Gun Port and Case Ejector Stains ????

[Vraciu]

How far aft should the smoke stains from muzzle blast and casing ejection extend?   How dark should they be?   Transparency?   Color?

I'm looking at the .50s on the Mustang to start with.

 

[Krusty]

Ideally, you don't see it much. Especially not on front line fighters that are well kept and maintained. Even on modern jets they clean those stains off because it not only adds drag (somewhat) but it can eat away at the paint and so forth. F-16s have a big problem with that, too.

What we do is more based on the perception that planes "should" have stains there. If you look at actual footage, you don't see it much. Less is more. Be subtle.

Example:

http://rnzaf.hobbyvista.com/Images/p40e_nz.jpg

Note the rampaging exhaust stains from the ejector stacks? Note this is a Pacific plane in the PTO, and sometimes they were notorious for getting dirty. Also note there's no real hint of gunsmoke, gunport soot, stains, etc.

It's a compromise. People have been trained from past badly drawn textures on flight sims to look for it, so we give them something otherwise we start to descend into the uncanny valley. Otherwise use your judgement and look for actual reference photos of the plane you're interested in.

[Vraciu]

First attempt.   May be overly subtle but compared to some I've seen it's at least not overblown.

Is this what you were getting at, Krusty?

[Devil 505]

Just add some more smoke around the edges of the ejection ports and to add some to the pylon if the stain on the wing meets it.

[Krusty]

Note that, logically, most of the smoke stains will originate from the gun barrel ports, not so much the linkage ejection chutes. No gasses were escaping from those. They were just gravity/wind-suction powered.

[Vraciu]

Note that, logically, most of the smoke stains will originate from the gun barrel ports, not so much the linkage ejection chutes. No gasses were escaping from those. They were just gravity/wind-suction powered.

I think there is still some spent propellant burning off on the way out.  Anyone have photos showing this?

[Vraciu]

Just add some more smoke around the edges of the ejection ports and to add some to the pylon if the stain on the wing meets it.

Similar to these or something else?

[Devil 505]

Your smoke trails begin at the rearward edge of the chute, Just add some smoke to the side edges and darken the rearward edge a but and blend it into the existing trail.

Give me a minute to post a pic of one of my skins.

[Devil 505]

Note that, logically, most of the smoke stains will originate from the gun barrel ports, not so much the linkage ejection chutes. No gasses were escaping from those. They were just gravity/wind-suction powered.

the pic you posted above seems to have heavier soot at the ejection ports than at the muzzles.

[Vraciu]

I only did the chutes since I am not sure what I'm doing yet.

[Devil 505]

So the smoke stains themselves, you want to make the same way as any other smoke stain, only smaller.

I use RGB 41/53/30 for my gun smoke - an extremely dark brown.

He is an example from a late Bf109, with the Mg 131 ejector chute. In this case, the layer is set to 83% percent opacity as I want it to be seen through the heavy oil stain which will be over it.


Experiment with the blur and smudge tools to feather and blend the smoke to your liking.

Here are a couple of other examples from other planes I've done.

110C at 60% opacity


P-40C with unknown layer opacity, I'm guessing about 75% +/- 5%


Hope this points you in the right direction.

[Vraciu]

Terrific.   Thank you.  I'll give it a shot.