Nr_RaVeN said:The paint is ok but you upper panel lines and around the base of the nose cone and exhaust ports and canopy are not looking to hot. you could try and lower the ops a hair. I know its a fresh plane out of the shop and all but the shading effect is not coming off well.
Actually, I rather like the panel lines you're complaining about, because I think they do a good job of depicting the visual differences between the several very different types of skin panel joints. They came out looking like I wanted them to, anyway
. Sorry you don't like them.
The panel lines on our skins have to depict the 3 main types of skin joints used in real life, each of which looks rather different from the others. Therefore, we have to use different methods on our various panel lines to reflect this. The front spit fuselage contains examples of all 3 main types of joint, and I made them all look different on the skin.
The 1st type of joint is around the edges of a flush but removeable panel. Cowlings, gun bays, and entry doors are the primary examples. IRL, there is often a noticeable gap around the removeable panel, and in addition the edges of the removeable panel often get slightly bent so don't sit flush or fit well along their whole lengths. These factors combine to make joints around these panels extremely noticeable, from a combination of width and depth of gap, shadow and grime accumulation in the gap, and the fact that no paint bridges the gap at the level of the skin outer surface. IOW, these lines are almost always highly noticeable black lines across the paint or even bare metal skin. Hence, I made the lines on the engine cowling panels and around the entry door below the canopy reflect this. They are 20/20/20 lines with a very thin, irregular stripe of paint over them. This gives them a highly visible, yet irregular appearance, which IMHO accurately reflects the random unevenness along the edges of the removeable panels.
The 2nd main type of joint is an overlap of 1 panel on top of its neighbor. The panel on top may be removeable, or it may just be an external stiffening doubler. In either case, however, there is a definite 3D ridge interrupting the smooth surface of the skin, although there is no gap between panels and all visible surfaces are painted (or not) to match their surroundings. This, as well as grime accumulation around the edge of the raised panel, makes for a rather visible panel line, but not nearly so much as around flush removeable panels. The upper edge of the wing fillet, and the angled edge of the armor plate under the windshield are examples on the spit. I make these lines using anti-aliased 80/80/80, even where they're straight, which IMHO ends up giving the desired 3D effect, or at least the appearance of grime accumulation.
Finally, there are the flush joints between immoveable skin panels. IRL, there is about a 1/8" gap between the edges of adjacent panels, but this gap is filled with sealant to make it nearly flush with the surrounding surface, and then painted over. As a result, these lines are hardly visible at all from any distance greater than 3-5' IRL. I use 120/120/120 for such lines, and you can just barely see one running from the lower rear corner of the removeable fuel tank cover the the lower front corner of the entry door.
Oh BTW, on the real plane, there was a fair amount of oil leakage out of the joint between the prop spinner and the front of the cowling. It smeared back 1-2" pretty much all around the spinner. That's why that line is more noticeable than you might think it should be.
Anyway, I like the results, because they're what I was shooting for. But it's a matter of taste, I guess.
