Skin request.

[bustr]

Check the picture and comments about the overall white color at this link.

 http://riseofflight.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=204&t=9622

And a bit more here.

http://www.jjduk.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=486

Second model down here.

http://www.ipmssouthland.com/aircraft-ww1.html

And here.

http://www.aviationfilm.com/aircraft/dr1_weiss/index.shtml

[Stampf]

Thanks bustr.

Had previously seen all of those.

From your last link:

"On May 2nd Weiss himself was killed when he was shot down over Méricourt by Canadian ace Lt Merril Taylor of 209 Squadron. Lt Taylor mentioned a "white triplane" in his combat report. However, other 209 Squadron pilots described the enemy formation as "red-nosed triplanes" (i.e. the common Jasta 11 adornment), so it is safe to assume the aircraft was Weiss's partially white aircraft."


No it is not safe to assume anything.  The partially White (upper wing/rear fuse) version is well known.  (Standard Flight Leader paint job).  There are no pictures of the A/C Weiss was flying on the 2nd. of May.



HTC approved the version in the EAA Museum - However I was reminded how much goes into making these WW1 skins. (ie:damage textures/modeling).


I would take this aircraft skinned eitherway - and would go so far as to say...that we should skin it in the known/provable scheme of only partially white - so as to stick to the long standing tradition of documented paint schemes only.  Even though I believe that by May 2nd. - Weiss had completely over painted his A/C to all white - The partially white version offers no arguments.

<S>



 

[Stampf]

 

I have to laugh at some of the stuff people put up as 'History' on the web...

Many time during my research (the links above included) into Hans Weiss's career I have seen a picture of a German soldier with the caption identifying the photo as Hans Weiss of Jasta 11.    Uhm...No!  That Hans Weiss was a SS man in WWII!!

This is the only known picture of Weiss with a DR1.



and here is an acceptable representaion of the aircraft supposedly pictured:

 

and the ROF version:




A fine addition to the stable it would be.

[Devil 505]

I may end up skinning both schemes when the time comes - long way off. The partial scheme is well documented but the all white version is so awesome

[Stampf]

I may end up skinning both schemes when the time comes - long way off. The partial scheme is well documented but the all white version is so awesome

Thank you Devil.  I know you would do a fine job.  Your skins are among the very best currently entering the game.

<S>

[Devil 505]

Danke. 

[The Fugitive]

OK, go easy on me as this is my first skin, but I want some pointers/suggestions as these are just the 2 main pages. I haven't touched the damage ones or the bump mapping ones.

[Dragon Tamer]

I don't know what program you're using for to make the skins, but you might want to run a noise filter on the main white areas then a slight blur. This will help break up the look of the plane so it doesn't look solid (gives it more of a speckled, fabric look).

[Saxman]

I don't know what program you're using for to make the skins, but you might want to run a noise filter on the main white areas then a slight blur. This will help break up the look of the plane so it doesn't look solid (gives it more of a speckled, fabric look).

What I do in Gimp for fabric is:

1. Create a new layer and fill this with a fairly neutral gray.
2. Create a layer and apply Noise -> Hurl (increase the density)
3. Desaturate this layer and Duplicate it
4. On one layer, apply a Motion Blur at 90 degrees. Play with your length until you get it where you want it.
5. On the second layer, apply a Motion Blur at 0 degrees at the same length.
6. Adjust the transparency of your two blurred layers until they're about where you want them.
7. Once you have they where you want them, merge them with your neutral layer.
8. Select the layer with those elements on which you want the fabric texture to appear.
9. Go to Filter -> Map -> Bump Map
10. Use your merged "fabric" as the Bump Map, play around with the other settings as desired (I prefer Spherical or Sinusoidal for the map type.
11. Apply this, and you'll have a fairly nice "woven" texture to the surface.
12. Make sure to use your "fabric" texture on your actual bump map, as well.

In order to make sure you don't lose any of the texture along the edges, I would make your fabric texture fill the entire image, and then selectively apply it the the layers you want textured

[The Fugitive]

I don't know what program you're using for to make the skins, but you might want to run a noise filter on the main white areas then a slight blur. This will help break up the look of the plane so it doesn't look solid (gives it more of a speckled, fabric look).

Im using photoshop, and Im no where near done. I only just started messing with dirtying up the plane.

What I do in Gimp for fabric is:

1. Create a new layer and fill this with a fairly neutral gray.
2. Create a layer and apply Noise -> Hurl (increase the density)
3. Desaturate this layer and Duplicate it
4. On one layer, apply a Motion Blur at 90 degrees. Play with your length until you get it where you want it.
5. On the second layer, apply a Motion Blur at 0 degrees at the same length.
6. Adjust the transparency of your two blurred layers until they're about where you want them.
7. Once you have they where you want them, merge them with your neutral layer.
8. Select the layer with those elements on which you want the fabric texture to appear.
9. Go to Filter -> Map -> Bump Map
10. Use your merged "fabric" as the Bump Map, play around with the other settings as desired (I prefer Spherical or Sinusoidal for the map type.
11. Apply this, and you'll have a fairly nice "woven" texture to the surface.
12. Make sure to use your "fabric" texture on your actual bump map, as well.

In order to make sure you don't lose any of the texture along the edges, I would make your fabric texture fill the entire image, and then selectively apply it the the layers you want textured

Thanks, I have done a bit of some of this on the bottom of the plane with the mid grey and motion blurs. I didn't take real good screen shots as well there really isn't a lot of detail to be seen yet. I did mess around a bit trying to come up with a plan to try for a "woven" effect but hadn't worked anything out yet.

At this point I'm wondering if the iron crosses are the right size and position, as well as the stripes. The one on the upper wing is hard to tell from the pictures, but it is my best guess. The "white" color I didn't want to "bright". what do you guys think, Close?

Here's a couple more, I thought the struts and brackets came out nice....



Like I said I started messing with the bottom...

[Stampf]

Fugi I have no words. Thanks as always...damn I am starting to owe you many in the book now...


The red flight leader chevrons and late war Balkans look fine. (and late war is correct - unlike the partial white version).  Yes too bright for a combat flown warbird even though Weiss only wore this paint job for probably less than 3 weeks - as the photo of his partial white version of his plane dates from early April.  Use the ROF version as a ref for shade and weathering.

I would go ahead and add the Fokker DrI # as shown in the ROF version above - even though there is no proof that the partial version in the photo is indeed 545/17.  The a/c Weiss supposedly was flying on May 2nd.  Of course - he had more than one as did all the flight leaders.

Skin makes perfect sense for a man named Henry White - taking over for the Red Baron - at the helm of the Circus of red trimmed aircraft - and undoubtedly the most liberal airplane artists of all time when it came to personalizing their rides.  The man who shot him down said - the plane was white.  Good enough for me right there.  Not a one off either.  Goering and many others preferred white over the blues, blacks, reds, and yellows that were common.



Going to be a most beautiful addition.  Hope we get both versions at some point.  

EDIT:  And why the black tail stripes some ask?  Simple.  Weiss came from Jasta 10. - check it out.

[Devil 505]

Looks good so far Fuji. 

Here's a shortcut to finding a good faded shade of white: Copy the white layer and paste it to a new layer just above the white, invert the white to black and now just use the opacity slider to adjust the faded look. On my skins, white markings are faded with about 10% black - and black markings faded with 10% white. by having a separate layer for the shading, you can adjust the color on the fly when making adjustments until you find the percentage that you like best. My advice is no less than 5% and no more than 15%.

[Saxman]

Also, regardless of how you weather it, remember that the white paint wouldn't be PURE white.

Simmers Paint Shop AFAIK doesn't have any color swatches for WWI, but you might take a look at the German swatches for some examples. Wasserhell (250, 247, 241) might be a good choice to start with.

[Stampf]

Also, regardless of how you weather it, remember that the white paint wouldn't be PURE white.

Simmers Paint Shop AFAIK doesn't have any color swatches for WWI, but you might take a look at the German swatches for some examples. Wasserhell (250, 247, 241) might be a good choice to start with.

Correct.  And the debate over the exact shade used by the WWI German airforce is as old as the hills.  It certainly was not the nice gloss white you see hanging under bright lights in a museum.  More like a washed out light grey/white actually.

[Zoney]

While maybe not quite as bright as pure white, I wonder if the color changed a bit over the years from weathering.  Possibly could the old painted fabrics have changed a bit from when they were brand new?