P-38 Template

[Sol75]

Does anyone have a template for the 38L/38J? I am interested in trying my hand at skin making

Sol

[The Fugitive]

good luck with that!

Most skin horde their "work" very tightly. They put hours and hours into them and really don't want anyone messing them up, or taking credit for all of their work.

[Knite]

Hello Sol,

I mean the entirety of this reply with all due respect.
While most skinners would absolutely love to help give advice on how to do things, almost NONE of them are willing to do the work for you, unless you're requesting an actual skin be created and someone wants to get that done.

Here's the thing... a highly detailed skin can take anywhere from 40 to 120 HOURS (or more) to complete. That's not just the template, but the actual research into each aircraft, finding out details such as pilot information, squadron, group, and other information, then creating the skin, recreating, adjusting, asking advice, adjusting again, scrapping and starting over, adjusting, asking for more advice... etc.etc.etc. Skinning for many of us isn't just "something to do" but something we love to do and pour our heart and energy in to (and I'd put money on it the folks who make the best skins in the game are likely perfectionists and stress over the most minute detail that most people likely won't even notice). Because so much of "us" is in each skin many of us do, in general, you won't find many skinners willing to give a "piece" of that up to someone else.

In terms of a template, the first skin I ever created for AH, a B24, the "template" was started by doing nothing other than just tracing the panel lines that were already on the stock skin of the aircraft. It was the easiest part of the skin by FAR. Since then I've actually gone to trying to look up schematics, photographs, and other line drawings of the aircraft, comparing them to the stock AH panel lines, and adjusting where I think needed. But what it boils down to is if you are really serious about attempting skinning, the "template" is the easiest and best thing to start with.

If you have any questions HOW to accomplish anything, the people who frequent this forum have shown time and time again they have a wealth of knowledge in everything from history, to details of an aircraft, to even suggestions on how to make something look better. I'm sure any of them (or even myself) would be happy to help in that manner. Good luck! 

[Sol75]

Hello Sol,

I mean the entirety of this reply with all due respect.
While most skinners would absolutely love to help give advice on how to do things, almost NONE of them are willing to do the work for you, unless you're requesting an actual skin be created and someone wants to get that done.

Here's the thing... a highly detailed skin can take anywhere from 40 to 120 HOURS (or more) to complete. That's not just the template, but the actual research into each aircraft, finding out details such as pilot information, squadron, group, and other information, then creating the skin, recreating, adjusting, asking advice, adjusting again, scrapping and starting over, adjusting, asking for more advice... etc.etc.etc. Skinning for many of us isn't just "something to do" but something we love to do and pour our heart and energy in to (and I'd put money on it the folks who make the best skins in the game are likely perfectionists and stress over the most minute detail that most people likely won't even notice). Because so much of "us" is in each skin many of us do, in general, you won't find many skinners willing to give a "piece" of that up to someone else.

In terms of a template, the first skin I ever created for AH, a B24, the "template" was started by doing nothing other than just tracing the panel lines that were already on the stock skin of the aircraft. It was the easiest part of the skin by FAR. Since then I've actually gone to trying to look up schematics, photographs, and other line drawings of the aircraft, comparing them to the stock AH panel lines, and adjusting where I think needed. But what it boils down to is if you are really serious about attempting skinning, the "template" is the easiest and best thing to start with.

If you have any questions HOW to accomplish anything, the people who frequent this forum have shown time and time again they have a wealth of knowledge in everything from history, to details of an aircraft, to even suggestions on how to make something look better. I'm sure any of them (or even myself) would be happy to help in that manner. Good luck! 

Guess that is actually what I was looking for.. perhaps "template" was the wrong term for it, I basically meant the "outline" of the airframe, not a skin with details of ANY sort on them, that I would not ask someone to share, I guess I could just use the stock skin for this as a layer in Photoshop that could be excluded or deleted int he final product...

Sol

[The Fugitive]

Knites my squadmate and he won't even let me have his    I have to spend all my time keeping my score up to cover has poor game play !

Like Knite said tho, save the default skin and start there. Make it a layer like you said and start tracing things. Krusty has a pretty good starter tutorial on these boards and you might be able to find Festers write up as well. It's time consuming, but as you work you learn. The more you learn, the better the skin will be.

Good Luck ! Hope to see a new 38 skin soon.... don't tell Knite, but I'm getting tired of flying his   

[Knite]

Guess that is actually what I was looking for.. perhaps "template" was the wrong term for it, I basically meant the "outline" of the airframe, not a skin with details of ANY sort on them, that I would not ask someone to share, I guess I could just use the stock skin for this as a layer in Photoshop that could be excluded or deleted int he final product...
Sol

That's exactly how I do it.
All of my skins start the same way.

Layer 1 = the stock skin - I keep this on the bottom layer of all of my skins. Makes a GREAT reference point even later in the skinning process.
Layer 2 = a tracing of all of the stock skin's panel lines.
Layer 3 = a multi colored paint job of each of the aircraft's different parts. This helps me figure out what part goes where, and in what direction. (for instance, I'll paint one fuselage side blue, one orange, and then test it in game so I know which side is which).

I pretty much take it from there. Also, the BEST part of using the stock skin as the bottom layer, is that there's some parts that really do not need to be painted a 2nd time, like the engine parts of the P38, or the intakes, landing gear, or wheels. Now, that being said, my most recent P-38s actually had custom made wheels and I colored the engine parts some to give it more of a unique feel of wear and such, but the point is, why reinvent the wheel when you don't have to?


edit : Fugi... you cut me... you cut me deep man.
 

[Knite]

Oh, and Sol, here's a couple of links:

Krusty's tutorial
http://www.nakatomitower.com/skins/tutorial.html

Greebo's AWESOME bare metal tutorial :
http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,279659.0.html

Another great one by Greebo on doing fabric :
http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,237973.0.html

More tutorial info here :
http://www.ahskinning.netfirms.com/

I really hope it helps and that the lack of a template or "blank slate" doesn't discourage you. It's hard work but I miss it when I don't do it for a while.

[Sol75]

Thanks folks! Now I need to find a subject! Too bad can't skin a 38M on the L   A black 38 would be awesome hehe.. if any have suggestions for unusual skins, id love to hear em!

Sol

[Motherland]

Guess that is actually what I was looking for.. perhaps "template" was the wrong term for it, I basically meant the "outline" of the airframe, not a skin with details of ANY sort on them, that I would not ask someone to share, I guess I could just use the stock skin for this as a layer in Photoshop that could be excluded or deleted int he final product...

Sol

If you go 'over the edges' it doesn't hurt anything (you may lose some colors I guess?). Most just trace over this for the 'base' and then build on it.
You need to leave the stock skin as your base layer anyway if you don't skin the wheels, engine grates etc (most don't).

[cactuskooler]

Also know that the default J/L skin panel lines/rivets have their fair share of inaccuracies. The most noticeable one being the panel line that intersects the small scoops on either side of the booms near the spinner. It's an idea to compare them with pictures of the real plane and see what you can improve, add or remove.

These are my two favorite sites to find walkarounds of a variety of planes.

http://www.primeportal.net/the_airstrip.htm

http://aircraftresourcecenter.com/


It's worth browsing this site also. It has some good tutorials in addition to the ones Knite posted.

http://www.simmerspaintshop.com/
 

(...are likely perfectionists and stress over the most minute detail that most people likely won't even notice).

Ahh the curse of the perfectionist, so many unfinished projects abandoned in it's wake.

[Knite]

Ahh the curse of the perfectionist, so many unfinished projects abandoned in it's wake.

No kidding. The p-51 skin I recently submitted was technically started back in 2005 and I put it aside because I got too frustrated. I could prove it by going through post history here on the boards. haha.

[jocko-]

I'd put money on it the folks who make the best skins in the game are likely perfectionists and stress over the most minute detail that most people likely won't even notice

Very true.

In terms of a template, the first skin I ever created for AH, a B24, the "template" was started by doing nothing other than just tracing the panel lines that were already on the stock skin of the aircraft.

That's how I start out, thankfully there are those like Greebo who make very good default skins. The Typhoon and F6F are great examples. I have some very accurate resources (engineering drawings, etc) for the Spitfire that I used to ensure that my Spit skins were as realistic as I could make them given certain restrictions - model shape, etc. When I did my Typhoon skins I was pleased to see that the panel lines were already quite accurate and that saved a lot of time for the dessert layers like markings and weathering   

[warphoenix]

Does anyone have a template for the 38L/38J? I am interested in trying my hand at skin making

Sol

google aces high 2 skins then click the top link that site has a ton of skins and a template for every plane

[The Fugitive]

google aces high 2 skins then click the top link that site has a ton of skins and a template for every plane

those are old skins. I don't think they work on the new models anymore.

[AWwrgwy]

The funny thing about this thread in particular is, based on Sol75's work, he obviously didn't need a template and is more than capable of doing it himself.  His work looks great.

This is just an example of why everyone gets up in arms when someone asks for a template.  If you really want to skin you should be able to start from scratch like everyone else who skins once did.  If you're going to cut corners from the very beginning what else are you going to skip?

So, a question for Sol75 possibly for the benefit of future skinners:

How hard was the template to do?  Has it been the hardest part so far?

Keep up the good work.


wrongway