Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Custom Skins => Topic started by: whiteman on August 30, 2020, 04:36:34 PM
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This is in fact my first rodeo so getting this far seems like a miracle and ya'll helped a ton, ether directly with clues and tips or indirectly with your own threads and back forth with each other.
This is "L.A. City Limits", Chicos 3rd and most famous plane he flew in VF-17 from Piva Yoke, Bougainville. He scored 2 Zeke kills and probables on 1 Zeke and 1 Hamp. He finished the war with 9 total kills with the remaining coming with VF-84 under Roger Hedrick who was also with VF-17. That total tied him with the VF-84 kill lead. At 10:45 am after landing on the Bunker Hill and scoring 2 Nates, he was killed along with many of his squad mates when a kamikaze hit the the VF-84 ready room.
This has always been one of my personal favorites and was obvious choice, with the number of skins opening up there are few other VF-17 planes I'd like to do and requests from our VF-17 squad.
I don't mean to turn this into a picture gallery but being my first skin build i figured views of different angles and shade may be a good idea. In the future I'll stick with just a couple. The black turning a crazy purple is an issue i toned down and might have to go in and really mute any staining behind the cowling. I feel some what better after checking a few other f4u's and seeing it seems to be an issue.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50287701056_ca1c0bb007_o.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jBKBwy)chico (https://flic.kr/p/2jBKBwy) by whitemanLS1 (https://www.flickr.com/photos/94381131@N04/), on Flickr
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50287025103_87d56ebc21_o.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jBG9Ac)LA city limits (https://flic.kr/p/2jBG9Ac) by whitemanLS1 (https://www.flickr.com/photos/94381131@N04/), on Flickr
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50287657051_79ed2641db_o.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jBKorR)f4u1 3 (https://flic.kr/p/2jBKorR) by whitemanLS1 (https://www.flickr.com/photos/94381131@N04/), on Flickr
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50287809037_10136c396b_o.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jBLaCi)f4u1 A (https://flic.kr/p/2jBLaCi) by whitemanLS1 (https://www.flickr.com/photos/94381131@N04/), on Flickr
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50286981803_ce7df4d96b_o.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jBFVHD)f4u1 4 (https://flic.kr/p/2jBFVHD) by whitemanLS1 (https://www.flickr.com/photos/94381131@N04/), on Flickr
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50287808917_b24ebf96d2_o.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jBLaAe)f4u1 6 (https://flic.kr/p/2jBLaAe) by whitemanLS1 (https://www.flickr.com/photos/94381131@N04/), on Flickr
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50287808897_0c2e29c25b_o.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jBLazT)f4u1 7 (https://flic.kr/p/2jBLazT) by whitemanLS1 (https://www.flickr.com/photos/94381131@N04/), on Flickr
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50287808877_6eea1823d9_o.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jBLazx)f4u1 8 (https://flic.kr/p/2jBLazx) by whitemanLS1 (https://www.flickr.com/photos/94381131@N04/), on Flickr
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Very excellent!
(https://i.imgur.com/Eyizv02.png)
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That is fantastic for a first skin Whiteman. Weathering, chipping and grime all look excellent. I don't mind a lot of pictures, this aircraft and skin is beautiful from every angle.
Might want to check the white stripe outboard on the upper and lower wings - it might just be the camera angle but it looks like it might not be aligned between the upper and lower wings, or perhaps the width is different between upper and lower?
Beautiful skin, though.
My guess on the purple problem is the interaction between the black shade and the underlying blue. Photoshop has different blending modes between layers - I usually keep mine on Normal, but you could try seeing if the problem still occurs in some other blend mode. I don't know if its possible to fix, though you probably notice it more than anyone. I don't see it on my end in any of these shots.
Shame about Freeman. <S>
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Very excellent!
Thanks Arlo knew you would appreciate this and have some background to go with it!
That is fantastic for a first skin Whiteman. Weathering, chipping and grime all look excellent. I don't mind a lot of pictures, this aircraft and skin is beautiful from every angle.
Might want to check the white stripe outboard on the upper and lower wings - it might just be the camera angle but it looks like it might not be aligned between the upper and lower wings, or perhaps the width is different between upper and lower?
Beautiful skin, though.
My guess on the purple problem is the interaction between the black shade and the underlying blue. Photoshop has different blending modes between layers - I usually keep mine on Normal, but you could try seeing if the problem still occurs in some other blend mode. I don't know if its possible to fix, though you probably notice it more than anyone. I don't see it on my end in any of these shots.
Shame about Freeman. <S>
Thank you oboe! I’ve been wanting to do this for years but wasn’t sure I could, took a plague to get me to give it a shot. I think that is misaligned and will start a list of fixes. The purple should be toned down in these. Devil gave me some advice on which black to use to minimize it. I did all that grime over again with a “lighter” black, then I went through the layer settings to make sure none were set to something odd like multiply. Also think you’re right about the blue and black combo, I work in print and blues going purple is the first thing I look at there. I may try overlay before toning it down again.
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Excellent job for a first timer. I love the weathering you achieved on the fuel tank.
Here are a few tips to make your skin even better:
Darken your shade of white. It really glows. Unfortunately whites need to be significantly toned down to minimize the glowing.
Add a noise layer to the paint to give it more texture. Greebo gives a great example of this on page 2 of his P-38 build log. If you did this already, then just turn up the effect a bit and see what happens.
Another good way to make more variance in the paint is to make layers of splotches in dark brown, dark olive, and a sandy brown. I like using the sandy color heavily on walkways and steps. The dark olive is great for areas where oil staining is frequent. (also, the dark staining aft of the cowl flaps might look great using a dark olive instead of black - I assume that's oil.) A combination of all three shades in small random blobs are great for general coverage.
It seems to me that you can add more shading to the fabric control surfaces. They seem very flat to me. That said, I'm not sure how apparent rib detail is on the average Corsair.
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Hell of a skin Sir. :salute
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Excellent job for a first timer. I love the weathering you achieved on the fuel tank.
Here are a few tips to make your skin even better:
Darken your shade of white. It really glows. Unfortunately whites need to be significantly toned down to minimize the glowing.
Add a noise layer to the paint to give it more texture. Greebo gives a great example of this on page 2 of his P-38 build log. If you did this already, then just turn up the effect a bit and see what happens.
Another good way to make more variance in the paint is to make layers of splotches in dark brown, dark olive, and a sandy brown. I like using the sandy color heavily on walkways and steps. The dark olive is great for areas where oil staining is frequent. (also, the dark staining aft of the cowl flaps might look great using a dark olive instead of black - I assume that's oil.) A combination of all three shades in small random blobs are great for general coverage.
It seems to me that you can add more shading to the fabric control surfaces. They seem very flat to me. That said, I'm not sure how apparent rib detail is on the average Corsair.
Thanks Devil, I figured I’d probably end up a CVS receipt long list so this is very encouraging! I darkened the white, I’ll probably need to darken the numbers and insignias some more. Bumped up noise and dirt mask opacities. Went back and used an green, that definitely knocked out the purple haze. I’ll get working one those surfaces hopefully tomorrow, I’ll take look at references and see what they look like. I wasn’t sure how the maps would treat certain objects wasn’t sure those would show.
I got a question here, when in offline mode the sun looks like a supernova. Extremely bright and huge while in the cockpit, external view is normal. Is there something I need to adjust for that go back to a normal level?
Hell of a skin Sir. :salute
Thank you Sir!
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:aok
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Nice Job Whiteman
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Thanks Devil, I figured I’d probably end up a CVS receipt long list so this is very encouraging! I darkened the white, I’ll probably need to darken the numbers and insignias some more. Bumped up noise and dirt mask opacities. Went back and used an green, that definitely knocked out the purple haze. I’ll get working one those surfaces hopefully tomorrow, I’ll take look at references and see what they look like. I wasn’t sure how the maps would treat certain objects wasn’t sure those would show.
I got a question here, when in offline mode the sun looks like a supernova. Extremely bright and huge while in the cockpit, external view is normal. Is there something I need to adjust for that go back to a normal level?
Thank you Sir!
The Sun in my film viewer is kinda opposite. In the cockpit, it's a bright pin head, but looks almost normal sized in external view.
A note on darkening the white. I'm currently using RGB 163/163/160. It will look very gray in the color selector and may look too gray at first when you put it on the skin. Trust me, it will take a shade that dark to reduce the flaring to a reasonable level. If it looks too dark, don't lighten the white but darken the Intermediate Blue until you reach the right balance. Also, your Insignia Blue is too light. I noticed in your reference pics that it is very much darker than the Sea Blue of the main airframe. It will also help bring the darker white into proper contrast.
Another thing I noticed, you did not seem to continue to chip the paint on the leading edge of the wings outboard of the guns. Some more chips will help give the wings a more balanced look. I would even add some light chipping to the cowl ring, canopy frame, and rear stabilizers to round out the wear of the forward facing parts.
Keep up the good work. This is very impressive already.
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That's a really nice skin Whiteman, well done. I agree with the previous comments about adding a bit more dirt and paint chipping and altering the colour balance to allow for AH's lighting quirks, but otherwise great job.
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Amazing Detail. Great to see the F4U getting some more love! Keep up the good work! <S>
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Very nice! Excellent “wear & tear” detail gives it that realistic rode hard and put away wet look.
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:aok
Looking good Tex.
:salute
Sik
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Nicely done, especially for a first attempt. You'll only get better from here, too. :cheers:
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I got a question here, when in offline mode the sun looks like a supernova. Extremely bright and huge while in the cockpit, external view is normal. Is there something I need to adjust for that go back to a normal level?
Thank you Sir!
I recently noticed that myself. Seems like a change that happened a few updates back, but perhaps that was just when I became aware of it.
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The only reason I can think of for the sun to appear to be a different size in internal and external views would be a different field of view setting. Usually I have my FOV in the cockpit set to a wide angle to cover more of the sky. In external view the FOV is much narrower, particularly when I use zoom key to take screenshots.
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A very good first shot at skinning. Looks more like an experienced hand worked on this. Very good work. Just like those with a lot of experience, you will have a little tweaking. Great job.
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Thanks for the compliments everyone, more than i was expecting!
I guess before i keep moving i want to see if the white changing to gray is working and that I'm heading in the right direction. Numbers and under surfaces have changed here, insignia white is a tan. It’s amazing you have to go so dark to mute the glare.
Intermediate blue is darker now as well.
Noise bumped up.
Dirt masks bumped up. Added more contrast to the mask, i think it just looked more like haze before.
Minor adjustments to alignment of a few small items.
Its such a huge change that it feels like most of the colors are going to have to be redone and feels washed out.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50293251396_91ae0000a9_o.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jCf4s5)white test (https://flic.kr/p/2jCf4s5) by whitemanLS1 (https://www.flickr.com/photos/94381131@N04/), on Flickr
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That looks more like the sort of level of grime I'd expect from a coral island-based aircraft but I think you may be right and the colours are a bit too much washed out now.
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It has character with such washout
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That looks more like the sort of level of grime I'd expect from a coral island-based aircraft but I think you may be right and the colours are a bit too much washed out now.
I would fly it in the game with all effects enabled.
On my end the Viewer doesn't do an exact job of showing what it looks like in the arena. It MIGHT be okay when he flies it (although you likely have already factored that in with your comment).
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I agree with V. Some in game screenshots will give an indication of how well the changes work.
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I agree with V. Some in game screenshots will give an indication of how well the changes work.
I'll try and get some late tonight or tomorrow, It definitely helped mute the glare. I just need to go and change some colors on some weathering on bottom, looked tiger stripped when i rolled over.
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Here we go, paint chipping is the only thing i haven't gone back and done. All the white is RGB 163 163 160, except the tail and nose art. Two at the end to compare Defualt skin with mine. Thanks for all the input!
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50300199997_72678d7ff4_o.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jCRF2x)white test4 (https://flic.kr/p/2jCRF2x) by whitemanLS1 (https://www.flickr.com/photos/94381131@N04/), on Flickr
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50300200012_6bdce06293_o.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jCRF2N)white test3 (https://flic.kr/p/2jCRF2N) by whitemanLS1 (https://www.flickr.com/photos/94381131@N04/), on Flickr
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50300200082_8c8c23ac29_o.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jCRF41)white test1 (https://flic.kr/p/2jCRF41) by whitemanLS1 (https://www.flickr.com/photos/94381131@N04/), on Flickr
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50300045906_b158c55412_o.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jCQTdN)white test5 (https://flic.kr/p/2jCQTdN) by whitemanLS1 (https://www.flickr.com/photos/94381131@N04/), on Flickr
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50299362003_e7bbf3ba7e_o.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jCMnVn)white test6 (https://flic.kr/p/2jCMnVn) by whitemanLS1 (https://www.flickr.com/photos/94381131@N04/), on Flickr
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50300199962_2da7f8f4ec_o.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jCRF1W)white test7 (https://flic.kr/p/2jCRF1W) by whitemanLS1 (https://www.flickr.com/photos/94381131@N04/), on Flickr
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50300199952_782d07e8e7_o.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2jCRF1L)white test8 (https://flic.kr/p/2jCRF1L) by whitemanLS1 (https://www.flickr.com/photos/94381131@N04/), on Flickr
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That looks great.
Nothing more that I could recommend that doesn't fall under "personal taste".
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I like it. Beautiful job.
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Super job.
Only thing I can add is some advice about chipping/paint wear. Vary the intensity - some paint chips will be hard edged and right to the bare metal, like wear along access panel joints where covers are removed/replaced for service, or along panel seams that might flex or move (wing folding edges?) Other areas of paint wear might have softer edges and have a more gradual worn down to metal look, i.e. along walkways.
Great-looking tough and rugged skin, sir. <S>
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Devil 505, Vraciu and Oboe thanks for the help! Never would been brave enough to push the white that far and yalls sharp eyes caught some things I missed and will be adding to it.
Greebo thanks for the P-38 log and questions I had in there, that should be a bible for skinning.
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Always glad to repay the help you've provided me. Your contributions will be a great benefit to the players. Keep up the good work. :salute
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That looks really good Whiteman, should be a popular skin in the MA.
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What was the purpose of the white stripe on the outboard wing leading edge, top and bottom, to the first seam?
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What was the purpose of the white stripe on the outboard wing leading edge, top and bottom, to the first seam?
Pretty sure that's tape to seal leaky wing tanks.
I asked him about similar stripes on the cowl in the other thread he started.
The tape itself from my understanding was just basic medical tape lol. Now as to why some had tape and others don’t I’m guessing some sealed better than others, or more likely the time period the picture was taken. This one actually does have the tape, but they painted over the tape with fresh Sea Blue paint. I’ll try to make it stand out more.
The previous one I did has the tape on the wings, -1/-1A had wing tanks as well. I’ve seen photos that have the full lot of wing and fuselage tape and others with single strips here and there. I’m guessing not every one leaked as bad.
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Pretty sure that's tape to seal leaky wing tanks.
I asked him about similar stripes on the cowl in the other thread he started.
Thanks! I read that also but, the white strips look symmetrical. Just wondered if they were for some sort of visual reference, maybe with the wings folded.
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Though F4U-1As had a 62 gallon non-self-sealing fuel tank in the leading edge of each wing (outboard the armament) I'm uncertain about the tape strips since the explanation for their use in front of the cockpit windscreen was to keep the windscreen clear of fuel and oil. If tape actually kept fuel from leaking in the wing tanks altogether I suppose that could be reason enough (though it would seem an illogical solution instead of taping the tanks, themself). The wing was covered by fabric behind the main spar. That was a whole lotta words for 'I don't know' and 'spit-balling.'
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Could be as simple as preventing airflow past a potential opening in the tank which could otherwise create a siphon effect.
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Could be as simple as preventing airflow past a potential opening in the tank which could otherwise create a siphon effect.
Must not have been a universal problem, even within the squadron.
Note below that 29 (Kepford's plane) has main tank tape but no wing tape while 34 (Freeman's plane) has wing tape but no main tank tape.
(https://i.imgur.com/uBLugyh.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/OpME3j7.png)
That being said, it is the purview of the skinner to portray, as best one can, the historical look of the plane and until provided first person anecdotals not to fret the whys. I kinda like the differences. :)
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Could be as simple as preventing airflow past a potential opening in the tank which could otherwise create a siphon effect.
That could be why, why tape things if it doesn't do something? Always understood why in front of the windscreen, but never heard a reason for wings to have these as well.
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Wow, beautiful skin there whiteman, superb work!