F-105 Thunderchief Hill Grey (HELP!)

[bucklehead101 29]

After nearly 8 years downloading other skins made by the community, I figured I'd give it a go instead of asking for someone else to make it for me. I booted up photoshop, downloaded the HD F-105 templates by Centurion and started.



There is still a lot to do, and I was hoping that someone could point me in the right direction. Since the screenshot, I have fixed the metal area around the gun, and have found which part of the template I need to color to get the afterburner intakes colored correctly. Same with the strike camera under the nose.

What I need help with is the following:

1) What can I do to the nose to get a more worn look? It looks to clean compared to the rest of the plane.

 

2) I want to tint the canopy a gold color like some F-16s have. What do I need to do in order to do that?

 

I have gained a lot more respect for the skinners here at CombatACE after attempting this. Thanks for all the outstanding skins over the years!

 

 

[+daddyairplanes 10,248]

Before offering much, what are you using to work on the skin, GIMP or PS?

As to the glass, that is a tga i believe (usually left clear). Will want to hunt down the proper file in the cat files, recolor a verrrry opaque gold and insert into the skin folder.

General, advice on weathring, its a pain! But it does make them look sooo much better.

[+KnightWolf45 1,147]

you can take the TGA files from the F-16 glass and rename it to use on the F-105 main issue his know the proper TGA file name.

[bucklehead101 29]

Thanks for the help guys. I am using CS3 right now.

[Centurion-1 1,228]

Hi mate,

good work on that skin! Regarding the nose, you can try to have a layer above it with fain opacity depicting dirty metal or worn paint or so.. go to www.cgtextures.com and have a lookie. Another possibilty is selecting the original black nose and using hue/saturation/lightness + brightness and contrast to make it light gray, that way it will retain some of its weathering..

[+Swordsman422 61]

With the nose, check your photo. Even if the paint is the same, fiberglass weathers differently than metal. It isn't uncommon for me to use some of the same techniques I use in modeling for photoshopping skins, like preshading and post-shading especially around panel lines. Usually I do a "wash" (<25% opacity) layer of darker grays, either engine gray (fs16440) or euro 1 gray (fs36081) to get a grimy ashen look, or I use aircraft interior black (fs37031) for oily smears. And the smudge tool in photoshop is very useful. But remember, DO THIS ON A NEW LAYER, preferably between the base color and panel line layers if the template has these. Eliminate visibility to all layers except these two and create a new one just below the panel layer.

 

Google these colors and download the color swatches to use in photoshop.

 

 

Another piece of advise I have is be aware of what is under some of the panels. There may be a faint orange smear near the hydraulic input, and a blue-grey smudge at the lip of the aerial refueling door.

 

Hope this helps.

 

That skins is looking great!

Edited June 25, 2013 by Swordsman422