Hi gents, I have toyed with the idea of this and really want to help nudge newcomers into trying repaints for themselves. It might be just the needed push or motivation some of you need to give your artistic abilities a chance. Painting can be loads of fun, and in itself is a very rewarding hobby. I recommend using the Paint Tutorial and posting issues and questions there since it would be great to get more feedback before making a final pdf version and ensure it contains any needed further explanations/corrections.This contest is meant for new painters so sorry Mac Paint and Jim (Hodge001) but your strengths would be more appreciated with the final judging of the new talent :(Contest Rules:

• Any PMDG repaint listed here:
  • 744 FSX/FS9
  • MD-11 FSX/FS9
  • JS-41

  [*]Finalists may be required to provide me with their actual .psd files used to create the paint to avoid using someone else's work.

  • These files will only be used for verification and not for my own use, I promise.

  [*]A couple of screenshots will need to be posted (I can host them on my own site if you prefer and link them for you).[*]The finished product MUST be uploaded to the AVSIM library and link provided by the deadline of 1 May, 2010 (Don't forget your read me install directions).[*]One entry per user only. (So make it count :( )[*]Full names per forum rules on all entries.

Prizes:

• 1st Place = Choice of any one PMDG downloadable product (Not combo's). Even to include the upcoming NGX release..
• 2nd Place = Choice of AOA's training DVDs (MD-11 dvds are scheduled to be released 11 May 2010).
• 3rd Place = Swiss Douglas MD11 DVD or Martinair MD-11 DVD or Oasis Hong Kong Boeing 747-400 DVD.
  • Prizes may vary, depending on availability for region but within same price range.

*Keep screenshots to 800x600 max (or link only for bigger) and limit of 3 per entry.The choice is your's on what you want to repaint, or create. A repaint of course would mean that the work is compared to the actual paint you are trying to duplicate and would be under the many eyes of all of the rivet counters and perfectionists, and a fictional paint would of course be judged on the more creative aspects (my personal favorite choice for doing liveries since they get the creative juices flowing, however they can sometimes be much harder ;-).Of course this is from my own wallet so am unable to award the 1st place winner with a New and Real JS41 (my first choice), but then again, if I could afford that I wouldn't be here typing now would I? :(This is just for fun, and in hopes to motivate people to give their skills a chance. The timeline is based on a reasonable amount of time for the casual forum reader to have a chance to see this post and give the busier individual a more feasible amount of time to complete.

That's a very generous thing to offer Dan! I hope it inspires lots of us to take up painting aircraft.Cheers,Mark Tuma

Damn mate, I have to do this!!! Ill lose though, lol.

Hey Dan, count me in :) another cool JS41 Paint should be doable until may! br, Alexander Roithmair

DanJust curious, don't mean to sound rude, but are you paying for the prizes or is this an official PMDG contest?In the same spirit, please feel free not to answer with no offence taken on my side.Best regards.

Good morning Gavin....I think it says above this is out of his pocket...Quite generous really. :(

DanJust curious, don't mean to sound rude, but are you paying for the prizes or is this an official PMDG contest?In the same spirit, please feel free not to answer with no offence taken on my side.Best regards.

Hi Gavin, To answer what Joe already did :(No, this is just my own thing and not a PMDG contest. Your question is not at all rude, infact I edited out a section that made this more known that I should probably have left in there. I debated with the title of this for too long, as I did with the paint tutorial (debated that title for 2 months, haha) since it starts with PMDG, which I can see as being possibly misleading or confusing.Everyone pays for their forms of entertainment. Some buy addons and games (ok, I do that, too much ;-), and some go out on the weekends (My prefered method of fun). So when you break it down, I am really not paying much here when you take in the equation % of enjoyment / time = $.01. :(It's fun for me just knowing it will be fun for others and the fact that I know most people just need to do their first paint to see just how easy and fun it is really a bonus.

Damn mate, I have to do this!!! Ill lose though, lol.

Nah, I wouldn't say that at all. You'll be surprised at how easy it is, in fact you never know. You may be one of only 3 that enter and will be guaranteed a prize :(

Hi Dan,Sounds like fun being an aspiring PMDG painter!Just so we understand the rules....On what merits will the paintings be judged? I would hate to get into a similar situation like the KCX tanker contract debate!!!Second, my eyes lit up when I saw NGX as a potential 1st prize, but how about the PMDG 777. Does your wallet extend that far? :( cheers,

Haha, hey Mark.It's not a question of extending the wallet that long, but rather not leave any loose ends that far in the future. Meaning, that I want to make sure each winner gets their winnings and rather have it all paid for sooner than later :( If PMDG would PM expected prices of all their future products I could buy some sort of gift certificate for the winners account of course, but hardly doubt those prices will be available until release.Sorry for the lengthy reply here, but it's hard to answer this.As for the grounds on judging goes, it is as it say more or less. If someone decides to do a repaint of an existing tail number, then they will of course be under the very unforgiving eyes of the many around here. As you've seen in repaints, it seems that more people rather be the first to call out the problems with them, rather than applaud the efforts made (as seen with many great Mac Paints). Undertaking a complex repaint and nailing it would be pretty darn monumental for a novice I think, but then again, all the steps needed to do so are in my tutorial :)At the same time, doing something that has never been thought of such as a fictional repaint could also be huge. It really depends on so many factors. Nothing extravigant will be expected but seeing certain styles, pen tool striping complexity and taking the upper pull of the fuselage vortexes to their limits could show HUGE amounts of effort, but then again a simple and real eye catching livery could as well.I won't be judging these myself and have several people I know will pipe in with their opinions. One thing I will be looking for is how good the directions are for the users that download their livery (the read me in their zip after upload to AVSIM). This is basic, yet a great paint with crap directions will lose for sure if neck and neck with someone that has easy to follow install directions. Also, if for FSX, did they forget the thumbnail? Haha, little thing here, but terrible to see in so many repaints people have available. A good repaint could take 50+ hours to do and not taking the needed minute for a thumbnail is often seen, and pretty sad. The rest is like I said and is just depending on the effort for the particular choice.Again, a repaint is a tough choice for some because attention to detail would be more than expected and scrutinized over by all. A custom paint would be my personal choice but have pulled my hair out just trying to decide on a base color haha. In a custom choice it would be more on several factors like creativity, complexity or simplicity (hard to say here, it would have to be based on the Authors approach and choice). The Guinness livery was my first MD-11 repaint. Of course I am fairly familiar with models and Photoshop so this first is a bad example, but to show time consumption and my approach and comparison with say the repaint I did in the tutorial. The Guinness took me over 80+ hours to complete. I spent 2 days straight just getting the spoon to work on the roof. I'd be able to notice any and all complex details that push the pull of the upper areas one has in their liveries. The 747 repaint I did in the tutorial took me 2 days total. I spent about 4 hours gathering and noting specific detail in pictures, taking notes etc... then I spent the next day (a couple hours really) doing the actual paint. I spent the most time on it doing the custom alpha channel I think.Both approaches have their individual strong points and neither is a better choice over the other.Of course, I would expect to see the Author giving an explanation of their work when they provide their pictures. If there are any questions I'll be sure to ask. After the deadline the finalists will most likely just be voted on by the members of the community, as it should be. In the case of a tie, it might even come down to how well organized one persons .psd files are over the others, hint hint :(I really think this will be a lot of fun, and just wish I could award all of them. I think everyone the enters will be awarded by their creation and other user comments I'm sure but still wish my pocket was deeper :(Edit: I hope it doesn't appear that a winning entry would need to be complex. That is not the case, and only that complexity would be seen. A winning entry could be as simple as presenting a very eye appealing base color radiant on a simple livery. Each is based on several factors.

Hey Dan,Thanks for the pointers. :( I'll certainly bear them in mind. I have one or 2 ideas of what I could potentially produce, but I'm not saying anymore. :( One other question, I assume for the 747 we can paint the -8, correct? Cheers,BTW- you mentioned getting feedback on the tutorial. For one I found it very useful. Since it 's based on Photoshop and I use PhotoX2 (aka PSP) there are a couple of areas where performing certain operations is significantly different e.g. alpha channel creation. I can jot down a few notes on how I accomplished this in the other package, if this helps round out the tutorial? I would be interested to see how others do this too.

Hi Gavin, To answer what Joe already did :(No, this is just my own thing and not a PMDG contest. Your question is not at all rude, infact I edited out a section that made this more known that I should probably have left in there. I debated with the title of this for too long, as I did with the paint tutorial (debated that title for 2 months, haha) since it starts with PMDG, which I can see as being possibly misleading or confusing.Everyone pays for their forms of entertainment. Some buy addons and games (ok, I do that, too much ;-), and some go out on the weekends (My prefered method of fun). So when you break it down, I am really not paying much here when you take in the equation % of enjoyment / time = $.01. :(It's fun for me just knowing it will be fun for others and the fact that I know most people just need to do their first paint to see just how easy and fun it is really a bonus.

Thanks for that answer Dan - and for taking it in the spirit in which it was intended :(

Very interesting... I've got some ideas of my own already.I haven't checked out the PMDG paint kits before though. I guess they can't be much different from any other paint kit!I kind of wish there were a 748 kit...

Dan,Is there a way to have a pdf of your tutorial? At least for me it'll be easier to follow if printed.Thanks for all the help you give to the community. :(

Is there a way to have a pdf of your tutorial? At least for me it'll be easier to follow if printed.

Do you have open office or adobe acrobat? You can just copy and paste the text into the open office word processor and save as PDF. It's free too. Alternately, there are some online PDF converters where you simply upload a file and it lets you download it as a PDF.

Do you have open office or adobe acrobat? You can just copy and paste the text into the open office word processor and save as PDF. It's free too. Alternately, there are some online PDF converters where you simply upload a file and it lets you download it as a PDF.

There won't be any photos then or I'll have to copy them one by one and place them properly in the doc... I could do this, I was just curious if Dan had smth like this already prepared (he said he'd do so).