Geezer

Forgot to include info on values - lightness/darkness. Old B & W photos can be useful if you select them carefully. But beware - lens filters, over-exposure, under-exposure, etc can all distort the values (shades of gray) in an old photo. You want photos that have a full range of light, medium, and dark grays. While not infallible, this will usually identify photos that accurately show how light or dark the old camo colors were. Make a shot of the skins you are working on, and then make a desaturated copy of that shot. Compare your desaturated shot to an old B & W shot to see how close your light, medium, and dark values are. Usually, your first colors will be too dark because you did not compensate for optical illusions. In first shot below, the dark green is a bit too light in value compared to the real world dark green shown in the original photo, but the light tan is not quite light enough. In the original photo, note the faint red "10" just ahead of the white fuselage band. Then compare it's shade of gray to the red "5" of the model skins. Pretty close - close enough to say "that's good enough." Second shot of the Hurricane reveals two problems. First, the yellow ring of the fuselage roundel is not light enough. Second, the gameworld's light settings are generally too dark. If that were a real photo of a real Hurricane in bright sunshine, the upper surfaces of the wings would be reflecting more light - they would not be as dark as they are in the screen shot.

You will need a 3D model program to make aircraft, and a paint program to make textures/artwork. The really capable programs used by professionals, such as 3dsMax (or Maya) and Photoshop (or PaintShopPro), are expensive. However, old "obsolete" editions are fairly cheap when you can find them, and will work fine for making TW stuff. There are also free equivalents available, but I have never used them so I don't know much about them. You can generally find how-to-do-it tutorials on the internet, and guys here at Combat Ace will usually help if you have questions. Good luck! Free 3D model program: https://www.blender.org/ Free paint program: http://www.gimp.org/

Been working with Baffmeister and LloydNB to make Gladiators, then took a break for an old fashioned furball.

Nice job, as usual.

A lot of guys have "liked" this thread and the shots. As mentioned above, anybody can cobble together this 1930s gameworld. The map is Gterl's WW1 Italian Front, with a couple of tweaks. Shot below shows Jan Tuma's trees lightened and dulled a bit, plus the lighting has been adjusted to simulate high noon. Trees and lighting file attached for anyone who wants the game world shown in the shots. WW1 Italy Tweaks.rar

I know exactly what you're going through! I have the same problem with my Hurricane Mk1 landing gear - I can't get all the animated parts to move in unison. Bummer...

Lightening and dulling colors applies to everything else in the TW gameworld. Shot below shows lightening/dulling applied to map stuff. The trees have been adjusted about 10%-15%. Also, Gterl's ground tile art has been lightened and dulled a bit - IIRC, around 5%. Also, below the right hand wheel spat is a straight line with sand brown on one side, and olive green on the other. To the left of that line is a new WIP tile I am working on. Gterl's tiles are 512x512, but the WIP tile is 1024x1024 and looks more convincing when flying at low altitude.

More examples of 1930s dogfights over the Alps. Only the Gladiator is unavailable right now - I hope to finish it in the next couple of months. The other aircraft are MontyCZ's Ju87A and AviaB534, Hinchinbrooke's Gauntlet, and my CR42.