Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Aces High General Discussion => Topic started by: Kweassa on February 04, 2004, 11:14:27 AM
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I assume when Meyer met the fledgling R. S. Johnson, he was probably wearing these colors.
(http://org.fighters.co.kr:9000/caribbean/old_gallery/upload/21171107112710620040205015318.jpg)
III./JG2 Egon Meyer's Fw190A-5. Meyer earned 102 vidtories but was shot down and killed in 1944. He is also well known as the father of the Head-On attacks against heavy bomber formations.
The skins for the Fw190A-5 needs some heavy working IMO. I think it's one of the most typical cases of how AH1 textures were created without any future anticipation that somebody would actually touch the skins in the future.
The under half of the rudder uses colors from the cowling. The under part of the cowling uses colors in some clandestine location near the wing which I've managed to find by mapping the whole texture in different colors.
The upper part of the cowling is separately mapped with a 2D picture depicting the guns(yeowtch! :eek: ) , which I slightly had to modify since they were looking like musket barrels.
The upper part of the rudder, uses very small space of texture TAIL.BMP, so if anybody looking forward to skinning the A-5, he'll need to skin that too. Such a tiny space that all I could afford for the kill markings, was a 1 pixel wide, 4 pixel tall space for each kill marking.
The left and right side fuselage is portrayed separately, which thankfully removes the problems of 'mirror images'... but besides that fact I think it's got some problems.. which makes me worried that it might be changed with the finished product and I'll probably have to skin it again.
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The basic colors are finished and are waiting for weathering. The swastika of course, will be removed, if the current BMPs are indeed used in the game and I submit the skin.
ps) Oh, btw, changed the spinner colors - SPIRAL.BMP. Certainly seems to work in the A-5... are u guys sure it doesn't work in other LW birds??
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one suggestion, maybe make the kill markings a different color that stands out better, or make a number above them so its more easily visible. Just an idea.
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Good point. Although I don't think there's enough space in the rudder in TAIL.BMP to even write 3 digit numbers.
It'd be a smudge of black!
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Great skin Kweassa!
one thing i found though from here: link (http://www.acepilots.com/usaaf_rsj.html)
was this from robert Johnson's mission details in which Mayer Shot him up very badly
"Swiveling constantly, he froze in horror as he spotted a plane approaching him, an Fw-190, beautifully painted in blue with a yellow cowling. "
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It's not surprising that he says "blue".
I'm no expert on this but it seems that there are some diverging opinions on which modern day RGB values the RLM colors actually were - and certainly, one of the variations to the "gray" applied LW planes, does seem to bring out a flash of blue under certain intensity of light.
The default 'gray' used for both the 190A-5 and A-8 in AH, is IMO way too dark. I've used lighter colors, but actually, :) the gray I used in the 190A-5 above is even darker than what the RLM->RGB color swatches suggest! When I tried using what was written down there, the 190 looked so 'blue' and very light in color it actually looked a bit awkward :D
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Which of course, doesn't explain the 'yellow cowling' part. Ehh.. Occam's Rule I guess. Probably Meyer had either a different plane, or had his paintjob redone.
ps) Btw, couldn't find time to finish the weathering process last week. It's still not done yet... dang!
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I agree about the Blue...i love the skin :) just sayin what R.S.J. said in his AAR.........Very great work and can't wait until it's weathered ;)
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Here's a little update for anyone who's interested.
(http://org.fighters.co.kr:9000/caribbean/old_gallery/upload/21171107112710620040208095253.jpg)
I didn't want to do it at start, but I guess the rivets had to be done.. frickin' tedious work.. *groan*
As one looks closer, it's quite hard to believe the the AH2B Fw190A-5 is a finished version. So many glaring errors and smurfy areas that it's really disappointing. My guess is that HTC probably used AH1 model with slightly beefed up textures. One can only hope.
* The wheels really need to be looked into.
* The MG bulges and guns are done with one flat pic.. man, that hurts. (I wouldn't mind seeing the hub cannon in the 109s, too!)
* The engine exhaust, is also depicted with a flat pic. Which, is also wrong in size and shape, so I had to retouch it slightly.
* And.. the tedious rivet working.
It's really too bad that the rear/under side of the fuselage can't be worked out. It looks OK at a distance, but anybody will soon realize that the wings and main fuselage areas are depicted with rivets and panel lines, but the rear fuselage is just plain bare.
The rivets are an unexpected and unintended delay, but I admit the plane looks better with rivets than without it.
...
Looks like it might take another week.. *sigh*
ps) Oh, I'm also looking for information on "texts". Like for instance, I noticed that the profile of this bird contained a number on the top of the kill markings on the rudder, but I couldn't make it out in the picture so I had to leave it out.
Much simularly, I would bet that the 190s, like all aircraft, probably carried pieces of maintenance information/text on the fuselage - like the "Nur hier betreten" sign or "Vorsicht Beim Offnen" on the 109s. So far all I've found was the B4 fuel tag on the fuselage and not much more.
Anybody got info on those stuff please enlighten me so!
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ps) Oh, I'm also looking for information on "texts". Like for instance, I noticed that the profile of this bird contained a number on the top of the kill markings on the rudder, but I couldn't make it out in the picture so I had to leave it out.
Much simularly, I would bet that the 190s, like all aircraft, probably carried pieces of maintenance information/text on the fuselage - like the "Nur hier betreten" sign or "Vorsicht Beim Offnen" on the 109s. So far all I've found was the B4 fuel tag on the fuselage and not much more.
I am looking for the same. Does any have a decal sheet? If not can anyone reccommend one that has all the stencils and maintenance markings?
It would be worth 10 bucks to get one and scan it.
Something similiar to this:
(http://www.flugzeugwerk.net/Profile/emilmarkings.gif)
but for the 190a series would be great.
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http://www.luftarchiv.de/luftwaffe/kennz.htm
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Thank you Dr.Z !!! It's more than I could have hoped for!!! :D
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It's done.
(http://org.fighters.co.kr:9000/caribbean/old_gallery/upload/21171107112710620040209191721.jpg)
Please meet Wili Haim of I./JG300. :D He's the model for the 'generic' pilot I will be using for LW planes before 1944.
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I'm sure you have figured this out, but just in case you haven't........
Ah2 will wrap any size of bitmap correctly, provided it is the correct shape, and ideally a multiple of the pixels along one side of the square. This means that a wing bitmap can be 256/256 pixels, 512/512, 1024/1024 and so on. If you are having problems with resolution of your kill-markings on the tail, simply use a larger bitmap for that area, and look for other bitmaps which are needlessly large to correct the pixel budget .
A good one to check is the Dude1.bmp, on the Spit V I found that worked adequatly at 256 pixels, down from 1024. So I "spent" the saving elsewhere where I really wanted the extra resolution...
I work in 4096 pixels square, but that makes my P4/3gig grunt a bit, lower specs might find it wise to work in 2048 square.
Make sense?
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Great work Kweassa!
If you would like me to put it on Skin Department (http://ah2skins.dweebs.de), send it to me via email, inluding a 1024x768 screenshot. :)
Edit: but without swastika.
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As a matter of fact, I've never thought of that!! Thanks for the invaluable tip!
However, I do feel a bit of refrain towards using the suggested method - if I know HTC over the years, they're pretty much sensitive about using file size/format that leaves the initial boundaries. :(
I think a simular problem was seen in the old days when some people used larger squadron logo/marking BMPs than approved - since then HTC precisely requested all submitted squadron markings to abide by the suggested image size.
Also, in AH1, it was possible to use 512x512 textures and get them working in the game - however, in the Combat Theater where player made skins were used, it was also strictly limited to 256x256.
I'm thinking it'll be the same case in AH2. :(
ps) Thx lucull! Sending it via email now.
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TY Kweassa!
The skin has been added to Skin Department (http://ah2skins.dweebs.de) webpage or you can use the direct download (http://ah2skins.dweebs.de/download.php?file=skin4.zip&id=4). :)
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109 stencil map...
http://109lair.hobbyvista.com/articles/stenciling/7-home.htm