Skinners - where do you find your references?

[ATAG_Flare]

Hi there skinners,

I'm currently making historical skins for the RAF planes in the Italian Wings Battle of Britain event. My main goal with these skins is to get more correct marking letters than the default CloD markings. I am using Major Setback's template photoshop files and fonts.

Now, my question is, where do you guys find reference images and photos? I've just been trying my best in Google images but it's hard to find what I need and the few books I have here at uni don't have many photos, sadly I forgot to bring my copies of a few volumes of the excellent Battle of Britain combat archive.

Currently I am looking for references for 64 Sqn, 41 Sqn, 56 Sqn, and 501 Sqn in July 1940 (so without the roundels on the bottom of the wings).

[Sokol1]

https://battleofbritain1940.com/nos-54-72-squadrons/

[5th_Barone]

13 hours ago, ATAG_Flare said:

Hi there skinners,

I'm currently making historical skins for the RAF planes in the Italian Wings Battle of Britain event. My main goal with these skins is to get more correct marking letters than the default CloD markings. I am using Major Setback's template photoshop files and fonts.

Now, my question is, where do you guys find reference images and photos? I've just been trying my best in Google images but it's hard to find what I need and the few books I have here at uni don't have many photos, sadly I forgot to bring my copies of a few volumes of the excellent Battle of Britain combat archive.

Currently I am looking for references for 64 Sqn, 41 Sqn, 56 Sqn, and 501 Sqn in July 1940 (so without the roundels on the bottom of the wings).

 

When doing skins I actually search for model kit info. The model kit world has tons of info.

[Skywarp]

Here you have a lot of color tables and schemes, with them you can use the correct camo colors.

 

https://www.cybermodeler.com/references.shtml

Edited October 13, 2020 by Skywarp

[brianjgregory]

Try Azizbiz: https://www.asisbiz.com/il2.html.

Pretty comprehensive references for many allied aircraft. I also use "Famous Fighters of the Second World War", by William Green; British (& American) Aircraft of World War II (both by David Mondey). Hope this helps.

[Missionbug]

Many of us have reference books that have been collected over a life time, usually things of special interest to each of us that usually do not appear in normal book shops or on the internet, many are short batch publications and if not purchased at the time can become very rare.

 

For most of my life I made model aircraft and would look for stuff dealing in particular with British aircraft used by foreign air forces to paint them in, this interest spilled over into skins for IL-2 when I started to play the early iterations of it so Finnish, Romanian et al would be my usual favourites, others would concentrate on R.A.F or the Luftwaffe schemes, again much of the information can only be found in special editions from various publishers.

 

It is such a huge subject and finding the exact scheme is always difficult especially when you consider what we paint is 80/100 years old and many publications contradict each other, good luck with your research.

 

Take care and be safe.

 

Wishing you all the very best, Pete.

[Knochenlutscher]

1. Google

 

I use Google not just for Research, but to find HD pictures of blurred Literature Pictures.

You can pay 70 Euro for a precious book, stating it's top reference,

when Google can show you a perfect example of it too, in better quality.

This is cross checking I do a lot, I don't trust Aviation literature that much.

i.e. Osprey titles and all the rest is often cheaply produced, quality is not

everywhere, I can trace bad repros, scans from 50s/60s books, those are useless,

when I need HD Pictures of the originals.

 

2. if you can afford get a hand over good literature, if you're with passion,

have some bucks off.

I know about pricing in the field, that precious JG27 books would cost me 500 Euro,

good ones. Decide, it is worth to spend or not. Sometimes cheaper is as good,

why spend 500 Bucks on crap reproduced Pictures (blurred to shit), when fair pricing titles

and Google together saves me money.

 

You must find your way yourself, using google requires Tricks, Search strings,

trhen it'll pay out.

 

[major_setback]

Asisbiz.

Scroll down, and search all the links. There ar photos .. lots of large sized photos, and even skins for several games.

 

https://www.asisbiz.com/il2.html

 

Oops. I see it is mentioned above.

Edited April 12, 2023 by major_setback