JayRoo Posted December 11, 2020 Posted December 11, 2020 (edited) Hi everyone. I'm just starting out skinning and would like to put together a roster for CVW-7 from the mid-90's and early 2000's which was aboard CVN-73 in both the Med/Persian Gulf. Also aboard were 2x F-14B's which we already have with Heatblur's Tomcat (VF-143/11) as well as 2x FA-18C (VFA-136/131). The whole purpose is to learn about making liveries while putting together a pack of sorts. I'd like to put together a real group of planes which were all aboard a carrier (CVN-73) and in theater's (Syria/Persian Gulf) we have in the game. Edit ***the following font issue was solved*** Just posting on here to see if anyone has an ID on the font used on the 90's livery. Its an italicized, bold font, with a unique flat topped A and W with raised middle section (same font used on Fuselage, Vertical Stab for USS GW and external tanks apparently) which makes it different that US Navy stencil fonts. I'll keep looking in the meantime, just wondering if anyone has any idea if they've come across navy decals and fonts recently or has any guidance for navy reference sites. Thanks in advance. Nice site for reference pics: VFA-136 Knighthawks Strike Fighter Squadron US Navy (seaforces.org) Edited December 12, 2020 by Strider edited thread title, updated original question 1
JayRoo Posted December 11, 2020 Author Posted December 11, 2020 (edited) Update: using USN Stencil font, I had the idea to type the number “8” in place of “A” in order to get the flat top. Then in photoshop i straightened out the lines and cut out the bottom-middle section and here is the result: Top is the reference photo’s font. Bottom is mine. I will fix the "3" in 136 to make it more narrow like the reference. Edited December 11, 2020 by Strider
fagulha Posted December 11, 2020 Posted December 11, 2020 Awesome work. Keep up. 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: 14th I7 14700KF 5.6ghz | 64GB RAM DDR5 5200 CL40 XMP | Gigabyte RTX 4080 Super Aero OC 16 GB RAM GDDR6X | Thermalright Notte 360 RGB | PSU Thermaltake Though Power GF A3 Snow 1050W ATX 3.0 / 1 WD SN770 1TB M.2 NVME + 1 SSD M.2 2TB + 2x SSD SATA 500GB + 1 Samsung 990 PRO 4TB M.2 NVME (DCS only) | Valve Index| Andre´s JeatSeat.
JayRoo Posted December 12, 2020 Author Posted December 12, 2020 (edited) 2 hours ago, fagulha said: Awesome work. Keep up. Thanks fagulha. Appreciate the encouragement. I'm going to have to change the title of this thread because it is no longer a question about fonts. I'll just change it to be a gallery of the CVW-7 project. Here's the progress on the exterior of the VFA-136 (1994-1996) livery. *Click to expand pictures* Edited December 12, 2020 by Strider
fagulha Posted December 12, 2020 Posted December 12, 2020 Thank you for the pics! i´ll pay attention to this thread great job. Best regards, F. 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: 14th I7 14700KF 5.6ghz | 64GB RAM DDR5 5200 CL40 XMP | Gigabyte RTX 4080 Super Aero OC 16 GB RAM GDDR6X | Thermalright Notte 360 RGB | PSU Thermaltake Though Power GF A3 Snow 1050W ATX 3.0 / 1 WD SN770 1TB M.2 NVME + 1 SSD M.2 2TB + 2x SSD SATA 500GB + 1 Samsung 990 PRO 4TB M.2 NVME (DCS only) | Valve Index| Andre´s JeatSeat.
JayRoo Posted December 14, 2020 Author Posted December 14, 2020 ***Minor Update*** Fixed some text on the tail and external tanks to match the reference pictures. The font I was using has different A's and G's which can be found in GEORGE WASHINGTON & KNIGHTHAWKS. You can see this on the picture above compared to the new (pointed A compared to flat-topped A. And G with cross line extending out passed its basic C shape.) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I think I am finally done with the outside and can move on to learning how to italicize the side numbers and work on the pilot (uniform, patches, helmet).
JayRoo Posted December 18, 2020 Author Posted December 18, 2020 (edited) Minor Update 12/18/20 I was unable to skew the side numbers enough to make them fit within the parameters that dcs sets on the side number file. The problem was when I skewed the numbers they would become too wide and would clip. The numbers on the nose of the real aircraft are quite large so it would be unrealistic to shrink them down to fit so I will end up having to create a pack file with individual tail numbers and place the numbers on the skin itself. I tried my best to make it so the player could select any number they wanted but I might as well have a seperate file in the pack which uses default non-skewed DCS numbers so people can put their favorite number or squadron number or whatever they want. Above is the clipping I was referring to with the custom numbers. Below are examples of the numbers being removed from the game and having them painted on the body: ***Now to get grinding out the 301-312 aircraft. 300 CAG will come later. I will probably release the pack in groups of 4 so people dont have to download 12 different aircraft if they only want to use 4 or 8 numbers*** Edited December 18, 2020 by Strider added picture with 302 + 301
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