My wheels have come off . . .

[BLOWHARD]

BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!!!

[kristorf]

Loverly stuff Jest,
now then, how about a snowy tundra with some Ruskie Grenadiers hanging off the engine deck????

[Jesters-Ink]

You draw um Kris and I'll add um

[Jesters-Ink]

Well I finished a thumb of it and slung it into the showcase, so if any of you feel like giving it a good kicking, you can do it here---->
http://www.simmerspaintshop.com/phot...t/limit/recent

[BLOWHARD]

It's really RALLY nice! But there's one thing I'd like to see, but it's a real puzzler!
The upper hull sides and the turret are sloped but in the profile the appear flat, parallel with the picture frame. But how do you make them appear sloped? Conventional shading techniques would be to darken the edge closed to you and have it get lighter as it recedes away. But in this case you'd end up with what looks like an undercut The other alternative is to have it get darker as it recedes. That at least get's the point across. I tried my hand at this on one of your earlier versions but I can't say it was too successful.
Also, the turret could use more shape definition, at least in your finished snow camo version. The earlier one I monkeyed with does have the rear half of the turret shaded darker. But I think you could use a highlight where the contours turn the corner from front to back. The one I painted on is a little strong.
And here's the conventional method, the closer edges are darker. Not as "wrong" looking as I thought but I don't know if it works any better.
Neither version really seems to feel 3 dimensional as far as the sloping sides are concerned.


And now the real hard part, all the weathering you put on it, and the camouflage, will only serve to break up these contours more and make them harder to discern. But you just can't have a tank without weathering!!!!
I gather your snow camo turret does have the rear half shaded darker to indicate the contour but it isn't noticeable because of the camo. At the very least, you'd need to bump up the amount of light and dark to compensate for the camouflage.

This is a VERY VERY tough problem. I have no idea how it can be solved but I think it's worth working on, it will only make your T-34 an even stronger profile. It will also help on that panther profile too
(I wish I knew what to do here, it bugs me when I don't know how to solve a shape problem )

[Jesters-Ink]

Concave and convex, but neither are correct, both being commonly used by "artist" to portray slopes in profile. Problem is, it’s a flat side reflecting slightly more light due to its angle. You know what we need Blow? A profile photograph of the subject clean, now let me see, where are my books?

Thanks for the nudge.

[BLOWHARD]

A good photo would help. But this might not show up so good in a photo, real life usually being more subtle than the eye can discern :P
As far as the "nudge", it might turn out this is a tail chaser and not really something that can be done any better than what you have, but it's worth a try though

About Profiles, Uwe Feist did art for the very old original Squadron In Action T-34 book. I don't have that book but I do have the original printing of the Tiger book and it's printed in there small. Let me see if I can find it, Feist's painting used to seem really good to me although I haven't looked at them recently.

[Jesters-Ink]

Hmm, I have that book and . . . the one profile in there (of the same type) looks flatter than a flat thing ran very flat by a steamroller.

[BLOWHARD]

No luck on the Feist profile, too small, not much detail and it might not even be his :P

I did find this-

Notice anything?
A simple trick that might work wonders in fooling the eye is perspective-

I put a little texture, albeit VERY oversized, on the sides and skewed the edges in at the top, along with your weathering it does indicate the slope.
Oddly enough, your turret already has this sort of perspective on it, at least in the rust/dirt dripping down the sides
It would be a LOT of work, and it may be contrary to the whole idea of doing profiles as we do, but maybe you could do a bit of forced perspective on the hull brackets? It could be a first for tank profiles!
Anyway, something more to think of

[BLOWHARD]

Scratch that maybe, I guess if you showed perspective in your hull texture and weathering, the brackets and other additions to the side would NEED to be in the same perspective :P
I have a feeling I would try it if it were my profile but it does sound like a lot of work...and maybe it wouldn't pay off either