I am new to repainting aircraft. I have FS Repaint and have been doing some work with the Cessna 208B. Right now I am just using my mouse and finding it somewhat difficult to maintain any real control. I was wondering whether going to a digital pen and tablet would be a better approach. Any help would be appreciated.

I am new to repainting aircraft. I have FS Repaint and have been doing some work with the Cessna 208B. Right now I am just using my mouse and finding it somewhat difficult to maintain any real control. I was wondering whether going to a digital pen and tablet would be a better approach. Any help would be appreciated.

Our Texture Artists, including myself, all use an Intuos3 A4 (Wacom), one of them uses the new Intuos4. With 1024 (double that on the I4) pressure points there are of course things you can do with a pen you will never be able to do with a mouse (1PP). I've been using tablets (may it be tablet pc's or regular tablets) for over 5 years now, and yes : I could not go without anymore.But before you shell out a couple a 100 bucks on a tablet, I would throw out FSR, and switch to Photoshop (or if you want to go freeware : paint.net or the Gimp). FSR is not really for painting, although Abacus markets it like that. When it comes to aligning it is of course King Dingeling (literately saved me weeks in total so far), but other than that it is no good.As it is not really an editing program, I would indeed say control is not super. Try the Photoshop demo, see if that works out for you better.In case you do want to go for a tablet, make sure your screen size and the size of the tablet are more or less the same. No use in buying a small Bamboo when you have a 26 inch screen. I think I won't have to explain why that won't do your control any good...Good luck.

Our Texture Artists, including myself, all use an Intuos3 A4 (Wacom), one of them uses the new Intuos4. With 1024 (double that on the I4) pressure points there are of course things you can do with a pen you will never be able to do with a mouse (1PP). I've been using tablets (may it be tablet pc's or regular tablets) for over 5 years now, and yes : I could not go without anymore.But before you shell out a couple a 100 bucks on a tablet, I would throw out FSR, and switch to Photoshop (or if you want to go freeware : paint.net or the Gimp). FSR is not really for painting, although Abacus markets it like that. When it comes to aligning it is of course King Dingeling (literately saved me weeks in total so far), but other than that it is no good.As it is not really an editing program, I would indeed say control is not super. Try the Photoshop demo, see if that works out for you better.In case you do want to go for a tablet, make sure your screen size and the size of the tablet are more or less the same. No use in buying a small Bamboo when you have a 26 inch screen. I think I won't have to explain why that won't do your control any good...Good luck.

Thanks for the info. I think that the pen and tablet would be the way to go. Do you think that the Bamboo Pen and Touch would work out ok for a 19 inch Sony monitor?

I will disagree (only slightly) with Terrence's evaluation of FSRepaint.I use FSR (and it's older cousing VASS-Gold) as a touch up and "front end" to a true paint program like Photoshop or (in my case) Paint Shop Pro.FSR allows the beginner repainter to get his feet wet, and it does handle the setting up of the repaint variant easily enough. The seasoned repainter, using FSR, will simply use FSR to set up the variant and export the textures to his paint program.... and, as to the subject matter of this thread - Pen vs Mouse.... I've also been using WACOM tablets for the past 5+ years, and not just for painting/imaging. (I use the older graphire tablet, because I haven't come around to spending the bucks for the newer ones.... maybe, just maybe, Santa Claus might smile on me..)

I will disagree (only slightly) with Terrence's evaluation of FSRepaint.I use FSR (and it's older cousing VASS-Gold) as a touch up and "front end" to a true paint program like Photoshop or (in my case) Paint Shop Pro.FSR allows the beginner repainter to get his feet wet, and it does handle the setting up of the repaint variant easily enough. The seasoned repainter, using FSR, will simply use FSR to set up the variant and export the textures to his paint program.... and, as to the subject matter of this thread - Pen vs Mouse.... I've also been using WACOM tablets for the past 5+ years, and not just for painting/imaging. (I use the older graphire tablet, because I haven't come around to spending the bucks for the newer ones.... maybe, just maybe, Santa Claus might smile on me..)

I found that FSR allows an external editor to be used. I happen to have Photoshop Elements and tried it's editor but had some issues with Elements wanting to save to the wrong place so have to work that out. Elements editor is quite good and will likely be sufficient for my needs until I can spring for the price of the Pro version of Photoshop. The only other issue I have now is whether it makes any sense to mate the Bamboo with my 19 inch monitor as a temporary measure and go to something better later when I have more experience (and money!) or make the leap to something better now. The advice I that I am getting here is great and I really appreciate it.

My advice - for what it's worth - is first get comfortable with what you have, THEN, as "the britches start getting tight", spring for something better.

My advice - for what it's worth - is first get comfortable with what you have, THEN, as "the britches start getting tight", spring for something better.

I think that is good advice and exactly what I will do. Thanks for the help. I have learned a lot with just these few posts.