The S.XIII Skin Project

[No.23_Triggers]

Morning, all! 

Recently I began work on what will become the next iteration of the 3rd Pursuit Group's skin pack --- although I was happy with the last version of our skins, I thought that there was more room for improvement. As a unit, we like to "dive deep" into the history of the USAS during the Great War, including the appearance of our skins. 

For this reason, I had one fixed goal in my mind for the next set of 3PG skins --- getting them as close as possible to their historical counterparts! 

So, I set to work collecting whatever literature I could on SPAD XIII camouflage schemes, gathering historical images, and looking at surviving or restored examples. Before long, I was up to my eyeballs in research regarding the SPAD XIII's historical camouflage and colour schemes. The more I read and saw, the more convinced I became. Our SPADs had to be as true to life as they possibly could be. 

I thought that it might be quite fun to share this bout of insanity little project of mines with the community, and  document the progression of the skins in this thread for any interested parties! So, without further ado, welcome to the S.XIII Skin Project! 

 

Entry 1: First 'Realistic' Touches.

My first step in trying to "bring the SPAD to life" in FC Vol. 1 was to make sure I paid attention to the little details. I decided to start with our Squadron markings. In previous iterations of the skin-pack, our identification numbers had been applied using fonts that were similar to the historical fonts of our units - as seen below: 

 

 

Later on, I decided to add more authenticity to our skins, by tracing historical images in order to get a more "real-life" look...and the numbers started to look really quite nice! The irregular, hand-traced lines looked far more realistic than the fonts, and the variation and individuality could bee seen from plane to plane. However - my goal with this project is to make the SPAD as real as I possibly can - so I needed to go a step further. 

Rather than simply tracing the numbers and applying a decal to the fuselage and wings of our SPADs, I decided to rework the numbers and make them look as if they had really been painted onto the fuselages, as they would have been during the war by the ground crews. I decided to set to work - first recreating Lt. Chester Wright's Number '2'. 

 

I tried to imagine the steps that an Aircraft mechanic would take in order to paint the insignia on. First, I traced the outline of the number with a pencil-thin brush, before filling it in with a brush that had a 'painted onto fabric' effect: 

 
 

Once I had done that, I found a 'Stipple' brush which I could use to fill in the two, getting a really nice brush-stroke effect. I made sure that I didn't use the paint bucket tool, or use any key commands to paint perfectly straight lines. After all, an Ack-Emma with a Brush in 1918 France can't do those things! Once I was done filling in the "2", I painted the outline......et voila! 
 

 

I was feeling quite pleased with myself! But then I noticed that the brand-spanking-new hand-painted numbers looked slightly out of place next to the Squadron insignia decal. So, I decided to try and work on that next. I found a surprisingly good source of inspiration in auction websites, where several cut-out insignia (keepsakes from the squadrons, family heirlooms, etc) were on sale. Looking at the images, I noticed that several of them appeared to be cracked and peeled. 

 

 

At first I just assumed this was due to their age, but the Butterfly Project gave me a useful hint again. Owing to some of the substances used in the doping process, the SPAD XIII's dope was quite brittle, and had a tendency to crack in places! So, my next step was to improve our own in-game insignia by adding that little detail to both the numbers and the insignia. 

 

 

Personally, I think the effect turned out really, really nicely! It adds just an extra bit of character to the skin. 

That's all for now...the next entry will go into recreating the SPAD itself --- trying to reproduce a virtual representation of the painting and doping methods that the factories employed. 

 

S! 

 

Edited February 22, 2020 by US93_Larner

[TAAC_Blue]

I N S A N E

[No.23_Gaylion]

[the_dudeWG]

Holy crap, Larner, this looks amazing! Are you drawing this with a mouse?! Let me know when you’re giving your first lessons. ?

[No.23_Triggers]

19 minutes ago, the_dudeWG said:

Holy crap, Larner, this looks amazing! Are you drawing this with a mouse?! Let me know when you’re giving your first lessons. ?

Yep, using a mouse - I'd use one of those fancy tablet pen things if I had the patience to learn how to use them ?

[J5_Gamecock]

Excellent stuff Larner!  Results are amazing!  Do you have any hair left on your head?... I know I would be tearing it out in tufts.

Edited February 22, 2020 by J5_Gamecock

[J37_Spyboy]

I thought they were outstanding efforts to begin with. The new detail brings an extra dimension of reality! Salute

[US103_Hunter]

Crazy Bugger

[No.23_Gaylion]

Needs more pink.

[ST_Catchov]

And feathers.

[No.23_Triggers]

Entry 2: The SPAD Factory. 

....this is going to be a long one....

So, with the first initial "Realism" testing done, I've begun setting about creating the first template for the 3rd P.G's SPADs from the default IL-2 Template. This is where the vast majority of the research comes into play, as I will essentially be trying to virtually recreate the SPAD along the same steps as the factories would have gone through in 1918! 

As it turns out, that takes a lot of work, both in the research department and the skinning department! 

My first step was erasing the base paints that come with the official IL-2 template and creating an "unpainted" Spad. As I am "painting" the camouflage on by hand, to simulate the real factory process, I turned the XIII template into a completely un-doped and un-painted version of itself. I then removed all weathering - I'll be adding my own weathering later. 

The Vintage Aviator Ltd's website proved to be a very useful resource when setting up the "factory new" SPAD - with little reference to actual 1918 linen colours, TVAL's images of their carefully-selected fabrics are invaluable - particularly the images of their unpainted S.E.5a during the build process! 

 

With these images I was able to approximate the right shade of aircraft linen . Granted, this is specifically Irish Linen, as per British Aviation standards, but I imagine the French would have used something remarkably similar, if not the same in some cases. 

 

And there's the "Barebones" SPAD! This is an important step both from the "factory process" point of view and from the skin-making point of view as, by separating the metal sections from the fabric sections, I can add appropriate overlays to give both the fabric and the metal the appropriate texturing - the first step in creating the weathering and realism graphics. 

I also took the additional step of saving "guide" layers which I could easily select in order to individually paint the fabric and metal sections. This isn't specifically for the design of the aircraft (although this does come in very handy when painting on the factory camouflage), but rather is for the Alpha channel. More on that later. 

The next step, once the "Barebones" SPAD was ready, was to apply the factory camouflage! Several aircraft manufacturers, such as Adolphe Bernard, Bleriot, SAFCA, and Kellner Pianoworks, all built SPAD XIIIs under licence during the war, and each factory had its own unique "take" on the camouflage pattern supplied by SPAD. Our virtual SPAD, when it is completed, will bear the factory serial number S.7624 - my own 'fictional' skin (bearing a historical, but unrecorded, serial). A quick look at the list of known SPAD XIII airframes reveals that this serial number was produced by the Kellner firm. 

Fortunately, there are many examples of the base Kellner factory camouflage, as they were among the leading manufacturers of the type. I quickly found several profiles which I could use to recreate the camouflage, but I decided to go with the one included within the Butterfly Project, as it is the most exhaustive study of French Camouflages available. 



Now, it was simply a case of applying the right colours in the right places! ....Well, I say simply, but that's not really the right word. It's always hard to get the historically correct colours when you're talking about aircraft that existed over a century ago! 

The subject of the French 5-Colour, surprisingly, has been researched and debated upon quite a lot. Typically within the model-making community. Several colour palettes have been provided over the years, but two are generally accepted as correct. One comes from notable WW1 Historian Alan Toelle, who researched the SPAD XIII's colour scheme extensively in order to contribute to the restoration of the NASM's Smith IV - a surviving SPAD of the 22nd Aero Squadron USAS. The other comes from the Butterfly Project. Through deep and extensive studying of surviving fabric samples, the Butterfly Project supplies values from both the Munsell and Methuen colour charts, citing them as being the most correct to the SPAD XIII. 



Even with the "Correct" colours, more problems arise. The dopes were manufactured with very specific quantities of substances and pigments - but the reality was that, due to either errors in the mixing process, lack of supply of certain ingredients, or both, some batches would come out in irregular shades. Further complicating the matter, it is believed that American aero squadrons were NOT supplied with the same dopes used by the French - meaning that any overpaints would produce different colourations! 

With all of this in mind, I decided to go with the Butterfly Project's "Munsell" values - but as a point of personal taste, I decided to go with the 'grey-blue' underside colour as opposed to the yellow. Interestingly, the grey-blue is the only underside colour referenced by the manufacturers in the literature...but all real-life surviving fabric examples are painted in the yellow underside finish! 


So, we have our colours and we have our camouflage scheme. The next step is "Doping" the aircraft! Again, I wanted to produce a result as true to life as possible. One paragraph from the Butterfly Project would be a huge help in this regard: 
 

"Photographs often show the brush strokes, particularly where the workmen had to go slower and use more care along the colour boundaries. Since the solvents evaporate very fast, the aluminium flake assumes its final orientation in the first minute or so and excessive brushing should be avoided". 

This gave me a general idea of how I should tackle applying the camouflage - I would have to mimic hand-painting the machine with a brush, taking care not to overlap different colours. 

I now knew how the plane should be painted - but in order to get that 'true to life' effect I'm seeking I would also have to research the dope itself! Again, the Butterfly project supplied the answer. 

In 1916 the French introduced a new type of dope, which they called d’enduit metallise. This is the same shiny, silver dope that was used most notably on the Nieuport 17. This is owing to the dope being mixed with aluminium powder, in order to protect the aircraft from UV rays. This created the curious effect of the dope being very reflective when compared to other aircraft dopes, giving the French aircraft a very distinctive 'sheen'. The Aluminium Powder became a standard in the French wartime aviation industry, and its use was continued into the 5-colour patterns of 1918 - meaning that the SPAD 13 would have had that same sheen! 

As described later in the Butterfly Project: "The aluminium powder is not directly visible but dominates the colour in a subtle way. The surfaces are neither glossy nor dull but can be highly reflective. The texture of the fabric is evident and affects the appearance".
 

So, on top of the "hand brushed" appearance, I would have to alter the SPAD's Alpha layer as well. 

For those who might not be familiar, the Alpha layer will control the aircraft's shine. The layer, when selected, appears in greyscale - the darker the colour, the more matte the section will appear in-game....the lighter the shade, the more shiny it will appear. In the above screenshot of the 'barebones' SPAD, the bare metal can be seen to be quite reflective, whereas the canvas is quite dull. This would all be changed once the dope was applied. 

THE "DOPING" PROCESS:

Firstly I outlined the individual colours, using an emulated "brush" in photoshop, before 'painting in' the outlines, taking care to use a realistically-sized brush in believable human-sized strokes. This is by far the most time consuming part of the process - but the 'humanisation' of the doping produces some great-looking results, and I believe I managed, in part, to get the effect I was looking for! 

I used a similar technique to the painting of the Squadron numbers, applying first the Roundels (which were historically painted before anything else), then the camouflage. By 'Brushing' the paint on, rather than just using the paint bucket tool, the camouflage ended up having these really nice little 'imperfections'. 

Below are three images of the upper wing half-completed, the upper wing completed, and a close-up of the fuselage side. 

  

Once the paint was on, I set about recreating the appearance of the dope. For this I used both the historical descriptions, as well as looking at images and videos of SMITH IV. Thanks to the efforts of Alan Toelle, SMITH IV was painstakingly repainted using very similarly mixed dopes, including the aluminium powder. As a result, SMITH IV has that distinctive French dope shine. Unfortunately, I'm nowhere near the NASM to go and look at her myself, but this YouTube video posted by a visitor to the museum really shows that reflective effect:
 

Further research revealed that the paint that was applied to the metal surfaces had a different composition to that of the fabric doping. Most importantly, it did NOT have the same aluminium powder that gave the fabric its distinctive reflective shine! For that reason, the metal parts actually appear very slightly less reflective than the fabric. This is where the Alpha channel comes into play! 



By messing with the Alpha, I was able to recreate some of the effects of the French dope. 

The last step in this entry was the correct stencilling for the SPAD. Again, the Butterfly Project proved to be an invaluable resource - containing an appendix illustrating many of the stencil patterns for different factory serial blocks. Happily, an example from the 76xx serial block was in there too! 



With that as a point of reference, it was fairly easy to recreate the rudder pattern. The Tricolour striping is in the American format (Red, white, blue), and the blue is painted on using a French "Horizon Blue", rather than the deep "Paris Blue" of the American roundels, as it would have been in the factory. 




.....well, that's all for this time! Hopefully the wall of insane text hasn't scared you off....

S! 

Edited February 24, 2020 by US93_Larner

[J5_Gamecock]

 This is great Larner. Just don't let it interfere with your other duties like, leading your squad, flyin & fightin,  Aviators Chronicle not to mention arguing with Talbot and pranking Willi Von Klugermann.

 

 It really is interesting stuff though.

[No.23_Gaylion]

I let you out of the paint shed for FIVE MINUTES for a quick smoke and this is what you do?!

 

Back to the paint hanger Dickens.

[J5_Gamecock]

Just reading through again... How are you altering the alpha layer to get the results you need?  I understand the Alum. giving the paint a reflective appearance, but I thought the Alpha layer was more about the "Sheen" or gloss. These aren't quite the same thing I thought.

 

 Thanks again for posting. It's a good read.

[J5_Adam]

I thought I was looking at a photo seeing that logo up there. Excellent waste of time Larner. Great work. 

[No.23_Triggers]

8 hours ago, J5_Gamecock said:

Just reading through again... How are you altering the alpha layer to get the results you need?  I understand the Alum. giving the paint a reflective appearance, but I thought the Alpha layer was more about the "Sheen" or gloss. These aren't quite the same thing I thought.

 

 Thanks again for posting. It's a good read.

It's a bit of a backwards technique, but I'll select the sections I want to alter and create a new layer, then paint fill it with either black or white at a certain opacity based on how 'shiny' I want the section to be (roughly 5-10% for slightly more / less, and 20%ish for a lot more / less)...then I'll 'cut' all the pixels of that layer and 'paste' it straight onto the Alpha layer. 

The Alpha does control the gloss more than anything, but I've noticed past a certain point the surfaces do become reflective. 

[J99_Sizzlorr]

Man these are looking great as always Larner, love the pastellique colour and the briddle colour and linen details! Bringing 4k skins up to a new level! Maybe I will stop by your paint hangar on a quiet day at the front to have you take a look at my plane and treat it with your magic brush . Keep up the good work!

Edited February 25, 2020 by J99_Sizzlorr

[No.23_Triggers]

30 minutes ago, J99_Sizzlorr said:

Man these are looking great as always Larner, love the pastellique colour and the briddle colour and linen details! Bringing 4k skins up to a new level! Maybe I will stop by your paint hangar on a quiet day at the front to have you take a look at my plane and treat it with your magic brush . Keep up the good work!

Happy to have you! We'll fix your machine up. 

....just, eh, don't mind the MPs pointing their bayonets at you when you come in to land, eh?  

[J2_Bidu]

What an awesome work, Larner. You set the highest standard for anyone wanting to do a skin, now. Hey! Why is every artist-to-be so depressed and leaving?

 

 

On a side note, and inspired by your work, I am thinking how this will affect the way your plane will burn when riddled by my bullets.

 

I have done my own investigation:

 

Quote

Where an aluminium structure is exposed to the heat of a fire, the relatively high thermal conductivity enables the heat to be rapidly conducted away from the exposed area. This helps to reduce hot spots where significant localised property loss could occur, so extending the serviceability period. It will, however, cause the temperature to rise elsewhere. The extent of dissipation of heat elsewhere in the structure will depend on the degree of thermal insulation provided to the aluminium elsewhere in the structure, necessary to provide fire protection in that area. The high reflectivity of weathered UK Aluminium Industry Fact Sheet 11 : Aluminium and Fire 2 aluminium is 80% to 90%, compared with 5% for painted steel and 25% for stainless steel. This is of considerable benefit and will assist in prolonging endurance of an aluminium structure in a fire. The attached photograph is a good example of the behaviour of aluminium in the massive form in a fire. A car, with aluminium alloy wheels, was caught in a forest fire that swept over the car and moved on. Afterwards it was found that the aluminium wheels had melted, molten aluminium had run off and collected in a pool of metal which solidified as the fire moved on and the temperature fell. The aluminium had not burnt.

 

I don't really understand the visual effect of this when applied to your falling plane, especially with the improved visibility adding to it, but the sheer thought has made me happy. Thanks!

 

[No.23_Triggers]

25 minutes ago, J2_Bidu said:

On a side note, and inspired by your work, I am thinking how this will affect the way your plane will burn when riddled by my bullets.

[JGr2/J5_Klugermann]

 

Seriously Larner, you need to get a girlfriend. Given the quality of your work you probably can conjure one up from your computer  like in Weird Science.

 

[No.23_Triggers]

Entry 3: From a Showbird to a Warbird

Before I get into this entry, here's some pictures of the current SPAD XIII project, with the camouflage now fully painted on. 




With the factory camouflage painted on, and the historical "Doping" effects in place, the next step in the completion of my little project is one I've been dreading.....

Weathering! 

Now, I don't have much experience with weathering - and so I turned to some points of reference in order to aid the appearance, as well as the amount, of weathering that I have included. I decided to start with the front-half of the aircraft, around the metal nose cowling and undercarriage. The current results are far from complete, but I think we're making some headway. 

Naturally, I first decided to look at close-up images of the real thing, to see what kind of weathering a genuine 1918 SPAD might exhibit. One photo in which you can really see some great details is the famous picture of Frank Luke beside his SPAD XIII  No.26. 




I've started off by attempting to emulate some of the weathering on show in this image - with the following results: 




Another great image, of another American SPAD, is one of Capt. Rickenbacker, in which you can see quite a bit of built-up grime and dust on the nose of the aircraft - something I'm still working on emulating. You can also see some real grime building up underneath the Horizontal stabiliser!



An image here of SMITH IV shows just how drastic the exhaust effects can be! Some fading on the canvas can also be seen, to a certain degree. A second picture of Rene Fonck shows some serious paint chipping going on on the metal nose of the plane! 





One source for extreme examples of weathering is Georges Guynemer's SPAD VII, which appears not to have been restored: 







I think that I've gotten off to a good start - but there's definitely lots and lots of room to improve! I'll be focusing more on the dried mud and grime on the undercarriage next, as well as attempting to re-do the oil and dirt effects under the nose. After that, I'll be moving on to what I think is going to be the hardest part - weathering the canvas. 

Edited February 26, 2020 by US93_Larner

[No.23_Triggers]

Entry 4: To The Front 

With the weathering for the wings and fuselage now complete, I decided to make some last adjustments to the SPAD's paint scheme - namely, brightening the colours to appear 'correct' with the in-game lighting, and repainting the red in the roundels. 



And with that done, she was ready to receive her squadron markings and take to the front for the first time! I got some great track recordings of S.7624 scrapping with the Hun and was able to compare the skin's brightness with that of the IL-2 Official skins, and I have to say I think they match up very well! In her full 93rd Aero Squadron regalia, she looks fantastic over the front! 



The final touches will be retexturing some of the textures used in the default skins. It seems that the standard IL-2 SPAD template comes with some re-coloured Rise of Flight textures, still at 2k quality. It would feel slightly strange to leave them on after putting the effort into making the rest of the plane appear as natural as possible - so I've set to work on creating new graphics....starting with the prop! 

After some research, and some fantastic contributions from the other pilots of the 3rd P.G, I've gotten my hands on a list of propeller manufacturers for the SPAD XIII. Naturally, each manufacturer's prop looked a little different - and so I'm doing my best to recreate multiple propellers, so that our SPADs can be fitted with multiple historical examples. It's still early days yet, and I'm still to complete the metal covering in the prop's centre, but I feel like there is progress being made! 

Edited March 1, 2020 by US93_Larner

[jasta11ace]

Awesome work.

[No.23_Triggers]

Entry 5: A Warbird in Detail

 

It's been a little while since I've added to this 'diary', but I've been having some fun making some cool little additions to S.7624 - which I've since claimed as my own personal SPAD  

In this entry, I'll be trying to turn the current SPAD XIII into a little bit more of a 'warbird' with some added touches, and some 'wear and tear' that a SPAD might have seen in the field.

 

The first of these is an incredibly simple addition that brings a whole heap of life to the aircraft - bullet patches! 

Some air services, such as the Luftstreitkrafte and the USAS, wore their bullet patches like badges of honour, painting the national marking of the opponent who 'scarred' their ships. This was very common in the USAS - as Charles J. Biddle of the 13th Aero Squadron mentioned, the patches could be found on most of his squadron's aircraft.

I made sure to 'mirror' the bullet patches on the opposite side of the entry holes, where the bullet exited out the other side, for an added touch of authenticity. 


 

 

As well as battle damage, aircraft in service would regularly receive 'field modifications' in attempts to improve performance. Among one of the most common field mods seen on SPADs was the removing of panels on the engine cowling in order to keep the engine cooler - and this can be seen in plenty of historical pictures! 



I found out that, luckily, the 3D model for the SPAD XIII is actually modeled under this radiator cowling, so I was able to 'remove' it using the Alpha layer! I tried to retexture the default textures underneath - but I don't think I'm fully satisfied with the end result - but I plan to 're-retexture' that area soon!  While I was working on the engine cowling, I took the time to retexture the manufacturing plate on the left side of the nose. 



I also decided to experiment with a less obvious 'field mod' - but one that became just as common for the first USAS SPADs. For context, when it was deemed that the 180hp SPAD VII needed improving, a 200hp Hispano was fitted to a SPAD VII airframe for testing. It was decided that a larger, more robust airframe was required - the SPAD XIII. However, the initial production SPAD XIIIs had a rather different wing profile to the model we see in-game. Instead of the familiar squared-off wingtips,  the early SPAD XIIIs actually had rounded wingtips, more similar to that of the Nieuport 28! 



Shortly afterwards, it was determined that the SPAD VII-style square wingtips offered improved lateral control when compared to the 'new' SPAD wing profile, and so later production batches of the SPAD XIII had the more familiar square wings. 

But, what about the early airframes that were already in service? 

To solve this issue, plywood 'pockets' were delivered to SPAD XIII units with early airframes on inventory, that could then be sewn onto the wings in order to convert them to the square profile. One aircraft that this can be seen on is SMITH IV, which has these pockets on its lower wings. I decided to try to emulate this with my own SPAD, by deleting the shading effects and textures at the wingtips and replacing them with my own 'Plywood Pocket' textures: 



Doesn't look too bad! However, there's a slight problem with this - the textures for the wing have been replaced, but the Bump Map still has the indents for the ribbing and stitching! In short, the Bump Map does exactly what it says on the tin - it tells the skin which parts need to be 'bumpy' - rivet indents, raised areas, etc. So...the next step will be experimenting with that..something I've never really tried before! 

Another touch I've not mentioned before are the factory tags found on the airframe. Rudders were replaced all the time on SPAD XIIIs in service, be it due to damage or for other reasons. With that in mind, the factories typically included extra 'tags' on the aircraft with the airframe number, so that it wouldn't be lost with the original rudder! 




The last addition I've made this time around was the re-texturing of the propeller - replacing my 'Default' prop with a Helice Gallia one! The best image of one of these props I found actually came from a cannon-armed SPAD XII, but 'left-hand' versions were also made for XIIIs. 





That's all for now!

Edited May 15, 2020 by US93_Larner