The newly released Pitts served as a reminder... There are still quite a few planes around, where the exterior textures are squidged onto one sheet of 1024 square paper.
In this day and age that is not a really satisfactory option because most painters can't cope with such low definition texture sheets. Even me! I would avoid "one sheeters" like the plague. "You can't get a decent paint on one sheet" was the main argument.
At three pixels to the inch, the models can really only be looked at from wing-tip distance.
Then came the Pitts S2B. I am faced with a quandary - here's a great plane with a poor paintkit and I simply must have that plane!
Last resort time... I must try to find a new technique to maximise the detail. Think, think, think...
I have normally painted a plain using "paint" tools. Not exactly the sharpest edges. I had done some vector rivets in the past and copied them into the bitmap pictures, letting the AA do the smoothing. Vector graphics tools were good for creating sharp logos too. What if I do the whole plane as a 2048 pixel square vector graphic image and export from the vector program.
My lesson for today is that you should try using vector graphics in your paints as well... a couple of sample images from the draw program, from the dds export and from the finished model...
As seen in the vector programme:
As seen in dds format
As seen on the wing
and heres one from the "delivered product"
I think the vectors have it, no?
There's your tip for the day...
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