Need Assistance

[Gousgounis]

Hello! I am a relatively new guy to skinnig and I started making a skin for an Se5a for OFF(a CFS3 transformation) using paint shop pro 7. Although in the beggining the result looked good, closer it looked very unrealistic. Take a look :
Before:
After the skinning:

The thing that i dont like, is that in the old texture, the look of the plane was real. I mean, The wings looked very realistic just like real canvas strapped on wood. Mine was too "Clean" and "Steep" i dont know how to describe it really. The fuselage is a thing im gonna fix, with more time and details, but the wings...I tried to make it more dirty with noise,blurring and stuff but its not enough!...here are they btw:

B4
After

Notice the differences? I want my wings to look like the first one. 3D with more colours on it and more realistic generally. Adjusting hue saturation is ruled out. I wanna learn to make it from scratch.
I need help from experts to improve it. Im using PSP7. Any tips are welcome.
Thank you

[adlabs6]

Hi and welcome.

This is a common complaint with white or light gray paint schemes.

For starters, try adding some shading effects on the leading edge of the wings. Notice how the original wing art is slightly darker on the front edge? Give that a try, as this will help improve the 3D effect where the lighting is actually more flat. You can also add these kinds of shadow effects under the exhausts, the machine gun mounts, and the struts on the wings.

That should be a good start. Just use a subtle feathered brush, and build up your shading on a new layer, so you can vary the transparency of that new layer to adjust the amount of shading, without having to repaint if you want slightly more or less.

[BLOWHARD]

Like this?

Sorry, I couldn't resist I just happen to have done the Se5a for Richthofen's Skies/Targetware

Here's a quicky I did using your art but doing some things Adlabs suggest, and using some standard weathering tricks.


White or any light color can be tricky though. If I were you I'd suggest starting the wing from scratch and get rid of those roundels. Chances are they'll never match the newly colored wings you are making.
I can't help you with PSP, and not to toot my horn too much, but you should look over these tutorials;
http://www.simmerspaintshop.com/foru...-hard-way.html
http://www.simmerspaintshop.com/foru...eathering.html
I have to warn you that my fabric wing tutorial is pretty convoluted. I should revise it and make it a bit more simple.
Also, look here-
http://www.simmerspaintshop.com/foru...ces.html?ltr=M
and here
http://www.simmerspaintshop.com/foru...e-effects.html
All Photoshop but the basic things are the same in PSP.

[Gousgounis]

Here are some shots on the better looking plane




And the details:
Wing

Fuselage

Thanks for the tips guys! They helped a lot. Now I am gonna read through Blow's tutorials for new stuff.(The wings look fabulous with your skinning Blow) Ill keep you posted with new shots!

[BLOWHARD]

It looks much better
Do you want the lavender colored shadows? If so, cool If not it would give you a more dirty weathered look if you change the lavender to a more red-brown dirt color.

[Gousgounis]

I made the engine and wings more dirty with brown layers.

And this is the plane with decals and squadron numbers etc.

Thanks for the help all! My skins will look better from now on!

[adlabs6]

Good work. All the little touches added a lot of interest to the final result.