Fortress job

[adlabs6]

I personally enjoy the lines and border and how they fit with this style of rendering. Very fine work.

[Macwan]

I think that drawing contours is a choice that also depends on the render you're looking for.
To my mind it improves contrast on a light background, improves the profile shape (especially rounded contours) and is a part of giving a digital profile a hand drawn render. And at Hi-res (+ than 300) it's not so obvious.

Well, a question of taste...

[Goodwood]

IMHO, get rid of those outer lines...there should be none border! and play with shadows on the outer edges more to make it more contrast instead of using line...
else very nice piece of work

I agree with pkassak, and would also like to see deeper shading for the underside (most American heavy bombers were either giant tubes or boxes with wings and sometimes superstructure). I'd like to see that defined a bit more on your profile (you can see a bit of what I mean in Jarik's close-up of the chin turret). You could also make the base metal a tad darker, to help contrast it against the background.

[Otterkins2]

Good point Mac. I like what I see. Personal styles add character to a rendering. Go for it bud!

[pkassak]

And also another thing I realized...guns were black...but your shadings and reflections makes them polished metal look like...I thing that the lower shiny reflection whould not be so intense, or present at all...?

[gamary]

Hi Macwan! Nice B-17!

What is that future publication you were mentioning? (Just curious? )

[Otterkins2]

Sorry Pkassak, but I gotta disagree on black guns. These are made from hardened steel, but they go though a process called "anodizing" which is a blue-black protective coating that penetrates the steel. If you have handled enough weapons, you'd know what I mean. This is not permanent though, and with enough use and wear (like constant cleaning) the steel starts to show through again. With the use these weapons got, it's very likely some of them became very silvery looking. It was easier to replace the guns than re-anodize them, during which time (due to logistics) the war would probably be over.

Even brand new they aren't really black. When I used to build models, I would custom mix gunmetal. Usually 2 parts silver, 1 part navy blue and about 5 parts black. It was pretty effective, but hey! What does a cranky old army guy know?

[pkassak]

hmm, checked on my guns at home...they are more black than silver looking and also some MGs we have at my friends...but it is possible that icing-deicing in the air, and weather had this effect on bomber guns...
However I do not see em on my photos...

[Jarink]

About the color of the guns...

One thing to keep in mind here is that what we're looking at are not the gun barrels (which would indeed be replaced regularly), but rather the cooling jacket or barrel shroud (which was not replaced unless damaged).

Here's a not so great picture of an M3 (aircraft version of the M2 .50 cal) barrel shroud.



In every color picture taken during WWII that I've ever seen the guns have been a matte dark gray color, but not quite black. How shiny it would look depends on how much oil was on it. Since the shroud's not a moving part (it's purpose is to simply keep things from touching the barrel), it would only require a light coat to keep off surface rust.

B-24 waist gunner (publicity shot)

[Otterkins2]

The purpose of the shroud is to act as a heat dissipator which is why it has all the slots. It collects the heat away from the barrel, thus preventing excessive barrel wear. It really doesn't take long to shoot out an overheated barrel...500 rounds maybe. The lands are gone and and the gun will shoot very erratically. I've experienced this myself on .50 cals.