A WIP- my second attempt

[jaypack44]

Hi all, I've kinda gotten back a little into the world of profile painting, and decided to give it another shot. I decided on the KI-84, and I've put about two days' work into it so far. I'm not trying to be super accurate or anything, I just want to see how well I can do. So, critiques are very welcome, but please keep in mind that I'm not striving for perfection here, and this is also still very much a work in progress. Still on the to-do list: a lot more weathering, paint chipping and the like, more lighting work (esp. shadows), and a lot more of the actual aircraft's details (e.g. the gear and the cockpit).

Anyway, any critiques/suggestions are welcome, thanks for looking!
(attached files are an unweathered version, one with the beginnings of weathering, and a close-up of the nose area)

*also, please note that the compression process removed a lot of the quality, so they don't look quite as hood here as they do "in person"

[Otterkins2]

Jay....this ain't an "attempt". It's a full blown sock 'em between the eyes profile. Yup, there's lots you can learn here from real pros and I bet they jump on you big time...not to criticize, but to offer suggestions on how you can make it even better. You'll have a grand time and learn lots here. Welcome home.

[JMSmith]

hi jay,

first of all, watch your hinomura colour, when new, it was bright red, but quickly changed to brick red, it is said they could spot a new boy by the bright red paint of the hinomura

secondly dont forget your lower shadow, the top and sides look great, now the most important bit, the shape i will leave you in suspence with that until after monday

[gamary]

That looks great: your texturing and weathering are very good IMO. What you really need now is to bring the shape out with stronger lighting and shading. Keep up the good work!

[GrubbyFingers]

You are well on the way, Jaypack! Well done. I can see in these samples all the bits and pieces that make up a good (excellent) profile. Just keep on applying these techniques to ever smaller and smaller pieces and you are there! I think this looks fantastic, especially for a second attempt. I look forward to seeing more of your work. Grubby.

[Jarink]

This is gonna look great once you get some shape lighting/shadows on it.

I would caution you to not try and bring out the panels too much with a 3D effect (unless the panels on the real plane stuck out; add-on armor plates on B-24s or B-25s come to mind). I know that's a trick usually done with skinning to bring out details, but in actuality most WWII planes had very smooth skins, especially late in the war.

[GiantFlyingRobots]

Why aren't you striving for perfection? Regardless of your (or anybodies) skill level its the level we should all strive for, even if it proves to be unobtainable..

I look forward to seeing an up-date when you have added some shading, which should lift out the fuselage shape quite nicely.

You might want to consider dropping the gray background as its not doing your profile any favors at the moment.

[jaypack44]

Hey guys, thanks for all the comments! I'll definitely take all the suggestions into consideration. I've been working on it a little more, and I just thought I'd share what I have so far. The two close ups are full-size.
So far, I've added a little more as far as lighting goes (though there's still a ton to go) and started adding in the little details. I took off the weathering layers for these shots, because I have them in a separate template right now (the base template, almost 6000 by 3000 takes up almost a gig of RAM when I'm working with it, without the weathering layers!).
I also tried doing some glass, based on Jarink's little tutorial. Anyway, again, any comments/suggestions are more than welcome- thanks for looking!

*edit- GFR, well, I am trying to do as well as I possibly can, I just don't want to be so obsessed with getting the little details right. This project is more of just an experiment for me to see what I can actually do. So yes, I am trying to make it a realistic as possible, but if one of my rivets are out of line, or the curve of the tail is a little off, I definitley won't be losing any sleep over it.

*Edit 2- I forgot to say where I got the drawings. They were downloaded from a russian site (don't remember the name) a long time ago and have been sitting on my hard drive waiting for something like this. They are originally scans of the plans included in an issue of Scale Aircraft Modeling, I believe.

[BLOWHARD]

Yo Jay,
VERY NICE!
A few tips;
Your fasteners and rivets aren't in perspective around the edges of the fuselage. That flattens out what is otherwise a very nice piece of artwork.
The hinomaru seem a bit too orange to me, maybe less yellow? A little less saturated too?
Around the cowling flaps, the curved area that rolls into the cowling area, is that really painted all the way in? I'd think it was bare metal and was sprayed green with the cowling in place. Maybe fade out the color some as the flaps overlap it?

I'm with Gamary, darken up the lower shadows.

Great work so far, I'll be keeping my eye on it


PS, DO strive for perfection, push yourself, you'll go far

[jaypack44]

Hey all, just thought I'd post a quick update- I haven't had time to implement all the suggestions yet, but I'm getting there. I've mainly been working on adding the little details, I haven't done much lighting work (except the spinner). this is still very WIP, but it's getting closer and closer.
*And, Blowhard, thanks for the tips! it was actually seeing your A6M profiles and the level of detail in them that made me want to try profiling again...

Anyway, here are the images so far: