Yak-7B Skins

[actionhank1786]

I didn't notice a Yak-7B thread and figured I'd start one of my own. As in the past I've found some old CanonUK skins that were always impressive. He managed to find a lot of unique skins for his planes, and this Yak-7B from the Kuban front was no exception. I remember flying it a ton and loving the colors of it, so I figured I would attempt to recreate it in the 4K glory of Il-2 BOX. 

Here's the nearly finished attempt. I'll try and get it uploaded tonight for anyone who's interested. 

[actionhank1786]

I think I'm calling them done. I've got the White 03 version with the numbers and then a blank version with just the VVS Stars as well. I'm waiting on some clarification for the upload format on HSD but I'll update the post when they're up there. 

Here's some screenshots for the time being:

 

[David_4555]

Great work. I have no interest in Soviet fighters but now that I've seen that skin I DO. I need thaaaaaat

[actionhank1786]

4 hours ago, David_4555 said:

Great work. I have no interest in Soviet fighters but now that I've seen that skin I DO. I need thaaaaaat

Haha, appreciate it! I was scrolling through some of my old skins from CanonUK to see what fun skins needed to be brought into the Il-2 BoX world and the color and pattern of this one really jumped out at me. It's so unique and looks really cool in the air. 

[actionhank1786]

11 hours ago, David_4555 said:

Great work. I have no interest in Soviet fighters but now that I've seen that skin I DO. I need thaaaaaat

Alright, it's up on HSD! Should be under White 03 - VVS - Kuban

 

Edit: And the Blank version should be up now as well. 

Edited October 17, 2024 by actionhank1786

[David_4555]

Yesss. I'm 100% reinstalling the game this week-end lol

[actionhank1786]

8 hours ago, David_4555 said:

Yesss. I'm 100% reinstalling the game this week-end lol

Haha, glad to hear it. The Soviet Union, especially in WWII had so many incredibly unique paint jobs applied to their planes. 

 

I just started a new one to play around with the winter camo for fun on the Yak-7B, and it's got a slogan that from what I can tell is written by the factory workers who helped make the plane in dedication to Marina Raskova who was one of the women leading the charge in the Soviet Union during WWII to get women into frontline service with the air force. She died in January trying to land her Pe-2 in a snowstorm, and from what I can gather, this Yak-7B has a dedication to her on the side, with some sources mentioning that it was paid for by the workers. Not sure how much truth there is to that part, since it would make great PR during the war. But either way, definitely a cool story and a really unique looking plane with the winter white wash applied and flaking off, and the hand painted message on the side. 
My first attempt at hand writing Cyrillic is uh...not the greatest. I need to go back and make it much bigger, but it was a little hard figuring out the scale initially on the template. I've got a much better idea of the size of it now. 
The real fun is in the weathering of the winter camo. But to get that looking right I'm going to have to play with the alpha layer so it's not quite so reflective and shiny. 

[actionhank1786]

Another small update. I'm playing around with the winter camo still. I haven't been able to get a lot of good actual images of the plane. The most I've found so far are the women of the factory, I assume, being photographed with it. I messed around a bit with the dedication message on the side, though I'm not entirely sure it's actually on both sides. I figured they likely would have written it on there anyway. But here's the progress on the left side. One of the toughest parts with these winter camos is just getting the various sections of the model to line up and not show up with sharp edges where the paint it. 
I also need to bring that wear back a little on the spine of the plane. Oh well, work for a lunch break, I suppose. 

Edited October 18, 2024 by actionhank1786

[actionhank1786]

The funny part is posting these in here and going "Huh...I've been working on it for a bunch of extra time and it looks largely the same..."

But, I've dialed back some of the weathering to try and replicate what I saw with the picture of the real one. The front and fuselage definitely had a lot of weathering visible to the painted white wash, but the wings looked to be pretty well covered outside of the area next to the cockpit where crew and pilots likely walked a ton. 
Here's the real deal (I'm already planning on doing a generic version based on the more weathered Yak in the background): 

And here's where I'm at with the in-game version:

[actionhank1786]

Okay, I think I'm calling the skin itself done. I'm still playing around with the alpha channel because I think the default one is a little too reflective for my tastes on the normal camo as is, but I also want there to be a bit more of a matt appearance to the winter paint compared to the actual painted camo beneath it. 

I'm testing it a bit, since I haven't messed with alpha channels before in Il-2, but I'm hoping I can get it working by tomorrow at the latest. 

[actionhank1786]

Okay, another cool thing I found while playing around with the alpha channels. I can make the plane more closely resemble the real one by using the alpha channels to remove the cowling around the engine exhaust. I'll have to adjust the skin a bit more to make it match the real one, but I kind of like the way it looks with the cowling removed. Should be good to go by this afternoon and I'll toss it up on HSD. 

[actionhank1786]

It's being uploaded now! Blank one to follow, then maybe one or two generic winter camo versions to go with it. I do wish we could set skins for wingmen like in the original Il-2. I miss that.