Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Custom Skins => Topic started by: Lord ReDhAwK on July 08, 2006, 12:57:47 AM
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Salute all,
Speaking up for Little Miss Mischief if nobody has started her. No problem for me to stop if she is already yours :)
Couple of screenies of work completed so far. Weathered the BMF but not the OD yet. Still have lots I want to do with the engines and some additional weathering on the underside. Of course, no shineyness yet as I want to complete the grunt work before playing with the material file (yay, paint AND metal) :rolleyes:
Lord Guppy, do you have a shot of her from the right side fuselage. Everything I have is only on the left side :( Was disappointed that 2nd Patches had the stretching issue, so I started another OD and BMF combo
Still have the mission decals to place on the side of her but wanted to wait and see if Dan has that additional view for me.
All insight appreciated.
ReDhAwK
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Thats one bad dirty girl...grrrr
I love it Lord ReDhAwK... :aok It's just as good as the RAF one mate.
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Lookin good!
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i had started her but your looks a lot better then mine so by all means carry on.
i got too much to do and too little time so have fun and make her look good
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Those Americans:)
Always have to make it look pretty instead of cheaper.
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Lord ReDhAwK, it seems the exhaust stains are misaligned on the upper wing surfaces. On a totally unrelated note, can you make the noseart a little more saturated? (more visible?)
I'm digging this skin, big time! I love the way they just tacked a new tail structure on. Wonderful engineering.
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Salute all,
Heya Kazaa :) Thnky sir.
I appreciate it Rogerdee. I would have given her up had you wanted to keep her sir. I will strive to make her badprettythang :)
Heya Krusty. I actually misaligned em on purpose. I believe it was Fester who pointed out that the staining should be aligned more left for the prop airflow. No problem at all upping the saturation on the noseart. I would like it to "pop" a bit more as well.
I will post updates as she progresses. Working on more artwork for her right now.
ReDhAwK
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Hehe. Having wayyyy too much fun with this one. Really getting into the details. I have looked at all kinds of pictures and noticed she is a very weathered bird. I have taken a little artistic liberty and deduced that she would have had lots of damage mid fuselage to warrant a replacement section. On the right side fuselage I have placed a "gouge" to look like a flak hit repair (not pictured on this pic.) Tried to place in hammered sections near the mid seam, ect.
Anyway, Increased the saturation per Krusty and have made the mission counters. Can anyone explain the difference between the yellow markers vs the red markers? I need educated.
Still need to do the OD on the engine cowlings but am getting comflicting pictures. Also, have not placed the de-icing booys as I have seen period pics both with and without them.
Making a lot of guesses on the right side fuselage based on other bombers from the same group.
Helpful critiques most welcome.
ReDhAwK
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The engine cowlings are split into 3 pieces. Unfortunately the default panel lines have them pointing away from the fuselage. Normally they "point" up (think of the panel lines as a divining rod, or a peace symbol).
From the top 8:00 position to about 12:00 would be the OD on the cowlings. From 12:00 to 4:00 would be one panel and from 4:00 to 8:00 would be the third panel.
If you want I can send you the OD area and the panel lines I made on Ruby, in their own PSD file.
EDIT: One thing I notice: You're missing the slots in the chin gun. The barrel would slide up and down inside these slots. Don't forget them on the tail gun, as well! I used the default to get the same size and area.
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Um, the bird herself isnt real pretty (Still have my fingers crossed for an all-od bird!) but your work on her really makes her something special! I love the detail, and I cannot wait to see the flak-gouge in her side! Beutiful work! Any guess on a release date?
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Krusty, that is most generous. I would love to have the OD area psd. I guess I had the details turned off for the slots in the turrents. They are there now in my psd. I will PM you my addy.
Reynolds, HTC never gives us release dates. Even if they did, you never know how long it will take you to complete a skin you're working on. I may think it is finished, then Greebo, Fester, Kev, Krusty, or a number of other people may find something that needs done to it. Sometimes small fixes, sometimes large. You cant go into them with a mentality of "Im gonna skin this in 2 days and it will be perfect." The RAF 17 took me about 4 weeks total. That was a fun thread as I learned a lot about B17's in the threads duration that I have applied to this one.
ReDhAwK
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PM back at ya.
EDIT1: I like the noseart now. Much better.
EDIT2: How did you get the chin turret so light? Mine has some sort of hard-coded filter over it, making it darker (same for the tail gun).
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From the 91st BG History. The reason for the fuselage section replacement
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DEAR GOD GUPPY!!! WHERE DO YOU GET ALL THIS INFORMATION?!? YOu are like the smartest B-17 guy in the world!!! I know! Are you the guy working for Boeing who designed the B-17?!? You are! Ha! I figured it out!
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Hmm. Not sure why mine would be lighter than yours Lord Krusty. I just made an aluminum layer for it and upped shineyness in the lighting effects under filter in Photoshop. Actually, I applied filters to the different regions of the actual psd to give a more sporatic look in the final, viewable, skin in game. I wish I had a fix to the problem you're describing.
Ur Guppyness, as always a walking, breathing resource. I appreciate the pics sir.
ReDhAwK
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Originally posted by Reynolds
DEAR GOD GUPPY!!! WHERE DO YOU GET ALL THIS INFORMATION?!? YOu are like the smartest B-17 guy in the world!!! I know! Are you the guy working for Boeing who designed the B-17?!? You are! Ha! I figured it out!
Man, you need pills. :rofl Guppy knows everything about everything; he has a library of books that surpasses any known limits.
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Yeah, and i want a copy of it! ITS SO AWESOME!
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Very nice job on the weathering Redhawk. I like skins that look like they have been in a war rather than in an airshow.
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I appreciate that coming from you Greebo. I studied your default skin to the point of exhaustion. All the period pics I have found of Mischief showed her to be very worn. Plus, I wanted Kazaa to call her a "bad, dirty girl" :aok
ReDhAwK
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Credit where it is due, that beautiful default B-17 skin is Fester's work.
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Not sure if it helps, but this gives a pretty good idea of how the NMF on Little Miss Mischief looked on here last operational day. She was bellied in and didn't get repaired this time. Note of the three propellers seen, the far left shows red, the next is black and the closest is bare metal.
Just a tidbit for the final product :)
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Originally posted by Guppy35
She was bellied in and didn't get repaired this time
:(
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Heya Guppy,
I noticed that on the spinners as well. Unfortunately, the skin will only allow 1 color version (only has 1 spinner in the skin.) I decided to go with black even though I would have preferred the red :) Of course, I guess red could be used instead now that we have a color photo of it You rock!
My apologies Greebo. For some reason I thought you were the skinmeister of the default 17. Needless to say, many hours studying Festers B17 work :)
ReDhAwK
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Originally posted by Lord ReDhAwK
I appreciate that coming from you Greebo. I studied your default skin to the point of exhaustion. All the period pics I have found of Mischief showed her to be very worn. Plus, I wanted Kazaa to call her a "bad, dirty girl" :aok
ReDhAwK
LOL!!! I want to be there for THAT! lol.
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Hey Redhawk I was browsing for information on B-17s and found the following, Cheers.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v287/bassetleader/06.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v287/bassetleader/07.jpg)
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Fencer this single pic you gave me answered so many questions that have been driving me nuts. I cant thank you enough! I wanted to verify proper placement of the unit letters on the right fuselage. My guess was way off sir. I owe you a tasty 12oz beverage at the next con :aok
ReDhAwK
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Note that the tail that replaced the BMF tail has the tiger-camo medium green spotches. Those weren't random, they were a type of camo pattern. I can scan something later for an all-green B17F with the same camo. There are color photos of it online as well.
EDIT: Also note that you're going to have to cheat. The tail that they put on did NOT have staggered waist gunner positions. You're going to have to lose part of the stars and bars if you want to fit the code in properly.
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Rgr on the camo Krusty. I cannot find the design you are describing, so if you can scan it for me I'd appreciate it.
I think that after the camo fix Krusty is talking about she will be done. Attaching a few pics as well as descriptions of what I did.
First pic here is the fix on the engine cowlings to the 1/3 od scheme Krusty described...
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Next up is a pic of something I did with the de-icing boots. All period pics I have seen did not reflect boots on the forward wings. What I did was to take a little of the grime off the BMF wing and on the OD wing I spray painted over the BMF to give a more worn look from flight. You will also see that I chose to go with all red spinners (the original bird had 3 different colors for spinners..red, black, BMF) as pointed out by Guppy...Note that the Rear stabalizer had 1/2 a boot on the top section. The bottom section of the stabalizer had the boot removed...
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Next up was the part that was driving me crazy. Many thanks Fencer for squaring me away on this. The right side fuselage with identity letters. I went with the BMF door as reflected in the same pic Fencer attached. Notice that the bottom portion of the OD green paint has another gray shade of paint underneath it. Cant remember the RGB I used but I tried to make it close to BMF, while still having a touch of difference. The material file further blended the BMF and gray paint together for a smoother look...
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You will see that the weathering is continued to the underside of the bird (although shadow is taking away from the effect in this screenie.) Oil, grime, smoke, ect. We also now have the machine gun elevation slots visable (they were turned off before as Krusty pointed out...
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Finally will be the nose art. Looking through the previous pics you will notice that the right side fuselage noseart does not have the mission plaque's? (yellow and red bombs) above it. I researched every picture of the group I could find and could not find any bird that had them on right side. Noseart yes, but not the plaques. Please let me know if this is not the case :) I upped the saturation per Krustys suggestion and gotta admit Im much happier with seeing the noseartf rom a distance. Nice match across the bird with the red portions (balances her nicely IMO.)
Once Krusty posts the example of the OD camo he was talking about, and if there are no further correction, I feel she will be ready. Helpful critiques most welcome.
ReDhAwK
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I'm going into the other room to scan that camo for you now. However I noticed a problem with the spinner -- all of it is red. Normally just the cap is red, the hub (the parts where the blades attached) was metal.
Give me 15 minutes or so to scan some pages.
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Image 1
It's a type of camo. It's not set in stone like RAF schemes. Some have it around the entire upper surface (edging the wings like this image) some just have it on dorsal surfaces (like the image after this one).
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Image 2
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As for the image posted earlier, I circled a couple of areas that clearly show this camo, and one on the stab that I *think* carries it. I can't tell but I'm guessing there's at least 1 or 2 more by the stabilizer, but that's in the shadow areas, and I cannot see.
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Rgr that Krusty. I appreciate you scanning those for me. I will get it squared away. No prob on the spinner. My fault. I knew it was only the cap but had a "Doh!" :) I'll fix it.
ReDhAwK
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It's not just the cap that's red. Look at the photo I posted. It's all of it. You had it right to begin with :)
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f a b u l o u s! You are absolutely correct. I guess I didnt have a "Doh!" :)
ReDhAwK
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Originally posted by Guppy35
It's not just the cap that's red. Look at the photo I posted. It's all of it. You had it right to begin with :)
How very unusual!
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On the chin gun, there are two more lines behind those for the guns themselves. They are on the bottom of the chin turret. Are those supposed to be there?
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Originally posted by Reynolds
On the chin gun, there are two more lines behind those for the guns themselves. They are on the bottom of the chin turret. Are those supposed to be there?
Yep. See photo below
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Hmmm. never noticed them before! Thanks! Hey, where do you get all of these pictures?!?
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Probably the Allied Signal "Flying Fortress in Action," of which I, too, have a copy. Little Miss is on the front cover. I've really been waiting for someone to do Little Miss Mischief, as she is my favorite B-17 ever. Redhawk, it looks absolutely amazing. I can't wait to fly her.