
FS98 Boeing 737-400      TF-FID  'Eiddis' Icelandair (new colours)      
Repaint by Gerry McLaughlin
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I first saw Icelandair's new colour scheme on the back of a bus at Glasgow Airport many weeks before the airline launched it on their aircraft!  One of the airport buses was painted into an overall-advertising scheme for the airline's one-stop transatlantic services from Glasgow, and included in the artwork was a Boeing 757 with yellow engines and a dark blue underside. Unfortunately the image of the plane was so small that I couldn't paint one up BEFORE the launch which would have been a fun thing to do, but as soon as I saw the real aircraft( which was on launch day itself), I decided to have a go.
It was then that I discovered the difficulty of getting the correct yellow colour from the FS palette. It just wasn't possible, so after a while I gave up. But then I discovered that there were a few alternative colour palettes available, and one of these used a much more 'orangy' yellow which was quite suitable. So here it is - I decided to do this 737 instead of a 757 since it is much rarer. I know that there are quite a few similar aircraft at www.flightsim.com, but they are all FS2000, which I believe has a better palette. So here's one for all you flightsimmers who, like me, are still using FS98 because our PCs (which might only be a year or two old!) are too feeble to run FS2000.
The yellow isn't perfect for the shaded logo on the tail, but the engines are quite good. Strangely enough, although I believe the blue is correct for the colour used on the real aircraft, it is completely different from the blue of the airport bus (and taxis too,now) which are painted a much brighter shade, more like Continental Airlines. It may be that when I see a plane in low, winter sun I will change my mind about the colour, but I don't think so, since I have examined it up close quite a few times.  

INSTALLATION

As with all my aircraft, this should simply be a matter of unzipping with Winzip straight into the AIRCRAFT directory of your FS98. However, I always unzip other people's aircraft into a temporary folder first, and this is probably a good routine to adopt, just in case! Anyway, once you have  the folder in the AIRCRAFT directory, you can fly it, and have a look at it, but it won't have the correct yellow until you complete the next process.
Open up the folder marked 'Icelandair B737-400' and inside you will find another folder called 'modified colour palette'. Open up this and follow the instructions to install the alternative palette into your TEXTURE folder, and the colour on the engines will change. I don't believe there are any other colour changes, so there is no real problem about using this alternative palette - I think the deeper yellow is more useful anyway. However, if you find that you are not happy with it, provided you have followed Dave McQueen's instruction properly, you will have the old palette which you can easily put back.
As with all aircraft, download a good panel and sound - it makes a huge difference to the flying experience.

Nothing in this zip file should harm your computer. However, if you think that it has, by downloading and installing this file, you have accepted responsibility.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The original AFX creator of this 737 is Kim Simmelink, so thanks to him.
I started my repaint from Valerio Perondi's great British Airways 737-400 (simply because that was the only 737-400 I had in my aircraft folder), so there is possibly something in my aircraft which was his creation too. Its an excellent BA model, and I still fly it occasionally. 
Finally, the alternative FS Palette was created by Dave McQueen so the whole Icelandair aircraft is really thanks to him!
Incidentally, I don't know if anyone else has noticed this, but the B737-400 which comes with FS98 isn't a 400 series aircraft at all - its a 300 series 737 since it only has one emergency door over the wing and its too short anyway!

LEGAL STUFF

Everything in this zip file is copyright. The original AFX is Kim Simmelinks and all the rest is mine, Dave McQueen's, and possibly Valerio Perondi's.

No part of the file may be used for any other project without the copyright holder's permission.  Nor may any part of the file be sold or packaged with any commercial product. Just enjoy it on your own FS!

 Visit my website at http://www.geocities.com/gerrys3dflyin/index.htm

Gerry McLaughlin  
 gmcl122@aol.com

 22 July 2000    