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tutorial on ribbed wings

Cees Donker

Cees Donker

Administrator
Staff member
Hi there guys,

Was wondering: is there a tutorial on how to ceate the scalloped look of linen clad wings WWI style?

Thanks

Cees
 
Thanks Stratobat! Old thread or not: I was planning on taking up the painting and building again, so this is very welcome.

:wavey:

Cees
 
Ribbed wings

Cees Donker said:
Hi there guys,

Was wondering: is there a tutorial on how to ceate the scalloped look of linen clad wings WWI style?

Thanks

Cees
Click to expand...

Check my work and see if it is what you are looking for... it it is, I can tell you how to do it
 
Fabric covered ribs technique

The technique is fairly simple...
First... I must tell you that I have worked exclusively with PSP since the early days... I am up to PSP XII... the technique I am sure can be equally worked with Photoshop...
Obviously it requires a bit of an artistic hand and experience with air painting (real ones or the one tool in PSP)... as well as working in layers with changing opacities.
Basically, if it is a repaint... you NEED TO CLEAN UP THE ORIGINAL to bare basic background color (i.e.: eliminating the crude straight lines simulating ribs) [on this, I start with the basic single texture, copy it in a layer above... go back and paint the wing, stabilizer, or fuselage etc. the base color in the background layer)... THEN, decrease the copied layer in opacity to barely visible - to use it as a guide to place the repaint)... ] YOU CAN LEAVE IT AS A TOP LAYER AND PAINT LAYERS UNDERNEATH OVER THE BACKGROUND..
Once this is accomplished you eliminate that copied original but lighter layer...
So, you create a first layer for the ribs
I start one rib at a time... with a single line... use the diffusing tool and blurr it ... then on a layer immediately above... paint a thin line in white or whatever light color best suits the theme.. blurr it... and when the desired effect (trial and error.. you should have your PSP redos to a large number so you can go back and forth when you make mistakes) is accomplished, you merge that reflected light line over the darker wider diffused line in the layer below... That done... you continue to refine the rib shape conformation to your satisfaction... using this layer merging technique...
After you are finished... you duplicate that rib over and over the length of the flying surface... remember to make the rib longer than the width of the wing.. [on the rib layer]
When you deem it finished.. you can trim off the excess lengths with the shape tool set to 1 or 2 steps of feathering...
At this time you have two layers.. 1. background and 2. ribs immediately above...
START a new layer... where you put the leading edge sorftened reflected light [2 or 3 feather steps using the rectangle shape tool... or freehand... a light spray of white... and monkeying with the opacity of the layer to obtain the nice feathered reflected light effect...
YOU HAVE NOW 3 LAYERS.. 1. background 2. ribs and 3. reflected lights
The next upper layer.. you shape the perimeter of flaps a/o ailerons... and lay a soft black area (that you can set opacity to a nice subtle effect) you start another layer for a thin soft reflected light at the leading edge very close to the dark outline... using the rectangle tool... or free-hand.. draw this light line... when the desired effect is obtainged.. merge it to the darkish outline layer)
NOW YOU HAVE 4 LAYERS... background.. ribs.. reflected lights and aileron, flap a/or trim tabs...
GOING BACK TO THE RIB LAYER AND USING THE LATTER LAYER AS A GUIDE... ERASE THOSE AREAS IN THE RIB LAYER (if at all, the flying surfaces ribs are smaller than the wing sections and you can deal with them in the same manner)
As a final touch.. you can add a top layer (nr. 5 ) for overall reflected highlights... [I usually do a sharp, fairly thin rectangle of white... then spread all across the wing with the gaussian blurr adjustment tool and delineated over actual perimeter of the wing..
[again to my personal taste and impression].. and set the opacity of this layer to what one thinks should be a subtle reflected light tone]
You can then monkey around with the relative opacity of the layers to blend them into a homogenous finish...
THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND: 1. A merged top layer of lowered opacity will take on the opacity of the lower layer it is merged into... so to keep the desired opacity... blend the lower into the upper... otherwise you have to rework opacity to what your layers had when they were visually merged but not physically merged (so to speak because all these layers are not really phisically entities anyway) I guess I should use the work ACTUALLY instead of physically in the first place...
I came to this technique through trial and error... trying different tools and approaches.. and frankly... quite by serendipity...
If you have any questions you can contact me anytime... or
You can visit my site: http://westwood.fortunecity.com/chanel/132/index.html
where you can see some of my work in aeronautical illustrations where you might get some ideas and can ask me how I do this of that...to incorporate it into your repaints...
Happy repainting... and clear skies.
[ps: I never thought about a tutorial on this so I need to prepare some intermediate step illustrations... but I hope this little discussion gets you going...]
 
Addendum to ribs tutorial

gaucho_59 said:
The technique is fairly simple...
First... I must tell you that I have worked exclusively with PSP since the early days... I am up to PSP XII... the technique I am sure can be equally worked with Photoshop...
Obviously it requires a bit of an artistic hand and experience with air painting (real ones or the one tool in PSP)... as well as working in layers with changing opacities.
Basically, if it is a repaint... you NEED TO CLEAN UP THE ORIGINAL to bare basic background color (i.e.: eliminating the crude straight lines simulating ribs) [on this, I start with the basic single texture, copy it in a layer above... go back and paint the wing, stabilizer, or fuselage etc. the base color in the background layer)... THEN, decrease the copied layer in opacity to barely visible - to use it as a guide to place the repaint)... ] YOU CAN LEAVE IT AS A TOP LAYER AND PAINT LAYERS UNDERNEATH OVER THE BACKGROUND..
Once this is accomplished you eliminate that copied original but lighter layer...
So, you create a first layer for the ribs
I start one rib at a time... with a single line... use the diffusing tool and blurr it ... then on a layer immediately above... paint a thin line in white or whatever light color best suits the theme.. blurr it... and when the desired effect (trial and error.. you should have your PSP redos to a large number so you can go back and forth when you make mistakes) is accomplished, you merge that reflected light line over the darker wider diffused line in the layer below... That done... you continue to refine the rib shape conformation to your satisfaction... using this layer merging technique...
After you are finished... you duplicate that rib over and over the length of the flying surface... remember to make the rib longer than the width of the wing.. [on the rib layer]
When you deem it finished.. you can trim off the excess lengths with the shape tool set to 1 or 2 steps of feathering...
At this time you have two layers.. 1. background and 2. ribs immediately above...
START a new layer... where you put the leading edge sorftened reflected light [2 or 3 feather steps using the rectangle shape tool... or freehand... a light spray of white... and monkeying with the opacity of the layer to obtain the nice feathered reflected light effect...
YOU HAVE NOW 3 LAYERS.. 1. background 2. ribs and 3. reflected lights
The next upper layer.. you shape the perimeter of flaps a/o ailerons... and lay a soft black area (that you can set opacity to a nice subtle effect) you start another layer for a thin soft reflected light at the leading edge very close to the dark outline... using the rectangle tool... or free-hand.. draw this light line... when the desired effect is obtainged.. merge it to the darkish outline layer)
NOW YOU HAVE 4 LAYERS... background.. ribs.. reflected lights and aileron, flap a/or trim tabs...
GOING BACK TO THE RIB LAYER AND USING THE LATTER LAYER AS A GUIDE... ERASE THOSE AREAS IN THE RIB LAYER (if at all, the flying surfaces ribs are smaller than the wing sections and you can deal with them in the same manner)
As a final touch.. you can add a top layer (nr. 5 ) for overall reflected highlights... [I usually do a sharp, fairly thin rectangle of white... then spread all across the wing with the gaussian blurr adjustment tool and delineated over actual perimeter of the wing..
[again to my personal taste and impression].. and set the opacity of this layer to what one thinks should be a subtle reflected light tone]
You can then monkey around with the relative opacity of the layers to blend them into a homogenous finish...
THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND: 1. A merged top layer of lowered opacity will take on the opacity of the lower layer it is merged into... so to keep the desired opacity... blend the lower into the upper... otherwise you have to rework opacity to what your layers had when they were visually merged but not physically merged (so to speak because all these layers are not really phisically entities anyway) I guess I should use the work ACTUALLY instead of physically in the first place...
I came to this technique through trial and error... trying different tools and approaches.. and frankly... quite by serendipity...
If you have any questions you can contact me anytime... or
You can visit my site: http://westwood.fortunecity.com/chanel/132/index.html
where you can see some of my work in aeronautical illustrations where you might get some ideas and can ask me how I do this of that...to incorporate it into your repaints...
Happy repainting... and clear skies.
[ps: I never thought about a tutorial on this so I need to prepare some intermediate step illustrations... but I hope this little discussion gets you going...]
Click to expand...

I prepared a quick illustration of the steps tutored above... All luxury of details can be added in a layer above all the others or where judged opportune (i.e.: sawn seams, hardware, cap covers, etc.... adjusting its opacity to best match the overall tone of the textured)

View attachment 34527

As stated previously direct any questions you might have and will endeavour to answer them as best I can... {Pardon this quick and dirty attempt at a tutorial, but it is the best I could come up with on short notice...}
 
Second addendum

gaucho_59 said:
I prepared a quick illustration of the steps tutored above... All luxury of details can be added in a layer above all the others or where judged opportune (i.e.: sawn seams, hardware, cap covers, etc.... adjusting its opacity to best match the overall tone of the textured)

View attachment 34527

As stated previously direct any questions you might have and will endeavour to answer them as best I can... {Pardon this quick and dirty attempt at a tutorial, but it is the best I could come up with on short notice...}
Click to expand...
Pardon the minor error (rib line going over into aileron... but I think it renders the idea.. faux pas and all)
 
Thanks for this tutorial, gaucho_59. This will be very useful for the Hawker Fury MkI that I'm building.

Cheers,

PomBee.:salute::salute::salute:
 
Here is another example...

PomBee said:
Thanks for this tutorial, gaucho_59. This will be very useful for the Hawker Fury MkI that I'm building.

Cheers,

PomBee.:salute::salute::salute:
Click to expand...
I just redid the new Corbel for my own use... and a better looking example of the wing ribbing technique results... (all done within the last 15 minutes... once you get the swing of it... it takes no time to redo or Do new skins with ribs)
View attachment 35706
 
Hello Cees

Looking good !!!! :applause:
I can't quite tell if you have used an airbrush effect to spray a white section down the inside/low section of each trough. It would need some experimenting, with say a density of 10 to 20 and an opacity of say 5 to 20, with a width to give that 3D look. Have a try and don't hesitate to experiment a bit, make sure it's also on a different layer so you also use the different layer effects/types as well.
 
Hello Cees

Definately adds to the effect. Sometimes the ridges look better white with the troughs darker, sometimes it's the other way around, on the few I have done I have swapped them around until it looks the best. The main thing to remember is that it needs to be applied the same way over the model or it starts to look a bit strange, I recall Gaucho mentioning that as well somewhere. I also use a similar effect around panel lines, usually a bit of trial and error until it looks right.
 
Cees, I am not familiar with the plane you are painting, so not sure if the ribbing is supposed to have hard edges or soft edges, but I personally like the tutorial that Stratobat posted. I personally like the 3d effects it gives.

With the method I use, you can of course adjust the opacity to make them softer or harder edge.

View attachment 37131
 
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