daddyairplanes

One other tip i forgot: play with opacity, but almost never have a tga at 100%. For something with bright colors, or a light tga over dark surface i will go 90-95%. On average i go around 70%, but have done dark serial nums on light surfaces as low as 35%. That's what I use, play with it and find whats best for you

A few disclaimers: I use GIMP for my tga work, have even back when i did have Photoshop proper. And yes i have read that tutorial many moons ago. That said, like any craft, good tga work takes time. Some of my generic tips that should work across any graphics program - mainly use mue's lodviewer. It saves so much time for checking things than firing up the game. But occasionally, still fire up the game just to be sure. - set up your decal ini with a test decal before going full bore on decal product. It can be the first decal in the series or something you whip up to check positions - for serial decals ( numbers, nose arts anything that is different aircraft to aircraft), not only have your number.lst file done in advance and open while working, have some other file up with all relevant info. Since I like to do whole hog across the years mods, I often use excel to keep track of serials, tailcodes, nosearts etc as I serialize all of it normally - making the tga itself, clear the alpha channel and usually keep at least a pixel of space around the produced artwork. Seems basic knowledge, but think of iconic pics of basketball players in game winning poses: they are usually displaying form taught since elementary school on making the shot. - when you can, use good source imagery to produce images. Pictures of subject, not copyrighted artwork. Bigger is always better, you lose more detail when scaling up than when scaling down. Ninety percent of my nosearts and unit patches are pics from Google or books. Of that, fifty percent need no editing other than to remove( erase) the picture around the desired image. -Most of the rest gets perspective shifted, color tone changed, lightened or darkened. Play with the tools; every program has neat stuff to create your artwork - When you can't find good source pics, or when doing serial work, use the text function in your program. GIMP I know uses whatever fonts are available in my copy of Word, - use Word or other similar programs to match fonts with source pics. A spot on match is great, and sometimes you can download the needed font if not available in your program. Other times you get as close as you can and make minor tweaks after typing it all out - when using the text function for your program type out a series, the backspace and type the next one. IE: D1234, save as whatever000, backspace the 4 away, type 5 to get D1235, save whatever001. Seems time consuming and it is. But to me less so than than tutorial and once I get going its not that long in happening. - remember when i said usually leave a pixel of space? Give i often do complete paintings or major parts of paint jobs as tga rather than on skin i use that extra pixel at the edge to an advantage for pinstripes and colors. The colors all the way to the edge will cause that color to go all the way to the end of the mesh. If all along the tga edge it puts color all along the mesh; if a stripe that touches the edge it runs a pinstripe along to the end of the mesh. I will use the pinstripe effect esp as it produces the desired effect without hours spent bending, expanding and matching a line direct on skin. -So long as the meshes are listed in the decal ini, you can have text and a stripe on the nose, with the stripe running clean an true to the back of the aircraft! Keep the same location and scale information in each entry, changing only meshname as it progresses along the model Biggest tip of all: backup your work regularly. I do a decent job at this and will still lose some hours of work when Windows updates overnight or i goof and delete a wrong file. It's worse if you don't back up stuff and lose days or weeks of progress.

look up B-52G_89 for Desert Storm in the download section. yes, i have them as selectable weapons, and the various ini edits to not only make it all work, but prevent arcade loads like cruise missiles on the HSABs AND bombs on mers. that said it is set up for Desert Storm era. some things will need to be removed for Vietnam timeframe (like cruise missile capability). looking at the inis and plugging into the F should work ok. the underwing parts will work for the D as well. but internal needs to be changed up for the D model because of Big Belly and holding 84 Mk82 bombs (less other versions). it should still be useful as a guide but wont be a direct swap in the D the G_72 (or whaterver year) model, as said earlier, dont need no stinking pylons for Linebacker! and since you replied while i was editing, relook at my now changed post above

iirc you did alot of the ini work on the AGM-28 pylons that i put in mod (spilline104s model iirc), my main bit was changing from fakepilot to a gunpod so i was selectable in the weapons dropdowns. the antennas and other items via fakepilot for the D are awesome tho if im remembering correctly that you did them my suggestions would be to make year specific versions of the BUFFs you want to use, and then work in teh loadout ini for each one. something like B-52D_67 and CBU Strike, MK82 Strike, M117 Strike, Mix Strike (82 inside, 117 outside) etc within the loadout.ini of that plane. making the new plane is pretty simple, copy paste and dont forget to change folder and aircraft ini names. the loadout is a little more detailed but still not too hard. let me know if you need help with the inis. my planned BUFF work is near enough in the future i can give ini work a jump start while helping you

now me being nosy, so whatchya doin? on my todo list for this year is the E model (ini edit from D as it was internal diffs only), as well as F and Ds post Nam. lot to work with actually as they werent fully retired until 1978 and 1983 respectively. even if only on the Crested Dove operations last couple years for each

a correction to note having read thru this D and F carried underwing IN VIETNAM. G carried underwing in Desert Storm, but not during Linebacker. Look in the Units in Combat 55-73 book, and you'll see accounts of the D guys being ticked at how little (27 internally) the G guys were bringing to the fight most common loadout on the externals was 117s or CBUs because of diameter. but 82s, 84s, and even British 1000 pounders (ODS) were not unheard of all the BUFFs after the C model could carry the AGM-28 pylon, since many were tasked with carrying Hound Dogs as part of their nuclear warload. They werent used as commonly from around 1966 through 1972/3 timeframe as they were needed for the nuclear warfighting role. F models pioneered the AGM-28 pylon usage, accomplised by mounting 2 MERs to a steel I beam, then mounting the whole assembly to the AGM-28 pylon The Fs were the first in use, but withdrawn after 6-8 months of operations, as soon as the first Big Belly D models were coming available. E and H model never flew, and Gs went to bolster the force in 72 because they were more numerous than the Hs while the AGM-28 was withdrawn from use in the 70s, it freed up the pylons for use in the 80s and Desert Storm. The pylons wre retired finally same time the G models were in game, the AGM28 assembly is available on the G in my Desert Storm mod. i modified it to be an ECMpod, so you could select the dozen bombe per side with that pylon or 9 per side with HSAB. it would need a slight bit of touch up as its painted for the dark grey undersides of that time, but not too hard to change. the biggie would be editing the D and F data inis to accomodate it not claiming to be an expert, just read that book and the G in Desert Storm books many times over when doing my mods

gotcha. i work BUFFs and Bones anyhow, usually single ship esp when carrying ACME Instant Sunshine. like i said tho, i did wonder

more of the "so there i was while testing" shots

you know, i always wondered what happens if you change it from bomber to attack?

its open folks. i got one of his in progress, one in the fridge waiting to go on the burner and at least one more iteration each Herk and BUFF projects i wanna knock out before summer

would make a Doordash or UberEats joke about pasta delivery, but evidently your vehicle cant be over 9 years old

i tried an app on my android tablet that would allow me to mirror my pc screen back when i actively used PS (im just a poor GIMP user now). worked okay, i was just a different style of doing things, and then somethings like selection i used the mouse anyhow. rebooted the tablet, and never added that software back on. to me it just seemed not that big an improvement. the biggest bit with that set up was curved parts of camos, where you can draw in the more natural sense and see what you are doing by your hand rather than on the other screen. but im fairly ok with using mouse now. although dammit, now you got me wondering if i can reload that app on my newer tablet to see how it goes now

near the end now

but will he have time for those Fokkers? i second both those notions

what was the context? i watched it thinking of the "be all you can be " US Army recruiting commercials in the 1980s, but i dont think thats the case here

ok, now i'll weigh in

i dont think Erik can afford enough storage to hold all that

just another SAM taking off, now maybe we can quit sweeping the flightline.....

have the band gather the sheets for "Hail, Columbia" big thanks to USAFE for keeping it mostly simple

also nix either USSR or US for full employment in campaigns prior to 1992. the whole "if the superpowers publicly get caught fighting it will escalate" thing. not saying that the USSR wouldnt send new toys, and "technicians" to teach how to use them. but the equipment would have Parani markings to keep up appearances. Russia was too broke to offer much help in the 90s, prestige and influence didnt pay the bills in that time. Russia in the Putin era, game on. although as "mercenaries" like the Wagner Group, again not as Russian military. the game doesnt handle three way conflicts like Syria very well, and i dont think we can simulate vehicles ramming each other or aggresive intercepts without teh AI opening fire (again, still not desired in US/Russia interactions even in 2021) that said, a campaign where the US is embargoing Dhimar for whatever reason and the USSR is providing full support to Paran could be interesting

dude, you know the L-100-30 is in his newly released pack right?

some Marines in an airliner went buzzing Castle AFB. had to repay the favor with interest...

yeah saw it on a FB group.... and was instantly amazed we havent done this yet. bring out your BUFFs MITO 1989 while the Tanker TOADs watch Dyess 1983 well somewhere in Texas anyhow now if we just had a north east and southeast US terrain (Loring, Seymour Johnson, Barksdale)

damn Devil Dogs at it too even the Air Force seems to want to bring 8 smoky engines to play....