The Immortal DHC-2 Beaver

[JimC]

Pete,

HOLEY MOLEY...!!!!

I just ran across this thread last night about 12:30am and stayed up until

1:30am or so reading the comments and looking at the pics.

Very, very nice!! If it flies as well as it looks, we're all in for quite a treat.

Your experience with, and knowledge of, Blender really shows.

I just downloaded Blender 2.6 myself, but I have no idea what I'm doing.

Anyway, I'll start with the 'Cookie' probably, but hey...gotta start somewhere, right?

I have to go buy X-Plane 9.7 now so I'll be able to fly your plane. (I currrently have 10.05r1)

Again, awesome, awesome job, and I'm really looking forward to the release.

Jim

[Pete_SMS]

Hey all,

Today, I want to show you the WIP shot of the amphibian Beaver with the livery of N963DH. I hope you enjoy....

We are very close to finish the modeling and texturing work for the Beaver and then animations, the flight model, plugins and sounds will take off full steam. Sure work has started in these areas, but of course there is still some work to do.

@Jim: Enjoy the process to learn Blender and thanks for your interest!

If you have $30 to spare, I would highly recommend the following training to you: Vehicle Modeling

Edited April 26, 2012 by Pete

[steven winslow]

Stunning! Simply stunning! You must have shot this with a fast shutter speed to get that prop stopped!

Best looking floats I've ever seen on an X-Plane model. Well done, Pete.

Edited April 27, 2012 by steven winslow

[karingka]

Thats Awesome!!

[almostpilot]

This is a masterpiece. Truly.

When are you going to let us have it? Please? Cannot wait to get this!

Together with the Comet being done by Guy Montagu I think these are the best act in progress for XPlane, by far.

Please let us have a release date!

And congratulations for your amazing talent.

[JimC]

If you have $30 to spare, I would highly recommend the following training to you: Vehicle Modeling

Thanks for the link, Pete...I think I'll be picking this up!

Best regards,

Jim

[JimC]

Hey, Pete...

How are things going? Everything okay? Haven't seen an update for a while.

Not to be impatient or anything (yeah, right), but just really looking forward

to the release of the DHC-2.

Jim

[Pete_SMS]

Hi Jim,

Things are all going fine. There hasn't been an update, because there is not a lot new to show at the moment.

I am working on cockpit animations at the moment and there is not a lot to see on a static picture

Beside that, there is research and prototyping for plug-ins going on and the flight model is getting a serious treatment.

Also there will be a few slight changes to the amphibian Beaver cockpit….

[eaglewing7]

Just finished getting my float rating today, a whopping seven hours in two days, and more touch and go's, splash and go's, and stop and go's than I can count...

The school's owner actually owns a Beaver, serial number 12, CF-FHC, and I was wondering if you would be able to make a livery modelled after it?

Here's a few pictures of her in the hangar where she's been resting recently.

[RealScenery]

Congratulations! That's a great achievement - lots more landing choices now.

[eaglewing7]

Thanks, problem is, the school can't rent the C-172 on floats to low time students because of the insurance costs... It apparently costs around $14,000 a year to insure the 172 on floats, with only the front seats as a training only aircraft, so they will only rent it to people who have at least 25 hours PIC and dual in it...

Although I know an instructor who has a friend who owns a PZL Wilga on floats, so that may be an option some time down the road.

[Pete_SMS]

Congratulations on your float rating. This is something I want to do as well. However, I know about the problem you are talking about and it will get hard to actually do a lot of float flying after it. But, the experience will be worth it, I guess.

The school's owner actually owns a Beaver, serial number 12, CF-FHC, and I was wondering if you would be able to make a livery modelled after it?

Unfortunately not, as my liveries are already in place by now. Also, the Beaver on your pictures would not represent the type of Beaver for X-Plane. Yours is a pure float version, the windows are different, the air scoop is different etc. and I would like to stay as authentic as possible.

However, the SoulMade Beaver will come with a neutral paint kit and you or anybody else can create his/her favorite livery.

Edited May 10, 2012 by Pete

[eaglewing7]

Sounds good, and I'm sure there will be plenty of liveries made up for the Beaver in due course.

Actually I was surprised at how original the interior of this Beaver was. All of the original gauges are in place (you can tell by the faded and yellowing paint), and even the original data plates are installed in the cockpit.

[Pete_SMS]

Old vintage style cockpits and interiors are great. Did you take any pictures and care to share?

[eaglewing7]

Sure did.

He's had it hangared for a while now, due to insurance costs, and not having the cash on hand to make some repairs... So the pictures I did take were all of the cockpit, because the rear seats had all been removed, and two or maybe three of them or just parts of them were laying on the floor... And as for saying it is totally original, well thats a bit of a lie, because some parts are, but others are not. See if you can spot the non-original parts...

[Pete_SMS]

Thanks for sharing. I have a good amount of pictures of the vintage cockpit, but it is never bad to have more.

Too bad this lady can't fly at the moment and that it just sits there.....

For non original parts, you are not talking about the more "modern" COM and NAV radios, right?

New for me was the Flap indication. Haven't seen it at that location so far. Beside that the water rudder control handle doesn't look original. The manifold pressure gauge doesn't and also not the directional gyro. The Beechcraft clock is for sure not original.

[eaglewing7]

I think you got all of the odd ball / non-original parts. Although you did miss the transponder, and what ever the heck that "Kenwood" thing is mounted under the Bendix/King radios.

It does also have the other style of dash mounted flap indicator, but I noticed that there are no markings on it (it might be a bit hard to see in the main cockpit shot because of the size of the photo).

Edited May 11, 2012 by eaglewing7

[Pete_SMS]

No, I didn't miss that. That was meant to be included in the more "modern" COM/NAV equipment sentence.

Yip, saw that regular style flap indication on the dash as well, but it was also missing the pointer/needle, right?

Which aircraft did you fly to get you float rating. Piper Cub J-3 or Super Cub?

[eaglewing7]

The dash indicator has the needle in it, but no indicator pointer on it, or the label on the dash...

I got my rating in a 1979 Cessna 172N on Edo 2130's.

[Pete_SMS]

Nice!

Thought about getting mine in a Piper Cub J-3 during vacation in Florida.

http://www.brownsseaplane.com/

[Pete_SMS]

Approaching Juneau (Alaska) in XP10 ...

[Gjalp]

Ok, stop playing and release this bird now!!!!

Shes looking great, cant wait to get her in my hangar and start flying

Great pic,

Slainte,

Andy

NZCH

[larjeet]

Sad Beaver story BC http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2012/05/14/bc-plane-crash.html

[JimC]

Pete,

Really looking forward to the 9.70 release (faster on my little laptop).

I bought the Carenado Seneca II and foiund that that was a BIG mistake.

Major fps slowdown. Fog everywhere, can't see to land, so no VFR.

In my opinion, I wasted $27.95 USD, as it is not optimized for lower

end systems. I use a HP DV6-6C35DX (Quad-Core, up to 2.6 (I think) GB,

6 GB of SDRAM, AMD A8 with Radeon 6620G. The whole thing is supposed

to ruin Crysis @ without problems, but the Seneca II slows way down

(yes, I've changed resolution, objects available, etc. Still no luck.)

Needless to say, really looking forward to an optimized DHC-2 Beaver.

Jim

[Pete_SMS]

Hello all,

After some silence I just wanted to let you know that the Beaver is progressing nicely and that also the Vintage Beaver is on its way. I should be able to show some WIP shots soon.

Pete