P-51 Mustang

[amariani 4,889]

I have been toying with this idea for a while now...a set of simplified skins & decals for the stock P-51D/K kind of like what ndicki did for the Mustang IV a while back. I already have 51 units represented from both the 8th & 9th Air Forces. Here's an example:

[+EricJ 4,245]

I'm not much a fan of the WW2 era, more spoiled by the modern era... But those look real good amariani

[Sokol 444]

for my part,

i would very much appreciate to have those fine skins of yours on my hard drive ;-)

you are a master of arts

cheers

sokol

[dsawan 624]

same here

[amariani 4,889]

This is how they would look in game...

[amariani 4,889]

National insignias & theater markings are painted on. Spinner, unit code, AC code, serial numbers and rudders are decals.

[+daddyairplanes 10,243]

gotta be careful going down that path of many units in one package

[+Shootingstar2 26]

looks great can't wait

[amariani 4,889]

WIP - nose decals

[amariani 4,889]

[+yakarov79 11,089]

looks good.

If you are using x2048 templates here you will find bump maps fitting it. 

P-F-51D_BM.rar

You can think about changing glass tga too it is so milky in the screenshots above ( I am guessing this is stock glass tga)

[amariani 4,889]

Only the national and theater markings are painted on, everything else (including the nose and rudder) are decals.

[+daddyairplanes 10,243]

looks good

doing the big parts as tga, are you thinking of doing weathering on them as well? set up about six to ten variations, then repeat and disperse throughout the whole series

[amariani 4,889]

1 hour ago, daddyairplanes said:

looks good

doing the big parts as tga, are you thinking of doing weathering on them as well? set up about six to ten variations, then repeat and disperse throughout the whole series

Not sure about weathering. The tga's are 1000x1000 and already 3907Kb each.

[+daddyairplanes 10,243]

if you dont have a lot of detailing to them (basic shapes) then you can resize when done to a more manageable 512 or even 256 if theres nothing but shapes

when you keep alot of details or lettering in a tga, then its better to keep the size as big as 1000. maybe reduce to 768 (the midway of 1024 and 512). depends on detail and results from the first few attempts at shrinking.

but the suggestions out there even if you dont weather the birds, to drop the file sizes down

Edited December 24, 2022 by daddyairplanes

[amariani 4,889]

22 minutes ago, daddyairplanes said:

if you dont have a lot of detailing to them (basic shapes) then you can resize when done to a more manageable 512 or even 256 if theres nothing but shapes

when you keep alot of details or lettering in a tga, then its better to keep the size as big as 1000. maybe reduce to 768 (the midway of 1024 and 512). depends on detail and results from the first few attempts at shrinking.

but the suggestions out there even if you dont weather the birds, to drop the file sizes down

I've tried smaller size, but the details just become blurry. For the decals to fit properly they have to be scaled up to 4.325 in the decal.ini. I may try to add some paint chips here and there.

[+daddyairplanes 10,243]

i dont know the layout on the Mustang, but on brief look, you may want to put two decals on the nose: one with the lines and details, and one with the colors (looking at the yellow and teh OD green)

then, your details can be one tga thats huge, and the color set can be smaller underneath the detail tga. place the details tga in a common folder, and you only need it in there once.

develop them same sizes , then just scale the final product down on the nose color one.  place the detail one last in the decal ini, so it shows on top of the others.

but thats damn sharp for a decal all the same

[amariani 4,889]

13 hours ago, daddyairplanes said:

i dont know the layout on the Mustang, but on brief look, you may want to put two decals on the nose: one with the lines and details, and one with the colors (looking at the yellow and teh OD green)

then, your details can be one tga thats huge, and the color set can be smaller underneath the detail tga. place the details tga in a common folder, and you only need it in there once.

develop them same sizes , then just scale the final product down on the nose color one.  place the detail one last in the decal ini, so it shows on top of the others.

but thats damn sharp for a decal all the same

That sounds like a good idea, thanks! I will try that for sure!

[amariani 4,889]

F-51