Doughguy

Quick update. Ironed out the major kinks in the panel base. Some few small alignment errors left. Nothing spectacular. Have to see how the panel spacing works. Good thing about panel work is that one has better control about how the spaces between the panels look like. Old skewl approach of plane texturing is just drawing the nooks n cranies, but that produces uniform spaces which dont really happen irl. UVW´s are partially screwed which is a pita to remedy.... Started riveting work. Doing this click by click to produce an uneven result. Takes time, so i work panel by panel. Fact that the ED doras panel/riveting pattern are quite off to some of my sources means i have to prepare quite a lot. Also made a flat screw brush and made some tests with it. Will do a round head screw and bigger rivet brush as the dora uses quite an array for these things... just have to identify where is what. once that map is done itll serve as mask and cavity map for the diffuse as well as base for the normal map.For the latter i will add various dings to the surfaces to make it more uneven eg. stressed skin etc.

Some panel work. Some parts need to retouched but first impression is pretty solid imho. Atm panels are grey, also to act as a standin for a height map for normal map and also to sort each part to act as masks for the diffuse and the roughness map respectively.

Thx for the pics. I havent touched the rivets yet as these are the ED ones. I will tho. Thanks a bunch for the pics! They´ll help alot! Seems i wasnt far off with my exhaust staining. Will add that reheat stain. Id assume that special spot will be rather grey in color iirc from other pics, so not rainbow colored like some exhaust pipes seen on eg motorcycles. Will tone down the gun residue.

More work. Quite happy with the exhaust residue. Not so with the ejectionport residue etc... not found good examples of how it should look like in RL (halp plz). Added some more masks to have a library on possible finish combinations. Re done the wing mask. Re did the leading edge and made it so to be more compatible with further variations. Also partially "resprayed" the pattern in an uneven fashion to redo the "hasty late war slave labor" finish. Redid the spinner. Pixel density seems lower in that area. Pity. Added a fabric overlay over the control surfaces and some stand in generic red primer chipping on these. Fixed the marbling overlay layer and that led to less visible seams. They´re still pita, especially around the wheelbays and adding mud spatter around them will be pure masochism.. Some wonky stuff still going on on the left hand wing filet... not tracked down the culprit yet. Still have to fix some seams and paint fill errors here and there. However, gonna continue on workin on the panels and rivets tomorrow, before i can continue working on the diffuse. The new panel and rivet mask is needed for correct dust/grime masking and essential for doing some good chipping. Anyway,Pics:

Exhaust residue still gave me an itch. Nearly there! Used an old skewl trick to minimize seams. Copy and mirror a part and work from that. Tiny seam still visible on the center of the fillet... have to move that part of the texture a few pixel.s Front part of the wing root still to be adjusted, but thats a minor thing. Chipping isnt mine but ED default tex.

Quick update on the Numbers thats gonna be used. Its bit of a mish mash but wanted to show the "painted" effect of each numeral. Some staffel numerals will have painted rims. Some staffeln used different "fonts", eg. more square 8, not overall round 3 but with an edged top etc.. Not sure if ill to multiple versions of shape or just go along with the colors. Whats also visible is the fact that the numerals are too close to the balkenkreuz. In order to correct that and make the stabs versions work ill have to move the balken kreuz a bit to the aft,possibly sizing it down. Bit of a trade-off.

Some more work. Some minor fixes to the pattern here and there. Still tryin to allign the exhaust residue... ED decided to split UVW at the most inconvenient place... the wing fillet.. leaving one to allign pixel dust on 3 adjecant pieces *shakesfist* I guess ill tone it down on the wingroot and filet for the sake of optical integrety.... figured ive exagerated it on these parts anyway since most residue seems to appear on the fuselage sides anyway. Added some mud splatters as test.The bottom fuselage is a UVW seam nightmare aswell... wings,center piece, andrest of fuselage. *shakesfistevenmore* Gonna take a break from the diffuse map and concentrate on the panels and rivets, since i could gather good info and ref. All of the lables are subject to change. Seen enough references, where some particular labels arent present. Atm is just for the sake of them bein "complete".

Dont engage in turn fights. never ever. Climb above it in chandelles or dive on it. on pullin up, engage a shallow turn. spit might get you from a lag/barrel roll. From above just b&z it. you´re faster in the horizontal and can climb way better.

Aye hence the ominous. But your comment got me thinking. The basic color combo could be rlm 81/82 indeed if it was the doras early full color pattern and 81 indeed was a greener color. Youd then have green shade only top surfaces and once war situation deteriorated green pigments became scarce and predominantely rlm 81 brown was used for top surfaces. This would correspond eg. III./jg54 / IV./jg26 having rather greenish camouflage aswell as stabs doras compared to eg II. and III. Group / jg26 doras that were build by mimetall. The famous yellow.10 would follow the same pattern before bein mottled up with rlm 81 and rlm 82. The japo book follows this pattern/scheme aswell as for the underside leading edge bein covered on brown rlm 81. However the flyin heritage museum has the basic top surfaces painted in what appears a medium grey rlm75. Also colored images of the d13 on the book "yellow 10" support this. Boggles with ones mind...

Heres some interesting pics from the web ive came across. I think one of the greens is defo our regular rlm82. The other rather appears like a the ominous rlm83 which is darker green with a brown nuance in it. Unlike on the rudder that has brown specs on it. And these arent rust. Eventually said green color in question is rlm74? Which appears to be a pale dark olive green. Either way. This subject is rather highly speculative and on the end i wont fixate on single machines and replicate them but base known and used colors variations for a whole staffel. So theres gonna be a bit of mix n match for everyone. Ive laid out the color codes for each gruppe and staffel and it seems the 7./26 brown numerals of II. gruppe are rather an oddity as they actually should be yellow. Eg.: I. group 1. Staffel white 2.staffel black 3. Staffel yellow. 4. Staffel blue II. Group. 5. Staffel white 6. Staffel black 7. Staffel brown. 8. Staffel blue However III. /11. staffel has yellow numerals again, same as 15. Staffel. And no evidence of 16. Staffel so far. 4th staffeln also seem to have sported blue spinner housings. Would make for a nice change. Im not even sure if all staffeln were equipped with doras but for many i have photographic evidence of at least one example. Progress wise ive made fixes to the pattern maskings mainly. Tedious work doin it ol skewl way... At im also gathering reference on mud splatter as doras would basically taxi on muddy fieldways in the last weeks and also various scratch and chipping patterns ill be using as photoshop brushes for masks. i also decided to respray the camouflage patterns again on a way so theyre not even in opacity for that rushed late war look. The balkenkreuz and swastika seem to be sprayed on where as the b/w spinner and staffel numbers appear to be applied by brush. Gonna replicate that.

Cheers! Thatll help! Ill compare it to my rlm 81

Iirc khaki is basically a high content yellow and low content black. To produce brown youd need to add red and green yes, but it wouldnt really be khaki then, not takin in account slight tonalities. I also see a green and brown on a light gray or off-grey (too much direct light). The light plays a factor on determining correct colors but also how thickly and evenly a color has been applied. Late stages of war bein rather hasty color application would be accordingly. So rather thin and sluggish. So youll also have eg a green or brown layer at eg 90 percent opacity on the late rlm 76 making it appear totally different on shade.

Thats basically what ive concluded and what eg eduard models proposes. Whereas ive found pictures of that dora with different fuselage colors and wing surfaces being painted rlm 75 and 82. But yeah the 76 81 82 combo would fot several late dora models especially made by mimetall. Yeah gearwell covers are in shadows and rather dirty just like the fuselage. The nose part apparently was brown but then repainted green and the brown shines through. You can also see this by lookin at the wavy rim around the cowling. A bit of brown peekin out beneath the green cover up. The do 335 and me262 def have a pale dark brown on there to accompany the green. The correct shade is debatable since theres light shadow and the sheer low quality of the pictures. @DB 605if you can take a pic of that fairing on a cloudy but bright day thatll help alot. Flash is no good. Needs diffuse light.

My thoughts exactly. So i dont try to linger around the exact shades of a certain color too much. If i know that pattern is RLM 82, then thats fine. Im gonna add variations to it. Even on the same plane cause spare parts. Whats more critical is the overall colorscheme and what colors have been used. Eg with the mimetall doras one does get tons of info and interpretations about how the front section of the wing underside was painted. RLM 75, 66, 81 or RLM 83 (dark green? ). But even the top side of the wings is debated. The color charts of eduard basically imply that mimetall doras were painted on RLM 75 with RLM 81 applied as breakup pattern. With a splotch of RLM 83 on the tail section. Others say thats only on the fuselage and wings were painted RLM 83 and 76. Most accurate would be any kind of "official" docs from back in the day on how parts were to be cammed. Ive not come across these yet. So the whole discussion is basically a bottomles pit imho. However, havin read about jg26 a bit and on LW procedures it renderes quiet a vast array of color pattern. Merely dependin on production date, how often it was flown, or if incorporated from another jg. Eg doras of the stab were more pristine in condition since they had to fly less than the lower ranks and were generally painted in rlm 82 83 and whole bottom painted 75. Indicates older production runs. Dortemanns dora was a jg 54 machine that was incorporated into IV./jg26 and basically all stabs doras wore same colors as his. Götzs dora bein an anomaly but it basically started in the usual mimetall pattern before it was camed up. Lower ranks dora were patched up frankenwulfs. Most appealing to the modellers eye as there so much to see and go hog wild. Guess this is the JaPo book.

Good Video. Hanging around the B17´s wasnt a good idea. And german attacked with a whole staffel or group or even more. So one pass haul ass with a whole schwarm aiming at a single bomber sure heightes the rate of success.

I cant. Maverick did. Its really just about the plot...

"Hard Deck is 10.000 feet". (lol)

Cause air force reguleshuns? Me dont know. Ask the director. They have to create suspense.

In case of Top Gun, what would the movie goer see? F-14 firing Phoenix Missiles against "MiG28s" and those exploding in 40 miles distance. /Movie. Yay. Movies are entertainment compressed into 2 hrs. You cannot portray realism. Realism is rather boring. In Fact, many veterans say the same about war. Rather dull and boring. With few seconds of sheer terror sprinkled in between. It´s like Rambo4. If youve seen the trailer, youve seen the whole movie..

Yeah colors are a subject of debates mainly due to charts bein lost. And b/w pics can be deceiving. Im no expert on that topic so im open to suggestions. However since i plan on doing several if not all staffeln of jg.26 i sure can pic color variations of. RLM 81 etc as colors did change over time. However i wont be doing very specific models /profiles as resources arent exact enough to my liking. In case of the black 14 i didnt aim to reproduce that particular machine but that specific style for the stabs doras Which innterms of colors alls seem to have a very clean standart "unfrankensteined" look. Franz götzs dora bein the exception. In the end you cant please everyone.

Some more work on the diffuse mape whilest doing research.Amazing what one can find on ebay... Quite happy with the exhaust residue. Just need to do some touch ups and dirty the wing root more. UVW´s are a mess in places... particular area has definately some wonky seams i need to adress... Worked on the leading edge. Again.. seams, but this was the first pass... had to do some copy paste trickery that worked well... i just forgot i need brushes set up with the same values.. More seams and faulty colored areas (stabilizer wingroot) More seams.... ugh... And masks are the default ED ones.. not really touched them! Added more masking variety and more labels / markings. Paint layers have received an initial "scratch" mask, where only the paint chipped of. Subject to be adjusted. More wonky UV´s....it hurts.. An area (MG hood) i have to avoid regarding any detailin.

God that sob cost me so many kills... just formalities... but no...

Bear in mind that monitors and gamma need to be set right. Also, for physical based rendering, colors might vary in perception from what you see because the surrounding. The surrounding color bleeds into the textures color. Eg, if you put a red object next to a grey one, the red object will "tint" the grey object into a pinkish grey. Aside from that, RLM66 -like many other RLM Colors- had variations. Eg:

Nah couldnt source the Crandall and Japo Books, i have a few others, but they dont really seem to cover that part much. But your info is good enough! can fix the camo masks of the wings that way. The colored bottom of the front wing part seems to be bit of dispute aswell.. Seen sources stating its either an interior grey RLM 66 or brown RLM 81 or a darker green, but nothing to put the foot down regarding that matter. Yea the bare metal doesnt pop, as ive just been doing the diffuse map and not touched normal and metalic/roughness map so far. Blocking out things etc.

Some more work. Added few field repair paintovers with various scrap paint as seen in several ref pics. Wont be present in all versions. Merely a library atm. Tweaked some layersand toned down effects. Redone the gun residue. Still not too convincing. Worked on the exhaust residue. Wing section needs matchin as well as this long streched part above the wing root.. Added general paint chipping to the paint layers. Nothing down to bare metal, as this usually indicates hard abuse andn usually occures on specific prominent areas only. Added footprints to the walking areas based on luftwaffe boot soles. Just for giggles, but totally plausible. The leading edge of the wings camo is giving me a headache... if i omit the colored bottom part, theres a paint edge covering the leading edge of the wing... which looks odd... Have to figure out how to fix this best. Seen some german fighters had wavy painted leading edges, which would be tooo hard to recreat in this oldskewl way of texturing. Im no Dora expert, but it appears most had a straight painted leading edge, so my tendency is to push the paint bit up. Gonna have to do some trickery with the Stabschwarm version, as part of the Stab insignia would interfere with the DCS Bortnumber placement. Measure is rather simple tho, even it doesnt result "100% accurate" results: move the Balkenkreuzt toward the tail. That way, the insignia around the Balkenkreuz will have enough roomand the Numbers will work. It appears in general that ED made the "mistake" to place the 2nd digit too close to the balkenkreuz. Ill have to move the balkenkreuz and size it down a tad and also shorten the 2nd Gruppe insignia, so that theres enough space. Not 100% accurate again, but a trade-off. Maybe Devs can fix this in the future. So it should look like: