Doughguy

Added the Leading Edge and Panel Gap Filler / Putty similar to ME 262 pics in RLM 99 It also breaks up the overal metal chipping a bit that i still need to tone down a bit. Small test of JG.4 tailband and insignia. Started to block out of the inside parts like flaps, gearwells, scoops, intakes, cabels etc. Bit tedious since i have to locate where they are on the map and some parts simply are overlapping.... which causes some inconvenient oddities... Added wood texture for some access panels as an option. However, i hope i can start workin on the roughmats soon.

oh lawd he commeth... think i just settle on RLM 02 for anything inside... Ah yes... and also ive wasted a good hour repainting the very same disruptive pattern on the wings, instead of the opposite pattern.. cause i´m an idiot. Anyway.... some small update.. The effect of the layerd chipped paint is subtle but its there. Ill reduce the ammount of bare metal chips tho. Bit too much if i look at rl pics. Redid the fuel labels hand painted the letter (cause ...) The Auf Zu markings on the hatches seem to be embossed telling from real world examples, so i´ll have to take this into account for the normal map later on. Also adjusted the dirt /grime color to a pale-grey-ish muddy tan. Looks quite good without havin to adjust opacity or do blending with layer styles in ps. Late war flaps color block-out.

Hm. My reasearch to that color is as fruitful as on the RLM 83. I cant really find any hard evidence that this color was actually of a certain color value. Does Crandalls book contain a swatch? On the subject of primer, my idea stems primarily from following pictures below when i dug around on the subject of wings being puttied on the dora. Now, the rendition of the me 262 profile is subject for debate (i dont want to get into cmyk, rgb and chromatic values of fotos vs pc stuff etc), the sheer color similarity is striking. The hatch part is of an A8s outer wing gun cowling. Dark is the brown RLM 81 and the light the late 76 AND/OR Primer. Ive read (please forgive me as i forgot were, eventually it was TOCH), that the RLM colors were applied on bare metal and on the wing area bein sanded down, resprayed, rinse and repeat. Furthermore lookin at profiles and pictures and a bit of reading it appears that front half of the botton wing and whole top were "primed" with one and the same color. Which could be RLM 75, 76, or 81(whatever shade) directly late in the war. Then a respective disruptive pattern would be applied. Now, my funny head had an idea, that turned out some others had aswell: Eg on the brown RLM 81 "base prime" of the wing RLM 76 is applied, going against the book. Respectively RLM 75 and on top of that the darker RLM 81 (AND in tandem OR RLM 82) Why? Save time and resources. Especially in the later stages of the war, when top surfaces werent even painted in RLM 81+82 combo anymore. It would be less time consuming and also less complicated. Now, my mad brain transfered this on the late RLM 76 / primer topic. Like some mad german brass in a cubicle thought: Ok, light blue is getting scarce and is visible on the ground like a scots ar$e in a searchlight, but we still have tons of that "primer" (that we dont really use much anyway), so why not use that? Also, there is a page in one of Crandalls books i could scavange from a passed internet auction ( i lowlife..), that shows very similar markings on the engine cowling shining through like depicted on the 262. But heck knows... i´m no expert,maybe had one too many pints and am open to bein educated. So in that respect, i´m quite curious how that RLM 99 is supposed to look.

On a different note since i'm preparing to retexture the inner structures lile gear wells etc. Does anyone know, if those parts were painted in RLM 02 or left in bare metal? Only parts ive seen that are left bare are parts of the flaps. Some insight would be cool as i do not have all the literature on the dora and from what i have info is rather sparse. Also ive come to the conclusion that the yellow greenish "late" RLM76 or so called RLM 99 is just a primer that was used all over the fuselage and parts of the wings to save paint. Further more having underestimated a ginormous texturefile and the sheer scope of accompanied jg26 textures for each of its staffeln so i thought about creating a basic pack of 1 group and its 4 staffeln for those jg's that flew the dora and create a "generic" dora pack. Think "defenders of the reich" or so. My idea would be to create 1 texture set (4 diffuse maps etc) for eg 1./jg2 etc and only change the bort numbers to represent each staffel. So no retex for each staffel in general. For a different group, id have to change only one diffuse map since the tailband and group markings are in the same spot anyway. Spec and normal and the rest of the diffuse map wouldnt change. Id add a texture set for stabs maschinen for each group as a little extra. Would mean alot of trade offs as in "historical accuracy" (which isnt achievable anway imho) and not so much variation of each jg., but would cut down filesize quite a lot. Id do the jg26 pack anyway but thatll take a bit longer and i want to hear what people think about that. So its either a small variation but across the board or large variation on a spot. I want to refrain from doing individual machines. that id leave to others. Its not difficult to do all of the above but time is the main factor. Thoughts? Suggestions?

I had a similar "issue" with the dora when in a dive i deployed starting flaps which enabled me to pull some tight g curves. That broke my guns.

Will be a template. Albeit a rather big one as a single file. Right now its a whoppig 4 Gig of disk space... Diffuse only. One factor that contributes to the filesize sure is that fact that i create alot of templates for possible patterns, eg on the wing undersides. So one only has to activate a wanted layer and pic a color.

Been quiet a bit lately. Havent done much work to show off apart from adding jg4 and jg6 waistband templates. My main work currently consists of cleaning up the layer mess the current workfile is and reorganizing the layers to creat a nice and coherent template. Means i have to redo alot of masks, and plan layer groups and folders,so they can be masked properly.. tedious work. But itll pay off in the end, cause i dont want a bare metal chip layer stuck ontop of everything thing going, but real subtractive work so each paint layer can be adressed (think corsair with the bare metal, oxide primer and paint layers showing on the worn of areas).

Corrected the jg 301 group marker. added jg2 tailband template but will have to slim it down cause uvw´s.. enlarged the swastika Also some more dirt blockout.

some fixes. @DB 605 cheers! yeah ive applied some masking to the bottom dirt, having the focus of this around the wheel areas and towards the rear fuselage. thats where all the grime kicks up and such. as doras flew alot from improvised airfields. still have to match colors a bit and blend the sides downwashed dirt with the bottom dirt... ive kept the chipping minimal. most little specks are around where debris on start / landing would kick up, and of course areas that are handled alot like cockpit, hatches etc. will look into it tho mate. thing is, i kinda have to settle for something. filze size is huge. 5 gig for the working file. 20mb for a single diffuse map and you need 4 of them. plus 4normal and 4 spec/roughness maps. So in the long shot it want to change whats absolutally necessary when doing other versions, like eg, only the diffuse maps and the rest will stay the same. there sure were some doras that got delivered in pristine condition but were shot downon their first combat mission, but where´s the fun in that

Time to dirty up the dora. Started adding dust and grime. Bottom is bit too much for my likin, gonna tone it down. Redid the labels to be more readable. Added JG 301 tailband template and group markings....as you can see...HEAPS OF UVW FUN!

Sorry, indeed. Was on the move.

Try to stick to procedures. 190s dont like to slow down so you have to think ahead. Heres how i do. Once i approach the airstrip depending on how safe i am and height/speed etc. Descend to about 300meters airspeed 300kph. Set throttle to idle or use rudder and opposite direction stick to utilise the full fuselage as a airbrake. Fly parallel to the airstrip with wingtip just about touching the runway. Fly along the runway until your tail passes the end / touchdown point of the runway. Lower flaps fully and gear. Ata should read about 1.7 1.8 ish as itll give you constant speed. Now turn into the runway. If done right your speed will bleed alot because of the sharp turn and your height shouldve dropped to about 250kph. Now aim with your reticle for the end of the runway eventually with the first vertical mark below the center cross and keep steady. Dont let the anton let you distract from bucking around. Give gentle corrections. If the general course is right its all good. Watch speed and descent rate. Latter shouldnt be 2 or higher. Ideal is about 1.5ish. Dont pull up if you descent to quick but increase throttle. Try to keep landing speed ro about 180. 200 is already too fast. 150 is touchdown speed! The tricky part is the flare just before t/d. Ive crashed on so many occasions after perfect descends just because i was to fast or too high. Its an experience thing tho. Try to memorize how the distance to the ground looked judging from when youre static on ground. Right before the flare you set your speed to idle 1.2 ata and pull back gently at a speed of about 150. If all done right shell dump on the ground and now you pull back on the stick full to lock the rudder. It too me a few tries but using the crosshair as a visual aid helped alot.

Evening doodle Some surface wear and tear of the paint. cockpit area has most wear along bottom surfaces towards the lowest point and leading edges that get debris going their way. Generally those areas that get alot of manhandling and such.

That would depend on the model / module really, but theyre all in the main directory. Easiest would be to load the cockpit POV model into the model viewer and check what textures are used. Paths to said textures can be looked up from there.

Well well... started reorganizing and cleaning up the diffuse. Some parts i will discard and redo due to the redone panel and riveting map. Had a go at creating masks for the surface wear and test some brushes. not sure if its too much but as its been shown above that its legit. Also repositioned the fuselage cross towards the aft... so double digit bort numbers now have some more space and also stabs markings will work.. Collecting a lot of pictures of dirty surfaces... preferably white vans and trains... people are giving me looks... Of course... the usual UVWs horrors one has to deal with.

Alpha Channel in textures on anysurfaces that you want invisible.

It is what it is i guess. Been bit of an ordeal. The Dora really needs a total overhaul as its pestered with issues and ancient ways of creating 3d models that it really hurt to create textures so far... Eg. overlapping UVW´s etc I´m gonna do the stressed skin now. Some reference hunt first. From that point on the normal map will be generated and following masks etc for diffuse etc.

Last bit for today. riveted and screwd (huehuehue) the canopy. Final touch ups for the riveting and panels tomorrow, then i move on to "stress" the skin... Gotta love them UVW´s...

Thanks, reflected made a mini campaign. Not sure if its out yet.

Cheers guys. I´m lookin to finish the panel and riveting work this weekend. It wont be perfect due to obvious limitations the template provides... but i think the result will be nicer. And i also wanna move on since its quite tiresome. The Dora kinda lacks good documentation in that respect and i have to do a lot of research only to find that i have to work with cutbacks cause the template (model) does not fit, or vice versa. I´ve already tried to crank up the brightness/contrast levels to use that texture as a chipping mask for worn edges similar to what crazybump would generate from a normal map. results look promising! Will have to alter the diffuse according to the panel work but that was forseable hence ive done only minimal work in that field. Still havent touched any of the interour and fuselage, gear wells etc.. but thatll be a step after ive done the exterior shell. Small Update: Finished the taping of the contro surfaces. Will have to redo the cloth structure as it was too coarse previously, makin it look like a haversack. Added the base of the antenna, added hinges and fixed various areas. Unfortunately we´ll have to live without welding seams on the supercharger scoop.. Also, ive fixed the rivetin pattern on the flaps. Pretty nifty what one can find on ebay as ref.

More work... a silver lining... most riveting is done. Canopy and few small things missing. Added the external power supply and flare chute. Started working on the control surfaces with their taped appearances. MG hood has skewed UVWs so i have to omit the horizontal lines on it.. same with the welding lines on the supercharger scoop... *onecanthavenicethings...*

Thx bud. I guess maybe ive explained myself badly. Chipping happend yes but not as an overall even pattern and not as flaky as often portrayed. The rlm paint rather wore off so all the walkways used by crew and pilot were rather prone to abrasion. At least judging by the soft appearence of that respective area. This corresponds with what ive read about rlm paints bein rather fine and chalk like. Us paints applied thickly would crack and chip easily after few hours (what ive read). Same pattern can be observed on the doras albeit less as these were "consumed" rather fast before they could devolp such level of wear telling from the pics ive seen. But some chipping here and there due to debris etc. Yes. Happens but not how its usually shown in games/models. More interestingly it appears that also wings of (at least) some doras were puttied like the mustang, however its not entirely clear to me how. Theres accounts of putty bein used on the front half of the wing, but also just several layers of paint (again front half of wing) which in turn just gets sanded down do gain a smooth surface (there goes my riveting....). Funnily enough that would sort of explain why some doras and antons had the front half of wings painted in the known manner. Also judging from the pics said abrasions (like on the above pic) found on the walk ways appear rather dull and of bright color and uniform appearance under different lightning. So i come to the conclusion that that respective area has been puttied. Also im pretty sure theres a eff ton of dirt and grime on that area.. But its hard to tell or be sure from observations alone given the fact that late machines werent primed at all or even puttied with a dedicated putty anymore. So basicaly all "chipping" and wear would show bare aluminium.. might also be a production run also... but i cant tell... i dont have any of the dora bibles by crandall and japo so if anyone knows, input is highly appreciated. I wanna do this right (as much as possible given the frame ED provides...) .. Thx guys.

Some more rivetin. Bulk is done. Some adjustments, which unfortunately are a real pita due to the skewed UVW´s... Means, if i find good ref, i cant really apply it. So the Dora Tex will just be a fancy look-a-like... Some panels still have to be corrected. Eg, removed the first aid panel/hatch, as i couldnt find it on any ref pics. Some hinges have to be corrected etc.

Quote from Robert Forsyths book Fw 190D-9 Defence of the Reich 1944–45