BoNidle

Three re-release uploaded to User Files. At the time of writing they are awaiting admin clearance but should hopefully be available soon: "Beauteous Butch II" "Jolley Roger" Major James Jabara's last Sabre Still working my way through my previous work and then hopefully get on to some fresh ones. Cheers, Bo.

Thanks lads. I will be re-releasing other Sabres over the coming weeks, hopefully with some new ones too. @Skulleader: Due to the new graphics engine the natural metal effect is not that hard to achieve now. I do not know how experienced in the skinning game you are so excuse me if I tell you what you already know. The first thing you need is the excellent template by Skatezilla, without which none of this would be possible, (all Hail Skatezilla!) which is a PSD file and layered. The layering function is the most important thing needed in a template. You also need a graphics program that works in layers. I use Paint Shop Pro X5 and an old version of Photoshop (Version 7). (I know some people use Gimp but i have never used it so I am unable to offer advice regarding its use) The layers allow different aspects such as noseart to be added without interfering with other detail and also allows the art to be positioned beneath things like panel lines and weathering. The crucial final metal effect is provided by the SPEC layer that I create following the guide you linked to. The most useful part of the post is Robos instructions in point 4. That is what taught me to do it. To get a silver-grey effect to the metal ensure that the base colour is grey, adjust brightness and contrast to taste, which sounds obvious but any hint of blue in the colour I have found gets exaggerated by the graphics engine and the aircraft comes out looking a metallic blue colour. Also you could try creating a layer of pure white to the top layer of your template and then reduce it to 50 and set the Blend Mode for that layer to "Multiply". The white will appear to vanish but I have found that this helps to give the desired reflective effect for metal when you use the eventual saved jpeg to create the SPEC layer at the end of the process. But I should emphasise that I am as much an amateur at this as the rest of us on here. I have just spent a LOT of time refining results through trial and error over the years. I hope this has helped. Cheers, Bo.

Just uploaded new versions of these two old favourites to User Files. They are intended for use in for DCS World 1.5 making use of the new graphics engine that finally gives a good natural metal finish. Should be up soon.

One of the things that has always bugged me about the DCS Sabre is the shape of the default USAF roundel insignia decal. They are incorrectly proportioned with the "bars" being far too long. (The colours are wrong too). So in an effort to assist fellow skinners here is an illustration that should clarify the correct proportions (and colours) to assist in creating your own.

With the release of DCS World OpenBeta I am trying to re-do (for about the 7th time) my previous Sabres and get some new ones out too. This is the result of my efforts so far taking advantage of the new graphics engine. I do not want to go too polished but at the same time I do not want to lose the nice effects the new engine provides by going too worn. I still feel its a bit too polished but its still a work in progress. (Tanks haven't been matched yet). Any opinions, constructive criticism welcomed. I hope to start re-releasing in the next few days. (Forgot to credit Skatezilla for his excellent template. Thanks mate, its appreciated.)

After a bit of an absence I am going to be returning with some upgraded old skins and hopefully a few new ones. To be honest the constant upgrading wore me down after a while hence the break. Anyway I hope to re-release the first soon which will be "The Huff" (what else?). I am trying a different finish and have reduced the number of tail checks as I had done too many and they were too small. Hope to roll this out in a few days. Thanks to Skatezilla for his perseverance with the template.

Thirded! I've paused my skinning activities until its arrival,...but its well overdue now. Come on Belsimtek, pull your finger out please!

Does anyone have an .lua for the Mig-15 as a I am attempting to skin it but the .lua still mystifies me!! Any assistance greatly appreciated, thanks.

I thought I'd give the Korean War mud-movers a bit of attention: "Dennis the Menace" and "Mig Poison", both of the 67th Fighter Bomber Squadron, 18th Fighter Bomber Wing, uploaded just now to DCS User Files and www.lockonfiles.com. I have included a generic livery with both.

Check out the replacement panels/cockpits in the RCAF Sabre skins by Jocko417 in the User Files section. He has created some excellent ones. Some have black panels or entire black cockpits. Transfer the files where you want and update the description file. They can be seen in the F-86F combined liveries thread in the Mods and Apps section of the forums.

Hey up CrazyEddie, I have been looking at the Mig15 too...but I have always been a Sabre fan so it keeps drawing me back. I assume you know that you have to create a SPEC .dds layer unique to each skin? It is this layer that dictates the shine. The lighter the colour on the skin the shinier it becomes. ie: white = very shiney, black not shiney. I don't know what program you are using to create the skins. I use a combination of Paint Shop Pro X5 and Photoshop. PSP X5 is the main one I use as it is relatively simple and easy to learn. (I learned to skin in "IL2:46" on earlier versions of PSP so I've stayed with it) I mainly use Photoshop for the creation of SPEC layers. This link is to the ED forum page where entry four by Robo gives an excellent tutorial on the creation of spec layers: http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=88855 PM me if you wish to send me the skin jpeg and I could create a standard SPEC layer for it and return that to you. (It would be best without any unique insignia such as noseart or BORT numbers). They take about two minutes to create. It would at least give you a standard spec layer until you learn the technique. Downside is that the whole skin will have the same shine value. But knowing how to do them yourself is the best long term solution, obviously. Let me know. Bo (And I haven't put in any stick time in over a month either!!!:smilewink:)

Its gone very quiet on here recently? Well here's my latest effort "Dennis the Menace" of the 67th Fighter Bomber Squadron. It should be up soon.

Having just created the livery for a Korean War era F-86F Sabre called "Dennis the Menace" I took this screenshot of it. I liked it so I gave it an "aviation art" look border.

That appears to be an earlier release of "The HUFF" which is intefered with by the 1.2.10 update. Download the latest release of "The HUFF" (Version 1.6) and that decal error should be gone. It should be available at DCS User Files within the next couple of days.

I have reloaded the corrected skins (all of them!!) to DCS User Files and they should be up in the next couple of days. New versions of previous releases are marked as Version 1.6.:thumbup:

Found it!!!! For some reason (no doubt an error in the beginning by me) that area had been totally greyed out on the base layer of the template. It is the the turbine at the front of the engine and is located it the bottom right. I have updated all my previous skins and will have to re-release them (again!!!!). Thanks a lot mate. :)

Do you mean the intake? I have been meaning to sort that out for a while. I remembered to do the panel behind the cooling air intake on top of the fuselage just before the red stripe that was dark, but kept forgetting that bit! Blame it on my advanced age. Its now sorted as you can see: Thanks for catching it, I always welcome constructive comments. :)

"Jolley Roger" 4thFW 335thFS, uploaded to the usual places.

Happy to help old boy! One good turn and all that. :thumbup:

I saved my custom helmet texture as a .dds and use this line in the .lua {"pilot_P51_helmet_A", 0 ,"pilot_p51_helmet_A_white",false}, the "white" part is my own descriptive word as I have been experimenting with red and yellow helmets also. Check out one of my downloads as they are all updated with the new helmet textures. Hope this helps mate. Bo

Should have "Little Rita" uploaded tomorrow. Eliminated the red dot on the nose wheel, painted the pilots helmet white so it appears a little more like a Korean war era Sabre pilots even if its isn't the right type, and tried out my latest attempt at a NMF. The SPEC layer is more reflective than I'd like but if its lowered Nmf becomes grey paint in appearance so its a compromise. I have also corrected several small but glaring paint errors in my previous efforts. So look out for new updates to my previous releases. (These will be Version 1.5 and hopefull the final updates on them as its getting a little tedious!!!!) "Little Rita"

Jeeez!!!:doh::doh::doh::doh::doh: As soon as I read that I realised what a :censored: I'd been!!!!! Thanks mate that was driving me nuts!!!:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

A question chaps: Can anyone advise me as to how to get the .lua to recognise the front gear repaint I have done please? The .dds is called "f-86f_gear" Its a very simple one. I have just painted over the red dot. I have saved it as a jpeg like the main skin and droptanks and added the entry: {"F-86_GEAR", 0,"f-86f_gear", false}, but it will not show. It shows in the model viewer as I replaced the default .dds with mine in the temporary textures folder (backed up the original into another folder). But jpeg or .dds in my own skin folder its a no show. Any help would be appreciated.

In response to a request here is "Mikes Bird" of the 51stFW, 39thFS, uploaded to http://www.lockonfiles.com and soon at DCS User files.

All my stuff is now updated to fix the markings layer the update added and re-uploaded to www.lockonfiles.com and will be up at DCS User files soon. (I knew the updates would create issues but its still a pain in the bum!) Hopefully I can get on with some new ones now as I feel like I've stalled!!!! By the way does anyone know where the P-51 pilot .dds used by the F-86 is located as I want to paint the helmet?