Is there an unpainted skin?

[rwmarth 0]

Im in the process of developing a personal skin (in conjunction with the upcoming patch and my soon to be awarded ace status with Jasta 11) and was wondering if there is a base skin for the Albatross DIII early without any paint (just wood/canvas)? I have found the generic skin I fly with and have tried editing it a bit and while it looks pretty nice over unpainted areas (eg. the fuselage), painted areas such as the tail and wings dont look so nice as the layered paint shows through. Is there a skin without paint, or do I just white the areas out and paint from scratch?

Thanks.

[Red-Dog 3]

I don't think there is a base skin, you will have to over paint what youv'e got mate.I could be wrong.

[Bullethead 12]

Here's the deal....

 

99.9% of the work in making a skin is making the template. By that I mean getting all the ribs lined up top-and-bottom, all the control surfaces marked out, all the panel lines between pieces of plywood, all the stitching were sheets of fabric came together, all the 3D effects on flat surfaces, etc. Once you've got that, applying the actual paintjob is child's play.

 

We have OBD's skins to use as starting points. But unless all you want to do is add a small personal device on an existing skin, or repaint some small area of it, then you have do everything from scratch. This is because all the OBD skins are 1 layer as we get them and you need 40-70 layers on average to make a skin of comparable quality. Besides, much as it pains me to say it, many OBD skins don't have the ribs lining up with each other on upper and lower surfaces, or with things like ailerons, so if that matters to you, you need to redo all the rib locations as well.

 

If you have a life, this process usually takes 2-3 weeks. Only then can you being to apply your desired paintjob. However, once you've invested the requisite 2-3 weeks in making your template, you can apply a new paintjob to it in a few hours at most.

 

What you're asking for is the intensive, non-fun labor of 2-3 weeks worth of free time by some skinner, so you can just slap on some paint. I doubt you'll find many skinners willing to just give their templates away for this purpose. I mean, if you consider such a template as the output of skilled labor, the market price would be several hundred dollars at least. Of course, being based on OBD outlines, no 3rd party skins are marketable, but the the investment of talent is still the same. So don't expect anybody to just give you a template. Make one of your own for some as-yet unskinned plane and trade it to somebody who has already made one for the plane you want to paint, if you can find a willing partner. Otherwise, just be a man and start from scratch like everybody else.

 

I don't mean to sound harsh here, I'm just saying how life is in the big city. Real skinning is long, hard work, at least as far as making the template goes. So, if you want street cred as a skinner, you need to make your bones. Literally. BUT, all skinners are quite willing to offer tips and suggestions as you do so. Just don't expect them to do the work for you. Do it yourself, ask for help when you need it, and pretty soon you'll be a skinner yourself.

 

 

[rwmarth 0]

Thanks for the answers guys! It was pretty much what I expected, but just wanted to make sure.