How to start? First, download and install a file called DXTBmp. Second, download Mike Stone's Fairchild Metro 3 (SMETRO3.ZIP). Install the plane in your flight simulator's aircraft directory. There are some files and a folder that don't install in the right place, so must be hand moved. At last, the result must be same as the one I present here. Searching in the aircraft folder you must have five folders and two files inside the "metro3" folder. Now, copy the content of the texture.1 folder to a new folder called texture.x, and inside, create another folder called "help" or "ayuda" if you are Spanish fluent.

Before we continue, we must choose the new texture we want to do. I selected a plane used by Lynx Air International in June 2001. The next step is to enter on www.airliners.net and search a Metroliner 3 with the registration N892MA. There is just one picture.

The next step is to open the "texture.x" folder. There are 27 files, all except one distributed on pairs. Each pair has similar names, but the first finish with _l, and the second with _t. "_l" means "Light", the illumination when it's night time. "_t" means "Texture", and these are the only ones we are to change. So we reduced the amount of files to work from 27 to 14. The unpaired one is called propdisk_t.bmp, and if you click on it you'll see the image of a spinning prop. We don't need to change it. Tire, prop, gear and main wheel and nose wheel don't need to be changed either, so we reduced from 27 files to 8.

Now open DXTBmp, load extended image, go to ..\aircraft\metro3\Texture.x, and select cowls_t.bmp. You'll see two gray rectangles with some horizontal and vertical stripes.

The little rectangle up and right is the alpha channel, the "reflection" channel. Select Alpha, Export Alpha Channel and save inside the "ayuda" folder as a_cowls.bmp

Select File, Save 24 bit Image and save inside the "ayuda" folder as cowls. Do the same with the other nine files. It doesn't matter that some of them are only white rectangles.

When finished, exit DXTBmp and load your favorite graphics editor. I use an old "Photostyler 2.0" acquired with my first hand-held gray-scale scanner (and I'll not tell you my age, I'll just tell that I don't feel good dating teenagers).

Once inside your graphics editor, go to the "ayuda" folder and open cowls.bmp. If you look carefully, you'll see that the same pattern is repeated three times: One for the outer left cowl, one for the outer right cowl and the last for both inner cowls. Looking at the picture of the real plane, the only change we need to do is the color of the cowl. Pick the color from the picture, and paste on the cowls.bmp file. Remember what I wrote about metal surfaces? Use the brush to apply slightly darker and lighter zones with fast horizontal movements, but protect the darker join lines to prevent covering them. Make changes on the transparency and diffusion of the brush.

When finished, save the file and load DXTBmp. Select File, Load normal image, cowls.bmp. Click on Alpha, import alpha channel, a_cowls.bmp

Now select File. Save as extended Image, DXT3 with Alpha, over ..\metro3\texture.x\cowls_t.bmp.

Surely you will want to see if you did it well, but if you load Flight Simulator, you'll see the original grey cowl. Why? Because the FS doesn't know that there is another texture. How to tell it?. Go to the ..\aircraft\metro3 folder and open aircraft.cfg (if the .cfg extension is not assigned to any program, assign to Notepad).

This is the first part of the file:

[fltsim.0]
title=Fairchild SA 227AC Metro III
sim=metro3
model=
panel=
sound=
texture=1
kb_checklists=
kb_reference=
atc_id_color=0x00ffffff
atc_id=N700MS
ui_manufacturer=Fairchild
ui_type=SA 227AC Metro III
ui_variation=Northwest Airlink
description=The elegant King Air is a high-performance, pressurized-cabin, twin-engine turboprop airplane. Most often employed as a corporate transport, it usually seats from 9 to 11 (although it's certificated for up to 17 people). Many a young pilot has stepped up from more lowly positions to corporate flying in the right seat of a King Air. Piloting the beautiful Beech is a logical transition into the more complex world of turbine engines and larger aircraft. See the Aircraft Information section of Help for tips on flying this aircraft.
atc_heavy=0
atc_airline=Northwest
atc_flight_number=
atc_id_font=Verdana,-11,1,600,0
visual_damage=0
atc_parking_types=GATE

[fltsim.1]
title=Fairchild SA 227AC Metro III N892MA Lynx Air
sim=metro3
model=
panel=
sound=
texture=x
kb_checklists=
kb_reference=
atc_id_color=0x00ffffff
atc_id=N892MA
ui_manufacturer=Fairchild
ui_type=SA 227AC Metro III
ui_variation=N892MA Lynx Air
description=The Metro can trace its lineage back to the original Swearingen Merlin I executive transport. From the Merlin I Swearingen developed the turboprop powered II and III which were to form the basis of the new Metro commuter airliner. The Fairchild Metro III is used extensively around the world on short flights between cites. It provides exceptional speed for a twin engine prop aircraft, but is reknown for its challenging handling.
atc_heavy=0
atc_airline=Lynx
atc_flight_number=1225
atc_id_font=Verdana,-11,1,600,0
visual_damage=0
atc_parking_types=GATE

Now follow the wings and stabilizer. Load your graphics editor, and load the file stabs.bmp. If we look at the original pictures, we can't be sure about the stabilizer and wing colors and markings, but we can imagine that they are metalic and without lettering (do you remember what I wrote about never use only a picture?). Repeat the same steps: same color, same effect. Or just cut and paste from your cowl texture to your wings and stabilizer textures. Or find ideas from another painter. That's why I prefer that any of you can do your own tests.

Once you finish wings and stabs, use DXTBmp to reconvert, load Flight Simulator and check the result. Someone says that we the repainters can be identified because we don't remember how to liftoff a plane. (Ja, ja.. er... how is it?). I'm including a picture of our half made plane: our new wings but still with Mohawk fuselage. I have good news: If you did it well, the next repaint of a Metro III that you want to do, you'll not need to do wings, cowls and stabilizer again. So we reduced our 8 working files to 4, maybe 5 if our next plane has the cowls painted.

The next step is to change the tail. Edit tail.bmp and remove both color stripes and the name "MOHAWK", but remember to include the black line that was covered by the logo. One of the reasons I like Mike Stone's planes is because he includes a folder called "base textures". It contains all the textures before any decoration, just parts and joins. So if you had some doubt, open the "base textures" folder and load the "tail_t.bmp" file. Once you are finished, load "a_tail.bmp". Do you remember that this is an alpha channel? There are no colors, just gray scales. Remove here the "shadow" of the logo and save.

Spin.bmp is the spinner, the propeler cone. Just use here the same color used on the cowl. Nose door is white, with the number 892 on both rear sides. Try changing places and sizes until success.

And, at last, the most difficult texture: the fuselage one. We will start removing the two red stripes and the name "Mohawk", but it will be easier just loading the base texture called fuslg_t.bmp and working with it. We will start cutting the Lynx painting under the "real" cockpit. Cut it and paste on the fuselage texture. Of course, you must resize and clear until you reach the right color and size. Again, try and try until success. I did the curved line and the two written lines on the main door, too. And the green zone on the fuselage. As we don't have windows references, we must guide by the junctions of the fuselage. Don't expect to do it right the first time, just try, convert and see the result on FS.

Here is the plane when I did the first test. The green zone has the right position, but the door knob and the logo under the cockpit are badly located. The emergency exit is too narrow. So I had to continue to test, move and resize. By the way, I pick the green color taking a square between two windows, and diffusing the color heavily. The result was the right color to use.

Once the Lynx logo, the door and both green and blue stripes are correctly placed, the only thing to do on this side of the fuselage is the registration. I used an special font called amarillousaf, which is normally employed for military planes. You'll find it searching the web. I selected a similar size, stretched vertically the result and distorted laterally to obtain the left to right inclination of the registration code.

Now we have finished the port side. We can copy the result to starboard, but remember that both sides are different. Copy only the similar zones, and paint again the different ones. You'll see the resulting plane here:

And now, at last, the repaint is done. But we can't release it as is. Mike Stone allows "textures only". The remaining steps are: to create the installation file, the file_id.diz (description), the picture and finally to zip all the files and the textures.zip folder.

About the installation.txt file, I'm giving you here a simplified sample one:

FS2004 Fairchild Metroliner III Lynx Air N892MA

Lynx Air is a North American charter company with some Metroliner III's in its fleet. The Metro can trace its lineage back to the original Swearingen Merlin I executive transport. From the Merlin I Swearingen developed the turboprop powered II and III which were to form the basis of the new Metro commuter airliner. The Fairchild Metro III is used extensively around the world on short flights between cities. It provides exceptional speed for a twin engine prop aircraft, but is reknowned for its challenging handling. Model By Mike Stone. Textures only by Alejandro Hurtado. Needs SMETRO3.ZIP.

INSTALLATION:
Cut and paste the texture file, "texture.x", into your metro3 aircraft folder. ("x" being the variable assigned to the texture). Then, edit the "Aircraft.cfg" to add this header to the aircraft list:

[fltsim.x]
title=Fairchild SA 227AC Metro III N892MA Lynx Air
sim=metro3
model=
panel=
sound=
texture=x
kb_checklists=
kb_reference=
atc_id_color=0x00ffffff
atc_id=N892MA
ui_manufacturer=Fairchild
ui_type=SA 227AC Metro III
ui_variation=N892MA Lynx Air
description=The Metro can trace its lineage back to the original Swearingen Merlin I executive transport. From the Merlin I Swearingen developed the turboprop powered II and III which were to form the basis of the new Metro commuter airliner. The Fairchild Metro III is used extensively around the world on short flights between cities. It provides exceptional speed for a twin engine prop aircraft, but is reknowned for its challenging handling.
atc_heavy=0
atc_airline=Lynx
atc_flight_number=1225
atc_id_font=Verdana,-11,1,600,0
visual_damage=0
atc_parking_types=GATE

The file_id.diz will look similar to this one, or different, as you want:

FS2004 Lynx Air Fairchild Metroliner III,
registration N892MA. Lynx Air is a North
American charter company with some
Metroliner III's in its fleet. The Metro can
trace its lineage back to the original
Swearingen Merlin I executive transport.
From the Merlin I Swearingen developed the
turboprop powered II and III which were to
form the basis of the new Metro commuter
airliner. The Fairchild Metro III is used
extensively around the world on short
flights between cities. It provides
exceptional speed for a twin engine prop
aircraft, but is reknowned for its
challenging handling. Model by Mike Stone,
Textures only by Alejandro Hurtado. Requires
SMETRO3.ZIP.

Copy both files into an empty folder, copy the texture.x folder inside and add the screen shot of the plane that you prefer. That's how will look the new folder. It doesn't matter if you call the text file as readme.txt or installation.txt

The last step is to zip the folder and upload the file to your favorite web site. And that's exactly what I did. The result of this exercise is called txt02ah.zip which can be downloaded here.

Alejandro Hurtado
dracosist@cantv.net