My first skin Ki-84 10 Rensei Hikotai.. early preview...

[TexMurphy]

Still very early... but a preview of my first skin atempt.. input appriciated...



Tex

[oboe]

Wow that is very good, Tex.  Esp the natural metal shading.

Looks like some cleanup is needed around the antiglare panel on the nose near the windshield.

I'd be tempted to increase the panel line visibility a tad - it sort of looks like its made out of one piece of aluminum - I'm not getting the sense of separate panel sections when I look at it.  Still, that may just be my personal preference - what you've got here is definitely fantastic!

Don't forget heavier line shading around the cowl flap lines and canopy frame/fuselage intersection, and control surface hinge areas.   When you get the weathering and dirt/grime layers on this baby it is really going to look awesome.

Keep going!  Can't wait to see the final product!

[rogerdee]

looking great tex i know the skin viewer is good  but try   the skin off line  and  with  a couple of different views  take some  screen shots  then look at them.
  putting them  in the right surrounding   eg  on a  runway  or flying  with   a  background  will bring the skin to life  and give  you a  better feeling of what looks right.
   for  a first  try  it  looks  great better then some of my latesttrys:lol

rogerdee

[TexMurphy]

Thanks guys.

The plane lines have been my major problem so far. Ive got them to where I like em but still need to tune it. God you should have seen th mess I had before. Now they actually do look more indented into the metal then before. But as said yes they do need tuning.

Ive not started the work on the "details" layer yet and that is where I will do the thicker plane lines around the cowl flaps. Im not gonna do thicker lines actually but Im gonna make my shading a bit heavier and hopefully that will create a good look for em.

Question though what the is "control surface hinge areas".

The anti glare is just temporary as Ive not really put any effort into that area yet. Looks like watermelon atm. Something that puzzles me though is the little grey triangle that is showing between the anti glare and the metal. Im wondering where its comming from.

Tex

Tex

[oboe]

The metal effect really looks nice, and I'm looking forward to seeing it in game.

By "control surface hinge areas" I meant the line formed where a control surface (aileron, rudder, elevators, etc) attach to the plane.   These moving parts would have a bit more separation and so the line where they attach should be slightly darker/deeper looking.    Lots of guys add a shadow effect there too.

That little grey triangle is something from the 3D texture itself I think - all you can do is try and cover it up - it might take some trial and error.

Can you post a pic of the original aircraft?

[TexMurphy]

The original plane is quite rare and Ive actually just found scale model references to it and some very sketchy text information about the 10th Rensei Hikotai. Reason I picked it is because I have vitrtually no art tallent what so ever and wanted to make my skin as easy as possible, the squad insigna is very easy and the numbers are doable by hand as well. Also I really wanted to do a bare metal skin as we dont have a bare metal skin that uses the material.txt.

Here is one scale model of it. http://www.ipmskalamazoo.org/Aircraft/48th/js-ki84-1.jpg
Color layout can be seen at http://www.modelingmadness.com/scotts/decals/sky/sky48041.htm

Though before Im done it might actually end up beeing the 73rd Sentai version showed on this page. http://www.modelingmadness.com/scotts/decals/aero/am48616.htm

The top one on the latest link the 520th regiment one is a really interesting paint scheme as there is tons of confusion about the 520th temporary intercept regiment (some like that) and one of the Rensei Hikotai regiments plus the pilot who actually flew that plane. Still researching that one.

Tex

[TexMurphy]

Ok done some more work.

Screenies from ingame.

Still work left but getting closer. Please ignore the numbers as they are not the way they should be.






Tex