I was going to mention an entirely [almost] different field....[that I'm a long-time fan of]....but instead will refer to the 'newer' [to me] bit first.

Nothing beats screwing with timelines...

Recently I got a few Flight Sims [namely Wings of Prey, and a WW1 sim...'Rise of Flight'].  Both are graphically great to look at...and fun to 'play'....but they led me to an older sim...by Microsoft...that I'd messed with years ago...in a very early version.

The 'newer' one was/is MS Flight Simulator X.

I dl'd the demo and gave it a go....comparatively clunky in comparison....but fun all the same.

Now, I have ALWAYS been a fan of 2 particular aircraft [3 if you add the Spitfire]...but mainly...the Republic F105D Thunderchief....and the XB70 Valkyrie [the latter made it into the Time-Life magazine when involved in a midair way back when....and I'd seen the news item at the time.

Needless to say, neither of those aircraft was in the FSX Demo ....but a quick Google search found where 'skinners' had subsequently made them...for download/adding to the game.

Gobs were really smacked when I discovered I could get them added successfully....to THE DEMO.

WOW....and Great, etc.....

Eventually though.....reality crept in.....either it was my 'small' knowledge of [our form of] skinning or it was my knowledge of the 2 aircraft that had me yearning for a more fair-dinkum cockpit [for both].

Someone, somewhere was apparently 'happy' with a bodgied-up conversion of a F86 panel pretending to be an F105.

About the most 'polite' comparison would be...yes, they are contemporaries [a bit] .... and both American.

But so is an Edsel.

Crap.

I have a shitload of books on the F105....and film...and vids of the net...even transcripts of 'mayday' calls from pilots going down over 'Nam....so there's no way I'm gonna be happy with these graphics.

Text-based config files.... xml ....bmps.....chuck stuff into cab's ....damn....looks like I have some skinning to do....

Then I'll hunt down the full game....I see there's some maps of Australia ..... I could buzz my own house at mach 2 ....