Prime Air MD-11

[thibodba57 462]

Decided to play with the PMDG MD-11 Repaints and made a Fiction Prime Air variant.  Took some liberties with the winglets (the 767 doesn't have them) but I think it came out all right.  Worthy of posting online?  I also made a Atlas, Polar and Polar DHL repaints as well.  Think they are all about "done."

[Keven Menard 658]

Veeery good looking!

[out 769]

Worthy of posting online?  I also made a Atlas, Polar and Polar DHL repaints as well.

 

Definitely, Brian! This repaint looks gorgeous.

I am looking forward to trying it as well as the other mentioned.

 

Keep up the good work!

[thibodba57 462]

Thanks guys, the only thing I can't for the life of me figure out is the belly.  The 2D image is stretched to make it work on 3D so the logo gets warped.

[JAT 185]

Looking good.

 

nebojsa

[Bartolomeus 34]

Great work on the livery.

[Steve Dra 7,588]

Hey Brian,

Great work on the livery(s)  :wink:

You have discovered one of the hardest tasks painters face who have to paint on a 2D map that gets converted to a 3D object that is curved.

Depending on how the modeler chose to orient the 3d cylinder (fuselage) on the 2d map, and where he/she puts the joint seam, we are confronted with this issue. (Not telling you something you haven't already discovered, just general info for those who don't paint and sometimes think we can just whip out these paints with little effort, hehe)

The tool I use in Paint Shop is called the "Raster Deform Tool" which allows you to warp the object.  What you essentially have to do is compress the text so when its stretched around the bottom of the fuse it reverts to its normal size.  The easiest way to visualize this is to buy a deflated balloon with text written on it and noticed how scrunched it is, but turns into normal text as you blow it up.

 

With my Cargolux 744F paint, I have the horrendously difficult task to try and warp the nose door logo around a COMPOUND curve (curves both up and around at the nose).  You can see here I made a duplicate of the logo layer (ALWAYS make a duplicate and work with it, turning off the original layer to come back to when (not if) you mess up the logo, hehe).

I grab the handles of the tool and warp it to the dimensions I "think" will work, then view it in a 3d model viewer, see its wrong, then repeat the process, again, again, and again.    

I'm not exaggerating when I say that this single task can constitute 90% of the overall process of the paintjob, depending on the location and the tools the modeler gives us to help in this area (some create a special "2d plate" to put a severely warped texture on to handle the warping within the model, every model varies).

 

Good luck in your endeavor....If I had the PMDG MD-11 I'd see if I could offer more specific advice with that model, unfortunately I'll never have it since its not for sale at PMDG any longer (the only place I'd buy it if anyone suggests I could get it elsewhere like Amazon...just check the price of it there if you want to see real sticker shock!)

 

[Steve Dra 7,588]

Here is a link to a YT video showing how to use the warp tool in PS.....a similar task that you're doing in flightsim (but with a beer bottle? LoL)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpoKUDJjeGw

[HighBypass 2,339]

A great repaint! Do you think Prime Air may actually use MD-11s in the future or just go with FedEx or UPS's fleet if they had to?

 

Steve, thanks for the insight!

 

[signmanbob 592]

I really like your Amazon Prime Cargo paint a lot.  I hope you post a link for it.

Did you know that Amazon is really thinking about getting into the cargo business?  I read that it has already put in an order for, I think, 60 aircraft.

It wants to get away from using UPS for all of its shipments, from what I understand.  Amazon considers UPS its bottleneck.  So your paint may not be so fictitious.

 

Bob

[thibodba57 462]

Amazon itself is not flying the cargo. It has contracted two companies ATSG and Atlas to fly 40 767s (20 each). There is talk about another 20 who knows who they will contract to fly them though. There is no MD-11s flying the Prime Air flights. Only 767s and maybe some 737s if they are still doing them with NAC and Kallita 2.

The repaint is based on the Atlas livery (Amazon One). My guess is all the 76s we filly for them will eventually be done in that livery. Maybe 74s at some point would be my guess depending on any need to get stuff from Asia to the warehouse.

 

All my AAWW (Atlas Air World Wide) have been uploaded. Just waiting for Avsim staff to approve it. Hope you guys enjoy them.

Steve I've tried image warping before but the image still looks stretched. Maybe I'll send ya an image of what I'm talking about. I've tried a few different ways to work around but nothing has worked well enough yet.