Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[casey1976]

Hi gang,

I've taken a little break from updating my old skins and the PTO pack to do some work for Dixie Captain's new KTO campaign. The skins are all F86s from the 51st FW, 25th FS based at Suwon AB in 1953. I finished "Mig Mad Marine" last night and finished up "Father Dan" this morning. I'll post shots of the rest of the skins as they are completed, so if you guys see something that isn't right on the planes please let me know...I'd rather get it all right before I send DC the skin pack :wink:

Mig Mad Marine:


Father Dan:

The shark mouth on Father Dan was a bit tricky, as the mapping for that area is a bit odd...but I think it looks pretty cool

Cheers,

KC

[max_thehitman]

Beautiful job you did on these skins! 

[casey1976]

Thanks Max!

The F86 is a lot of fun to skin, although some of the quirkier bits have made me pull some hair out It's actually funny, I finished the template several months ago and this is the first time I've used it for an actual project. I guess after making the template I suffered from "Sabre burnout". It's available at M4T in their templates d/l section, if haven't already grabbed a copy of it yet... http://www.mission4today.com/index.php?name=Downloads3&file=details&id=582

I got some more work done on "NINA II" flown by Col. John Mitchell & Maj. John C. Giraudo. I haven't added any weathering to it yet, but I think it looks pretty good as is:







Cheers,

KC

[duffys tavern]

Man, these look great! Swell job, very realistic.

[A1_Phoenix]

*_* greeeat 

[4./JG53_Badger]

Man I cant wait to get my hands on these.....Salute

[US_GRANT]

Hey Casey,
First I want to thank you again for sprucing up the work HH_Blaze and I did on the Sabre. Looks fantastic. With that, I started making historic skins for my squad (51stfis) and here is one of the historic skins I've dome so far. This is the one I use. I made a few modifications and made a new fuselage code (FU) for the tail along with the number type used at the time.
 
The first thing I did (because it was driving me nuts) was to redesign the nose RADAR dome.

 
The next was, as stated earlier, make the new fuselage letters and numbers. I made these from scratch using examples I found online.

 
An overall effect.

 
Some folks may be wondering about the tanks. I used PeterD's tank texture that came with the Sabre and retextured it as seen above. The green tanks represent the external tanks made in Japan for the Sabre during Korea. The tanks, though they looked the same as the silver ones, had different flight characteristics and so were painted green so the pilots could tell them apart and adjust their fliying accordingly.

[casey1976]

Looking really good Grant! The new RADAR dome looks sweet.

One thing that's been driving me nuts is not being able to find a matching font for the FU- codes on the side fuselage. What you're using on "This'll Kill Ya" is a dead ringer. Did you edit an existing font or did you track one down online for d/l? I cut the F to look the way it's supposed to, but the #'s are all jacked up and incorrect. I can live with what's on my skins currently, but I'd prefer to be more accurate. If you would be so kind as to link me to where you got those or send me the font you edited, that would be awesome.

I may even have to monkey around with the RADAR dome now! You've inspired me again, my friend.

Cheers!

KC

[US_GRANT]

What I did was use a downloaded copy of Sabre Aces of the 51st Fighter Wing I found online. It had aircraft profiles in color art and I exported those pages and used them to make my letters and numbers. Unfortunately, I have no font that I used. What I did was to trace the "F" from the exported pages making a new one. Then I used various fonts to match up the numbers as best I could. I used probably half a dozen or so different fonts and then resized and reshaped them somewhat to fit what I found in the profiles. I had to litterally make the 5, 6, and 9 almost completely from scratch to get them to match. If you like I can send you the layers I made and put into my template. I also made a mini template for the letters and numbers where they go on the plane. I use this as a basis for placing the other numbers. It can be labor intensive when you first get setup, but now that I've done it for a while, it doesn't take me long. I used the alignment (green) lines to set up a pattern on the template to help with placing the numbers.
 
Here is a pic of what I am talking about.

 
Tell ya what, I'll trade you my numbers and letters for that fancy set of teeth you used on FATHER DAN. Mine look like total garbage. I'll even throwin my copy of the radome for you to pick at. Whad'ya say?

[casey1976]

Thanks Grant!

I'll send you a .PSD for the shark mouth later today, with alignment tabs so all you'll have to do is copy/paste the layer into the template. I've got a couple more varieties to finish up for the 51st, but as you'll see in the screen shots below the 4th used some interesting stuff too. I'd like to finish them all up, so I can get a complete nose art foundation/source layer set for the F86 sharkies. All these shots are from Mark Styling's website, and I've checked the art against period photos...these various "styles" of shark mouths that were used in the 51st & 4th that he has completed profiles for:
http://www.markstyling.com/f86s.cu/f86s.cu.29b.jpg
http://www.markstyling.com/f86s.cu/f86s.cu.33b.jpg
http://www.markstyling.com/f86s.cu/f86s.cu.05.jpg
http://www.markstyling.com/f86s.cu/f86s.cu.23.jpg
I'll send them along to you as I finish them up, as I've only got the one for "Father Dan" completed and aligned properly. Hopefully I'll be clever enough with Photoshop to make them all work on the funky nose!

Cheers,

KC

[casey1976]

Hi Grant,

Check your e-mail when you get the chance...the .PSD is waiting for you!

Cheers,

KC

[casey1976]

Hi gang,

I've started to lay in individual weathering on each skin to give it it's own "personality". Mostly I'm going by historic photos, but these birds were really well maintained and there was very little gunk build-up on them...just a little bit of paint scratching here and there. I've pretty well done all the "shark mouth" schemes I'm prepared to do, and need to add some non-sharkies to the pack.

I swear, this is the last shark-mouth skin I'm gonna do! "Jeanie" flown by Capt Howard Leaf:


I took a flight of 4 out over the KTO map to see how some of the skins looked together flying in formation...pretty damn cool if you ask me



More to come...

Cheers,

KC