VFA-204 River Rattlers c.2008 Birds Inbound (CoNA, CAg, XO and Line)

[Bananimal]

So, I know some of you have been waiting on these. I dove in last night at about 10:30 and just wrapped up the CoNA bird. My god! This thing is slick.

 

I was fighting with the color for a while. Started off by sampling some of the other CoNA repaints here to get a start and just could not get the blue to come through in the sun like it should. After about and hour of testing, I decided to pull the blue from one of the VMFA-321 XO birds in the pack I just released. And let me tell you what, it looks great on it. Perfecto!

 

The CO of this bird, CDR. Reilly has an F/A-18 Hornet 4000 Hours patch on his left shoulder in one of the pics I have. For the life of me I could not find that exact patch anywhere. So, I had to create it. By far, that was the hardest part about painting this one. Go figure huh? LOL!

 

There is a warning stencil on the dorsal of the aircraft I could not read, therefore did not put it on the aircraft. I wanted to and still do. If anyone knows what it says, that would be great. There are two more midway down the no-slip walk I could see in the pictures I have, but there's no telling what they are. Other than that, this bird is dead nuts on, fellas. It looks good in motion. Can't wait to release it to you all, but you're gonna have to wait. I've got two more relatively tough one's to do and then the line birds. Those will be easy, peasy!:thumbup:

 

UPDATE: Packs are completed and uploaded. You can download them here:

 

DOWNLOAD - VFA-204 "River Rattlers" CoNA, CAG, XO, and Line (c.2006-2009)

DOWNLOAD - VFA-204 "River Rattlers" CAG and Line (c.1993-1996)

Edited November 8, 2018 by Bananimal

[Eight Ball]

Gorgeous! Love your skins, keep'em coming

[DonJosh]

wow stunning!

[ST0RM]

Excellent!

 

Thanks for taking this on.

[uscstaylor]

:thumbup:

[Bananimal]

The second aircraft of this pack is just about done. It's the XO bird 401 circa 2006. There will be three variations of 401. This one, 2007 and 2008.

 

All tail art is 100% hand drawn. Learned a few new tricks in Photoshop that allowed me to do it. I'm still tweaking colors but it's getting pretty close. :D

Edited November 4, 2018 by Bananimal

[uscstaylor]

Looks great B

[Bananimal]

Got it weathered up properly now. Also created the correct air brake graphic with correct colors. Will be starting the next two this evening.

[Ala12Rv-watermanpc]

Beautiful work man!!, you put some quality work in your skins, congrats and thanks!! ;)

[TigersharkBAS]

Love your work man

[Bananimal]

Love yours too man, and thanks!

 

Here's a few shots of the weathered version of XO 401 in three flavors. 400, the CAG I just finished yesterday. There are three different air brake graphics on these. The Air Brake on the Aggressor packs will be updated accordingly once this pack is released. I've got two more, possible three CAGs to do and then the line grey and black schemes will follow.:thumbup:

 

I'm having a hard time discerning whether the CAG I just completed is black or dark blue trim. It's too difficult to tell. Every picture I have looks black or either very, very dark blue. I just can't tell. If anyone knows. please let me know.

Edited November 4, 2018 by Bananimal

[Bananimal]

Here's a few shots of the different aft ends I've done so far and a few shot's of XO 401 2007.

Edited November 4, 2018 by Bananimal

[TigersharkBAS]

Excellent work. Is the rattle snake around the bomb hand drawn?

[Bananimal]

Excellent work. Is the rattle snake around the bomb hand drawn?

 

The big one is, yes. The small snake came from a PNG someone posted in one of my earlier 204 camo threads. Saved me some time. I did have to correct the colors on it.:thumbup: The air brakes are mostly hand drawn. I found one image I was able to use as a base for 401. Took me about 2 hours to get the perspective corrected and then I had to rework the entire thing once I got it laid down. Getting decent pics of the air brakes is tough. They're are very few of them and they are all at an angle with either glare or shadow across them and the graphics are curved up and down across the surface of the brake. I got them as close as I could.

Edited October 15, 2018 by Bananimal

[Bananimal]

Waterman.....The way I see it is, I have a small fortune invested in this sim and I'll be damned if I'm going to fly halfway decent looking planes in it. I do find it difficult to make a grey bird convincing. The only thing I have to work with are the decals and proper colors. Getting the decals scaled, colored and placed correctly is all I've got to convince the eye that what it is looking at is realistic. So I spend the extra time on it. I think the mistake most people make is not getting the too dark grey default base corrected and they crank the dirt up to 100%. They also leave the panel lines at 100%. 90% of the skins I've downloaded are like this. If the skin is relatively new or slightly worn, reducing the intensity of the panel lines goes a long way in increasing the realism. BTW, thanks for the comment and thanks for your M2000 sounds. They sound killer.

Edited October 17, 2018 by Bananimal

[TigersharkBAS]

I just wonder where you get the time man.

[Bananimal]

Honestly, I'm cranking on all the F/A-18 skins so hard because the F-14 is coming. I want to get a bunch of F-14s done when it is released. I'm on a crunch to get all the F-18s I want to paint into the sim ASAP. I haven't been flying the sim too much recently, but instead painting my butt off.

 

I'm not a fan of TV nor do I have any other responsibilities keeping me from Photoshop at the moment. So, paint away I will. :-)

Edited October 17, 2018 by Bananimal

[TigersharkBAS]

Tigershark pondered this statement.....

 

nor do I have any other responsibilities keeping me from Photoshop at the moment.

 

breaks down sobbing in giant man tears

 

Can we life swap?

[Bananimal]

If you want to work 9-10 hours a day, then come home and paint for 8 hours a night and 16 on the weekends, have at it. I get to keep my wife though. And my kids! LOL

[Bananimal]

Got one of the bonus birds done. I have one more CAG to do and then I'll move on to the line birds. I think I'm going to do circa 1996 and 2006-08 for the line birds. I'll have to see. So, 4 XO schemes, 4 CAG schemes and the CoNA will be in this pack. The line greys will be another pack.

 

Tell you what, the stars on this bonus bird were a PITA. There are orange shadows on 5 sides of each star. It was not possible to stretch the shadow star in a way that would work. I had to cut the stars up and place each shadow individually. As such, I'll be migrating these stars to the other ones I've painted thus far because they are the correct size with the correct shadowing. The things you learn as you go I tell ya!:doh:

 

Also, although the small snake tail art on this one looks the same at first glance as the others, it's not. Different colors and it's rotated more forward.

 

I've got some pics of Charlie model 204 birds I may do later. I'll have to see. They're nothing special.

Edited November 4, 2018 by Bananimal

[TigersharkBAS]

Nice work as usual my man.

[Bananimal]

Thanks. They're coming along quickly now. I finished these two tonight.

 

The CAG with the orange trim shown below did in fact exist. I only had two tail pictures of it, so I estimated the year on this one to be 1995 based on the markings of other aircraft parked next to it in the hanger. Was too unique not to include it in the pack.

Edited November 4, 2018 by Bananimal

[USSInchon]

Man, getting closer to my time at NBG...absolutely love it. Now we just need a RIVER callsign in DCS and it will be perfect.

[Bananimal]

I'll be adding a little more weathering on most of these. They look a little too clean.

[Bananimal]

Man, getting closer to my time at NBG...absolutely love it. Now we just need a RIVER callsign in DCS and it will be perfect.

 

When you were there did they look like these? I'm trying to determine what year these were. I suspect '94 - '96?

Edited November 4, 2018 by Bananimal