The Nose Knows

Here is the next detail I'm adding to the AA paint.

Sadly the lightning strips are baked into the 3d model so I can't remove the misaligned shadows (moving the strips to the shadows is the only option and its a delicate piece of painting requiring a lot of work/time).  Anyway, it looks pretty good from a normal viewing distance so I'll see what my testers think of leaving it in the paint. Or I may tone it down....a LOT of work goes into loading the textures in P3d and rotating the view around the plane at all angles and changing the lighting via time of day to ensure I get the best average look for all the details I'm adding.

This involves sometimes actually removing or re-scaling, changing brightness/contrast, opacity etc of the one detail to make it blend naturally into the paint from a average viewing distance...I can't stress that enough.  Adding too many details without regard to how they impact the average look can make the plane look highly detailed...but fake'ish if you know what I mean.  I've been doing this a very long time and I believe my "calibrated eye" is a valuable tool to make the paint just look "right" when we see her in our virtual flightsim world.  Its a passion and I strive to bring you guys paints you'll enjoy viewing as you pan around the exterior. 

Big thanks goes to Jordan Hoppe at American Airlines for getting me all the detailed close-up pics that have been invaluable in replicating this lady as best I can. 

Here is another shot of the nose at an average viewing distance: