I have converted all my *.0AF / *.1AF etc etc. to Bitmaps.

But is there any easier way of repainting than jumping into Photoshop and painting?

It just seems very tedious .

Thanks.

Which texture converter are you using? This job should be easy enough with BMP2000. You will still have to do the actual editing in Photoshop.

Which sim is this for? I assumed you were converting the textures to BMP format. If you're going to revert to the original AF format I suggest ConvR8 might be a better option. http://www.mnwright.btinternet.co.uk/index.htm

Read the instructions carefully & set it up to work with Photoshop. ConvR8 will automatically convert back to the correct format when saving out as BMP or AF. (R8 & AF are basically the same format.)

If you simply duplicated the aircraft you most likely have a texture conflict with the original. Depending on the sim you might need to rename the textures & hex edit the MDL to recognise them. Be more specific & maybe I can help or point you to the appropriate tutes.

OK, I might be a tad rusty but I've done a lot of work for CFS1 in the past. First, I suggest you use ConvR8. You can either leave the textures in the original AF format or convert them to BMP. This is a little more complex as you will need to flip the textures before saving to make them display properly.

Try the conventional method first & tell me how you get on. Repaint a few test pieces, no need to paint the complete aircraft. I think you should learn how to hex edit the MDL to recognise differently named textures & avoid texture conflicts. We can cover this later.

And even weirder. Now

ALL

my Sea Furies have got the wonky paintwork.

HhHhhhHEElllPPP!

OK, I did exactly as you said. Followed everything. I just got rid of the old copy, and made a new copy of a Sea Fury. Then I opened a texture file (SEAFURY1.0AF) and painted the windscreen blue. Then I started up CFS and all of my Sea Furies are back to normal - none of them with a blue windscreen!

This is very strange - I think I will delete all of my Sea Furies, and have just one to repaint.

Be back tomorrow - I am very grateful

Thanks.

I have got rid of all of the Sea Furies into a HANGAR subfolder. Now I tried repainting a winscreen and put it into the Aircraft folder. It worked. Now I have tried to use my textures from yesterday to repaint the plane.

However I am back with the same problem that the texture is still all over the plane in the wrong areas. There are no other Sea Furies active, so I reckon it must be something to do with the textures I made.

Great stuff. The next part is a tad complicated. Iain Murray's tute from the SimV Help section is for FS98 but explains the basic principle. http://www.simviation.com/fsdtutrpaint.htm

Ignore the first part & start reading from "Stage 2 - Creating a Duplicate Aircraft with a New Identity". This is the same tute I used to get started. The tools & utilities mentioned in the tute are old & outdated.  You should find the ones I recommend easier to use.

I find it best to use new texture names with the exact number of digits as the originals, including the file extensions. For example, the original SEAFURY1.0AF could be renamed SFURY001.0AF, SFURY002.0AF etc. in your various versions. Download FRHED.ZIP from the Aircraft Design section to hex edit the MDL. http://www.simviation.com/fsdesign_utilities.htm

MDL files will look like a garbled mess when you open them in Frhed. Use the Edit/Find function to search for all the AF entries. You must change them all. Please make backup copies of all files before editing/renaming them in case anything goes wrong. (As this is CFS you will also need to rename the DP using the same file prefix as the new AIR file.)

Please try it & see how you go. If you have problems there is another method for editing the MDL which you might find easier. Good luck.

The shiny textures featured in the later sims are not possible in CFS1. The only way to get a gloss or metallic appearance is in the paint job itself. This takes practice & experience. There are sample bare metal textures (one is mispelt bear metal) posted on the Utilities page.