P-40 "white #7"

[ink]

Great minds, right?

 

I was doing some more searching and found a pic of Scott standing next to his bird and the tiger is the typical one that was on all of them, his plane "old Exterminator" the second version I guess,is the one had that had the tiger flying through the ring, so I switched it over for the earlier one, and he definitely changed his spinner color, he would paint it either red, blue, OD, or red white and blue.......not sure yet which one I am gonna do...  

he was a lone wolf..like me ..went out on his own attacking bridges and what not, I don't think he was actually in the AVG, but he flew with them, and took over when they became the 23rd, I also believe he was the first American ace in ww2....(could be wrong on that but I don't think so)

[ink]

a quick shot of the weathering I did last night.....I may tone it down A bit, but I am liking it....definitely not gonna go more then this.

besides that I gotta do a few odds and ends.... then she will be done

not sure if I like the red spinner..gonna try it in blue and OD...not gonna try the red white and blue...don't know how he configured the colors....
    looking at it now I realized I forgot the kill markings...which should be on the layer with the nose art....damn im getting 

[Citabria]

chipping still overdone... heres a tip

make a copy of your rivet layer and your panel line highlight layer (the white one)

adjust the color of each to a greyish light blue.

make it 100% opacity and start erasing most of it except where you want to show paint popped off rivet heads and paint missing around panel edges.

you can then expand on this with an additional layer of the save color or hell merge it if your feeling adventurous.

use dodge and burn tools to give hints of reflection or variation and staining to the chipped areas. experiment with it.

[ink]

chipping still overdone... heres a tip

make a copy of your rivet layer and your panel line highlight layer (the white one)

adjust the color of each to a greyish light blue.

make it 100% opacity and start erasing most of it except where you want to show paint popped off rivet heads and paint missing around panel edges.

you can then expand on this with an additional layer of the save color or hell merge it if your feeling adventurous.

use dodge and burn tools to give hints of reflection or variation and staining to the chipped areas. experiment with it.

I actually do something very similar, I make a duplicate copy of the rivets/panel lines..erase the ones I want to keep paint covered, and then I select and cut out the remaining rivets and lines, then I erase over that layer, which erases the color layer exposing the metal layer below, then I just delete that copied layer I used as a "temp-plate" for erasing. 

honestly I have come to depend on the dodge and burn tools, I think I use them more then any other tool.

I also do  A LOT of experimenting with the different ways to layer and adjusting the opacity..... I have a basic method on what I do first and all the steps till the end....but I get carried away with the experimenting


you seriously think its too much chipping.. ...I keep leaning towards keeping this version, I just like the way it looks.....although I should try it with a bit less to compare.

[Shane]

Better and better. Listen to fester, tho' 

And you can probably score some easy bucks by making actual paintings and selling them. 

<dares grizz to get a 109k tat> 

[ink]

Better and better. Listen to fester, tho' 

And you can probably score some easy bucks by making actual paintings and selling them. 

<dares grizz to get a 109k tat> 

haha Thanx

I may design an AOM tat for myself   

I have sold a bunch of paintings....hell I've been selling my artwork most my life...but that old saying "starving artist" is so true...in this economy very few people are gonna spend money on artwork.

although I just had a couple drop $1,500 for tat work...which is pretty crazy seeings how I am not even in a shop, they have been searching for me for a few years and refused to let anyone else tattoo them, that feels good

[Krusty]

   I am not looking to re create a particular pic of this plane, but more of  an attitude or time in its life...

...

I like the worn out battle hardened look...I cant escape it

...

exactly what is not historically accurate? 

because of the wear and tear   does that not happen under usage?  and just because there are no "pics" of it, it happened and to think otherwise is pure silliness.

I think you need to let go of that old thought that you need to make a skin EXACTLY like it is in a pic....obviously I am not talking about the nose art and markings.

but to say my two skins so far is all fantasy is an out right lie, they are both real planes, both skins are real.

trust me if I wanted to make a skin look EXACTLY like it is in a pic, I could do that, wouldn't be very hard. (or should I say would not be any more difficult  then what I am doing now, it would be easier in fact)

but my imagination wont let me, I see a plane and I know it goes through some beatings and a rough life,(much like myself) there is no way a paint job is gonna stay pristine during a war absolutely NO WAY...so me being me, I do what I see as a "battle hardened" plane...plain and simple.

 I told you when you sent me that PM about how I "only started skinning to cause a stir" that I am an ARTIST period, what the hell is so hard to understand about that.......    

I don't think any AVG plane ever flew in such a sorry state of corrosion.

Look, my main beef with your work right now is you don't bother making it look real. You like to chip the hell out of anything, even if it was never that way. Please please PLEASE take a look at actual reference photos of the real plane or similar planes in the same place, same time, and/or same unit. NONE of them have the nearly 30% paint loss like you show on the wings and fuselage.

This is what I meant by you need to turn your imagination OFF. You're imagining something that just never was. It's not a historic skin. If I took Harmann's 109G and left the codes the same, the nose art, but painted it like a P-47, it would be an apt analogy.

You can't just make up how the plane looked if it never looked that way. I'm sorry, but when the weathering effect is to smear mud all over the belly, pure black sludge dripping from every panel lines, and to remove half the paint on the upper surfaces, you ARE responsible for reigning things in back into the realm of possibility.

Weathering IS as much a part of the final skin as the skin itself. And you are grossly mis-weathering this plane.

If you REALLY REALLY must weather the hell out of something, don't force it onto a plane it doesn't belong. FIND ONE that really looked that way (and served in combat that way) and skin it, instead.

You are still in the fantasy realm. Getting much closer with the latest one, but you still refuse to take feedback that points you to the real war-time rides you are supposed to be representing.

Your problem is you want to weather the ^@#$ out of it and don't really care what the subject is. It's the wrong approach IMO, and leads to simply bad skins. Good artwork, but bad end skins, if you see my distinction.

[Krusty]

See Rules #4, #6

[ink]

See Rule #4

[oboe]

Please chill guys.    

Ultimately it'll be up to HTC to accept or reject such a skin.  

I do think the paint wear is overdone as well - to me, depicting paint worn off the vertical sections of the wing fillet indicates flaking and poor paint quality, not wear due to foot traffic.  In that respect the paint wear you've shown resembles more what I've seen on a Japanese plane, but not a U.S. plane that I can recall.
U.S. planes had better paint quality and for the most part were reasonably well maintained in most theaters, I think.  (early war South pacific and North Africa might be the exceptions)

Hey, ink - another thing you might try to add an authentic look - show fresher spray paint to cover parts of areas that have been chipped or peeled - this paint would be darker and less faded, and would be found along panel seams, etc.

Also, you could show an odd panel section with a slightly different shade, to indicate the panel section was scrounged from a different aircraft to replace a damaged panel cover, or removed completely and given a fresh coat of spray paint while it was off the plane.  I think this could realistically happen with engine access panels, hatch covers, etc - panels that had screw attachments.  I wouldn't do it to sections that were riveted in however.


  

[IrishOne]

See Rule #4

[Stoney]

I do think the paint wear is overdone as well - to me, depicting paint worn off the vertical sections of the wing fillet indicates flaking and poor paint quality, not wear due to foot traffic.  In that respect the paint wear you've shown resembles more what I've seen on a Japanese plane, but not a U.S. plane that I can recall.  U.S. planes had better paint quality and for the most part were reasonably well maintained in most theaters, I think.  (early war South pacific and North Africa might be the exceptions)

This...  Most American aircraft didn't stay in service long enough to achieve this type of wear.  I remember an anecdote about the difference between the Corsairs the U.S. flew and those the RNAF flew.  Some RNAF pilot saw a bunch of older Corsairs sitting in a holding area awaiting shipment back to the states, and noted that all of them appeared in better shape than those the RNAF were currently flying.

I think its about just getting the weathering to a realistic level rather than trying to put a curb on your creativity.

[ink]

This...  Most American aircraft didn't stay in service long enough to achieve this type of wear.  I remember an anecdote about the difference between the Corsairs the U.S. flew and those the RNAF flew.  Some RNAF pilot saw a bunch of older Corsairs sitting in a holding area awaiting shipment back to the states, and noted that all of them appeared in better shape than those the RNAF were currently flying.

I think its about just getting the weathering to a realistic level rather than trying to put a curb on your creativity.

 

I am trying to do just that.










and of course the "action shot"

[Shane]

I am trying to do just that.

That gunk from the wheels...

1) What are you thinking it is? hydraulic fluid?
2) The flow pattern isn't logical, whatever fluid it might be.


3) What would be causing the area between the wheels to weather and burn-in like that?



I really hope you get your urge to beatdown/over weather planes under control, if only because I'd like to see them in-game, as opposed to only admiring them for your artistic interpretation and abilities.  

You want to be a Rockwell or Dali?  For in-game skins, you're gonna need to rock well.  

[ink]

That gunk from the wheels...

1) What are you thinking it is? hydraulic fluid?
2) The flow pattern isn't logical, whatever fluid it might be.


3) What would be causing the area between the wheels to weather and burn-in like that?



I really hope you get your urge to beatdown/over weather planes under control, if only because I'd like to see them in-game, as opposed to only admiring them for your artistic interpretation and abilities. 

You want to be a Rockwell or Dali?  For in-game skins, you're gonna need to rock well.   

 

now that is good criticism

I guess I was going for this look but much dirtier, you can see the streaks from the wheel wells, I just tried to picture a beat up "used hard put up wet" dirty bellybutton P 40...but tried to not over do it...haha     
maybe I shoulda been looking at this pic while doing it...but this is not a war weary plane....

I will work the belly more