THE MUSTANGS

[Charl]

Well Wozza's FS9 Mustang is still pretty much top of the heap, notwithstanding Jan Kees Blom's very good work on the WOP P-51 update.
Now let's take a look at how the FSX Accelerator version stacks up.
One on one, brought to you by the
*Forum that does not discriminate against any flightsim!*
But also is not afraid to tell it like it is...
Top is Jan Kees' WWII Fighters P-51 (WOP), bottom is an ARNZ repaint of the Accelerator Mustang (FSXA) available from AVSIM.
The plane is the RNZAF TAF -415


FSXA is actually a racer so allowance has to be made for that in the accuracy of the model.
FSXA has great lighting on canopy area.

You'd think FSXA would beat WOP with BUMP mapping and BLOOM, but as the light moves in the sim, it goes from Gorgeous to utterly cr@p.
WOP is consistently good, plenty of aluminium flash as the llight turns.

External detailing is a close contest - FSXA has brilliant wheelwell detailing

FSXA cockpit area has been the focus of great detail design - buckles on seatbelts...

it also has a superb soundtrack which changes as you pan around the plane, very convincing.
WOP has the Merlin sound down pat, though.

The office in both is spectacular.
I actually prefer the civilian grey in FSXA, thanks to the duckshit green in the WOP it is a gloomy place.

So on paper FSXA does the job, right?
Not so fast.
The flight model is numbing, and somehow the flight experience feels totally sanitised.
The P-51 was a potent machine that would bite you severely if provoked.
WOP have nailed the spirit of the aircraft, and you spin it at your peril.
It is twitchy and feisty, but ultimately rewarding when you do it right.
It is also utterly consistent, and never makes you go: Oh Gawd! [color=#000000] when the light falls wrong, the way FSXA does.


FSXA will reward you if arcade games and pylon racing is your thing.
But WOP gets the nod, and by a large margin, if you're a serious simmer.
[/color]And, you get to use it in FS9 too, if you have a foot in both camps

[Daniel]

Wow thats awesome, Great Shots Charl
It looks like a great model with great clean lines and a great paint.
I think i prefer the old cockpit (the green one)

Happy Simming
Daniel

[Ian Warren]

I agree here , the Accelerator TAF Mustang should have better researched , I wish was privy to paint as i have many historical photos and access to further details , but that could be easy fixed , the models tho is a whole different story , i now they modify racers quite radically , as for the cockpit , so many variations with a mix of the old and the new , Graham Bethels P51 is so different again , i'll keep eyes out for it .

[Naki]

Hmm nice shots - the fuselage looks a bit square in the FSX accleration Mustang.

[Charl]

Mmm Jan Kees reckons the same about the Wozzastang...I'll maybe dig out a pic or two of the real thing.

[jankees]

QUOTE (Charl @ Feb 15 2008, 11:03 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Mmm Jan Kees reckons the same about the Wozzastang...I'll maybe dig out a pic or two of the real thing.

Interesting comparison!
I do not fly FSX (I have it on my HD, but so far, don't really see the point/improvement), so I never invested in Acceleration or whatever it is called, even though I was curious about the Mustang of course.
Screenshots cropping up here and there so far haven't been able to tempt me anywhere near investing into acceleration, and this comparison is still the same. OK, I may be prejudiced because it is a repaint I did, but still...the thing just looks awful, just the scale of the panel lines is ridiculous, especially on a racer, which you expect to be as smooth as possible. You can walk a herd of rhinoceroses into the engine compartment with panels like these...
Look at the second shot: all those bumps on the wings! I understand that they want to show 'bump-mapping', but with the mustang, all the bumps were filled and sanded down to create a finish as smooth as possible. Its a laminar flow wing, that was so special about the p-51's wings, it's not this bumpy washboard...
Take the fourth image, nice, those seatbelts, but the wingroot completely disappears in the shine, no details whatsoever..yuk..
Cockpit looks nice though, for a modern a/c.
Then the last image, look at those reflections on the tail, that sawtooth pattern. How much difference in 'height' of the plating do they expect to find on a Mustang skin? You're talking centimeters at least to get this reflection pattern. I'd take my a/c back to shop if it looked like this...
So Charl, thank you very much for this comparison, you just saved me a lot of money. No way I'm ever going to fly this thing, it is actually several steps back from what is available in FS9, both the Shockwave and Warwick's are far superior to this bird...for me anyway, of course everybody is entitled to his opinion.
As for the shape, this one too looks too flat for me, especially on pics 2 and 3. I'll be visiting a real P-51 under restoration tomorrow, let's see what that looks like.


Jan Kees
p.s. miss torque either tomorrow night or sunday, busybusy. Here's a teaser:

[jankees]

I had a wonderful afternoon, looking at a Mustang under restoration, and had a good look at the sides of th fuselage. Here it is:


as you can see, not a straight line in sight. This is one of the areas where I'm not really happy with Warwick's and accelleration's Mustangs.

More information on this bird, and the rest of their wonderful collection can be found here:
http://www.vroegevogels.org/

[Ian Warren]

QUOTE (jankees @ Feb 17 2008, 05:47 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I had a wonderful afternoon, looking at a Mustang under restoration, and had a good look at the sides of th fuselage. Here it is:
as you can see, not a straight line in sight. This is one of the areas where I'm not really happy with Warwick's and accelleration's Mustangs.

Indeed P-51 brand new and factory finished were smooth and as are todays war-bird display types , it when they enter the combat arena they change dramatically , ground crew remove access panels and placing back with speed , the higher stress's applied during a sortie , the pilots don't fly em like they are in a display but to keep them alive , there also the flak, debris from explosions , to land and takeoffs on un-prepare airfields ( sometimes thrown onto ) , only to have ground crew swam all over it again knocking panels , replacing parts from another Mustang that may be more or less knocked around . The many thousands of combat photos tell that story .
Warwick Caters Muzzy would be more that type , But not being happy with Acceleration's Mustang "I would agree" , these aircraft are handle'd with kid gloves for every knock lump and bump is detrimental to its preformance as a racer .

[Charl]

Jan Kees thanks for the links, very interesting to compare the FS models' cockpits with the real thing:

(and what a coincidence to take from the same angle!)

Miss Torque is on the HDD thank you very much, glad you went with the black accent lines.

The intrepid Kiwi photographers are out there at the airshows, this very moment, producing lots of lovely repaint material!