Holy crap I finally found some free time!

Here's my first (rough) draft of your weathered Cats, Grumpy!





Let me know what you think!

YES! Those look great bud! Can't wait to see them all complete. Just like me, there's always something "extra" lol

I really like the wear on the access panels on the Cat!


and


make sure the joint where the wing folds has quite a bit too. Even if it's not "wear" but instead a salt/grime buildup. it'd be perfect!

here's a great pic of them testing guns on a 'Cat on a carrier. Totally shows her access panels opened up!


and here's one of the underside of the jont!


can't wait til we go into the HD skin and really add all this detail!

also, as for the grime and gunk from the engine -
the Wildcat likes to almost look like she dribbles oil out after about an hour's worth of flight. It just happens. So that'd be cool to add, and here's where it is and what it looks like


feel free to totally grime that up (I saw it's there in yours, but more subtle). She get's awfully gunky quick!

and as always
feel free to use my Pinterest board of EPIC pics for reference
http://www.pinterest.com/tanukidomo/f4ffm-wildcat/

if you have any questions about pics being original or recent, I know which are which. I tried to say so in the captions, but I know I missed a few.

Nice start to the weathering Joe, especially with the paint chipping... that's something I always struggle with and tend to avoid if I can!

so...

just a little update - still on my lady's laptop, but

I found a 1/32 trumpeter model build of an SBD-3. Honestly, found this about a year ago and lost it. It's always been in my head as the "weathering goal"



not to brag, I paint this well. this isn't me, but I seriously used to compete in Warhammer 40K modeling with Games Workshop and White Dwarf, and the modelling club back in SoCal. I want to join one again, but it doesn't seem there's much locally.

and here's a link to the full webpage with it.
http://dqscaleworks.blogspot.com/2013/02/guest-gallery-sbd-3-dauntless-132-by.html

needless to say, I saved it on my pinterest, and printed it to .pdf via google chrome!

Needless to say, I'm really excited for this.

Maty I'm wicked excited too.

Hey bud, can you do me another favor? Still can't fly myself.

here's my latest skin, it's for one of my buddies in the airgroup. I updated the radiator cowlings, and I added his number and name-plate.

If you could, could you take some screencaps of it? I'm basically looking for one just like this:

and then some zoomed in and around the cowling, and the tail. Basically a couple captures giving a full 360 view up close on those two parts. I learned on my buddy's game you can actually zoom in quite a bit in 3rd person by changing the FOV just like in the cockpit!

thanks bud, here's the skin, she's for the SBD-3 -
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_HjJ5WmR8lSUEF4NnFpWWZtR3c/edit?usp=sharing

I'll see what I can do, my friend.

Here you go:

wow thanks Maty!

honestly, the screen resolution on this laptop is so poor, it's hard to make discerning choices lol.

I want to ask you, what's your opinion on using "Ana 601 - Insignia White" for my "White Flight" markings?

I think on this early paint scheme, it's alright... but on others, it'll be too much? I dunno. What do you think bud?

I know on the 3-color, the underbelly is ANA-601 anyway, so maybe I'm just paranoid? lol It just looks like a perfect target for AA gunners to shoot at lol

One thing I think I'm going to go ahead and start trying to lighten the canvas sections of the birds like Tom?s de la Fuente did on his model -

I like that look alot, because I know what salty air does to painted canvas lol

Beyond that, Maty, what do you think of the panel lines and rivets now? I still need to actually work on the rivets btw, and separate them like I did the panel lines (thx HB -S!-) but beyond that, how is their transparency you think? I'm kind of a fan of the defined rivets like the model shows, rather than the more subtle. In person, they're one of the first things I tend to notice about early birds.

I think tha ANA-601 wouldn't work on the 3 tone, as it would look pretty weird, but it works on the others. Were you talking about my laptop or yours? Mine is kinda crappy, but she's served me well for the past few years I did like the rivets better on the previous skin, but those in the model do look cool.