Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Custom Skins => Topic started by: Easyscor on August 06, 2004, 05:59:09 PM
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I still need a little leading edge damage and some tweaking before I send it in but here's a peek. Darn, images didn't come out as well as the original screen shots but oh well.
(http://www.geocities.com/luftwaffe_1177/easy_2.jpg)
(http://www.geocities.com/luftwaffe_1177/easy_1.jpg)
(http://www.geocities.com/luftwaffe_1177/easy_3.jpg)
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It looks absolutely fantastic, but it still looks like it needs a few more hours of work. Not to be a dolt for detail, but here are a few suggestions I have to make it look much much better.
It looks like the panel lines on the green are too light. I would turn down the opacity some and try to blend them with the green, so that theyre noticeable, but of the same generic color.
The green seems a little bit too dark than the real model. See the below link to see what im talking about.
Also, some weathering would make it look 100 times better. By weathering I mean paint chipping, oil smudges, exhaust streaks, things of that sort.
Rivets would also make it look incredible.
I found this site, http://www.ratol.fi/~tmannine/b-17/b-17_images_909a.htm, that is a complete walkaround of your plane. Its got some great pictures of every part. I hope it helps!
Other than that it looks great. I know I couldnt make it look that good! :)
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Beautiful work. Can't wait to see it finished
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Thanks United. Can you repost the link to the walk around, it’s broken. It may be one I haven't seen and pictures of the starboard side are hard to come by. I couldn’t find any early career color photos. In fact, the only color photo I could find was washed out. The photo almost looked like there was a three color scheme. I went for the "official" colors someone posted a link to on this forum and then color corrected my monitor. Even then I had to make adjustments for in-game color.
Unfortunately the image posts washed out all the weathering, exhaust, and nearly all the rivets. Those aren’t panel lines, those are some of the worn rivets that caught the reflection. I wish I could do some green rivets but they wash out and I’m color blind anyway, I had to get some (a lot really hehe) help to get the right look. Not bad for a color blind guy using MSPaint and a little GIMP.
I had to make a lot of compromises. A single pixel covers a lot of space on a big plane like the B-17. In the new mapping, I’m hoping Hitech will add a separate file for the gun turrets, other small parts and the engine nacelles, making room for more fuselage and wing detail. I’ve dropped the cartoon nose art as too difficult and ugly at anything less then 1024 tex size so I made the Nine 0 Nine early in it’s career, ;) 26 th mission or so, before Dietrichs’ crew, around the 56 th mission, when the cartoon had been added. Mapping forced me to use an alternate lettering designation on the starboard side and the forward crew hatch mirrored to the starboard side. Hitech may make me remove the forward hatch. The aft crew hatch and missing piping on the engine nacelles I added should be ok. Also I changed the engine soot pattern to reflect wartime photos. I just realized I forgot the tail gunners escape hatch lol.
Thanks for the kind words guys.
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Oh, and if the in game color is off... I may need some help finishing it from one of you artists out there.
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http://www.ratol.fi/~tmannine/b-17/b-17_images_909a.htm (http://www.ratol.fi/~tmannine/b-17/b-17_images_909a.htm)
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http://www.ratol.fi/~tmannine/pics/ (http://www.ratol.fi/~tmannine/pics/)
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Blixen has the correct link in his first post. Sorry about that, I had a comma in there on the end. Since you're colorblind, what you did is absolutely incredible. I cant get the colors right and Im not colorblind!
The color would look more like the pictures with the following configuration.
Hue: 29
Sat: 91
Lum: 123
Red: 178
Green: 151
Blue: 84
Hope the numbers help out some!
Also, the link has the latest version of Nine O' Nine, so it has the noseart and bomber missions on it.
Keep up the good work! I'm anxious to see the final product!
Id also be more than happy to help you in the game to finish it off. Just let me know what you need done and Ill see to it that its completed!
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Thanks again for the links. I hadn't seen the second one.
Well here’s the thing. What is the correct original color? I found only the one color picture of the original 909 but it‘s faded and doesn’t quite match the Collins Foundations’ color and there are many pictures of other planes that appear to be darker. In-game the color is lighter and a pretty close match to these except without the shine of the Collins Foundation plane.
I'll check the color numbers and post later.
(http://www.ratol.fi/~tmannine/pics/909_tail_fin.jpg)
and
(http://www.ratol.fi/~tmannine/pics/bb_tail.jpg)
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Hmmm, I may have to do two versions and let Hitech pick.
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Great looking skin Easyscor, very atmospheric. One very minor nitpick: perhaps you could reduce the height of the top half of the leading "R" in the squadron letters, as the skin seems to have stretched it vertically.
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Good point, thanks Greebo, I'll take another look at that.
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Some good pics I got when she landed in burbank
(http://www.onpoi.net/ah/pics/users/235_1091952043_img_1324.jpg)
(http://www.onpoi.net/ah/pics/users/235_1091952104_img_1349.jpg)
(http://www.onpoi.net/ah/pics/users/235_1091952412_img_1348.jpg)
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Great skin Easy ... congratullations
cheers
airmess
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LOOKS AMAZING;) :D :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :lol
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Easyscor,
The original Nine-0-Nine was painted in early-war OD, which is very 'brown' ( actually yellow ), versus the later war OD, which is very 'green'. Later war OD can be so dark it looks almost black on new aircraft.
The Collings bird is close in hue to the original color, but as you mentioned, the WWII paint is flat, not gloss, and I think the original color is a bit darker.
Your original post looks great and is a really good match for the later-war color.
When it comes to camouflage, close is good enough. Paint batches do not match exactly, sunlight and weather fade the paint, repainting is done in the field, etc.
Also, the color in a photograph may not be true because of the developing and printing process.
Now that I've started the "what color OD really is" argument, I'll sign off :).
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Thanks again everybody. It's progressing nicely and should be ready to submit next week. Only thing left to do is tweak the rivets a bit and touchup some of the weathering.
Originally posted by glenmorangie
Now that I've started the "what color OD really is" argument, I'll sign off :).
:) Yep, that could happen.
I got some more help and settled on a color near the Collins Foundation aircraft. To my colorblind eye the base color is ugly but when everything else is in place it looks really nice and it makes the weathering show up much better.
Greebo that was a good catch. I'm surprised I missed it, just goes to show you can get too close to the work.
Mirroring on the tail prevents me from adding the tail gunners escape hatch after all.
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Easyscor,
Here are some scans of wartime pictures, including Nine-O-Nine.
Note the color variance. Princess Pat should give you some weathering ideas...
(http://members.cox.net/gunfighterp51/AHPics/Nine-O-Nine.jpg)
(http://members.cox.net/gunfighterp51/AHPics/Princess PAt.jpg)
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Oops, submitted too soon
(http://members.cox.net/gunfighterp51/AHPics/All Americal Girl.jpg)
(http://members.cox.net/gunfighterp51/AHPics/Fever Beaver.jpg)
(http://members.cox.net/gunfighterp51/AHPics/Our Gal Sal 1.jpg)
(http://members.cox.net/gunfighterp51/AHPics/Our Gal Sal 2.jpg)
(http://members.cox.net/gunfighterp51/AHPics/Shilaylee.jpg)
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WTG its way better then mine.. i made the b17 chow hound. it was green but it sucked. it was made about 3 months ago atleast:aok
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i love the "Nine O Nine" scheme, there should not be any silver B-17s on the game. over 80% were olive drab in the war. thanks for the better looking flying fortress.:aok
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Easyscor what program do you use???