Megalax

Downthrust. Looks a bit exaggerated though. To give my 2 cents on the OP's question: The high back hooded XIV. The Bubbletop FR. XIV wasn't present during Normandy.

If you have 100% black you will have transparency. If you have 100% white you will have full matte sheen. Anything between those 2 limits is where you want elements of your alpha layer to be. So yes, if you want something to be more matte than your base, you go darker. If you want something to be shinier, you make it lighter. If in the superimposing game you play with your layers you achieve either 100% black or 100% white you will have have either transparency or complete matte.

While your layer on it's own may not be 100% black, the fact that you are playing with opacity means that the compounding or adding of the layers above and below it may end up being 100% black. Pure black causes transparency. Remember that the point is to have no pure colors in the overall alpha layer. So basically your layer for your spinner and your artwork is not 100% black, but due to working it's opacity, if you superimpose a 60% black on a 40% black layer you will end up with 100% black in that area. The end goal is to have your other layers be either more or less black/white than the base layers. Your base is a starting point.

Take your layer and lock the opacity. That's the square next to the word 'Lock' in your layer window. Go to the foreground/background color selector and reset it so it has pure black and pure white. Bucket fill with white or black. It should turn everything in your layer to what you bucket filled with.

Yes I create the 2 base layers I need to set the base sheen. You'll want to get rid of all the color layers, so no need for the RLM layers you have, as you will be working on the sheen of the whole aircraft and not it's color sections.

I don't normally dabble in the Luftwaffles but this is good stuff.

I use opacity. I don't touch the tools from the drop down menu, assuming you are using GIMP. So no, I don't use Levels or Curves. I work with the opacity of either black or white layers over my base black and white layers to get what I want. I just have to be careful of how I superimpose the opacity of each layer so I don't end up with pure black or pure white. Here is my latest spitfire Alpha to illustrate: The main painted surface is set to a matte sheen by having my black base layer set to 67%. Everything else is either set to white or black and the opacity is adjusted to get more or less gloss. The leaks are set to be glossy, and the worn areas in the weathering layers are set to be more matte. So fluids will be shiny and dirt will be flat. The skin will look like this The overall sheen is a semi-gloss/semi-flat. Just a nice middle ground. All the dirty surfaces are flatter (darker on the alpha) and reflect less light than the surrounding overall skin. All the fluids and other shiny surfaces like lights were set lighter than the base to ensure they reflected more light. I do the same with NMF skins, but I start with a lighter base coat: Now the dirt is also darker, to reflect less light, and the fluids are lighter to reflect more, while still maintaining that less than pure black or pure white balance. And the resulting skin: I do it this way because I'm lazy. Some would prefer to call it efficient, but no, its pure laziness. I have no patience to learn all the tools in GIMP or photoshop or Paint.net or any other program, so I find the simplest way to do it. I'm sure that if I took the time to learn all the tools my skinning would be completely amazing, but I just keep it as simple and as enjoyable as I can make it for me.

Certainly. This originally was just a Mk. IX thread, I thought it would be silly to make a separate thread for the Vb's. I will update the posts. PS...never met a Brit that didnt know his Spit marks. 😋

The easiest way I find is just to open the alpha template that comes with ICDP's 4K templates, and disable the base layer. Then I create 2 base layers, one 100% white and one 100% black. I play with the opacity of the black layer to determine the sheen I want. Usually 60-75% opacity of the black layer gives me a reasonably flat sheen, depending on what I want. I disable all the marking layers when I do painted skins. NM skins obviously you will have to play with the marking layers so your markings don't become reflective, and you'll bring your black base layer down below 50% opacity. Things I turn off in the Alpha templates are all the weathering, all the panel lines, and any shadow layers. I will turn on the weathering layers one by one and either bring them to the white or black side of gray scale to highlight certain things. For instance, oil and fuel leak layers I will want shinier, so I bring them into the lighter side. Any weathering or anything that affects the paint I will bring on the darker side, to flatten those areas. For instance here, you can see my two base layers and I have my black set to 40% opacity. I have the shadow layers on just to have a better sense of that is what on the skin file:

I'm just looking forward to all the British planes so I can skin the crap out of them. Mostly the Typhoon, but I'll take whatever they throw at me first.

That's basically all that the Alpha templates are, just a few selected layers from the original template but all in grey scale.

Jaywalkin' Molecule Download HERE. The Turtle Download HERE. Post updated with download links. I know I asked about 'The Turtle' previously, but I figured I would give it my own spin.

401 Sqn Spit Mk. Vb YO-E Download HERE 401 Sqn Spit Mk Vb YO-A Download HERE 421 Sqn Spit Vb AU-S. Flown by S/L Art Sager. The 'S' was repainted in the field, hence it's non standard appearance. Download HERE

The bending probably comes from them folding their hats to put them in their pockets. I do the same with my beret.

Love that paint rack. Have a link to it?