Hey guys!

 

I am about to finish up my first repaint and even though it's a "simple" repaint, it's been bringing me so much trouble. I just learned about Alpha channels and am trying to get those finalized. In the pictures below, how do I get the silver "lips" of the engines to be selected in the alpha channel perfectly? How do I get that grey line at the top to go away? Also notice the line straight on the bottom of the intake.

 

 

The next question was one that I somewhat have solved after several hours but want to see if there is an easier way to be done... How do you guys get the lines across the tail to line up perfectly?

 

 

Last question is almost the same as above, except this is still an issue on my paint. How do you get the nose in this situation lined up?

(The very bottom of the gold line is the problem, the rest of it has been fixed)

 

 

 

-----------------HERE is what I have as a "test 1" complete paint thus far:

 

 

 

What do you guys think? Feedback would be great before I publish it!

 

Thanks,

Kyle

I'm guessing since I posted this a while ago, the "edit" option isn't available... Anyways I've fixed the top of the engine deal along with updating the colors for the supports that hold the engines in place, but still would like to know how to line the lines up perfectly across the nose and rear of the aircraft.

would like to know how to line the lines up perfectly across the nose and rear of the aircraft.

Trial and error does it most of the time.

 

There are a couple tips in the faqs- http://forum.avsim.net/topic/293144-painting-faqs/

 

regards,

Joe

As Joe said its just a matter of trial and error.

I must say you did the job quiet well so far.

There is no "special trick", just try , try again ,try once more.....and so on.

 

 

Cheers

 

Leen

The good ole iFly paintkit. Like was said above the belly stripes are trial and error. Just wait till you try paint that gold at the front of the fuselage that crosses the belly section. Another tip. When you are pasting your sections into the Fuse_C bmp you will need to select (or cut and paste) the right fuselage section and move it 3 pixels down. It won't line up properly if you don't do this. Took me a couple of weeks to figure out why my stripes were not lined up.

 

I think what I did for the alpha channel was select the part of the engine you are talking about using the "Pen" tool, making it a selection then filling the selection with a color on a new layer. I use that as a guide to select that part of the engine then go into the channels and fill the alpha with whatever color of gray I would like. The reason I made a layer guide was so I could use it to select on all my reapaints. I usually make a kind of custom paintkit to make things like what you are talking about a little easier.

 

Another problem with the iFly kit is the strechting that occurs when you paint high up on the fuselage. They really need to make a new uv map.

 

I'll check some of my repaints tommorrow and see if I can find one that has a similar stripe crossing the nose. If I do, I can send you a copy of the file. It's a pain-in-the-butt and sometimes you just cannot work it out.

 

BTW, you did a good job with the rear belly stipes.

The good ole iFly paintkit. Like was said above the belly stripes are trial and error. Just wait till you try paint that gold at the front of the fuselage that crosses the belly section. Another tip. When you are pasting your sections into the Fuse_C bmp you will need to select (or cut and paste) the right fuselage section and move it 3 pixels down. It won't line up properly if you don't do this. Took me a couple of weeks to figure out why my stripes were not lined up.

 

I think what I did for the alpha channel was select the part of the engine you are talking about using the "Pen" tool, making it a selection then filling the selection with a color on a new layer. I use that as a guide to select that part of the engine then go into the channels and fill the alpha with whatever color of gray I would like. The reason I made a layer guide was so I could use it to select on all my reapaints. I usually make a kind of custom paintkit to make things like what you are talking about a little easier.

 

Another problem with the iFly kit is the strechting that occurs when you paint high up on the fuselage. They really need to make a new uv map.

 

I'll check some of my repaints tommorrow and see if I can find one that has a similar stripe crossing the nose. If I do, I can send you a copy of the file. It's a pain-in-the-butt and sometimes you just cannot work it out.

 

BTW, you did a good job with the rear belly stipes.

 

Hey thanks for the reply! If you find one with the nose strip, that would be highly appreciated! This "simple" paint has taken me forever to do!