That Golden Age

[x4btr]

Greetings All,

I wanted to post some WIP material on a new project of mine, one of several that are a bit, shall we say, on a new trajectory. I reckon it could be a bit shocking for some to see work from me lacking a red star (!), but in fact I do work in other genre, and have done before now (pull the other one..!).

This project is an attempt to profile all of the aircraft of Imperial Airways during the Golden Years of the 20's and 30's. These wonderful, weird and wobbly machines of this time have always been personal favourites, and I find the civil colouration of some of the operators from the era to be extraordinary.



This image is quite smaller than the original, but one can get the gist of it, I hope. There are some lovely details in the full-sized, such as chromed spinners and such like.

Right, well, one can imagine that the project is enormous, and so it is turning out to be! But, great fun nevertheless. Here is a sample of the series, a DH.91 from 1938. Lovely aircraft that. I hope you enjoy it, and will will post more updates at a semi-regular interval.

[Supah]

Well as this a WIP I don't know which parts you intend to fix but the top does look VERY bright almost to the point that all detail is lost like a overexposed photograph. I'd make the shadows a whole lot darker and work on the metal effects of the aircraft. The markings etc. do look good and I think it's a very cool choice of aircraft.

[gamary]

Sounds like a great project! One of my favourites is the A.W.15, which looks like it was designed no to fly.

As for this one, I agree with Supah: it looks too bright. Also, the back seems a bit too "humped", but I may well be wring here: I don't know the Albatross very well. But it do remember it looking like a very slick suppository. (Censor me. I've been looking for it.)

Looking forward to more!

[Supah]

Sounds like a great project! One of my favourites is the A.W.15, which looks like it was designed no to fly.

As for this one, I agree with Supah: it looks too bright. Also, the back seems a bit too "humped", but I may well be wring here: I don't know the Albatross very well. But it do remember it looking like a very slick suppository. (Censor me. I've been looking for it.)

Looking forward to more!

I just looked suppository up on wikipedia and I have to say; GROSS DUDE!

[x4btr]

The bright appearance is deliberate, actually. I admit it looks odd, perhaps, but I have more than one photograph of this very aircraft in flight. The very smooth laminate surface combined with the silver dope treatment resulted in a very considerable amount of reflected light and glare. The doors, for example, are not visible in any of these images.

I am not certain about the amount of shading to apply to the undersurfaces, to be honest. I was rather going for a more 'reflective' approach here, as seen in one of the photos. It would all depend of course of the scene's lighting, so this will require further study.

The shape was the result of studying photographs and drawing the beast from scratch via analysis, as I have had to do with many of the machines in this project. I would be delighted if some manufacturer's drawings turn up, but at the moment I've not seen any. The current crop of line drawings to be found, however, did not impress me and I do not find them convincing.

Lastly, as the aircraft is neither built of, nor skinned with, metal or metal sheet (ok, except the cowlings), why should I work on a "metal surface" effect? I do not understand that...?

[Jesters-Ink]

This project looks like it is going along just fine.
Be brave with the shadows though, I think you could boost them quite a bit.
If you want the reflections to be strong (bright lighting), I think you also need the shadows to be strong too.

[SunDog]

Very nice subject to do, the golden age so very true. I was thinking of doing a Short Empire flying boat myself sometime in the future.

I think Gamary is correct in that the top of the fuselage is to high.

[x4btr]

I think Gamary is correct in that the top of the fuselage is to high.

Hmmm... that's two of you... Very well, what I really need in that case are some better references. Anyone with some good data on the DH 91? Some [hope hope] manufacturer's documents, or such?

It would be very warmly appreciated. Cheers.

[Jesters-Ink]

Best I could find . . . old as the hills I think, but it might be of some use.
http://premium1.uploadit.org/JeSTeRs//DH91.jpg

[BLOWHARD]

Short Empire flying boat

WHAT A PLANE!!!!!!!!

Another one made of dreams-


Not the Golden Age but the last HUGE gasp of the prop age