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I have begun the odyssey of a new and improved Thorp T-18. When I was a kid back in the late 60's my Dad built his first one. It took about 5 years to build, and according to his logbook it had it's first flight on April 27, 1972. I'm pretty sure that's me off to the side in this picture...
We flew that plane for many years. Dad decided to sell it when he was not able to fly it enough to maintain proficiency. Over the years we built and flew a Pietenpol Aircamper (modeled that one too). Dad started work on another Thorp in the mid 90's, and in 2004 Dad put his Magnum Opus into the air.
Dad and I about to depart the Cactus Fly-In, April 2012.
This is the plane that got me started modeling 20 years ago using FlightShop. I kept working on it trying to overcome assorted limitations of the different sim versions over the years. It was not until FSX came out that I could actually see the VC quality level I had envisioned for years actually become reality. I decided to use his last build as the final version of my model. The sad part was that at the time the sim pretty much sucked at rendering reflections on a flat surface. I never released a polished aluminum version. It just looked bad.
When P3D V3 came out with dynamic reflections I ran a test and was very happy to see something resembling reality using a very chrome looking material. After my Dad passed away I have wanted to revisit the project and have the polished aluminum version included. This time I am armed with better reference material and a lot of improved modeling skills. I thought it would be interesting to compare the old with the new...
There are a lot of things I will be able to use from the original model, and all of the custom animations carry over. I intend to rework some textures, but at this point texture mapping and creation has become second nature for me. I'm hoping that I can crank this out fairly quickly.
We flew that plane for many years. Dad decided to sell it when he was not able to fly it enough to maintain proficiency. Over the years we built and flew a Pietenpol Aircamper (modeled that one too). Dad started work on another Thorp in the mid 90's, and in 2004 Dad put his Magnum Opus into the air.
Dad and I about to depart the Cactus Fly-In, April 2012.
This is the plane that got me started modeling 20 years ago using FlightShop. I kept working on it trying to overcome assorted limitations of the different sim versions over the years. It was not until FSX came out that I could actually see the VC quality level I had envisioned for years actually become reality. I decided to use his last build as the final version of my model. The sad part was that at the time the sim pretty much sucked at rendering reflections on a flat surface. I never released a polished aluminum version. It just looked bad.
When P3D V3 came out with dynamic reflections I ran a test and was very happy to see something resembling reality using a very chrome looking material. After my Dad passed away I have wanted to revisit the project and have the polished aluminum version included. This time I am armed with better reference material and a lot of improved modeling skills. I thought it would be interesting to compare the old with the new...
There are a lot of things I will be able to use from the original model, and all of the custom animations carry over. I intend to rework some textures, but at this point texture mapping and creation has become second nature for me. I'm hoping that I can crank this out fairly quickly.