RNZAF Kittyhawk Mk.IV NZ3287 "Esma Lee"

[Wild Bill Kelso]

Gee - that was fun!
With the help of Duckie's tremendous P-40N paint kit (thank you so much, mate! :wavey: ), here comes another one of them dirrty gals:

http://i603.photobucket.com/albums/tt112/wildbillkelso_berlin/Kittyhawk/NZ3287_10.jpg

http://i603.photobucket.com/albums/tt112/wildbillkelso_berlin/Kittyhawk/NZ3287_11.jpg

http://i603.photobucket.com/albums/tt112/wildbillkelso_berlin/Kittyhawk/NZ3287_12.jpg

http://i603.photobucket.com/albums/tt112/wildbillkelso_berlin/Kittyhawk/NZ3287_13.jpg

http://i603.photobucket.com/albums/tt112/wildbillkelso_berlin/Kittyhawk/NZ3287_14.jpg


This is the real one:

http://i603.photobucket.com/albums/tt112/wildbillkelso_berlin/Kittyhawk/esmalee2-1.jpg


I generally don't trust handdrawn profiles, but this one was helpful:

http://i603.photobucket.com/albums/tt112/wildbillkelso_berlin/Kittyhawk/esmalee1-1.jpg

Just some final testing and packing...

Cheers,
Markus.

[Wing_Z]

Shots look very good, Markus!
Well done to you (and Duckie), love that weathered look.
After a while, that tall 'n thin tail fin flash begins to look quite neat, actually...

[Duckie]

Great job Markus! :ernae: A Warbird with out weathering is like...like..., well several things come to mind. :kilroy: Sufice it to say that in my FS world weathered warbirds are the rule rather than the exception! :icon_lol:

Steve

[Flyboy208]

That's a fantastic livery Markus! Mike :salute:

[Flyboy208]

Guys, the repaint is available at Avsim now ...

Classy repaint Markus! Thanks so much! Mike :ernae::newzealand:

[Wild Bill Kelso]

Nice shots, Mike!
Thank you guys for your kind replies.

Hope you'll like Mrs. Gloria Lyons too, 'cause she'll be next: :jump:

http://rnzaf.hobbyvista.com/gl.html

http://www.thescale.info/news/publish/p-40...2nd-scale.shtml (http://www.thescale.info/news/publish/p-40n-decals-32nd-scale.shtml)

[Duckie]

OOOOOOOOOOO! AAAHHHHHHHH!

Great looking plane!

Steve

[Wing_Z]

Yes!
That Hasegawa 1/32nd model certainly looks great in that livery, in another time I'd have been tempted...

[Fauville]

Great Markus,

Have you had a look here at the silver scheme:jump:

http://www.thescale.info/news/publish/ventura-decal-v4885.shtml

[Wild Bill Kelso]

... Gloria Lyons "I" comes around:

http://i603.photobucket.com/albums/tt112/wildbillkelso_berlin/Kittyhawk/NZ3148_1.jpg

http://i603.photobucket.com/albums/tt112/wildbillkelso_berlin/Kittyhawk/NZ3148_2.jpg

http://i603.photobucket.com/albums/tt112/wildbillkelso_berlin/Kittyhawk/NZ3148_3.jpg

Just a few touchups before launch.
NZ3148 pretty much wears the same scheme as "Esma Lee", but the next "Gloria Lyons" will look a little different...

@ Fauville:
Thanks for disclosing my upcoming surprise! :d
I'm already working on the blank metal sheets... :jump:

Cheers,
Markus.

[Wild Bill Kelso]

Stripping off paint is way easier!

NZ3283 "Silver Barge" (one of three non-painted Kittyhawks in RNZAF service):

http://i603.photobucket.com/albums/tt112/wildbillkelso_berlin/Kittyhawk/NZ3283_1.jpg

[Duckie]

Very nice! :applause: :applause:

Steve

[Wing_Z]

It is...
Doesn't that look sleek!

On the weathered versions: how about a slightly "weathered" pilot too? ;)

[NAMBUS]

Beautiful work Wild Bill.
Thank you very much.
:ernae:

[SPman]

Lovely work Bill- keep it up and I won't have to learn how to do repaints - you'll have covered all the RNZAF bases.......

[Wild Bill Kelso]

Thanks a lot, gentlemen!

@SPman:
I'd highly encourage everyone whos's able to handle a digital brush to join the club! :wavey:
Still lots of Kiwi paints waiting to be depicted...

Coming up:
NZ3148 Gloria Lyons #1

http://i603.photobucket.com/albums/tt112/wildbillkelso_berlin/Kittyhawk/NZ3148_5.jpg

Note:
The "G" squadron mark of course has to be noseward on the starboard side. Differing from Duckie's nice spoked wheel, this one had wheel covers, as to be seen on this pic of the real 3148:

http://i603.photobucket.com/albums/tt112/wildbillkelso_berlin/Kittyhawk/p40gl.jpg

(Quite a dirty little rascal, isn't she?)


No. 2 of the Gloria Lyons edition is NZ3220, depicted in her late 1944 "back home" status in Foliage Green / Sky Grey paint with cumulated killmarks (55 bombs and 2 1/2 kills) and ID bands on the upper wings (and a little less dirt 'n smudge):

http://i603.photobucket.com/albums/tt112/wildbillkelso_berlin/Kittyhawk/NZ3220_1.jpg

http://i603.photobucket.com/albums/tt112/wildbillkelso_berlin/Kittyhawk/NZ3220_2.jpg

http://i603.photobucket.com/albums/tt112/wildbillkelso_berlin/Kittyhawk/p40gl3.jpg

Almost ready for getting packed...

Cheers,
Markus.

[mrogers]

Great paints Markus! Would you believe it, NZ3220 is still extant and is stored in a shed a few kilometers from where I live!

[Wild Bill Kelso]

Would be nice to see how Gloria looks today...
Any chance to get a pic?

Hope you'll all enjoy my paints, as I just finished the upload.
Have fun!

Cheers,
Markus.

[thunder100]

Markus

An FSX glass for the FSX ignorants?

Thanks

Roland

[Flyboy208]

Thanks a bunch Markus, just got the repaints @ Avsim ...

Cheers! Mike :applause::ernae::newzealand:

[SPman]

Would be nice to see how Gloria looks today...
Any chance to get a pic?
.
I beleive the owner doesn't like any pics taken (assuming he lets you take any), to be published - ok for private use only. I'd love to see a few pics of Johns stuff, as well....

[mrogers]

I visited where the P-40 NZ3220 and others are stored a while ago, but didn't take pics .Been there twice. The owner's quite happy for people to have a look and take photos. There's a whole DH Mosquito as well, big paddle blade props and all, the complete plane, stored in the shed. I've found a pic on the web of NZ3220 as it is today:
http://www.pacificwrecks.com/aircraft/p-40/NZ3220/p40n-nz3220-gloria-lyons.html

You can see the faded O/D paint on it(well it looks like it to me...) and the bomb symbols. Hard to make out the flags now though, very faded.

[Duckie]

Great job, Markus. I especially like Gloria "G". I guess I'm partial to Olive Drab! :icon_lol:

Steve

[Wild Bill Kelso]

Thank you for your kind comments, guys!


You can see the faded O/D paint on it(well it looks like it to me...) and the bomb symbols. Hard to make out the flags now though, very faded.
Faded like the rest of the airframe, eh?
Thanks for the link anyway!

@ Roland:
Sorry for the glass issue. I tried to fix it for my previous "Esma Lee", but failed.
One of the reasons I paint for FS9 only...
But since the rest of the aircraft shows up nice in FSX, I'm quite convinced that someone over at the FSX forum section (or even here?) might have a clue.

FSX SP2:
http://i603.photobucket.com/albums/tt112/wildbillkelso_berlin/Kittyhawk/NZ3287_fsx.jpg

Cheers,
Markus.

[mrogers]

Yeah,the whole airframe's pretty much faded like the paint itself!

Excellent work, thanks.

[Flyboy208]

One good looking RNZAF livery Markus - Cheers Mate! Mike :wiggle:

[Fauville]

Stripping off paint is way easier!

NZ3283 "Silver Barge" (one of three non-painted Kittyhawks in RNZAF service):

http://i603.photobucket.com/albums/tt112/wildbillkelso_berlin/Kittyhawk/NZ3283_1.jpg
Hi Markus, I know you've been sidetracked with the Albatross, are you still planning on releasing the Silver Barge?

Steve

[Wild Bill Kelso]

Hi, Steve!

Silver Barge is not forgotten!
But it will take some time:
Tim "Piglet" Conrad has an impressive technique to make bare metal finished aircraft appear less boring by setting each metal sheet to a slightly different shade of gray (including the alpha shade), as seen on his T-Bird and the Delfin as well. I'll try to make use of this method on the Silver Barge, but this will take some adjustments to make the aircraft not coming around like a checkerboard...

Cheers,
Markus.

[Fauville]

Thanks Markus,

As it is said, good things come to those who wait...... look forward to seeing the results:guinness:

[edmoore235]

Thank you Markus. The repaints are great. Another example of how FS9 still makes it WOW!
Take care.

Ed

[Wild Bill Kelso]

Much appreciated, guys!

I thought something like that:

http://i603.photobucket.com/albums/tt112/wildbillkelso_berlin/Kittyhawk/NZ3283_2.jpg

http://i603.photobucket.com/albums/tt112/wildbillkelso_berlin/Kittyhawk/NZ3283_3.jpg

What do you think?
Is the effect overdone?

[HorusJ]

:icon_eek:!!!
My eyes just popped out of my head!
Looks fantastic to me!

J

[SPman]

Brilliant effect Bill - sort of mimics what we used to do when fixing foil to get the same effect on kitsets - do each panel in a different direction.
Might be a bit too pristine, though, for a service airplane...

[Stratobat]

What do you think?
Is the effect overdone?

Hey Bill,

It looks brilliant but I agree with SPman that it might be a bit too pristine for a service aircraft.

If I might offer a solution, have a look on Simmers Paint Shop in the link below and see if you could incorporate the flowers and noise pattern into the repaint just to break up the natural metal look a little more.

http://www.simmerspaintshop.com/forums/f37-photoshop-tutorials/making-surface-texture-effects-463/

Regards,
Stratobat

[Wild Bill Kelso]

Thank you for your comments, guys!
This noisy overlay pattern sounds interesting, I'll have to give it a try. Too bad my PaintShopPro hasn't got any "flowers" to add...
I also agree concerning the pristine appearance. This should be a service plane and no highly polished showbird!

Back to the paint shack.

Regards,
Markus.

[Stratobat]

Too bad my PaintShopPro hasn't got any "flowers" to add...
I also agree concerning the pristine appearance.

Hey Markus,

In the link I posted, towards the bottom of the page in the comments section, there is a flowers.zip attachment. I believe it is a PSD file but it should open in Paint Shop Pro.

Regards,
Stratobat

[Wild Bill Kelso]

Thanks again.
The flowers turned out to be not too useful in this case, but the noise overlay leads to this not-too-polished natural metal surface:

http://i603.photobucket.com/albums/tt112/wildbillkelso_berlin/Kittyhawk/nz3283_4.jpg

http://i603.photobucket.com/albums/tt112/wildbillkelso_berlin/Kittyhawk/nz3283_5.jpg

http://i603.photobucket.com/albums/tt112/wildbillkelso_berlin/Kittyhawk/nz3283_6.jpg

http://i603.photobucket.com/albums/tt112/wildbillkelso_berlin/Kittyhawk/nz3283_7.jpg

The alpha layer is tuned down some notches and the range of gray shades for different panels is diminished. Maybe there is still too much noise on the sheets.
This is the quite glossy default model, now for the wing textures...

What do you think?

Cheers,
Markus.

[Wing_Z]

Yeah! :applause:

[Stratobat]

What do you think?

Looking great, Markus :applause:

I've had limited success with the flowers idea but it seems to work largely on faded paint schemes and natural metal that you want to make really REALLY weathered with hardly any alpha input.

Regards,
Stratobat