HS129 V2 WIP

[Raptorattacker]

Quack QUACK!! Lookin' hot...

[KpgQuop]

This week's update illustrates how the finished airframe will look in general, with oil and exhaust stains to add.

 

If you're celebrating Labour Day tomorrow, I hope you have a wonderful relaxing day off. Otherwise, solidarnosh and thanks for looking.

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

[KpgQuop]

I'm not sure what's happening to the screenshots, but anyway, you get the general idea I hope.

 

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[BOO]

Your dedication to this project and the distance you have come in terms of researching, practicing, perfecting and applying your skills is quite something. True admiration for this. 

[KpgQuop]

Thanks SCG_BOO. Despite moans and gripes, I find the process completely engrossing.

Now I've sorted out the screenshot process, here are some more screenshots for you.

 

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[Raptorattacker]

Looking very crisp!! I'm lookin' forward to this one.

[KpgQuop]

Thanks for hanging in there Raptorattacker.

 

List of things to do...

• Dirt layer for the cowlings, prop hubs and fuselage.
• Exhuast and oil stain layers.
• Dirt and chips for weapons inserts
• Late war and PC markings

[Raptorattacker]

3 hours ago, KpgQuop said:

List of things to do...

So..... Thursday then?.....  I jest, of course!! Keep it up and like I say, any help and you know where I am.

Rap

[KpgQuop]

Erm...close of play Friday mate...promise.

 

 

Until then, here's how the finished nacelles and wheel wells look.

 

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Edited May 21, 2019 by KpgQuop

[Raptorattacker]

Looking bloody HOT mate!! VERY nice job indeed...

[-=[]=-little-Guardian]

Seriously. How do you get the lines so crisp, especially the arcs?? No matter what I try, the arcs and circles always end up messy . . .      ;-(

Any advice ?

 

Impressive work!

 

     The little Guardian

[KpgQuop]

Hi little Guardian.

 

In photoshop I use the pen tool for all sorts of paint tasks. I use the marquee and shape tools too but we'll go into those in another post if necessary.

 

1. To create straight "paths" on the vertical or horizontal, left click the pen tool where you'd like the line to start. Then Shift+left click where you'd like it to end.
2. Right click to bring up the path menu.Select Stroke path...
3. A Stroke path window will open containing a dropdown menu presenting you with visual tool options to use along your path. Select your tool and (assuming the tool presets are correct - colour, size etc) to apply the tool along the path.
4. To create paths away from Hor/vert, follow the procedure above minus the shift on the second click

I tend to avoid using the pencil tool on anything other than horizontal or vertical lines as the results are too edgy, I think.

 

1. To create curves and arcs using the pen tool, left click where you'd like the curve to start.
2. Left click and hold where you'd like your second point to be. The line between the points will be straight.
3. To introduce curve, holding the second left click, move the pen tool away from the second point. The direction you move the tool will influence the nature of the curve.
4. If you're satisfied with the path, apply a tool of choice to the path. as detailed above.
5. If you want to edit the curve, right click the pen tool icon in the tools window and select Convert Point Tool from the bottom of the dropdown menu.
6. You'll have noticed two straight lines with white squares on the end appearing from the second point as you introduced curve. Place the convert point tool over one of these squares (note how the cursor changes when you hover over one of these squares), left click, hold and draw away from the square to change the curve.
7. Stroke path

When creating long, complex curves, it wlll be necessary to edit any number of curved paths between numerous points placed along the curve.

 

1. To create a solid area of colour such as a patch of camouflage, use the pen tool as described above to outline the area you want to fill.
2. Ideally, the last point you click should be on top of or very close to the first. If your pen tool is hovering directly over the first point when making the last click, the cursor will change (imperceptibly) to include an "o" by the pen icon. When clicked this will close the path.
3. Right click to bring up the pen options and choose Make Selection...
4. Anti aliased should be checked. Note also the New Selection and Add to Selection options.
5. Of particular interest is the Feather Radius xx Pixels option. Left clicking over the words Feather Radius gives you a sliding scale in pixels letting you decide how blurred you'd like the edges of the enclosed space to appear.
6. Click ok. The by now familiar path appearence will change to a sort of animated black white line where the path used to be. You can fill this with colour (Paint Bucket tool) or gradients and much, much more.

Hope this helps. Get back to me if I can clarify anything.

 

 

 

 

Edited May 25, 2019 by KpgQuop
words=hard

[-=[]=-little-Guardian]

Thank you kgpQuop

 

I copy and pasted it into a doc and will give a feedback when I have extensively worked with it. Sounds very intrigueing.

 

Much appreciated!

 

Greetings

 

the little guardian

[KpgQuop]

No problem little Guardian.

 

Here are the cowlings and hubs dirtied up a bit. I need to look at those scratches on the front cowl.

 

Anyway, since we're weeks rather than months away from release, I think I'll make this the last update. Thanks for hanging in there and I'll see you soon with something in 4k for this monstrous water fowl.

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

[Raptorattacker]

@KpgQuop Well, I didn't think it possible but it is looking better and better! Great work. Almost makes me want to do a template again..................... almost!!

[KpgQuop]

Thanks Raptorattacker.

 

Actually, this week has been a bit of a step backwards. I've had to get rid of a couple of non historical pannel lines and adjust a couple of others around the nose. This is not as easy as it sounds as it involves altering paint, alpha layers and the normalmap. It could have been a great deal worse though, as I was contemplating having to redo the pannels across the entire airframe. I'll take some screenshots to show what I mean when i'm certain I'm not talking out my hat.

[Raptorattacker]

Ohhhh... I KNOW about paint/alphas and normals. Trust me I KNOW!! Fair play to ya!!

[KpgQuop]

Oh, I know you know dude. I'm just ruminating.*

 

The mistakes I'm correcting now were introduced exactly one year ago in a version that got corrupted. They were transferred via the v1 normalmap that I managed to salvage and use for pannels in v2. The red lines in the image below are much closer to reality.

 

Spoiler

*Attempting to justify another delay

 

 

Edited May 30, 2019 by KpgQuop

[-=[]=-little-Guardian]

 

Just amazing.

Looking carefully at the screens, one can feel how much effort and thought you are putting into this.

 

Top notch work . . . and I can hardly wait.   But this unique plane deserves really it. If one knows how . . . you can down everything with it . . . ?

 

Greetings

the little Guardian

[KpgQuop]

Thanks little - Guardian.

 

It's been a lot of effort yes. It's also taught me the difference between "thought" and trying to be clever. Still, if these rabbit holes aren't explored, one can never be sure if they're pointless or not.

 

The kicker is that all of the information needed to create an accurate template was right there in the wireframe layer.

 

To my shame, I've only flown the HS129 once. In the right hands, I can see how it might be made to perform very effectively.

Edited May 30, 2019 by KpgQuop

[KpgQuop]

Hello All

 

Here's the result of reworking the nose and area around the gun troughs.

 

There's nothing I can do about the sharp change in tone between the tip of the nose and the front of the main fuse where different parts of the mesh meet.

 

Spoiler

https://imgur.com/YmqOfTV https://imgur.com/YmqOfTV

 

 

 

[-=[]=-little-Guardian]

Great pictures as always . . .

 

Is it possible that the variation in the tone is a result of the Alpha or the Normal map? Just a thought (because it happened to me once)  ?

 

 

Greetings

the little guardian

[KpgQuop]

That's a good point. I haven't looked at that region of the alpha channels for a while and there's probably all sorts of noise needs erasing. Cheers.

 

Hmm. No. Doesn't appear to be.

 

Hmm. Could be. I don't know. I'm sure it'll all get sorted out in the end.

Edited June 5, 2019 by KpgQuop

[KpgQuop]

slo mo weathering.

 

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[Raptorattacker]

Dirt... DIRT.... I LOVE DIRT!!!!!!

[KpgQuop]

Yay, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, right?

Here's a bit more dirt then.

 

Spoiler

 

 

[CUJO_1970]

Looking amazing - a true labor of love.

[KpgQuop]

Yes, It's all good clean fun. Thanks CUJO_1970.

 

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[G_Schwarz]

amazing work, keep it up

[KpgQuop]

No worries Y'all. Things progress.

 

Thing is, after seven days, there's not much to show on the small scale and it looks like i'm posting the same screenies week after week. However, it all contributes to a bigger picture that I'm quietly chuffed with, for a first (or second) attempt.

 

Here are some considerations looming in the middle distance...

 

Different weapons choices would look pretty authentic with their own dedicated skins in terms of exhaust/dirt stains, shadows and pannel changes; but how long do we have before the collapse of human society?

 

I'm going to have to get my head around modding if I want to edit  those phat tyres and other bits and bobs. Having thought about it, these can wait until after an initial release.

 

So, to recap, no worries, there's still life (progress, not stasis) in the old duck yet, with a sincere thanks for your continued patience and interest.

[-=[]=-little-Guardian]

 

 

Thanks for the update . . . I am amazed with every screenshot you gave us so far.

 

Nothing wrong with patiently waiting for this piece of (skinner-) art       :-)

 

The deadly duck deserves it . . .

 

    the little Guardian

 

"Different weapons choices would look pretty authentic with their own dedicated skins in terms of exhaust/dirt stains, shadows and pannel changes; but how long do we have before the collapse of human society? "     That sounds intriguing . . . some sub layers for different plane modifications. ow! But it also sounds like a lot of work too.

[KpgQuop]

Hi little -Guardian.

 

I've not focussed too much on the weapons plug-ins, apart from a little chipping and shading on the machine gun  pack. I  know what I'd do with the bomb-loads, given the time.

 

As of yet, the cannon gondolas just don't look right. I might be able to get away with a one-size-fits-all set of stains for early and late style exhaust pipes. (I hope the modeller who came up with that hack got a pay rise. It's genius/magic as far as I can tell, given my total lack of modelling experience).

 

I think the gondola  fairing is common to both cannon variants. I hope so, since a little weathering and shading would help key them in to the belly. However, I suspect that if you flew a machine gun duck for instance, wearing a gondola skin, the results would be disappointing. I guess the same would hold true for bomb loads.

 

Anyway, 20 mins futzing around in this neck of the mesh will resolve all, and if I can get away with it, credibility intact, I'll address these issues after an initial release.

 

On to other matters, this screenshot should indicate how the finished airframe will look.

 

Cheers.

 

Spoiler

 

 

[-=[]=-little-Guardian]

Looks fantastic !

 

    greetings     the little Guardian

 

 

 

(If you want, you can send me just the layer with the stencil writings and I can check it for typos . . . if there are any)

[KpgQuop]

Greetings all and wellcome to another update from the glacial world of Duck.

 

Hi little Guardian. Sorry for the rudeness. Ive only just noticed your reply. Thanks for the offer and I'll take you up on that please. There are bound to be some howlers there. I've got to get it finished as far as I can take it first though. When one hangs around for as long as you guys have neen waiting for something in 4k, there are bound to be a few Before and After moments occuring IRL. Mawkishly, I remember where I was in this template when these moments dropped and getting this thing finished would be a nice way of moving on. As soon as it is finished, I'll add you to the list of people who have been kind and helpfull in the past. Having incorporated their suggestions, it'll belong to everybody.

 

Anyway, enough of all that, as you can see, the fuse is getting there...sort of.

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

[Boomerang]

Wow! Looking beautiful KpgQuop,

[JonRedcorn]

Well this is incredible.

[Swing]

Just beautiful...

[-=[]=-little-Guardian]

   +1    !

 

Worth waiting for it, that's for sure . . .

 

Greetings

little Guardian

[KpgQuop]

Hello again everybody.

 

Here's a quick update to show you where we're all at with this. In the next update, I should be able to show you the completely dirtied airframe.

 

Thanks for the comments above Gents. This one's for you.

 

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[CCG_Pips]

Really well done ?. I do not know if I will do a skin on that plane, but I presume that a lot of skinners will quickly work on it!!!.

 

Congratulations KpgQuop

 

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