Skins by Aelius

[aelius]

The moderator has been good enough to change the title of this thread to better reflect the addition of new skins and not simply the one that initiated it.

I also will post a summary page with links to all the revised 2048 x 2048 templates. And now that Philpott's book on German fighters in Russia has arrived, there will be a new template for the skeletal Bf-110 of NAGr.1.

[kristorf]

Set up a free account here mate http://www.postimage.org/ , it keeps the original size but posts on forums smaller until you click on the image

[aelius]

Thanks for the suggestion, kristorf.

Postimage certainly presents a less cluttered page than MediaFire and has a good interface. But it, too, reduces the resolution of uploaded files.

[Gourmand]

i confirm postimage reduce jpg and corrupt file... when i would centralize kristorf's work their skin, i must re-save by gimp

Aelius you can upload to my site in my sign youre 2024*2024, and you can point your work here :

http://www.cliffsofdover.fr/?recherc...e=-1&trie=date
they are no reduce, no zip, no wait to dowload, a counter of dl...

[aelius]

Having tried several more services and discovering each one to have a deficiency of one sort or another, I plan to take advantage of Gourmand's offer to upload to Cliffs of Dover, as well as to Gamekeeper's earlier invitation to post on Airwarfare: Storm of War.

I'll be posting here first, of course, and link to the other sites.

Again, thanks to the community for its support and encouragement.

[addman]

Great nightfighter skin Aelius! Looking forward to downloading the 2048x2048 version.

[aelius]

It is unusual for a plane such as Q1+VB to be so elusive as to type. It has been described as an F when those external features that otherwise would identify it as a G are not visible and even then, either as a G-2 or G-3 sub-variant, the latter presumably because the plane was attached to NAGr.1, which was a reconnaissance unit, and the G-3 was configured for that role, having cameras in place of the MG 151 canons.

The confusion is understandable, given that all the pictures derive from a single sequence of photographs, which were taken, one suspects, only because the port engine of Q1+VB happened to catch fire when the cameraman was present. In some, the plane is obscured by smoke but others allow it to be identified as a G-2, most authoritatively by Rosch in Luftwaffe Codes, Markings & Units 1939-1945.

Although there were variations in the transition from the F-type, there are several features that represent the G-2 alone (there was no G-1): the location of the wing pitots and, less obviously, the small air scoop in front of the exhaust pipes; the three circular instrument windows on the engine cowling that were replaced by a single triangular window; and the fairing that surrounded the air inlet on the nose.

What is most apparent, however, is the dual barrel MG 81Z (for zwilling, twin) machine gun in the rear cockpit, which now opened from the side, characteristics that are most evident in this picture. (Note the binoculars around the neck of the observer.)

Modelers typically present the plane in a splinter camouflage pattern, either in gray green (RLM 02) over dark green (RLM 71) or, more correctly, splintered in gray (RLM 75 over RLM 74). I followed the latter scheme, mottling the colors to better replicate the photographs of the time (but also omitting the skeletal fingers on the top of the engine cowlings).

It can be downloaded in its original 2048 x 2048 format here.

[LcSummers]

aelius this is a wonderfull skin. Thanks for your hard work. Nice one.

Do you intend to make one with the Wespe? Are you focused only on the 110 or later on other aircraft?

Thanks again for giving us another nice skin and please do not forget to keep up your great work

[aelius]

Eventually, I do intend to offer the Wespe and have been working on the insignia (as I can bring myself to return to it) for the past week or so.

But if wrapping the skeletal hand around two surfaces was challenging, trying to align all the bits when they cover the sides, top, bottom, and nose of the plane is an exercise in frustration, especially given the template with which one has to work. Even then, the image begins to distort and the lines become irregular as they are applied over a three-dimensional surface.

As to the Bf-110, the model seems particularly detailed and, inspired by the work of Shado and Graf, a natural place to start. It also is a flamboyant plane, with its yellow cowlings, unit codes and insignia, camouflage schemes, chevrons and theater bands. This is why skinning just for the Battle of Britain is too restrictive. (There would be more opportunities, too, if the developers offered a Bf-110D, which also saw limited action.)

The Wespe probably will be the last of the Bf-110 skins, aside from an occasional change in nose art. Now that they are being made available in their correct 2048 x 2048 format, I have a chance to review them again. When that's done, it will be time for the Messerschmitt Bf-109 and Spitfire.

A confession: I do not have Shado's expertise and am skinning for myself, as well as the community. But my own interest is the resulting screenshot, and I am less concerned, for example, about the color of the spinning propellers. The hubs of Q1+VB are blurred so they will be appropriate for the picture, but it is an awkward look when they are not turning.

The fact that the planes offer a completely different experience for those who actually fly them in combat is a measure of how satisfying Cliffs of Dover can be for us all.

And even I appreciate the new sounds.

[aelius]

All the templates finally have been uploaded in their correct 2048 x 2048 format to both Air War Fare and Cliffs of Dover, where they are grouped under "aelius."

Aside from the higher resolution, some minor changes have been made, which are described below.

Several maddenly elusive bits of color splintering that originally had defied discovery have been corrected.









The yellow identification band introduced a splash of color on the spinners and, although not visible in flight, has been redrawn.



The curious replacement tail, which retained its original camouflage scheme, is what made this plane so interesting. But it later was repainted and now is shown completely in black.



Skinned to demonstrate the difficulty in distinguishing between tones in a black-and-white photograph, the Staffel letter now is red instead of gray.





The unit code has been made smaller and a more mottled camouflage scheme applied to better correspond to the historical antecedent.