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VFA-106 Gladiators Inbound


Bananimal

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I’m sure we’d all love an earlier release but I’d go for doing those stencils up properly! I wish we could get a D model in the game even just as an AI since there are so many great liveries for it like the Bengals, Vikings, etc. I for one have stayed away from using/making any skins for D’s or B’s since I’m already crazy enough to get bothered by having to pretend the Charlie is an Alpha Hornet, but it’s totally up to you.

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I circled back around to the 30 year anniversary bird. The gold, or lack thereof, was bugging me. As was the grey slat leading edge. So I dove into the roughmets today and added the bling. The gold now shines metallic as do the slat leading edges when the sun hits them as they should. This is by far my favorite F-18 that I've painted to date.

 

I'm going to be rechecking the stenciling now. I think I need to recreate the warning decals on the cockpit. Other than that, this one is almost completely done. :thumbup:

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I’m sure we’d all love an earlier release but I’d go for doing those stencils up properly! I wish we could get a D model in the game even just as an AI since there are so many great liveries for it like the Bengals, Vikings, etc. I for one have stayed away from using/making any skins for D’s or B’s since I’m already crazy enough to get bothered by having to pretend the Charlie is an Alpha Hornet, but it’s totally up to you.

 

 

 

 

Well I did just fine this picture as of this weekend.....224 is hurting so bad for hornets that they have some Charlies it looks....

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I circled back around to the 30 year anniversary bird. The gold, or lack thereof, was bugging me. As was the grey slat leading edge. So I dove into the roughmets today and added the bling. The gold now shines metallic as do the slat leading edges when the sun hits them as they should. This is by far my favorite F-18 that I've painted to date.

 

I'm going to be rechecking the stenciling now. I think I need to recreate the warning decals on the cockpit. Other than that, this one is almost completely done. :thumbup:

 

 

 

 

wow this is awesome! love your eye for details. thank you :thumbup: can wait for your tomcat skins

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And the last of this batch, 2014. Next will be 2016-2018.

 

Very nice work :thumbup:

What do you think how long do you need for the release?

Are there news for us?


Edited by Cobra
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Hi Cobra,

 

I'm hoping to have them done in a week or two. Had more severe weather roll through first thing this morning and also spent the last three days trying to configure my Virpil setup I just bought. I did manage to finish the last XO bird c.2016. I have to do a few GAGs, then I'm doing a Mig-29 Camo VFA-106 that was a A model. It's such rare of a scheme for 106, I cannot pass up doing it even though it is an A model. All of my VFA-204, 321 and 451 birds were A models. I see no reason not to include the 106 camo bird. For the purists out there, simply don't install it if it bugs you.

 

Anyway, they will be done when they are done. Like I said, hopefully a week or two. It depends on what I find that I need to correct and how much more severe weather we have to contend with where I live. Tuesday is another round of severe storms that may produce tornadoes in my area. Sucks!


Edited by Bananimal

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Hi Cobra,

 

I'm hoping to have them done in a week or two. Had more severe weather roll through first thing this morning and also spent the last three days trying to configure my Virpil setup I just bought. I did manage to finish the last XO bird c.2016. I have to do a few GAGs, then I'm doing a Mig-29 Camo VFA-106 that was a A model. It's such rare of a scheme for 106, I cannot pass up doing it even though it is an A model. All of my VFA-204, 321 and 451 birds were A models. I see no reason not to include the 106 camo bird. For the purists out there, simply don't install it if it bugs you.

 

Anyway, they will be done when they are done. Like I said, hopefully a week or two. It depends on what I find that I need to correct and how much more severe weather we have to contend with where I live. Tuesday is another round of severe storms that may produce tornadoes in my area. Sucks!

 

Ok, thanks for the fast reply. Take all the time you need.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Hi Cobra,

 

I'm hoping to have them done in a week or two. Had more severe weather roll through first thing this morning and also spent the last three days trying to configure my Virpil setup I just bought. I did manage to finish the last XO bird c.2016. I have to do a few GAGs, then I'm doing a Mig-29 Camo VFA-106 that was a A model. It's such rare of a scheme for 106, I cannot pass up doing it even though it is an A model. All of my VFA-204, 321 and 451 birds were A models. I see no reason not to include the 106 camo bird. For the purists out there, simply don't install it if it bugs you.

 

Anyway, they will be done when they are done. Like I said, hopefully a week or two. It depends on what I find that I need to correct and how much more severe weather we have to contend with where I live. Tuesday is another round of severe storms that may produce tornadoes in my area. Sucks!

 

you referring to the grey camo bird? 106 also had the green camo bird from VFA-125 briefly before it was repainted

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Yeah,the grey one. If there is a green one, please share pics if you have any.

 

STATUS: This weekend past saw no painting. We had severe weather from Thursday through Sunday morning. Then, my 2.5 year old Samsung 65" curved 4K TV decided to start failing. Couldn't paint due to the red and green pixels failing causing blue splotches all over the screen. Last time I'll buy a Samsung. Had to go out and buy a new TV. What a freaking week. Good news is, the new screen has better blacks and color over all. I'll probably jump back into painting tomorrow.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Hi folks,

 

Sorry for the lack of posts. Personal things have stolen my time yet again. I have manged to make some progress though. Finished the 2016 CAG bird and the first 2004 line bird.

 

I will say that sometimes, stepping away has its advantages. You see things that you didn't see before and can address them. I've been taking my time on these two because these two are going to be the templates for all the others that I will be paining. I've learned to not make mistakes and then duplicate them, because instead of fixing one problem, I now have twenty to fix if I duplicate the mistakes without catching them first. So, as I approach the "template makers" as I'll refer to them, I'm taking my time to get them right.

 

One thing I need to address on the line bird is the height of the VFA-106 font. It must match the height of the font on the tank. Close, but not there yet. Once that is done, I will be duplicating off of these two to bring the rest of the aircraft into the pack. That should go relatively quick. Relatively quick being the operative there.

 

Still haven't started the camo bird. That will be last.

 

Note the color of the tail emblem on the 300 bird. In most pictures it looks black most of the time as in real life, but it is actually blue. You can see it depending on the angle. I tried to capture that as best I can. I think I did good. Dark blues are really funny in the DCS lighting engine. But if you look at real pics, you see these dark blues behave the same. The rear shot of the 300 aircraft cocked to one side should show you what I'm speaking to. And yes, the decals are 100% created from scratch.

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Edited by Bananimal

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I´m eager for this liveries! Thank in advance for your time and work.

F.

 - "Don't be John Wayne in the Break if you´re going to be Jerry Lewis on the Ball".

About carrier ops: "The younger pilots are still quite capable of holding their heads forward against the forces. The older ones have been doing this too long and know better; sore necks make for poor sleep.'

 

PC: I7 4790K 4.6ghz | 32GB RAM | Zotac GTX 1080Ti 11Gb DDR5x | Water cooler NZXT AIO Kraken x53 | 3.5TB (x4 SSD´s) | Valve Index| Andre´s JeatSeat.

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Just a quick update. I've finished all of the line birds. Twelve of them. I did make some color adjustments on the line bird decals. They seemed too dark with not enough blue in them. Fixed that.

 

I'm currently working on the camo bird. It's going to take a few days. The Mig-29 scheme is probably the most difficult scheme to do other than a digital camo. It's coming along very nicely though. Patience yields perfection. I'll post some pics later.

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Just a quick update. I've finished all of the line birds. Twelve of them. I did make some color adjustments on the line bird decals. They seemed too dark with not enough blue in them. Fixed that.

 

I'm currently working on the camo bird. It's going to take a few days. The Mig-29 scheme is probably the most difficult scheme to do other than a digital camo. It's coming along very nicely though. Patience yields perfection. I'll post some pics later.

 

Thank you and keep up! :)

 - "Don't be John Wayne in the Break if you´re going to be Jerry Lewis on the Ball".

About carrier ops: "The younger pilots are still quite capable of holding their heads forward against the forces. The older ones have been doing this too long and know better; sore necks make for poor sleep.'

 

PC: I7 4790K 4.6ghz | 32GB RAM | Zotac GTX 1080Ti 11Gb DDR5x | Water cooler NZXT AIO Kraken x53 | 3.5TB (x4 SSD´s) | Valve Index| Andre´s JeatSeat.

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Saints alive, fellas! I spent from 7:00 AM - 10:00 PM today hammering on this last skin. All I got done today was the aft belly, the vertical stabs and I am starting to piece the top of the aircraft together. I still have the wing tops and bottoms and the horizontal stabs to do. Then, hinges and other parts that receive camo/colors.

 

I used a smaller (25) soft edge brush on this one. What I found is, it takes more time to line up the camo and curves in the camo. A bigger brush tends to smooth things out a bit better, where the smaller brush picks up all small hand movements and requires lots of extra touch ups.

 

The other thing I'm finding with this skin is that when i paint what I see in the pictures, it doesn't necessarily look right on the aircraft in Model Viewer. Lots of back and forth on this one, but it is coming along. I think I have about 65-70 hours into this one so far. Here's a sneak peak!

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The patterns are similar for sure. This one was a three color scheme. Oddly enough. The underside of the wings are two-tone which has me wondering how much medium gray is really on the underbelly. The pics I have show it wrapping underneath. But, I have no pics of the underbelly, so I improvised. Wondering if it is going to look weird with three-tone on the belly and two-tone under the wings. You see all kinds of weird stuff when you paint these things.

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