Jagdgeschwader 2 ||> Geschwader Major Beim Stab

[Batz]

Please critique my skin, comments are welcomed...



Close up of Rivet / Panel lines

[Batz]

Tail Number and Wrk.Nmr.

[Citabria]

looks great

move the highlights on the panel lines in fron t of the dark panel line layer to simulate overlaped panels common on ww2 aircraft.

the actual seams of the panels are streamlined whenever possible with the panel in front of the other one resting on top of the one aft if they are not flush with eachother.

generally the panel with the rivets sits on top of the panel next to it with no rivets showing

if theres rivets on both sides the panels are flush with eachother and add a highlight to both sides or no highlight at all.

[Batz]

Gotcha makes sense.

I did weathering layer with paint chips etc but it looked more like a flock of birds crapped on it.  

I need practice a bit before I add that.

I should have taken a shot of the underside. I added a light dirt layer to it and I thought it looked pretty good.

[Citabria]

heres a cut n paste help post from another thread it has relevant info on paint chips...

here is my first 1024 skin I started it in 1024 res but will likely make the next one in 2048 then reducing it after seeing greebos excellent results with this method. the pics show how to use aircraft plans and paste them over the skin as a guide for panel lines.

using actual aircraft plans with rivet and panel line detail is very helpful if your interested in accurately detailing the skin. the more detail there is the more the skin can sell the 3d model as being an accurate depiction of a real aircraft and its a necassay first step if your making a 1024 skin from a 256 template. but remember not to overdo it. you want this microdetailng to show up only when in the cockpit view or when looking closeup externally. you wont see rivets on a real plane from any distance either so adjust the transparency of the panel and rivet lines to your tastes.

once you find good plans cut and paste them as a layer then scale and stretch them to fit over the frame of the 3d model using the origional 256 or 1024 skin as a reference. make sure you make the panel lines and rivets as separate layers. i made the mistake my first attempt of drawing the panel lines on a grey background and it was unusable on the camo skin layer lol. once you have the panel lines and rivets next logical step is add a camoflage paint layer. this can be one layer or separate layers for each color. doing separate layers per color allows more flexibility in adjustments. using accurate references on the camo design is very helpful. camoflaged p40s use the standard british cmoflage pattern when they roll off the curtiss assembly line except curtiss didnt use actual british paints, instead they used their interpretation of them which in some instances was quite different. then field depots when repainting the aircraft used whatever paint was on hand for even further variations from the standard. the paint especially olive drab also fades rapidly making it lighter and splotchy on top where the sun hits it.

adding markings and nose art should be done on separate layers also. It is important to make every marking including the nose art transparent enough to blend into the plane and not look like its pasted on. this is an old trick but its very effective. even chipped paint should have some tranparency to blend it into the aircraft. the nose art can be quite elaborate on some planes

another fun part is weathering. knowing how real aircraft get chipped paint and where they leak oil and how the exhaust follows the slipstream is fun stuff to think about and helpful to fill in the gaps where you dont have good photoreference. but its best to work from real photos if you want a realistic result. some general rules are:

chipped paint results from a few things:
1. no primer undercoat or defective paint (common on some japanese planes and field painted american planes but dont overdo it!)
2. wear and tear from ground crew and pilots climbing and servicing the airplane. ammo hatches fuel oil hatches ussually show some wear after a while. (on fighters more paint will be rubbed away on the left side than the right on many occasions because this is the side pilots climbed on)
3. the propeller throwing debris and dirt at high velocity on takeoff impacting the leading edge of the wing within the propeller arc ussually at the wing roots and surrounding areas.

oil and fuel stains.
avgas vaporizes extremely fast and although on modern aircraft it is tinted blue and leaves the blue dye when it evaporates no other trace of it remains. though it does fade the paint after a while im not sure if 87 or 100 octain fuel was color dyed in ww2 but i would asume it wasnt. as always try to use phot references if you want this area showing signs of weathering.

oil stains on the other hand will leave a very transparent dark shading on the areas they cover that will get more pronounced as dirt and grime stick to the oil. the dirt and grime adds more filth to the oil wich will get darker as the plane is used due to the oil building up on the underside of the fuselage. you can see some faint oil streaks on the propellor hub from the prop control mechanism and sometimes on the cowling if its an inline engine but this is very minute amounts nothing that can be seen from far away.

the actual exhaust stains result from both the paint being faded away due to the heat of the exhaust and also from the exhaust itself leaving smoke residue on the fuselage. its good to use phot references on this as well because the exhaust does not flow straight back as you might expect. it always follows the sliptream and this sometimes forces the exhaust upwards ordownwards depending on the location of the exhaust and the wing.

other details:
nav lights: left wing is red, right wing is green BUT unlit green nav lights will apear dark blue.




hope this helps.

[Citabria]

also add some transparency to the markigns and etc to make them sit better in the camo or they will stand out to much.

[moot]

real nice.

thanks for the comments fester.

[Furball]

riveting is not very visible,  sorry about the large image size but maybe this will help