KI-84

[Hajo]

Ink my brother......you have a creative talent.  Use it....be patient.  Some great constructive help from Oboe, Lyric, and NRshida here.  Even I appreciate that.

You'll have to remember that this skinning community has critqued itself........therefore it is entirely possible they're critiqued themselves into a narrow interpetation.
It is a community of eventually like minded individuals of what should and shouldn't be proper.  Your first attempt imho was fantastic!  Why?  Because IT AIN'T A CLONE!
Did it need some work?  Hell yes!  They all do.  You've brought along maybe an outside the box creativity that is not prevalent here.  Are these skinners good?  Hell yes they are!
You've offered something new and that I like!  Trying to determine weathering from a 60 year old picture that might have sat in a bag is not going to be exact by any means.
And no one can tell me they've "nailed it" from a 60 year old black and white picture.....ain't possible and never will be.
Here is where the artists interpatation comes to play.....and I like individuality and creativity which you have my friend!

Keep on creating!  And do listen to suggestions from those who are respected and respect you also.  Respect is earned.

[ink]

Ink my brother......you have a creative talent.  Use it....be patient.  Some great constructive help from Oboe, Lyric, and NRshida here.  Even I appreciate that.

You'll have to remember that this skinning community has critqued itself........therefore it is entirely possible they're critiqued themselves into a narrow interpetation.
It is a community of eventually like minded individuals of what should and shouldn't be proper.  Your first attempt imho was fantastic!  Why?  Because IT AIN'T A CLONE!
Did it need some work?  Hell yes!  They all do.  You've brought along maybe an outside the box creativity that is not prevalent here.  Are these skinners good?  Hell yes they are!
You've offered something new and that I like!  Trying to determine weathering from a 60 year old picture that might have sat in a bag is not going to be exact by any means.
And no one can tell me they've "nailed it" from a 60 year old black and white picture.....ain't possible and never will be.
Here is where the artists interpatation comes to play.....and I like individuality and creativity which you have my friend!

Keep on creating!  And do listen to suggestions from those who are respected and respect you also.  Respect is earned.

hell all I can say to that is   and thank you very much

almost done with the latest version, I gotta stop haha I have like 9 finished KI skins   but I am not happy with them

this latest one seems to look promising, should be posting up pics soon

again thanx Hajo my mopar brother

[Citabria]

think of the airplane as in the same manner human skin etc is depicted showing whats underneath through subtle variations in the thin aluminum skin beign pulled ever so slightly by the rivets etc.

make the rivets (flush rivets) just one white layer with very low opacity/fill.

shade metal deformation as follows based on your light source (quasi baked in method of bump mapping)

positions are based on looking at the fuselage with engine in front etc...

one black layer heavily erased to be almost imperceptable shadows on the lower and rear sections of each square area between rivets and panels.

one white highlight layer almost completely erased to create barely perceptable highlights on the top and front side.

this is a method of depicting what your eye will actually see when looking at an airplane and it is photorealistic from the most commonly viewed angles if done subtly and correctly.

depict what your eye sees on actual ww2 aircraft though modern general aviation aircraft are of similar construction mostly and also a decent reference.

try to understand what your drawing.

it will aid you in realistically depicting your subject much the way artists study the human body and its sketal and muscular structure to aid them in drawing what they see on the surface of the skin.

warbirds are often giving you these same clues of what lies beneath though they are subtle.

also the shoe prints are nto how dirt is tracked on the wings its much more acumulation dirt and scratches not a track from one person with size 99 muddy boots.

[ink]

think of the airplane as in the same manner human skin etc is depicted showing whats underneath through subtle variations in the thin aluminum skin beign pulled ever so slightly by the rivets etc.

make the rivets (flush rivets) just one white layer with very low opacity/fill.

shade metal deformation as follows based on your light source (quasi baked in method of bump mapping)

positions are based on looking at the fuselage with engine in front etc...

one black layer heavily erased to be almost imperceptable shadows on the lower and rear sections of each square area between rivets and panels.

one white highlight layer almost completely erased to create barely perceptable highlights on the top and front side.

this is a method of depicting what your eye will actually see when looking at an airplane and it is photorealistic from the most commonly viewed angles if done subtly and correctly.

depict what your eye sees on actual ww2 aircraft though modern general aviation aircraft are of similar construction mostly and also a decent reference.

try to understand what your drawing.

it will aid you in realistically depicting your subject much the way artists study the human body and its sketal and muscular structure to aid them in drawing what they see on the surface of the skin.

warbirds are often giving you these same clues of what lies beneath though they are subtle.

also the shoe prints are nto how dirt is tracked on the wings its much more acumulation dirt and scratches not a track from one person with size 99 muddy boots.

 

thanx

[Citabria]

the flush rivets are nearly imperceptable at the resolutions these skins are done in epecially on painted areas. Ive always cheated and made them just barely visible up extremely close but made efforts to see that they fade out from view when viewing the whole plane.

a trick to make them more pronounced is to make a copy of your rivet layer turn it a bare metal grey or greyish blue color and erase most of it except where you want wear and tear of the paint on the rivet heads popping off which is common on flush rivets in stressed areas... walkways, leading edges especially where the prop slipstream impacts the cowling wing roots and tail and blasts these areas with dirt and debri causing much wear on som heavily used pacific planes. and random "it looks good here" locations.

[ink]

someone sent me a good KI book, and checking it out I found some differences, in the panel lines and rivets, so I started all over again with this skin

I am totally enjoying making this one, and its giving me a lot of experience working with layers which I have not used very often.

I keep going over board with the weathering though, but looking through photos a lot of the Japanese planes had heavy wear, whats your thoughts on amount of weathering-chipping?

[PropHawk]

Yes, that's the green.

I noticed you did cover up some of the tail area and paint over it (and a couple of other areas, flaps, etc), but most of the rest looks relatively untouched. You can see the original everything. It looks (at least to me, not knowing what you did) like you just took a layer and used "variations" on it, or changed the saturation/contrast/tint levels.

Perhaps it might help if you described what you mean when you refer to keeping the original weathering? You can't keep the weathering if you've done your own layers, as they would cover it up. That confuses me.

Thats forest green. Oh and thats a very good skin. Fuel Rod Gun ammo it aint. Big Green Death it is!!

[PropHawk]

Tried to edit but anyway. The weathering is seafoam, but I like it. Could I please have a copy of the original?.

[ink]

Tried to edit but anyway. The weathering is seafoam, but I like it. Could I please have a copy of the original?.

I no longer have a copy of the original sorry....I am working on a new version that should be much nicer.

thanx btw

[PropHawk]

I no longer have a copy of the original sorry....I am working on a new version that should be much nicer.

thanx btw

I really like that brown one btw just saw that today.

[ink]

I really like that brown one btw just saw that today.

Thank ya

here are a couple shots of the latest one....its not done yet....gotta finish the belly.....and some odds and ends, but so far I am pretty happy with this version.

this skinning is fun....but man there is a lot to it.....I have had this finished at least 10 times but then I see something is off or wrong  so its back to the drawing board

anyways here ya go

[USRanger]

 

[JOACH1M]

Very quick learner ink nice looking Skin... I'd use it

[ink]

I will take that as a good thing

Very quick learner ink nice looking Skin... I'd use it

thank ya

[USRanger]

I will take that as a good thing

thank ya

You can take it as a boner in mah britches my friend.  You should've started skinning long ago Inky.