Hi all, I just thought I'd share one more of the multitude of projects I've got going... The B-17G. Since it's by far my favorite a/c of all time, I really wanted to do it justice. This was a template that I started several months ago, and when I started I had planned on completely doing the whole thing from scratch, including internals, lines, and everything (new internals are still an eventual possibility). I started by redrawing the wing panel lines to match some drawings (Mark Styling's) I had scanned, and I'd planned on doing the fuselage as well, but I decided the lines in Jarink's template were almost close enough. I still have a few minor tweaks to add to the lines, but they're finished for the most part.
The next step was adding TONS of rivets... the pattern is semi- accurate, but I just wanted something that would give some semblance of the thousands of rivets used on this a/c. The rest of the template was built with some elements from Jarink, FBS, and Nitrous, and a lot of my own work. The Natural metal is an extremely heavily modified Jarink layer (actually several layers), as are the Unit markings (also slightly modified).
Unfortunately, I was very close to actually finishing this template a few weeks ago when I suffered a computer crash right in the middle of saving, which corrupted the file and left me with essentially nothing... I had a backup that included the lines and rivets (at least I didn't have to do THOSE again... *phew!), but essentially everything else was lost. It took me until a couple days ago to actually work up the courage to start this one back up again, but I think my far-from-final result now is much better than the version I had before the crash, and I discovered a few more techniques for doing NMF planes, so the whole situation actually worked out for the better
Anyway, I just thought I'd share some WIP shots, keep in mind that these still have quite a ways to go.
I'm planning on doing some generic skins for all of the 8th AF units, and I'll also probably end up doing the 15th and some pacific B-17s eventually. I might also eventually update the template for some B-17F, E, and D skins (though that might not be for awhile). My main focus right now is doing a 381st BG "Mega-pack" , I've always had an interest in this group, (don't ask me why...), and their website has a wealth of information including serial numbers, ID letter codes, nicknames, and noseart photos, so I've got a lot to work with. Anyway, just thought I'd post what I have so far, let me know what you think, and any suggestions, criticisms, nitpicks, etc are all very welcome. This is still a WIP, so any feedback will be very helpful for finishing it up.
And finally, here are the screens:
Linear Mode
