As the nature of things progress...

[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]

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]

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

[Mick]

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

Screenie #1 looks great on my screen; I wonder if it looks similar on yours. Some of the others look more gray than silver on my screen, especially those that show the shadowed side of the plane.

[Dev One]

Thanks Mick for the feedback.
Yes, the shadowed side is difficult, but I think is better in a moving environment. As you well know its a difficult balance. To me FSX gives a better rendition, possibly because of the 2048 texture & the 'noise' blanket I have incorporated in both the base texture & the Alpha texture! I might need to increase that blanket as well as the hilights. Experiments to continue.
Think I have a slightly better balance between my two monitors....not perfect - I wonder how they do it on those multiscreen backdrops on TV? Now FSX native....if I can get the animations to work properly & then learn FSX textures....but that's probably a different story...don't hold your breath.
Keith

[nigel richards]

Bags of AWESOME looking stuff going on there, folks!
Bushi is in overdrive mode, and it's great to see Steve B here too!!!

Talking of gloss/semi-gloss finishes; yup, always a compromise in fs9 between specular settings and reflective alphas. Many of the doped fabric finishes were often more reflective than we give them credit.

That beautiful K3 Vega Gull is also looking a REAL TREAT - hang in there, Keith! :-)

Okay, I've been a tad slow in getting the NEW test package together - Real life stuff has a habit of getting in the way, but doing my best, Gentlemen. I think you'll find the addition of the floater well worth the wait. We might just have the cowled Sea Tutor in the mix as well as the early version.

[Sascha66]

Bags of AWESOME looking stuff going on there, folks!

What a beautiful little plane! How could it get any better? But I'm sure it will, Nigel et al. never fail to surprise me!

[SteveB]

I have been playing with a few more schemes, all place holders until the paint kit is ready and I can do a proper job.

Steve

[Bushi]

Bags of AWESOME looking stuff going on there, folks!
Bushi is in overdrive mode, and it's great to see Steve B here too

No idea what you're talking about LOL

Can't wait to do a 'proper' job on this one.. and then bolt her onto a set of floats as well! oh my!!!!



cheers
Dave

[nigel richards]

Steve B, Bushi; Really AWESOME looking liveries, Gentlemen - you will both do the paintkit proud.

[huub vink]

Steve B, Bushi; Really AWESOME looking liveries, Gentlemen - you will both do the paintkit proud.

Too clean

[nigel richards]

Too clean

Dirty talk! - Yeaaaaaaaah!!!

[Blackbird686]

What a BEAUTY!



BB686

[nigel richards]

What a BEAUTY!



BB686

BB686: Hey thanks there, Chief!

[nigel richards]

At last I've coaxed the poly count to handle the fittings attached to 'Big' 646...

[Mick]

At last I've coaxed the poly count to handle the fittings attached to 'Big' 646...

Ooooooohhh! They just keep getting sweeter and sweeter!

[Hurricane91]

At last I've coaxed the poly count to handle the fittings attached to 'Big' 646...

WOW! Fantastic details Nigel. Your Rotherham pump is another jewel.

[nigel richards]

Ooooooohhh! They just keep getting sweeter and sweeter!

Cheers Mick!!!

WOW! Fantastic details Nigel. Your Rotherham pump is another jewel.

Bless you, John - that detail was fun to build/texture.

Edit: Originally I animated it to work as purely wind-driven - but from watching videos of the real deal, just didn't look right.
When I finally realised it relied far more on engine propwash I 'hooked' it up to the engine animation and liked what we got.