First ever Nose Art

[jmfabio]

Hi All!!

Get out the bug spray, I am getting bitten.

I present my first ever nose art done for my Pitoe Airdrome project.

it is Gruesome 16, a B-24J of the 372nd BS of the 307th BG. This is just a pic of the nose art itself not placed yet on the plane. I put it on a green background for effect. I don't know the correct way to paint nose art or how others do it, but I loaded a photo of the art and the created a new layer. In the new layer I just colored as in a coloring book: outline and then fill in. The colors are of course artistic license as this was painted from a black and white photo. I tried to judge colors by tonal quality. May not be an exact or realistic color interpretation but I thinks these colors work well.

Well, many,many more to go.

As always, comments advice and constructive criticism welcome, as I am just a fledgling in the aspect of Flight Sim.

Thanks for looking,

Joe

 

[jankees]

excellent start I'd say!

 

[jmfabio]

excellent start I'd say!

Thanks jankees. Much appreciated!

Joe

 

[TuFun]

Looks pretty good to me! I've only attempted to do one and that's the "OKLAHOMA GAL" on the C-47. Wanted to see if I could do one.

 

[jmfabio]

Looks pretty good to me! I've only attempted to do one and that's the "OKLAHOMA GAL" on the C-47. Wanted to see if I could do one.

Thanks TuFun!

This is a big project I'm doing. A lot of trial and error. I too wanted to see if I could do one, mainly out of necessity and to see if my goal of doing them for an entire bomb group was even feasible.

I am encouraged.

Thanks,
Joe

 

[fsafranek]

This is just a pic of the nose art itself not placed yet on the plane. I put it on a green background for effect. I don't know the correct way to paint nose art or how others do it, but I loaded a photo of the art and the created a new layer. In the new layer I just colored as in a coloring book: outline and then fill in. The colors are of course artistic license as this was painted from a black and white photo. I tried to judge colors by tonal quality. May not be an exact or realistic color interpretation but I thinks these colors work well.

That is exactly how I've been doing it for years. I hardly ever just copy and paste from a picture to the texture.
I enlarge it quite a bit and then trace a new one using as many layers as there are colors and as extra details warrant.
Putting a color background that matches where it will go on the aircraft is an important step because you will be reducing
the size to fit and that will make cleanup much easier.

Nice work.

 

[Willy]

That is exactly how I've been doing it for years. I hardly ever just copy and paste from a picture to the texture.
I enlarge it quite a bit and then trace a new one using as many layers as there are colors and as extra details warrant.
Putting a color background that matches where it will go on the aircraft is an important step because you will be reducing
the size to fit and that will make cleanup much easier.

Nice work.

I do the same. I've mucked about with a copy/paste, but rarely can I make it look as good as I can by tracing it in different layers in a larger size, then shrinking it to fit.

 

[TuFun]

Yep, same here. Also couldn't find a straight on view and due to being skewed, had to draw artwork based on the rivet pattern of the real aircraft. And there was two version of the same artwork to boot.

Keep us posted on the other artwork you are doing, very interested in nose art!

 

[jeansy]

That is exactly how I've been doing it for years. I hardly ever just copy and paste from a picture to the texture.
I enlarge it quite a bit and then trace a new one using as many layers as there are colors and as extra details warrant.
Putting a color background that matches where it will go on the aircraft is an important step because you will be reducing
the size to fit and that will make cleanup much easier.

Nice work.

guilty as charged

 

[jmfabio]

Yep, same here. Also couldn't find a straight on view and due to being skewed, had to draw artwork based on the rivet pattern of the real aircraft. And there was two version of the same artwork to boot.

Keep us posted on the other artwork you are doing, very interested in nose art!

Well as per request here are two I did yesterday amid household chores.

The Topper. A B-24D of the 371st BS.

Wolf Pack, a B-24D of the 371st BS

I very much appreciated the interest and encouragement. These are fairly "easy" for me because the don't have any human form. I think those with pinups will be a sight more difficult.

I am concerned with how they will look once they are on the plane. I will try to get to that today time permitting.

Thanks,

Joe

 

[jmfabio]

As I am painting AI planes for 4 squadrons ( 50 + planes) for my Pitoe Drome project, I decided to cut down on a lot of work by making 4 base textures, 1 for each squadron with the Long Rangers logo and their distinctive tail fin stripe. Then the only layer copying and pasting I have to do are the nose art and plane numbers.

This is actually turning out to be interesting and not as much as a drudge that I thought it would be.

Joe

 

[jmfabio]

Here is The Topper as seen on the plane in the sim.

These textures were saved as DDS DXT3. They have no alpha. I think something is wrong with the windows: reflective but not transparent. I will look into that to see what I did wrong.

I also thing that the paint is too flat. Is having no alpha the cause of that? Can it be fixed with an alpha.

Concerning alphas: The lighter the gray, the more reflective, right?

I appreciate any comments, helpful hints etc.

Thanks in advance.

Joe


I am going to fly.

 

[Butcherbird17]

In the paintkit folder is an alpha for a reflective alpha bmp, but if you open one of the painted texture files with DXTBMP
you can see the alpha for it. As for the glass being glazed over it is on the bottom right side and needs to be gray in color.
I created a alpha psd file for the paintkit and do all my alpha work thru it. Then I use dxtbmp to import the alpha to the
texture I am working on.
I have reworked the paintkit to better line up the panel lines (the tail was way off) and added some detail to it. I'll post a
pic or 2 once I have finished it. This is for the reflective J model but should translate to the D very easily.

edit....
This is where the paintkit sits as of today. You can see the Glass at the bottom right and marked. You can also see all
the extra detail I added plus all the new panel line work on the tail and bombay.

Joe

 

[jmfabio]

In the paintkit folder is an alpha for a reflective alpha bmp, but if you open one of the painted texture files with DXTBMP
you can see the alpha for it. As for the glass being glazed over it is on the bottom right side and needs to be gray in color.
I created a alpha psd file for the paintkit and do all my alpha work thru it. Then I use dxtbmp to import the alpha to the
texture I am working on.
I have reworked the paintkit to better line up the panel lines (the tail was way off) and added some detail to it. I'll post a
pic or 2 once I have finished it. This is for the reflective J model but should translate to the D very easily.

edit....
This is where the paintkit sits as of today. You can see the Glass at the bottom right and marked. You can also see all
the extra detail I added plus all the new panel line work on the tail and bombay.

Joe

Hi Joe,

When I loaded a D model into DXTBMP I never noticed the spot in the upper right for the window in the alpha. This is now fixed in my repaints.

My nose art seems a bit ragged close up. I will see if that can be remedied by repainting the art larger before I add it.

The paint kit rework looks VERY good. I can definitely see all the extra detail. Keep up the good work.

Thanks for the advice,

Joe