As the nature of things progress...

[huub vink]

Wow! That beauty really colours your day!

Cheers,
Huub

 

[nigel richards]

Wow! That beauty really colours your day!

Cheers,
Huub

Bless you Huub!

I promise you the paintkit when we reach the finishing line - have always admired and enjoyed your talented artistry!

 

[huub vink]

Bless you Huub!

I promise you the paintkit when we reach the finishing line - have always admired and enjoyed your talented artistry!

Are you sure? The result might be worn and very weathered . I know myself, its hard to stop when I'm having fun......

Cheers,
Huub

 

[nigel richards]

Are you sure? The result might be worn and very weathered . I know myself, its hard to stop when I'm having fun......

Cheers,
Huub

That is precisely what I was hoping you'd say!

Love it when texture artists start talking dirty...

 

[darrenvox]

good looking rcaf bird..

 

[wombat666]

Are you sure? The result might be worn and very weathered . I know myself, its hard to stop when I'm having fun......
Huub

That is almost word for word the occasional criticism I get from 'er indoors.

 

[Bushi]

When has lack of a paint kit ever stopped me!

Once again just playing around with the textures on the little 621.

Yes, I know it's NOT the newest version.. but it's the one I'm flying (and the only 621 trainer I have), so I'm going to play with it..

I haven't used the "SHINE" utility to gloss it up, but just adjusted the alpha to give a bit of a sheen. Problem with adding a specular shine to a model.. is that with me (unless I'm doing something wrong) it gives the WHOLE model a gloss shine.. which gives VERY shiny tyres.. and what can look to be a WET pilot in an aircraft where he is so prominent like this!!! LOL

So, sky blue fuselage with for now, my base white wings. just to see..... Some striping and a civvie reg will come.. and that colour may not be final.

oh.. and then red and aluminium although I'm not all that pleased with the shade and shine... is easy!

cheers
Dave

 

[Mick]

...I haven't used the "SHINE" utility to gloss it up, but just adjusted the alpha to give a bit of a sheen. Problem with adding a specular shine to a model.. is that with me (unless I'm doing something wrong) it gives the WHOLE model a gloss shine.. which gives VERY shiny tyres.. and what can look to be a WET pilot in an aircraft where he is so prominent like this!!! LOL...
Dave

Looking good! Nice work!

As for Shiny, I would only use full gloss for skins like aerobatic team planes that are polished to a gloss that looks like you can sink your hand into it (which is not the sort of think I typically paint.) For normally glossy finishes I use the semi-gloss setting.

Likewise, I find that matte finishes look best with the semi-matte setting; the dead flat setting makes the plane look, well, too dead flat, like a matte photo on a cardboard cutout. (Thanks to Shessi for teaching me about that.)

I don't like to use the alpha channel to depict a glossy finish because it makes the surface look metallic - which is what it's supposed to do, but doesn't look quite right to me on anything but a metal surface. Gotta admit, though, that your screenies look very nice!

 

[Bushi]

Looking good! Nice work!

As for Shiny, I would only use full gloss for skins like aerobatic team planes that are polished to a gloss that looks like you can sink your hand into it (which is not the sort of think I typically paint.) For normally glossy finishes I use the semi-gloss setting.

Likewise, I find that matte finishes look best with the semi-matte setting; the dead flat setting makes the plane look, well, too dead flat, like a matte photo on a cardboard cutout. (Thanks to Shessi for teaching me about that.)

I don't like to use the alpha channel to depict a glossy finish because it makes the surface look metallic - which is what it's supposed to do, but doesn't look quite right to me on anything but a metal surface. Gotta admit, though, that your screenies look very nice!

Thanks,
And yeah.. I backed off the alpha to pure white for the red and blue painted surfaces.. with those aluminium doped wings on the red one still having the metallic sheen. I like the blue, and will be adding some white 'cheat line' strips and reg. BUT, maybe Nigel will grace me with a paint kit once we get the final model sorted out. This was just for fun... a little distraction. And might look quite nice as an expensive toy when mounted on floats! I might even try and do an "almost impossible to do it right" gloss black finish on fuselage and wing leading edges.

I have re-downloaded SHINY as it went kablooey with my hard drive meltdown. I think I still need MDLC117.zip from flightsim.com before I can use it again. Maybe not.. it's been a LONG time!!

Anyway, finished up the white on the blue fuselage a few minutes ago.

Dave

 

[Mick]

Wow! Very nice!

Silver dope and silver paint give me fits! I have never come up with a really suitable rendition. That really annoys me because I've panted so many inter-war US naval airplanes that in some time frames had their metal parts painted in aluminized silver lacquer and always had their fabric parts painted in aluminized silver dope, which looked alike, but not that much like bare aluminum. Gahhh!

It's like halfway towards metal, being made of clear dope or paint with aluminum powder as the pigment. It looks metallic without looking like real bare metal. Some of the difference is due to the absence of the color variations usually present between different bare metal panels, and some it just because aluminum powder in a carrying fluid doesn't look quite like solid aluminum sheet.

Ted Cook came up with a pretty decent impression on his Saro A17 and some other planes that looks acceptable by itself and a bit better with just the slightest hint of a very light gray alpha channel. (R=192, G=189, B=192) For reasons I don't understand, it looks better on some models than others.

The effect I try for is like the radiator paint that I remember from my childhood, when many homes had steam heating with those old, stand-up radiators that we don't seem to see anymore.

Your silver surfaces look good in the screenies. If they look that good from all angles, I think you've hit on something really good. If you don't mind my asking, what RGB values are you using?

 

[Bushi]

Wow! Very nice!

Silver dope and silver paint give me fits! I have never come up with a really suitable rendition. That really annoys me because I've panted so many inter-war US naval airplanes that in some time frames had their metal parts painted in aluminized silver lacquer and always had their fabric parts painted in aluminized silver dope, which looked alike, but not that much like bare aluminum. Gahhh!

It's like halfway towards metal, being made of clear dope or paint with aluminum powder as the pigment. It looks metallic without looking like real bare metal. Some of the difference is due to the absence of the color variations usually present between different bare metal panels, and some it just because aluminum powder in a carrying fluid doesn't look quite like solid aluminum sheet.

Ted Cook came up with a pretty decent impression on his Saro A17 and some other planes that looks acceptable by itself and a bit better with just the slightest hint of a very light gray alpha channel. (R=192, G=189, B=192) For reasons I don't understand, it looks better on some models than others.

The effect I try for is like the radiator paint that I remember from my childhood, when many homes had steam heating with those old, stand-up radiators that we don't seem to see anymore.

Your silver surfaces look good in the screenies. If they look that good from all angles, I think you've hit on something really good. If you don't mind my asking, what RGB values are you using?

Thanks Mick.

I've basically just been playing around with Nigels aluminium textures as I don't have a paint kit. Just tinting, changing some values, and messing with the alpha so that I get more of a semi-matte metallic 'sheen' rather than a reflective surface like a polished aluminium surface.

These three Photoshop shots of the bare upper wing in aluminium dope give the values of the 'silver' I've applied. the little red line marks the spot on the wing the sample was taken from.

the final two are images of the alpha channel values.

I just start playing around with the texture files until I have something that looks 'right' to my eye.. it's THAT scientific!

cheers
Dave

 

[Dev One]

I'm currently playing with silver for my WIP project, but having a difficulty in matching my two Samsung Syncmaster monitors, one has a very slight green bias & the other a very slight blue bias, which can play havoc with the end result, let alone creating a balance for FS9 & porting over to FSX! I am having tuition from Nigel.........for which thank you.
Might try to post screenies later...lounge ceiling texture having priority.......
Keith

 

[Bushi]

I'm currently playing with silver for my WIP project, but having a difficulty in matching my two Samsung Syncmaster monitors, one has a very slight green bias & the other a very slight blue bias, which can play havoc with the end result, let alone creating a balance for FS9 & porting over to FSX! I am having tuition from Nigel.........for which thank you.
Might try to post screenies later...lounge ceiling texture having priority.......
Keith

I understand completely Keith. My Qosmio laptop gives me a very nice graphic representation.. but the other day, I plugged in my HDMI cable and attached it to our 30+ inch Toshiba television.. and left the display setting on the TV at.. well TV...

um......OMG!!!! WHAT a difference!!

Pretty much every colour value was off.. and when I loaded up my big NASA Hercules with it's bright blue and gold livery.. it looked horrid!! All the values were skewed.

Resetting it to the "PC" setting and the "GAME" settings helped immeasurably.. but not quite the same as my laptop screen.

THIS.. right here... is always a HUGE concern to any painter, as you just don't know what someone else is going to be looking at on THIER particular screen or monitor.

When I did the repaint of Milton Shupe and John Terrell's A-26K B-26K Counter Invader, I did my best to get ta nice faded, used looking depiction of the actual FS paint colours, and on my screen, they looked GREAT.. and it was nice to hear others who 'knew' the colours, and had downloaded the airplane let me know they were spot on! But maybe others didn't quite have the same experience!


But hey.. not much we can do about it.. we work with what we have..

 

[Bushi]

Nigel... I'm just putting this out there.....

I've been researching my little 'repaint' of the 621 trainer.. K 1239... and doing my best to get all the markings correct (like sizing the roundels.. reg.. you know.. LOL... Trying to be as accurate as possible WITHOUT any photographic reference!!!

But.. as my wife commented.. "if there are no photos..... how does anyone know you got something wrong?".... um.. gotta love her!!

BUT.. I did find some profile drawings, pics.. things like that during my quest...

So.. just to keep the repainters juices flowing... some candy...

ps.. that last one is the prototype floatplane..

oh my.. THIS IS FUN!!

cheers
Dave.. (who is anxiously awaiting the next update!)

 

[Elmar]

Astonishing to see the beauty Avro evolving!

Kind regards!

 

[Mick]

I'm currently playing with silver for my WIP project, but having a difficulty in matching my two Samsung Syncmaster monitors, one has a very slight green bias & the other a very slight blue bias, which can play havoc with the end result, let alone creating a balance for FS9 & porting over to FSX! I am having tuition from Nigel.........for which thank you.
Might try to post screenies later...lounge ceiling texture having priority.......
Keith

Ah yes, another way that silver gives me (us) fits! I think that more than any other color it tends to look different on different confutors. Different monitor settings, different enviro.bmp files, and who knows what else seem to make such a difference. That seems true of all colors to some extent, but especially with silver. I suspect that's because silver isn't a "real" color, but a kind of gray with special characteristics. Rather frustrating!

 

[Dev One]

Fed up painting ceiling.......here hopefully is what I have at the moment & what I am trying to achieve using FS9 technology.....Aircraft WIP is the K3 Vega Gull. Just tried calibrating my monitors again but main one still has a green bias........

Screenshots all taken same date & time same heading. Base texture is same for both FS9 & FSX, but I have a different alpha as FS9 alpha gives too much shine.
Flying surfaces have a very mild hilight on ribs & spanwise, but no hilights on fuselage & spats.
Keith

 

[Willy]

Love that floater with the twin floats.

 

[SteveB]

I couldn't resist experimenting .

 

[michaelvader]

Avro Floatplane version

Hallo Nigel,

did I miss some thing?
did you almost release the floatplane version?
Because some friends are talking about as if they almost have it
Or did I missunderstand them?
Yours
Papi