Hi PeopleI have recently purchased fs repaint but also have jasacs photo suite.Having played around a little I am after some tips.1. Is there a way of overpainting without loosing the details such as the panel lines and rivets?2. Whats the most common way of painting a livery, is it to get a photo and cut and paste or is it best done by hand?3. Whats the average time it takes to do a basic repaint? (I appreaciate this can be difficult to put a time on but lets say a 737 in BA colours) (this will make me feel better as i am working on one that has so far taken 4 weeks)4. What is the best way to make a paint scheme look dirty?Thanks in advance for the advice it is really appreciated as I am beging to loose faith:-hmmm

Ok, I will try to answer your questions.1), yes, paint on a new layer, that is "over" the detail, then add a "multiply" modifier to it.2), Well, there are 2 schools of thought on this, I personally hand draw everything, but there are many people who do "photo-real" paints, but you need to have a good resource of high quality pictures, and they all need to be the same colour, as the colours on photos can vary wildly.3), Average time?, hmmmm.....tricky question, I suppose that once I have a paintkit sorted in the way I like it, about 30mins to 2 hours, depending on the difficulty, I also have a high collection of logos and decals, so that saves time.4), There are various ways to do it, I use the spray can tool, the smudge tool, and also fade the dirt layer untill it looks right.Note, Layers are your friend, USE THEM ;)Dan.

Don't loose faith starting to paint is a lot of trial and error but afterwards very rewarding :-)1.) I'm only painting with a paintkit (made by myself lol) or from an other author... but most of the time I do the detail work by myself then you end up with a lot of layers... so no need for overpainting the detail ;-)Most of the paint work (and time) is in the detail work lines rivets shades etc...)What Dan already told ya... layers are your friend and layer effects also (try different effects to see what the result will be (muliply is one of them ;-))Later you will learn the alpha channel with a lot of effects also...2.) In my paints I do a lot of hand drawing (most) but use also photo stuff into the paint (and they don't see the difference lol)...3.) It depends but a basic paint is done in 30 mins till 2 hours, but most of my paints (lot of detail and photo real effects) 4 till 6 hours...A paintkit with details / effects / alpha and texture work that is a whole other timeframe... (no repaint)4.) With dirt you can use different techniques blur (different effects)/smudge/layer effects etc... Just have fun and go for it, when you release your first one let us know ;-)Andr

Thanks for the advice, much appreciated.I have laid the BA scheme aside for a while and I am now playing with the new Martinair scheme ( a little more simple) and this is going quite well.I have found that (as you advised) it is easiest to overpaint and then add the details, tedious but effective.I look forward to getting the martinair scheme down ( I have 5 days off now) and hope to be able to maybe show a part finished example in this time.Look after, happy painting, and I look forward to a chat again soon.:-beerchugRegardsPaul:-)

I'll stick my 2 cents in here for what it's worth. Although the paint program I use is different than most.If details are already in place on your paint kit I usually mask an area and tint it to the color I'm looking for. that way the details that are there will still be there. The best way to learn is to mess up but go at it with all you got. JohnnyV

Any previews of your work Paul curious :-)Andr

Just as a point of information, the FS Repaint default paint editor is a "flat" editor, no layers. For that, you work in conjunction with your external editor - in this case - PSP. Once you get your basic textures "set" between PSP and FS Repaint, you can leisurely work directly on the alpha channel in FS RepaintFelix/FFDSPegasus Aviation Design