Okay, I had to take a break today from the real-world Dash-7 liveries and try it out in my favorite livery... FedEx! Imagine it -- plenty of cargo space and the ability to land on a 1200' runway. Makes you wonder why they don't already have a fleet of 'em...http://www.spottedantelope.com/bwomack/images/fedex.jpgJust uploaded to the library.

Well, my guess would be that (economically speaking) four engines are not better than one (100s of Cessna Caravans as opposed to 50 Dash 7s) lol. However, idealistically, the Dash 7s do make a charming addition to any freight fleet, especially when you paint em - bring on the liveries Bill! :)George

Hi Bill,Looks great on her too!BTW, I have a Cargo Version in beta test as we speak. Should be out next week. Easy transition. :-)Milton

Excellent! One of my pet peeves has been trying to fit a cargo livery to a hull with so many windows. I was going to ask if you could make one w/o windows, but figured it was too much work. Glad to be wrong!

Awesome paint, Bill.Great news, Milton, one of 1000's who love the Dash7. Can't wait for the trash hauler version, I would much rather fly those than the self loading cargo version.:-outtahttp://publish.hometown.aol.com/p3superb/images/675-2fs.jpg

LOL Bill,Ohhh, you're not wrong. The Dash 7 103 series is a cargo/passenger version with windows. There are 5 configurations with seat removal to handle up to five pallets.I am thinking about a covered window version. Replacing windows means remapping the aircraft for textures nullifying all other textures... not good.I am trying to come up with a better solution.Here's a beta shot.Milton

HAH! I love it! (I imagine Don will too :-))

Milton,I wouldn't want to second-guess, because you know this model perhaps better than anyone. However, I was thinking about it this morning... how to handle the windows would depend on whether you actually created transparent window materials or just knocked out holes in the fuselage originally. If you created holes, perhaps you could create a set of patches that conform to those holes and cover them, then group them and map them to the exact UVW map that you're using for the fuselage. That way we could still use the same textures we already have. The only hitch I can think of (besides the precision required to exactly duplicate the UVW map coverage) is that Joao made shadows of the windows that appear in the fuselage textures in the paint kit on the "shadows" layer. But I could pretty easily create a new shadow layer w/o the window references. So could Joao, for that matter. Just noodlin'.

Bill,The windows are not holes, but rather cut and detached as separate objects from the fuse, with semi-transparent reflective material applied in gmax, not mapped.The window material can be made opaque but not textured externally without mapping them. I will not remap the fuselage group of objects as positioning all them to the exact pixel coordinates is impossible.Mapping of the windows separately is certainly doable, but then that map would be difficult to work with separate from the fuse. Merging the maps is not an option as precise placement is still the issue.I have not been able to find a picture or technical description of the all cargo series 101 and I am not sure if it had windows or not.With all of that said, I haven't given up on the idea, just trying to find a best solution.Tonight I will try re-attaching the window groups to the fuselage. I think that will allow the fuse textures to then cover the windows; we shall see. ;-)Milton

Good luck with that! I've had some issues in the past with maintaining UVW mapping after making attach/detach changes before, but it's probably my inexperience ;-). I really hope it works out, 'cause I like the idea a lot. I like your crates, too! Please don't give up on that idea either.

Great paint Bill :-)awfEHAM

Thanks! I'm from Memphis originally, and I've always had a soft spot for FedEx. I usually end up doing a FedEx repaint for any plane I take a liking to, and I like this one VERY much.