F14 Skinners thread (Paintkit in 1st post)

[Swordsman422]

Vallejo's 237 is notoriously too blue for the official chip. Mission Models makes it too purple. Model Master enamel was almost dead on, if a bit too matt, but Model Master got shuttered last year. I'm hoping Ammo by Mig is close enough.

 

You wanna take a real deep dive, have a go...

https://www.sae.org/standardsdev/colorchips/#:~:text=AMS-STD-595 defines a,available to conduct these activities.

 

Bear in mind that the color procurement process changed as recently as 2017, leading to this being a thing...

This is 375 before and after the procurement change. 

And for the curious, the pigment recipes for the 595B procurement period, which began in FY90:

Edited December 3, 2021 by Swordsman422

[LanceCriminal86]

Dude, Rick and I went through that on the 1991 VF-31 skins he did. It's clearly not just Light Gull, or just Light or Dark Ghost. Some of the photos from the Lock On book clearly show that the jets were a strange patchwork of the two. I'm trying to do some VF-11 to go with them and at least one VF-11 jet was that way, the tails are clearly Light Gull but lots of the rest of the jet forwards are light or maybe dark ghost-ish. And there's so few photos of those jets that all we have to go on are scans of a book, which weren't great and in themselves messed with the colors.

You've also got VF-41 that went totally Medium Gray in 1999 timeframe, where some sources said Dark Ghost. Why? Because reasons. I've also got some photos of VF-201's last 101 jet that really looked like it was overall dark ghost, but I'm undecided if I'm going to go that way on the skin or not. Sometimes it's almost impossible to pick out the TPS pattern.

There are some good values out there to use, I think it's smart to sort of standardize on a value and then adjust some saturation/brightness values here and there to add those variations but try to stay near a central tone. Adding some corrosion control and fading also helps.

[Swordsman422]

5 minutes ago, LanceCriminal86 said:

You've also got VF-41 that went totally Medium Gray in 1999 timeframe, where some sources said Dark Ghost. Why? Because reasons.

Darker colors show skin fatigue and dirt bleed less, and it cuts down on both maintenance and paint costs. This is why the USMC Harrier fleet started going all gunship grey in 2010.

[LanceCriminal86]

Also, I've been using the old Simmer's Paintshop values minus about 10% brightness for all my skins, and I've turned off the "final adjustment" layers in the template. I think to me those values looked pretty good in balancing between some of the photos I have seen of more modern jets and the older photos/slide scans.

Some of the samples of Light Ghost hex values seemed to have it with almost a red/purple hue, which in some photos seems to look right, but not in older 80s/90s ones.

https://web.archive.org/web/20060719170212/http://www.simmerspaintshop.com/colours/fs595b-3000.html

 

[Swordsman422]

1 minute ago, LanceCriminal86 said:

Some of the samples of Light Ghost hex values seemed to have it with almost a red/purple hue, which in some photos seems to look right, but not in older 80s/90s ones.

 

Unsurprising, since the actual pigment recipes changed in 1989/1990, and changed again just four years ago.

I've just reached the point of "eh, looks close enough" when it comes to my skins, which is both a lazy attitude and why I haven't released anything in *checks calendar* quite a few months.

[LanceCriminal86]

2 minutes ago, Swordsman422 said:

Unsurprising, since the actual pigment recipes changed in 1989/1990, and changed again just four years ago.

I've just reached the point of "eh, looks close enough" when it comes to my skins, which is both a lazy attitude and why I haven't released anything in *checks calendar* quite a few months.

Technically I've only released one skin and it's super out of date. My problem is the opposite on the perfectionist spectrum where I want to just release them once and be done, so waiting for some of the deeper texture/model fixes, and the right helmets, etc.

But hey, at least I got some VF-11 skins done, I do need to get one more MODEX in for 1988 and make a nice weathering/unique detail pass on each. Might try to improve the helmets too, still not 100% happy with the lines. It's not easy doing that pattern the way the helmet was unwrapped but miles better than the Hornet helmet.

[captain_dalan]

On 12/2/2021 at 11:20 PM, Swordsman422 said:

Photos are great for detail references, but not so great for colors. Lighting conditions, exposure time, and many other factors can affect the true colors. The absolute best thing to do is actually get color swatches or paint codes for the colors required.  According to Geoff at Furball AeroDesign, the VF-213 rudder is FS35183 Medium Blue.

 

That does look rather close to the photos. Did it change over time?

[Swordsman422]

1 hour ago, captain_dalan said:

Did it change over time?

 

Far as I know, it was consistent by the label until ~1993 when VF-213's livery moved away from the constellation rudder. The retro jet seen for the last cruise used a custom paint mix that doesn't match any fed standard paint chip.

[captain_dalan]

6 hours ago, Swordsman422 said:

 

Far as I know, it was consistent by the label until ~1993 when VF-213's livery moved away from the constellation rudder. The retro jet seen for the last cruise used a custom paint mix that doesn't match any fed standard paint chip.

Thanks for the info! 

[Uxi]

On 12/2/2021 at 8:54 PM, Swordsman422 said:

I've just reached the point of "eh, looks close enough" when it comes to my skins, which is both a lazy attitude and why I haven't released anything in *checks calendar* quite a few months.

I wish you were there for the VF-84 release. 

[Nealius]

I go by the "looks close enough" for my model kits as well. People will always nitpick about something in the end, even if you do everything right. 

[Blinde]

I made a low vis skin for the A from HB stock VF-102 skin for the B.

I believe this was used from early 90's to later until they switched to F-14B.

Edited December 7, 2021 by Blinde

[Cpt. Weber]

A little update, I made your liveries work for me @isoko, as some suggested, I saved the textures in paint.net (BC7, Linear, DX 11+, generate mipmaps - super sampling options), no jaggies anymore. I did this for some of the older ones as well, I can enjoy this eye candy now. These are really pieces of art, you're a genius @isoko

(I know it's a different bird and a different time, but still, that weathering...).

[_YaeSakura_]

https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3319740/

VF-2 Bounty Hunters from Operation Frequent Wind are now up for download. Hopefully no hiccups this time around.

[Tomcatter87]

 

What do you guys say? Color looking better? I also corrected the blue parts on the ventral fins and messed with the roughmet. 

[McKronenberg]

The First Version of the livery pack is done enjoy 

https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/de/files/3319743/

 

Edited December 10, 2021 by McKronenberg

[BlackLibrary]

Thanks soooo much

[captain_dalan]

On 12/9/2021 at 2:30 PM, Tomcatter87 said:

 

What do you guys say? Color looking better? I also corrected the blue parts on the ventral fins and messed with the roughmet. 

Looks much closer now! When is this bad boy coming out? Can't wait to get him on the Hoover Dam run! 

[Nealius]

I'm in love with the overall gull gray jets with the massive US roundel on the fuselage. Personally I've got a thing for the minimalist VF-41 birds. Small spade with a little red slash through it. Hnnnng.

[RaisedByWolves]

On 12/10/2021 at 5:48 AM, McKronenberg said:

The First Version of the livery pack is done enjoy 

https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/de/files/3319743/

 

 

These are great. Thank You!

[Bremspropeller]

On 12/9/2021 at 2:30 PM, Tomcatter87 said:

What do you guys say? Color looking better? I also corrected the blue parts on the ventral fins and messed with the roughmet. 

Looks awesome! Are you planning to do more BuNos in that livery?

[Tomcatter87]

2 hours ago, Bremspropeller said:

Looks awesome! Are you planning to do more BuNos in that livery?

Not for now. But I know theres a bird with a funny "pacman" symbol next to the RIOs name from that cruise. I dont know what modex/buno that one had. 

[captain_dalan]

6 hours ago, Tomcatter87 said:

Not for now. But I know theres a bird with a funny "pacman" symbol next to the RIOs name from that cruise. I dont know what modex/buno that one had. 

Have the user files been updated with the new version or are you planning on releasing it as a separate download? 

[Gunslinger22]

Not sure if I'm quite there yet, but continuing work back on some dirty VF-2 birds:

 

[yewls]

17 hours ago, Gunslinger22 said:

Not sure if I'm quite there yet, but continuing work back on some dirty VF-2 birds:

 

holy roughmet that looks awesome!