MoD Boscombe Down for MSFS - looking for permission to add static English Electric Lightning model as "Gate Guardian"

[FlakNine]

Hi there - I'm still finding my way around here so I hope I'm asking in the right place. I've published a free MSFS scenery for MoD Boscombe Down (EGDM), it's over on fs.to if anyone is curious, but I'm not here to promote that!

Boscombe Down has an English Electric Lightning as its Gate Guardian. I've been looking for a model I can use in my scenery, and stumbled across https://militaryaiworks.com/download-ha ... 4-t-5-jyai, created by John Young. So I'm here looking for John, to see if I can get permission to use the xm172 liveried Lightning as a static model in my scenery. I'm simply not adept enough with Blender to make this from scratch myself, my scenery is mainly cobbled together from generic assets or shared libraries. I think I've figured out how to convert this to a static scenery model, but I'm defintely not going to include it in my scenery until I get permission. I can't send PMs - assuming this may be a restriction for new members - so I'm hoping John will spot this request!

BTW this is what I'm trying to recreate

[Firebird]

You have come to the right place. JY is on here quite often and I am sure that he will answer you as soon as he sees the post.

I have to say that I am impressed with what you have done with EGDM so far. I have flown out of it and it is a great relief to finally have HAS there rather than the default buildings.

Keep up the good work.

[John Young]

I can help you with that I think.

I can create an FSX native static model for you and place it on stands, if I can find some more pictures of the aircraft to see what the main stand looks like. I can also paint that scheme too.

All you then need to do is place the model in your scenery.

John

[FlakNine]

Thanks John, that's very kind to offer to tweak the livery and put it on stands, but I really don't think you need to go to that effort. Since I'm not making any Boscombe Down buildings from scratch, your excellent Lightning model is nestled among some shonky auto-gen buildings. Sadly MSFS doesn't include many suitable generic buildings I can use here - or at least none I've found by trawling through countless Asobo airports so far. So I don't think it's needed to make the Lightning an absolutely spot-on match - I'm OK with reusing a conversion of your existing model, with your approval! After all it's only going to be seen from the air by a few eagle-eyed pilots, not while taxiing around. Here's a few pics of it in situ, although as mentioned, I won't include your model in the published version without your OK.

BTW I'm sure I can repurpose some MSFS scenery object if I do want to have a simple representation of the stands.

[John Young]

No problem. If you are happy doing it that way, that's fine. You have my permission to include the model in the scenery.

John

[FlakNine]

No problem. If you are happy doing it that way, that's fine. You have my permission to include the model in the scenery.

John

Many thanks John - much appreciated! I'll credit you as the original creator of the model in the fs.to description.

[FlakNine]

I gave the model a little update by adding a composite texture for metalic and roughness values - makes it look nice and shiny! I'll include the new shiny version in the next version of my EGDM scenery, although I'm conscious of spamming new versions every day at the moment, so will sit on this until I update a few more things!

[Firebird]

I do like the look of that, but then again that wouldn't surprise anybody wouldn't it?

Can I ask why you didn't use the T.4 model? I can understand if you wanted a red and white painted scheme but JY did do a 56 Sqn T.4 that would be a better fit for what you are doing.

If you wanted the exact scheme of XL629 in its ETPS colours I think that somebody should be available to knock it up for you.


Would you like to see if anybody would like to paint one T.4 for you?

[FlakNine]

A very simple answer Steve - I didn't look hard enough and got ahead of myself once I found one that looked close enough! I've now found the T4 model and will swap mine out for that. Regarding painting the XL629 livery - I previously wasn't fussed about getting it exactly right but now the OCD is kicking in and I think I should.

I haven't done aircraft liveries before but have got countless sim-racing liveries under my belt so I should be OK to adapt JY's T4 XM989 livery to be a closer match to XL629. I appreciate the offer of asking around, but hopefully I can take care of this myself.

[Firebird]

Fair enough.
If you need the paintkit for the Lightning then search in our download library for 'english electric lightning paintkit'. You will want the pack 1 download and you can either get the FS9 or the FSX standard depending on which suits you best.

If you do get stuck feel free to ask here.

[FlakNine]

All done! If I'm being ultra picky I'd say the stripes on the tail are too wide - so I might go back and tweak the texture at some point, but overall this is a good improvement and I'm very happy with it!

[Firebird]

I am glad that you are happy with that. It does add a touch more authenticity to your work.

[John Young]

Well done. That looks the business now.

John