Thanks guys.
I chose this rather than a more common aircaft cos there are still some slots free and I wanted to get back into practice on something that's overlooked. I know it may get a new model soon, but there was the same worry when i worked on the Ju88 and it's not been updated yet. Plus I just like the 110 - I really get what Krusty says about any skinning being a labour of love - we may never even get to see them in game.
For schemes, I'm just gathering photos at the moment. I thought I might do an early war sceme before the mottling was introduced, then maybe a winter camo overpaint, or have a crack at ZG1 with the wasp nose, I've never tried nose art before. I'd like to go on to do the G as well, so I'm keeping panel lines organised so that I can make all the changes. I'm actually trying to be organised and patient in my workflow for once, rather than hopping all over the place like I usually do.
I used the existing scheme to get a rough idea of the layout of various parts, then the skinviewer to line out exactly where each is on the template.
Then I use that as a guide to try and fit some schematics inside, took a fair bit of squashing, stretching and distorting after this pic. Also, most of the schemes in books, etc are pretty rubbish. I don't know whether it's more frustrating when they disagree with each other, or when they've all copied the same mistake.
Then I create the panel lines as paths, with a separate set for each element/type. I load these into the viewer again and compare them to photos. Which is where it becomes an art reconciling reality with a model. Also, some things look okay from one angle:
but then when you see them at another, the lack of polygons can turn a straight line into an angle - I had to pull this curve back a couple of pixels from the nose to get rid of the distortion. And the purple line under the ammo doors in the pic above looks straight and horizontal in a side view, still not sure how much to bend that.
