Military AI Works

Following the suggestions I asked for, I decided to respond to the greatest number for a present-day aircraft. That was the Embraer KC-390.

The Brazilian air force have 6 operational so far, from an order of 22. Portugal has 1 from an order of 6. Other countries with the KC-390 on order for deliveries from 2026 onwards are, The Netherlands (5), Austria (4) and South Korea (3).

I now have the model made with all the animation working and tested in FSX and P3D:



The Brazilian aircraft are based at Anapolis (SBAN) near the capital Brasilia. Tim Collins is kindly making the scenery of the airfield for the two sim versions, but he is also providing AFCADs for other Brazilian destinations for the aircraft. According to the Scramble database, Anapolis is also home to the JAS F-39E Gripen (9), the Embraer E/R-99 (8) and the C-98 Cessna Caravan (30).

My intention is to follow the KC-390 with the E/R-99s. The Caravans are also doable with repaints of the AIG model. The problematic aircraft is the “E” model of the Gripen, that has a longer fuselage that the MAIW models currently available.

For now though, my next job is to design the texture sheet for the KC-390 and start the mapping to the model.......

John

great work John look forward to its release

Looking good, John. This is going to be a widely used one, with Hungary and Czechia also having ordered it and others sure to follow.

Jon

Wow amazing!! Also impressed how quickly that was made!! It seems you can build things quicker than I can MCX modify old stuff...

That does look nice.

Looks great, John!

But please forgive my ignorance - I thought the only Cessna Caravans were the HTAIs? Where would the AIG one be available?

Jorgen

Apologies, you are right Jorgen. I'm referring to the HTAI ones. I haven't really got that far yet.

John

Looking the part John, did more research and still question the IAE selection as I currently fly an aircraft with them. For the C208s, I was mistaken Morton had them already painted as he completed several S. American forces, I don't have FAB listed.

These are the KC/C-390 aircraft, painted up for Brazil (6) and Portugal (2). Although Portugal has just one aircraft in operation, the second one is due this year, so I have painted it in readiness for that. Brazil has 4 aircraft at Anapolis and 2 at Rio de Janeiro. I’ve just discovered that Brazil has the 3rd Rio aircraft due this year, so I will paint that too.

I have made 4 models:

• KC-390 with animated doors and wing pods

• KC-390 with doors closed, wing pods and engine covers

• C-390 with animated doors and no wing pods

• C-390 with doors closed, no wing pods and engine covers









All the aircraft feature working slime lights:



The main gear has the “toe-up” feature once airborne:



The top down and undersides of the aircraft were quite a challenge because I could find no detailed plans of those views. However, working from photographs, I think I have them right. It's a good looking aircraft:





Braking is assisted by animated spoilers and thrust reversers:



I have not included hoses and baskets trailing from the wing pods and triggered at altitude.

My thanks to those of you who suggested the KC-390. It was a bit of a challenge, but it was most enjoyable to do. Just the LODs to make and to set up the aircraft once Tim has completed his work with the associated scenery. I’ll move on to make the Embraer E and R-99s in the meantime.

John

Marvellous as always, John.

Very nice! I like this plane. With the tail shaped the way it is it looks to me like a mini C-17.

Edit: Forgot to ask, any PBR textures for P3D models?

Absolutely great, John!


Send from mobile hence short

This might be a good subject to experiment with PBR textures in P3D. I know how to make and apply PBR textures in MSFS (a lot of work) but I don't know if the process steps and settings are different in P3D. Apart from that my P3Dv5.3, sadly, does not render as well as FSX. It's very gloomy and looking at the default aircraft supplied by LM with PBR, I'm not impressed. It may be that I need help with a better settings set up, although I have tried several.

Let me do some more research. I will probably open a new thread in the Tutorials part of the forum to explore this some more, rather than hijacking this thread. If anyone is a dab hand in making PBR textures for P3D with MCX, could you PM me please?

John

Aside from extremely over-colored dusk and dawn and weird trees, I think P3Dv6 is a real winner. Also loading performance beats all earlier versions in my experience.


Send from mobile hence short

Wow ! Fast and great work again.


Just a little comment : The portugese models don't have the refueling pod under wings like the brazil ones.

I think that's because Portugal has only one aircraft and it's still in the evaluation stage. It is not a problem in any case, the model can be switched to Pods/no Pods in the aircraft.cfg file.

John

nice pics

John Young wrote: 06 Feb 2024, 21:58 I think that's because Portugal has only one aircraft and it's still in the evaluation stage. It is not a problem in any case, the model can be switched to Pods/no Pods in the aircraft.cfg file.

John

One is already in service.

But Portugal don't have any aircraft using this system for refueling. Their F-16 use the other system.

But if you have a model without pod, it's perfect

A fine looking Aircraft. Mr Young like a fine wine you improve with age/experience.

Looking forward to seeing this in my sim

I'm frantically trying to keep up with John on the scenery side! Really looking forward to seeing these at SBAN (and the other countries as they take their aircraft).