all the correct pieces have been located yet.
No one wanted to hang around for more than a general "Proof of Concept".
Armament and wiring for the Instrument Panel are not yet complete.
The Factory Test Pilots are also complainng that this Aeroplane does not have a correct standard Canopy Interior or the current standard "Alpha-Glass" Canopy for better visibility.

This really is a beautiful model and all I can really claim is that I provided the canvas for the artwork.

- Ivan.

[Ivan]

One of the details that is visible in the textures for "Smilo's Hammer" is that the textures for the inboard and outboard sides of the Main Wheels are the same. On my original model, the inboard side was covered by a disc and looked about the same as the outboard. On this model (and on the P-47D-25), the inboard side of the wheels do not have a cover and the spokes are exposed. The outboard side of the main wheels does not show spokes in any version.

This was one of the reasons the textures needed to be rearranged. The original wheel texture was shared for both the inboard and outboard sides.

One of the other things that was missing was the Interior of the Canopy Frame.
The first screenshot shows the modified version which is dimensioned slightly different from the exterior Canopy Frame.
It needs to be different because sometimes polygons that line up well in an Exterior view do not line up as well on an Interior view.
Once the displayed Component looks good from the inside, it is switched from "Regular" to "Smooth".
The switch to "Smooth" causes the interior of each Part to disappear and only the outside Parts remain visible.
The next step is to run a program to reverse the facing of each Part so that it face inward instead of outward.

The second screenshot shows the interior view after the flipping of the Component is done.

The third screenshot shows the exterior view of the Component that now has no outward facing polygons.
This is always an odd thing to look at. It appears to be facing in a direction that it is not. Not many things in the physical world have an inside but not an outside.

- Ivan.

[aleatorylamp]

Hello Ivan,
Not to worry. Obviously, the comment about textures being unaffected would
only be applicable to minor changes, and the situation is different now,
so I wouldn´t say it was either arrogant or foolish.

My Dad used to say:
"Firstly, things happen differently, and secondly, than what one expects."

The updated model will be a different one, and once it is ready, should Udo want
to make updated Dottie Mae textures for it, it can be done separately. For the
moment he is very busy workwise, and I have no news as to his progress. He also
wanted to prepare two unarmed Ju52´s for FS98, so I don´t know how he´s doing.

Anyway, we´ll take it as it comes - don´t let it disturb you!
Cheers,
Aleatorylamp

[Ivan]

Hello Aleatorylamp,

Here is a little history....
Back in 2002, my second child was born.
When the second child (my Son) came along, I had to give up my hobby of plastic modelling.
With two children and two parents, all hobbies had to be instantly interruptible.

A conversation might go like this:

Michael is crying, can you check his diaper! (Note that this is NOT a question.)

I need to hold these pieces together for a couple minutes while the glue sets!
or
I need to clean my brushes first! (Exclamations because it is difficult to be heard over a crying baby if you don't yell.)
Can you go check him?

No, I am giving your Daughter a bath!

......

Two or three hours later, after figuring out why there was a general baby fault, I come back to a couple dried paint brushes and paint jars or a part that sagged and isn't on straight.
After a few of those events, I realised that I could not continue that hobby while the kids were small and needed attention.

A little while after that is when I started building aeroplanes for Combat Flight Simulator.
This Thunderbolt was done about a year after I started building and was probably the fourth or fifth project and at this point the lack of experience shows up in a few places. I am finding many of those issues now with the project as I attempt to update it.

- Ivan.

[aleatorylamp]

Hello Ivan,
Thank you very much for your efforts, but it still didn´t work.
The problem persisted, and apparently it is MY fault for not having
fully examined the FS98 transparency display possibilities.

What I had reported for the Ju52 Canopy windows was correct. They
were displaying correctly in FS98 as Smooth Components tagged with
AA´s Alpha Transparency 179.

However, not in this case - I don´t know why! As soon as the component
is tagged as Smooth in AF99, with or without AA Alpha Transparency 179,
it shimmers opaquely in FS98 (although it´s OK in CFS1, of course).

The only way it works is with a REGULAR Component WITHOUT Alpha Transparency!

Anyway, with MDLVUE.EXE I saw that the P47D-27 canopy component had 48 parts,
and I built a similar one with AF99, (it had 50 points), tagging it with all possible
transparency options, and SCASMed the lot.

So I easily found the canopy in the SCASM listing, and I found one with 51 points,
whose position looked OK, and I put in the correct colouring options and turned the
ShadedPolys to just Polys.

It worked JUST FINE!! Here are 2 Screenshots taken from the Win98 computer with
FS98! Absolutely wonderful!

With reference to what you commented on the other thread, I´ll respect copyright
(and I´ll write in the line at the beginning of the SCASM code), and tell UDO he can
get on with the new textures.

Thank you very much!
Cheers,
Aleatorylamp

[Ivan]

Hello Aleatorylamp,

I am glad you got it working.
I never would have tried "Regular" Components because they will cause a slight bleed problem through the Canopy Frame.
With "Sharp" or "Smooth" Components, the inside polygon are not displayed, but they are with Regular which means the inside of the opposite side of the Canopy would show through a few things....
I can't see it in your screenshots though.

I also would not have done it because a Regular Component will be visible from inside the Cockpit, but I suspect this is not a great concern with FS 98. At some point, I will probably need to set up FS 98 for better display options as you seem to have done on your machine.

With all the reviews of Propeller Designs for the Thunderbolt, I am starting to think that the shape of the Asymmetrical propeller on my version could use some improvement. The tips look a little too broad in comparison to the others.
From further reading, there appear to have actually been 5 different propellers used.
1. Curtiss Wright Low Activity Factor
2. Hamilton Standard Paddle Blade
3. Curtiss Wright Paddle Blade
4. Curtiss Wright Asymmetrical Blade
5. Curtiss Wright Paddle Blade with Tapered Propeller Cuffs.

I don't know yet if the last version was just a change in propeller cuffs or in the entire blade.
These were apparently fitted to the P-47M and P-47N and I was planning on building a couple of those eventually.
(I get distracted easily!)

For what it's worth, there were apparently two different P-47D-28's.
The Farmingdale version apparently used the Curtiss Paddle Blade propellers while the Evansville version used the Curtiss Asymmetrical Blade Propellers.

I would like to find a few tech drawings of the blades to do a comparison.

- Ivan.

[aleatorylamp]

Hello Ivan,
So it´s getting even better than what we thought before.
Sounds excellent! ...even though it seems rather more complicated
than initially expected.

For the new metallic texture issue, there´s absolutely no hurry anyway.
Udo is under such work pressure, that it´ll be a while yet before he can
start work on the new Dottie Mae textures.

Cheers,
Aleatorylamp

[Ivan]

Hello Aleatorylamp,

Actually I really wasn't concerned about Udo's "Dottie Mae".
He has his canvas and that is really the end of my involvement on that project.

As I commented in my prior post, there actually will be no really significant visual changes other than Zinc Chromate on the Tail Gear Doors and possibly a set of spoked Main Wheels.
The changes are mostly for greater ease in building future Thunderbolt projects.
These are the kinds of things I do on current projects in the planning stage, but back in 2003, these were not issues I was thinking about.

There are a bunch more small changes that also probably won't be noticeable unless I point them out but as the plastic modelers say:
"I'll know they are there!"

- Ivan.

[Ivan]

Hello Folks,
The remapping of textures is going fairly slowly but it is progressing.
Most of the "necessary" changes have been made at this point.
There are only a couple more items that need to be moved around between texture files.
The number of texture files has gone from 11 to 15.

The appearance of the model is almost exactly as it was before I started.....

So....
One might wonder why I would go through this effort to remap textures when the overall appearance remains the same.
The main reason is that I want to be able to easily develop more versions of the Thunderbolt and the current mapping only worked for the current versions.

The first indication that I would need at least one extra texture file was when the Propeller Hub and Fairing did not fit into any of the other texture files without colliding with something else. In the Razorback's textures, there simply was no room at all.

Next, this rework is intended to represent the P-47D-25.
Early versions of the Thunderbolt mostly had disk wheel covers as shown on my current models.
Later versions tended to leave off the wheel covers and show spoked wheels.
The current version uses just one pair of textures to represent both Main Wheels, so the inboard and outboard textures need to be identical.
There was no room for another Main Wheel texture.

Current build standards also require an internal Canopy Frame which needs its own texture.

Just as in the case of the Main Wheels, the Tail Gear Doors shared textures.
This meant that the inboard side of each door had to be the same as the outboard side.
This prevents applying Zinc Chromate as a corrosion inhibitor to the interior of the doors.
There is a much worse problem though.
On a monochrome all gray aeroplane, everything looks fine but if someone wanted to apply a contrasting colour to the underside of the tail, the interior of the doors would also get coloured the same way.
Stripes on the inside of the Tail Gear Doors would look pretty silly.

The P-47D-30 had Dive Recovery Flaps installed. Additional texture space for these Dive Flaps would have been easy even with the exiting texture files.

Starting with the P-47D-40, a Fin Fillet was added to increase directional stability. This was often retrofitted to older machines.
The Fin Fillet on some versions appears to extend from the Fin to the rear of the Canopy which means that there needs to be texture space for an object that is up to 10.5 feet long.

The last version of the Thunderbolt, the P-47N, had a much longer Wing Center section to accommodate additional internal fuel tanks.
While the texture files for the Inner Wing would allow for the stretch, the Flaps were mapped in such a way that there was no additional room and any stretching would need a remap anyway because the outboard edge was on the edge of the texture file.

If I intend to build more versions of the Thunderbolt, my choice would have been to make changes as I needed them at which point there would be substantial differences in mapping between each version or to make all the anticipated changes at this point and only adjust textures for different versions. There will always be some differences in mapping between the Razorback and Bubble Top versions that are unavoidable because the pieces are so different between the two versions.

The attached screenshot shows a mostly successful update.
I seem to have forgotten to move the mapping for the Aileron Trim Tab.

- Ivan.

[aleatorylamp]

Hello Ivan,
Yes indeed, I´m glad as well! ...and thanks for the coaching! With your comments
I was able to search for the right solution! The machine displays perfectly in FS98 now!

I used the original P47D-27 from the Freeflight Site, because my FS98 won´t
work with the .bmp textures on the model you included in the previous post.

It is extremely strange (but also interesting and noteworthy) how many unexpected
differences and restrictions there are in FS98 display characteristics. They seem to
be inconsistent and don´t always happen!

All the different possibilities offered by AF99 and Aircraft Animator for components
always work perfectly in FCS1, but not so in FS98. Only one always works with this
model. For others, another combination also works, but only sometimes!

Anyway, I have written in your name into a Copyright line at the top of the SCASM
listing, which is present in the Model Directory. I have also used your Readme.txt to
include a short note relative to my FS98 Cockpit Glass adaptation, and have instructed
Udo accordingly.

Well then! As soon as Udo does the new textures, I´ll be very happy to provide them!
Cheers,
Aleatorylamp

[Ivan]

Hello Aleatorylamp,

I don't know if you noticed, but I included the R8 .?AF files in the texture directory of ZIP file attached here.
I don't think the simulator cares what the files are actually called, so if you rename the .?AF files to their equivalent BMP names, it should have worked just fine.
Alternatively, a trip through a Hex Editor would have cured the problem with File Naming if you absolutely wanted to have them in the typical PITA FS 98 naming convention.
The CFS model doesn't need those files, but I thought you might be able to use them.
The model attached here is better than what is on the FreeFlight site, but it is your choice which to use. Neither one is perfect.

My approach to finding the Canopy for reworking in SCASM was a much lower tech approach than yours.
The Windscreen / Fixed glass sections at the front look a bit strange in your screenshots.
There should be no differences between that and the glass in the sliding section because all of those pieces are the same Component.

I guess with all this attention and review, the Thunderbolts will get a rework and possibly a couple brothers and maybe a even a brother that could have been.

Many years ago, someone asked for a P-47D-30.
The earlier P-47B would help us use up the supply of early Curtiss Electric propellers....
I was already thinking of a P-47N and the Hotrod P-47M.
I have always liked the look of the XP-47J that never made it to production.
It reminds me very much of the Mitsubishi J2M Thunderbolt.

- Ivan.

[aleatorylamp]

Hello Ivan,
Not to worry! I know the changes are more for future variants
you are planning, not for Udo´s planned new textures.
I only mentioned it just in case it was causing some hassle.
Anyway, I´ll upload the existing model with new textures once
they are done, whenever that may be!!
Cheers,
Aleatorylamp

[Ivan]

As mentioned before, the visible differences will be minor.
Here is a comparison between the original texture mapping and the new texture mapping.
The two difference are the Tail Gear Doors and the Main Wheels.

The Wheel textures actually took two tries. I made up a set last night and was planning to overlay them onto the appropriate files this evening. Unfortunately, I managed to do something stupid and overwrote them on the flash drive before I could use them.
They were not that hard to redo but the original version was slightly better.

In the earlier version, if a spoke texture was applied to the inboard side of the Port Wheel, it would also appear on the outboard side of the Starboard Wheel. This would not work well because the inboard and outboard sides are different when the hubs are not covered with a flat plate.

Many little things still left to do before starting on the revised Flight Model.

- Ivan.

[Ivan]

Hello All,

Last night, after poking around in another project for a while, I decided to take the D-25 Thunderbolt up for a bit of "Fun Flying".

As some folks may already know, the old Development Computer I had been using died recently with what appears to be a failed Motherboard. It had been having intermittent errors and Video and I/O lockups for a while before it finally died.
One of the big problems with working on the D-25 version of the Thunderbolt was that the Aircraft Factory 99 / Aircraft Animator combination would not always generate a useable model and Combat Flight Simulator would often crash or lockup for no apparent reason.

Until last night, I thought I had a clean build for the D-25 but the first Screenshot shows otherwise.
The rebuild cycle was actually quite fast with the updated Development Computer and things look a it better on the second Screenshot.

I also made a minor adjustment to the AIR file, but that subject is worthy of a new Thread.

- Ivan.

[aleatorylamp]

Hello Ivan,

OK, very good! I´ll go over the steps you mention so as to get the
model you posted yesterday to work perfectly too!

For one, it has the cylinder texture on the engine, and then, I noticed
the difference with the windshield transparency that you say.

I´ll let you know how it goes with the SCASM correction to turn the
ShadedPolys to just Polys.

Update:
OK, I found the Canopy Code - it had a few more points, and I only had
to change the Shadedpolys to Polys. The canopy is fine now on the new
model, and the windscreen is the same shade as the rest of the canopy!
Now I just have to sort out the Textures.

Let´s see! Thanks a lot again!

Update 2:
I renamed all the instances of the bitmap textures in the SCASM code
to .Xaf textures, and also renamed all the .bmp textures to .Xaf ones,
with the same numbering (because the textures on the older model are
numbered differently), but unfortunately the texture spread is all wrong,
and that´s something I´m afraid can´t fix from my end.

Anyway, I corrected the colour shading on the aft canopy of the older
model. Now there´s no difference with the windscreen, so at least that
one´s fixed. Here I have did two tries: The normal more milky white shading
and a softer one, which I think I prefer. as the pilot is more clearly visible.

I´m very satisfied how this model has turned out, even if it is the older one,
and I don´t want to bother you with any further texture spread fixing on the
newer one, so I think we can leave it be now!

Thank you very much for your consideration and help!

Cheers,
Aleatorylamp

[Ivan]

Hello Aleatorylamp,

The numbering of the .?AF files has always annoyed me.
It is pretty much unpredictable. I believe it comes from the order the textures are used in the model.

What I have chosen to do is to name the BMP files in the same order as I did the PCX files so that finding them is easier.
Converting them to the .?AF files would have been easy.
Find ...0.BMP - This is usually the Pilot.
rename it to ....0.R8
or
rename it to ....something.0AF

Do this about 10 more times and that should be about it.
I do something pretty similar the first time I edit the SCASM code for a MDL.
With Find / Replace in a Text editor, it should take under 5 minutes.

Are there any good FS 98 Thunderbolts out there?

- Ivan.

[aleatorylamp]

Hello Ivan,
Regarding FS98 Thunderbolts out there, I have only found one at Simviation
with octagonal fuselage cross-section and rather triangular, non-transparent
canopy. I suppose it is an FS5 style model. Then there´s a CFS1 camo RAF
model with uninhabited transparent canopy, but rather angular cross-section
fuselage. Probably an early FS98 model.

Well, back to business: I had done it and got the numbering ordered correctly
alright, but renaming the bitmap files to .Xaf files didn´t cure the spread.

However, following your comments just now with a bit of lateral thinking,
I decided to re-convert the .Xaf ex-bitmap files into real .Xaf texture files,
with the same names, and it worked perfectly!!

See attached screenshot. It IS an impressive looking model indeed!
It has a real "no messing about" look to it, doesn´t it?

Now the only thing to take into account is to watch out that one doesn´t
load the new model into FS98 right after the old one: It has identical texture
names, and will mess up the textures because it uses the ones from the
previously loaded model. It needs to have a different model loaded in-between,
to avoid this extra idiotic FS98 glitch!!

WOW! So now I have two... I think I prefer the new one with the textured engines,
so I´ll send it to Udo as well.

Thank you for your prolongued help. I hope it has not been too much of a bother!

I bet Smilo will be glad! As soon as I get the new "Dottie Mae" textures from Udo,
we´ll have to decide on how to go about it for the release of the CFS1 version,
but there´s time for that.

Cheers,
Aleatorylamp

[Ivan]

Hello Aleatorylamp,

I am not sure if you figured this out, but the earlier Thunderbolt ALSO has a textured Engine.
I just never put in a detailed texture at the time.

At least one person out there figured out that the Engine face was actually a textured Part and created a set of textures for it based on a photograph. I did my own version a few years later.

I am telling you this because all you really need to do is to copy the relevant section of the texture image from the new P47D27 to the old aeroplane and everything should display correctly. I don't believe I altered the texture mapping between them.
As I was hinting at earlier, the texture mapping on this model seems to work pretty well, so unless there is some radical change, I do not expect to change it. Thus, if a texture set works on one model, it will work on all of them back to the version from 2003.
(I may try to sneak in the mapping for the interior Canopy Frame if there is room in the existing files though.)

The Thunderbolt was quite sturdy.
Sometimes it was silly how strong they made things.
As an example, on most aeroplanes, the landing gear cannot be lowered above about 120 MPH because aerodynamic loads may damage it. On the Thunderbolt, the limit is more like 250 MPH.

Post some screenshots of the other Thunderbolts if you have them. I am curious what the competition is.
I know there is a pretty well made version of the Razorback Thunderbolt out there but it does not load on my Game machine at all. Presumably the model is too complex. I like mine better but that is mostly because it is mine.

- Ivan.

[aleatorylamp]

Hello Ivan,
I like your models more too. All the existing ones are more primitive, being built some years ago.

I don´t know about the other razorback models. I can´t get into Flightsim, who usually have lots of stuff, so there may be more there. However, probably it will be the same as with the bubbletops.

To be more detailed for these: Unanimated propellers, some with only circles, dirty-looking used, stained textures (there was a fashion at the time, so as not to make them pristine factory-new), and debatable .air files. One even had 4000 Hp...

I had found two old P47d´s, and didn´t like any of them, so I deleted them. If you still
want screenshots, I´d have to download them again. I got both at Simaviation, the FS98
one and the CFS1 one.


I had trouble adapting the CFS1 .air file to FS98, so I used the 4000 Hp one, putting in all the text files that yours had, and altering the MOI´s a bit, as well as toning it down to 2300 Hp.
At the moment it is giving me a maximum 420 mph at about 1000 ft. I suppose this would be a bit much, because it should be the performance for about 20000 ft, I suppose. And, taking into account that FS98 won´t accept superchargers, higher up it will go down.

Of course, I did notice the black oval of the front-interior looking at the texture bitmaps - and it would have been a piece of cake, of course, to slip in the piston textures you had on the new version.

I saw that the recently posted new version has been updated because the name of the -zip file his a different number, the hour on the .mdl files differ. Anyway, I used the first posted one which ended up displaying very well. I like the sturdy looking design! It seems to have been the heaviest fighter around.

So, now the question is: Which one shal I tell Udo to use?
The older model I got displaying properly, or the newer one I also got going well?
Personally, apart from the different engine texture, I really can´t tell the difference.

Cheers,
Aleatorylamp

[Ivan]

Hello Aleatorylamp,

Actually my Thunderbolts are pretty old too. I probably did the Razorback version first and then the Bubbletop.
The first was done in late 2003 and other than SCASM stuff and minor detail such as the engine texture, BMP textures and such, it hasn't really been changed to any great extent.

The only real visible difference I can remember is the Canopy Frame by the Pilot' Shoulder.
It is way too low on the first version and the shape isn't quite right. I don't know that it is correct even now, but it is better.

I don't know much about adapting a CFS flight model to FS 98.
I suspect there are a lot of things that won't translate well because I don't believe the two simulators handle Stability and Engine Torque in quite the same way. You obviously already know about the lack of Superchargers.
Note that P-47 that are flying today generally do not have the Turbocharger operational, so you would really be dealing with a Single Stage supercharger anyway and would not be hitting the typical 430 MPH at around 30,000 feet if it had the "Auxiliary" blower working.

On a non-release archive, I put the date it was created as part of the file name.
The MDL differs because I had to SCASM it to put in the Alpha Transparency feature you were looking for.

When I download stuff, I generally store the ZIP files as they came.
When I find that an aeroplane isn't quite what I want to keep using, I don't actually delete it.
I just change the name of "AIRCRAFT.CFG" file to "AIRCRAFT.Disabled". and leave it in place.
There are occasions in which I may want to look at it again and most of them don't take much space.

I wanted to do a comparison between the Me 109E TROP that I edited and some of the other versions that were based on Richard Osborne's AFX a while back and that is when I re-enabled the fidgety 109E that I posted in a screenshot.
I was actually looking at the model to see if the "Original" had as many bleeds and weirdness on the underside as I remembered.

If a MDL is generally pretty good but for one or two really goofy features, it is quite possible to go in and replace the objectionable piece as you just did for the P-47D-27. That is what I did on a few MDLs as practice in moving around in SCASM code. I figure this isn't breaking anyone's copyright as long as the result is not publicly distributed.

I do find this shimmering effect on the Canopy in FS 98 quite puzzling.
Note that the Propeller Blurs also have the equivalent of "Alpha Transparency" and do not show a shimmering effect.

- Ivan.