Beautiful skins Jaypack. It never fails to amaze me how much a great skin improves the look of the overall model. They are absolutely realistic.

Does anybody know the function of the white stripes on the tailplane?

Juri_JS

'On the Kates' - I read somewhere that they were placed there to aid the gunners.

Great work mate
Those guys had a lot of rotten paint . Done perfectly..Ha!

Thanks guys!

I recently discovered that I'd downloaded Emel's P-51 templates awhile back... merged them with mine, and got some good results- planning on doing some "flight-packs"- if there's snough interest, I'll make them publicly available:

First up: I know they've been skinned several times before, but that's never stopped me before...

"The Bottisham Four"
361st FG
E2-C "Lou IV"


E2-S


E2-A "Sky Bouncer"


E2-H "Suzy G"

Those look damn good mate!
I realize these are w.i.p of course but incase you missed it, the muzzle smoke stains on Suzy G don't appear to line up, maybe carried over from the bubble tops?

Ooh, thanks for pointing that out! I transferred a lot of layers from the -D template when I did the -B. I thought I'd taken care of the gunsmoke streaks, but apparently they exist on more than one layer!

Nicely done Josh. Individual cammo patterns are a nice (and accurate) touch. Only thing I might tweak along those lines (literally) are the vertical and diagonal oil stains along the lower cowl panels; they're rather prominent, which is okay, but this also makes their pattern duplication more noticeable while in close formation. Same might apply around the wheel wells, can't see 'em (?).

Speaking of oil stains, on 'Lou IV' you might try a 'copy and match' of the stains along the upper cowling, where that dreaded anti-glare panel would normally reside. It's not that noticeable, but I can barely detect the seam in the 3D model; and that's only because the stains are more prominant with the yellow background.. on the anti-glare paneled versions, it's not noticeable at all.

Edit: Everyone, I'm pretty sure Jaypack is experienced with this, but for any folks just starting out; Here's an example of what I'm referring to in that last observation. It features a different model, and depicts a technique for aligning cammo; but the same method or variation thereof, could be used when dealing with weathering which spans various sections/panels of a 3D model: http://www.axis-and-allies-paintworks.com/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?180

Other than that, I'm hard pressed to find any additional items.. other than a reminder to check the shell ejection ports, while you're adjusting the powder stains on Suzy-G.

I like the consistancy of the texture shades you've chosen. Too many times, I'll see a really nice skin that gets ruined by applying some outlandishly over-saturated color/s to the noseart, trim tabs, nav-lights, etc. But that's not the case with these; I think they are very realistic in appearance, and they blend into the 'IL2 World' very well, at least on the map featured in your screenshots. These are a great example of what can still be done with a 1024x1024 skin, and make it appear like 2048x2048 or better.

Thanks for the work you're doing mate; I'd be proud to have these in my Mustang folders.

Bang on Rudi.
I know there are times I miss what your talking about
as well.
Very good advice mate
These are very well done Mustangs

Thanks for the detailed feedback, Rudi! That's exactly the sort of stuff I like to hear... And it never hurts to have such feedback, because oftentimes I get so caught up in just getting the skin finished that I miss really glaring stuff, like the gunsmoke above, and sometimes all it needs is a look by some "fresh" eyes!

The duplicated weathering is one that I hadn't really thought of... intentionally. One of the main reasons I tend to stick to generics is because doing individual, aircraft specific weathering for each skin is a bit terrifying... and since 90% of the skinning I do is for my own use, I tend to just ignore it... but yeah, the nose panels especially had been bugging me a little bit, and having some alternates to break things up a bit certainly couldn't hurt! Back to the layers it is!

As a non-skinner it's a pleasure to follow this thread. Jaypack's work is exeptional and yet he never takes offence when constructive, knowledgeable criticism is offered but incorporates the points made in the skins he is working on. This approach is exactly what A&AP is all about. But don't take too long tweaking those oil-stains, I can't wait to get these "Stangs" into the skies over Europe.

Wingco.