AI repaints for Air New Zealand

[johanfrc]

My last visit to the forums was in September 2012, where I previewed a new Air New Zealand AI repaint for a new AI 737-300 model that had been released shortly before.

Afterwards I continued to monitor the development in the Air New Zealand fleet, to keep up-to-date on the liveries they got.

Last year another new AI model, this time for Airbus A320-200 was released, and I made ANZ repaints for this too. Around the same time, a HD paintkit for an old AI 767-300 model was released to a few selected repainters... And I was one of them Then a new 777-200ER and 777-300ER HD paintkit was released for older 772 and 773ER AI models.

That meant I could make an almost complete Air New Zealand fleet for freeware AI models! Not a bad thing actually The only one left out is the 747, due to it's retirement soon. The Beech 1900 All Black and the ATR-72-600 haven't been painted too, because other AI repainters have made them already, and I want to avoid double work.

Most of the repaints below have been released for both FS9 and FSX. The B737-300 and the A320-200 models used are both FSX and FS9 native. The 777's and the 767 are FS9 models, but the repaints are made on HD paintkits (2048x2048 pixels), compared to the FS9 standard of 1024x1024. That's 4 times more details on the same repaint. Quite a change from FS9 to FSX.

A few of the paints have a bit darker white compared to others. I changed the white color I'm using, because I got some some horrific greenish artifacts in the white ares when saving in a special format for FSX. I then changed to a darker and a bit more blueish white, which didn't made the greenish artifacts appear when I saved them in the format I wanted.

Here is what I've made so far, starting with Link:






And then the mainline:
B737-300 current livery:

B737-300 Waves livery:


A320-200 standard livery:

A320-200 white belly:

A320-200 Star Alliance:

A320-200 New livery, grey belly:

A320-200 New Livery, white belly:

A320-200 All Blacks (actually painted by one of my friends, but I got his permission to release it on my own website):

A320-200 Sharklets New livery:

A320-200 Sharklets Fern livery:


B767-300 Winglets:

B767-300 Winglets Waves Livery:


B777-200ER:


B777-300ER:

B777-300ER All Blacks (repainted by the same painter, who also painted the A320 All Blacks):


Right now I'm working on the new fern livery for the 777-200ER. But I haven't found many pictures of it, so I'll have to wait a bit before making it for real. The 787-9 is also on the menu, but it won't be painted until someone makes a AI model of the 787-9.

I hope you'll enjoy the paints here

[Charl]

Nice collection, Johan.
I haven't updated my ANZ fleet for some years, perhaps you could link your repaints and models they use?

And if you feel like some more practice maybe... you haven't considered the TDS 787-9 perhaps? I haven't seen a paint for that one yet.

[johanfrc]

Thanks.

Just a small preview for my next ANZ repaint. I've spent most of the time today, Sunday (Europe-time), searching for pictures of the new 772 in the Fern livery as I call it. And finally I found some great pictures of both sides of the plane. And then it wasn't a big job to create this:


No, I haven't considered the TDS. I'm a AI repainter and haven't tried any UI planes yet (unless you count a Carlsberg repaint for the default Learjet back in FS2002).

All the above you see are freeware AI models though the 777's, the 767 and the Dash 8 are all included in the Ultimate Traffic II, where the models have been made FSX native. But a year after the release of the UT2 the models were released as freeware too. Sadly the UT2 don't include all engine variations of the 777 and other models, which is actually quite a shame ans it would have given the AI package more "life". But that's what they decided and no one have complained about it.

Mainline models needed:
For the B733 and A320: http://fsxaibureau.com/manufacturing/airbus/airbus-a320/ and http://fsxaibureau.com/manufacturing/boeing/boeing-737-300/ (for the 320 use the IAE engine variation and it also include the sharklet model).
For the 767: fs9_763w.zip at avsim. Use the GE engine variation.
For the 772ER: tfs772.zip at flightsim.com Use the RR engine variation
For the 773ER: tfs77w.zip at flightsim.com

For the Link:
Dash 8-300: tfsdh3.zip at avsim.
ATR 72-500: osp_atr_72_500_base.zip at avsim.
Beech 1900: http://htai-models.com/downloads.html about 2/3 down the page.

As you can see all is freeware.

Then comes the hard part about flightplans. I've personally made a flightplan for both ANZ and Link, this "Winter 2013/2014", which in NZ is the Summer season. But because most AI flightplanners is living in the Northern Hemisphere, we usually names them after the Northern Winter and Summer seasons. That's also what most airlines do, including those in the Southern Hemisphere.
If you want to try, you can get the files here: http://www.alpha-india.net/aigfiles/files/...2014/Round%206/

You can use the good ol' Ttools to install it. Both into FS9 and FSX. There is a great manual included in the Ttools zip-file which explains the basics of how to install AI into FS. Otherwise there are many videos at youtube explaning how to do it. All you really need to know how to do is to install repaints manually. But actually there is programs for that too in the AI community. And that's really a huge help if you install an airline like i.e. Southwest Airlines from the US or Ryanair from Ireland, simply because they have so many different liveries. Instead of installing all the liveries manually you can get programs to do it for you. A great feature. But in the beginning it's good enough to use the Ttools.

Ttools (or more correctly named Traffic Tools) can be found at avsim: ttools202.zip.

Ohh. I forgot to say that all the paints can be downloaded here: http://jcai.dk/tag/air-new-zealand/ and http://jcai.dk/tag/air-new-zealand-link/

You'll notice that I've made both FS9 and FSX repaints. That's because FSX uses a different file format (DDS) where FS9 uses BMP. DDS is just a different compression method compared to BMP. Both BMP and DDS will work in FSX, but only BMP will work in FS9. But the DDS (FSX) files are usually in HD, compared to the BMP's which are mostly made resizing the DDS file from 2048x2048 into 1024x1024. Somehow even though the BMP's are 4 times smaller than the DDS files, the BMP still contains more details compared to the old paints that was made years ago for the same models. Quite an improvement I must say.

The only exceptions are the 72-600 in the new livery, which can be found here: http://www.impulseai.com/ai-repaints---props.html and the 72-600 in All Blacks: osp_at76_anz_all_blacks.zip at avsim.

I have seen the All Blacks Beech 1900 somewhere, but I can't remember where. Inside the zip-files for the flightplans I've linked to, there is a repaints.txt explaining where you can get the paints needed. So for the All Blacks I recommend you to look at that file to get the filename and location where you can get it.

[NZ255]

Hi John, this look pretty good I might try to put it in my setup.
Just so you know ZK-OJL Airbus A320 was destroyed in 2008.
http://www.airfleets.net/ficheapp/plane-a320-2500.htm

[Charl]

Excellent post, thanks!
I see the last WOAI update I have for ANZ is 2010...

I would upgrade if for no other reason than to include the fine FAIB Airbus models.

Mind you, I will carefully keep backups of my Pacific Wave 777's as I tend to agree with some about the new liveries

[johanfrc]

Nick, I usually only do the current paints. The repaints above represent all the variations I can find the fleet, but not all registrations. I've left out quite a few because they are similar to one of the variations I made. The only exception is the 737-300 in Waves livery. They are based on how they looked in 2008 and was made because I got a request doing them, after I had made the non-Waves livery.

When I make AI flightplans for ANZ I only use current registrations. Therefore no one should ever see the one that crashed in 2008. Even the WOAI package from 2010 (my flightplans actually) aren't using the ZK-OJL anymore. It might seems a bit strange that I, as a Dane, have ANZ as one of my favorite airlines. I've only tried ANZ once, back in 2004, but I've always kept the AI flightplans updated. When I updated them for the first time back in 2005, it was begause they hadn't been updated for about 2 years. And a few changes had been made. So I gave it a go and was successful. Afterwards I've tried to update it once a year (in the Northern Winter-season) because that's where I know ANZ are most busy. Only once I had to cancel the project, due to bad source data, and them I only made Link because the data for them was great. Now I start on ANZ in October or November, usually sampling a week in January or early February. And it's the fleet they have at that time, I uses. The coming Winter-flightplan (Northern Winter 2014/2015) will include the 787 for the first time. I'm looking forward to include it, even though it might be a bit hard without any AI 787-9 model. But then the user might have to use the TDS until an AI model is released.

Thankfully it's only one 772 that have the fern livery yet. For me it's just nice to get some diversity when flying in and out of AKL. I know I'll be happy to see the fern livery if it's parked in AKL when I land or depart in FS.

[deeknow]

Fabulous stuff Johan, great repaints and a really useful post.

[NZ255]

Sorry, I don't mean to be rude but it is still in the flightplans file:


Thanks again for all your work

[johanfrc]

Woops. Seems like this one slipped through all the tests the AIG team do to all the AI flightplans. I've mentioned it to the team so they know they have to look a bit deeper into the registrations used in the flightplans.

I'll update the plan right away and upload it again, so you can get an updated version where it's not included. I'll replace it with ZK-OXC yet another A320 with Sharklets Always good to get more sharklets in the air!

[Ian Warren]

Nice bit of work and all the way from the other side of the world , you got to love freeware AI .. Well done Johan

[johanfrc]

Thanks Ian. I have 2 airlines I keep updated. ANZ and my home airline, SAS. Both will be monitored closely and everytime a new liveries appears I'm making it ASAP (or when enough good quality pictures are available online).

After I tried ANZ in 2004, I've loved the airline and have tried my best to keep it updated. The repaints shown above are the latest and probably the best ANZ repaints you can find for AI. I follow the AI world quite a lot (as you might have guessed) and I don't know any repainters or flightplanners that have put more work into keeping New Zealand up-to-date. At the AIG team we also have a few flightplanners that makes updates for Qantas and Virgin Australia (they are also updated at least once a year). So we try our best to keep the skies in Australia and New Zealand busy and updated.

When I get around running FSX/P3D again after my latest Windows reinstall, I'll install the ORBX sceneries for NZ and install the airports they have made, but also the FTX compatible from Godzone! Then I'll have a few flights in NZ enjoying the spectacular scenery and the great country! (Yes, I felt in love with NZ during my visit in 2004...).

For those who are a bit afraid of installing the models and repaints, some of the newest WOAI files are made for both FS9 and FSX. The FS9 files includes the FS9 models and repaints, and the FSX packages include FSX models and repaints. I think I need to have a chat with my contact at WOAI about updating the ANZ packages for next season. I think it's time to get some new, because of the addition of the -300ER and sharklet A320s. ANZ is by far one of the airlines that have got most new types and liveries since the last package was made And things have changed a bit since 2010