'Blaue 9', Fw 190D-9 12./JG11

[Motherland]

Came to the conclusion of Blue since it could not be black white or yellow (comparing it to other use of those colors on the a/c). 7 and 12 staffeln of JG11 used blue numbers when the fourth staffeln were added to each of the gruppen, and since II gruppe was the Bf. 109 gruppe it must be 12 staffel.

I removed all factory markings, since in this photograph even the fuel triangles are missing!

[1Canukk]

great details .......Make you want to jump in the Luft..opps wait I do..Great Job

[Xasthur]

Great cowl flap detailing.

Were you going for take-off retailed dirt on the underside? The wheel track might have made it look a little different.

The walk-way scuffing seems a little excessive, perhaps. That's just my take on it, though, nothing concrete.

Nice work, Motherland.

[TonyJoey]

 

[moot]

The panel lines are very subdued.  I'm no expert at all, but the only time I've seen them so faintly is when the paint work is very new. 

[Krusty]

Look at the photo of the wrecked tail in the first post. Other than one deep panel line where the wing root ought to be, you really can't see the panel lines much from "average viewing distance"

Motherland, do you have ANY other references of it, by any chance? Ones where it's still intact?

I would say look at the side mottling again where you have it solidly applied. It looks more splotchy on the photo, as if either some more of the original color was applied on top, or perhaps the brown was applied thinly in areas, or wore off in areas.

You look at the demarcation line and you can see above this point a solid color, and below this point a mottling-type effect.

[Motherland]

Were you going for take-off retailed dirt on the underside? The wheel track might have made it look a little different.

The underside dirt is based on a photograph of an Fw 190 F-8 sitting on a pile of scrap with its underside facing the camera. I decided to base it on this since the Dora is practically identical to the A/F series behind the firewall (beside the fuselage and V. stab additions of course), and it's really the only photograph I've ever seen from that angle.

The panel lines are very subdued.  I'm no expert at all, but the only time I've seen them so faintly is when the paint work is very new. 

I've looked through tons of photos of all sorts of German aircraft and rarely have I seen anything other than wrecks with very pronounced panel lines. Usually they nearly disappear and any considerable distance, except in certain areas of the aircraft (and in these areas I have another panel line layer over top to make it darker, like you can see on this skin on the fairing for the cowl guns and the control surfaces, and other areas).

I try to spend a lot of time trying to create an accurate portrayal of what the bird should look like if you were to see it in person, and whether or not my artistic abilities allow this effect to come about vividly and in a way that's pleasing to the eye, I like to think that for the most part my skins are not inaccurate even if they're not pretty.

Which is a reason I very much appreciate comments and criticism, I'm going to fire up GIMP again tonight and see what I can do, with what's been said in this thread in mind.

[Krusty]

If you're going over it again, I might suggest redoing some of the "faded/scuffed" areas on the wing walk section. Not the "worn all the way off" which is aft of the gun cover, but the stuff in front of it.

It seems a little uniform, and perhaps too much of a pattern and less an organic wear-and-tear. Just a thought. I think the rest of it looks fairly good, but that part throws me off when I see the scuff patterns.

EDIT: Mind you, I have trouble with this very problem myself, I'm no expert at achieving it, but when looking at it I think it's a little off.

[moot]

I can see the panel and rivet lines in the picture.  It's only a subtle difference in visibility. I think it'd make the skin that much more real. It's up to you Bubi.

[Motherland]

Spent some time last night playing with the material file and layer opacities. I'm pretty satisfied with the results...

[VonMessa]

So far so good 

[Krusty]

I like the new shading under the cockpit (the brown). I have a question though: Do you have some quote, anecdote, or something that tells you it stops at the wing leading edge? It reminds me a little of some of the other 190s and TA152s that extend all the way to the prop. Makes me curious.

Either way, though, it's a catchy camo.

One problem I spot, that you may not have taken into account:

The 190D skin is not symmetrical. I've seen this on a number of skin progress threads, as well as some skins in-game. Take a look at your left and right sides. The left is fine, but the right is too "high". Note where your camo demarcation is on the tail. The top-down screenshot best illustrates this. Use the wire as a guide, and see how the left looks okay, but the right is too narrow (because it's higher up on the fuselage side). Also note the same difference on the nose/cowling from the same screenshot.

If you look at the panel lines left and right, you'll see the demarcation closely follows certain panel lines on the left side, but is noticably above it on the right.

Try looking head-on in-game, you may notice the camo left and right are staggered one higher than the other.

You may need to check that your panel lines aren't also shifted, but from these screenshots they "seem okay" to me. It's just how this skin is.

[Motherland]

The camo's even (at the front at least), and the 9's look pretty even to me as well, although now that I look at them again they're too large.

I like the new shading under the cockpit (the brown). I have a question though: Do you have some quote, anecdote, or something that tells you it stops at the wing leading edge? It reminds me a little of some of the other 190s and TA152s that extend all the way to the prop. Makes me curious.

I don't, I just kind of guessed as to how to do it on the cowling, however if you have any other photographs of a 190 like this I'd be happy to see them.

[Krusty]

It's not even.



See how the left side and the right side are different? The right side is "smaller" because it's higher up on the rounded fuselage and nose. You can see more blue on the outside of the brown/green to prove my point.


Here you can see the demarcation line stops above the slightly angled panel line that runs below the cockpit.



On the other side (the left side) you can see the demarcation line extends down and touches the same panel line:




That's what I mean. This is how the 190D has been since it was remodeled. The pixels are laid out differently or something, and you have to take that into account when skinning it.

[Motherland]

I'm not too worried about the 9's being exactly on. If it was terrible I'd change it but I'm not going to spend 20 minutes making sure they're more even than they probably were in real life.

Anyway, as this is undoubtedly a very late war bird I removed some of the paint from the wings as was common near the end of the war.