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Thought I'd have a go at figuring out how to make bare metal textures. I need to adjust the spec and alpha for the anti-glare paint and some other painted surfaces (struts) and add some more details. I'm thinking this is a fairly decent representation of bare metal, but feedback is very much welcome.

A thing of beauty. Awesome. One note though, the two tone effect of the fuselage is I think maybe due to spec or alpha being slightly offset in colour/shade, something to keep an eye on.

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Thats a very nice job there Rwmarth. I have found bare metal textures to vary from aircraft to aircraft(ie same color/alpha samples from a bare metal P-47 will look different on the P-40), so you ultimatley have to go by trial and error untill you get what you like. For Tejanahawk, I used one of Jankees bare metal paints for texture/spec color and alpha references.

Cheers
TJ

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"The knack of flying is learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss." - Douglas Adams

Lewis, do you mean the two toned look of the fuselage right behind the canopy where the two texture files match up? If so, that one has me completely baffled. Back to the drawing board it seems! A strip running along the fuselage textures is a tempting solution though...

Looks great! My only comment is that the fabric covered control surfaces should have a different look to them.
Here is a pic of a DC-3 showing the fabric covered aileron next to the bare metal wing.


Cheers, keep up the good work!

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Good point, Thunderstreak. I will add that to the to-do list.

a thing of beauty. Is there anyway to add that reflective quality that's shown in the post above? I haven't seen it represented in any repaints so I was curious because your paint is amazing

I chased this around on the b17. One of your base colors in section 2 (rear fuselage) is not exactly the same as you used in the front half. Lewis is most likely right that it is in the alpha, or spec files. Look at your RGB values for the metal color in the base, the grey/black shade in the alpha and the whatever you used in the spec and spec alpha. One of those is slightly off. If not you then have to go to the dust and shadows etc. and make sure everything you applied to the fron section is applied to the rear half.

By the way, this looks gorgeous. keep 'em coming.



I think that style of reflection requires the alpha to be almost black. Also, if I remember correctly, it will only work to a certian point unless A2A have turned some option on in the model. It is the reason we can make the B17 almost Chrome, but not the spitfire.

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-mike

I think the 'shine' is more or less part of the MDL and less controlled with the alpha textures. I was trying to paint a RealAir Turbine duke with the same 'chrome' shine from a paint scheme from one of the piston variants. I used the exact color and alpha samples on both regular texture files and spec files. It did not have the same result. Matter of fact just for ducks I copied the shiny piston duke textures into the turbine duke because they have essentially the same texture mapping. They did not have the same 'shine'. So I had to play around via trial and error to find the 'metal' look I wanted.

I had the same experience as what Mike and others have said, make sure your fueslage and tail textures all match via your metal 'grey' and alpha grey. Also make sure spec texture and alphas match. Another thing to watch out for, the spec files are half the size of the regular textures so when you shrink down your paint scheme to fit into the spec.psd, make sure they are aligned

Cheers
TJ

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"The knack of flying is learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss." - Douglas Adams

Seems with the P-40 paintkit, the two fuselage textures don't quite matchup unless the "dust" layer is enabled in the Spec file. Apparently, "dust" is actually a necessary evil to avoid this problem unless you go pixel by pixel. Actually, can't notice it really and probably adds a bit more feel to the metal though it does make things even more shiny. Even for an FSX pilot, that anti-glare paint is quite a God-send. I've always liked the old AAF yellow winged paint scheme; will have to give that a try with the bare fuselage sometime as well then to cut down on the glare even further. Next up, getting the stencils to look like stencils and not engravings in metal....

Been taking awhile to get the canvas right, but I think I am making a little progress. Need to work on the tail number, tinker with exhaust, and some other details yet. I plan on doing a couple 1930s-esque USAAF inspired paints including yellow and blue patterns. All fictional of course, but the P-40 certainly lends herself well to that era.

Looking good.

looking good indeed.
Don't forget the plates around the exhausts, they were usually steel, not aluminium, so they had different 'look' to them, I made them darker and less shiny:

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Thanks for the catch on those plates, Jankees. I keep checking out how you made your bare metal textures while working on mine, especially that very one in the pic. A favorite to fly with.

Just about there, minus 1 or 2 small details. So any more feedback on it is great, even if to say you hate it - just say why!