Marek's B-24D, JB-2 loon repaints

[hawkman67]

Hello All;
Thank you to all for the welcome!! I am working on a repaint/mod of Marek's B-24D into a PB4Y1[early] it is an all yellow one that was used by the NAMU-Naval-Aircraft-Modification-Unit in Johnsville, Pa. The Marek's JB-2 Loon is being Modded into 2 differant drones that were carried by said PB4Y1. I am adding a few missing details to the B-24 such as formation lights, missing windows, a bunch of antennas, and redoing the Vert. tails into a more 3-D rendition. I have the first Drone, a GorgonIIC about 95% complete. The B-24 about 80 recolored, and the second drone a KDN-1 started. I am going to do a build of the first drone this weekend and will be finishing the build of the Stinson L-5 SAR repaint I did. Here are pics of the drones and the B-24.
Jeff

[willygoat]

This should be pretty awesome! Can't wait to see it. :D

[hawkman67]

Thanks Willygoat! I was working on the same one and some others for FG but... stopped til everything over there is sorted out. I have one drone finished and I sent it to Chris for critique and if he approves, will be up here after I finish the build.
Jeff

[cgutzmer]

looks really good hard to tell if the yellow is just right but I think its pretty close hope to get it in the shop soon
Chris

[hawkman67]

Hey, Chris; It was a bit hard to get the exact color as I had seen different shades on them so I went in the middle. I am working on it right now and show be done fairly soon. As will be the L-5.
Jeff

[hawkman67]

I posted the build thread for the Gorgon drone on PM am working on while glue dries on the L-5 parts, of which is almost completed, only have a couple of parts to fold and glue, then final assemby.
Jeff

[airdave]

those old photos are either black and white (and have been tinted/colourized)
or they are colour photos that end up being heavily contrasted and saturated
from early processing techniques and years of reproduction.

they are obviously not to be trusted.

a good source of colours for older military vehicles is old plastic models and old plastic model paint companies.
For example: Humbrol paint colours and old Airfix painting instructions, many details of which can be found online through various searches.

Artwork and diagrams of aircraft, like hawkman's second image, are better sources of colour choice, but still not 100% accurate.

A just a note on "repaints"...when applying colours within repaints, the output colour is what is important.
Since everyone's monitors, colour settings and program settings can be different, there is no way to properly judge the output colours when printing
(without doing accurate print colour tests*)

One trick I use when recolouring, is to import the relevant photo directly into the artwork
and "sample" the colour within the photo that I want to use. Put this colour into my colour palette and then use it to "paint" with.
This means that if i was to print out the photo and the "repaint", they would match with that particular colour (regardless of what the colour is on my screen)...if the photo print colour looks acceptable, then the "repaint" will match.


*one way to do a "print/colour test" is to print out a solid colour block.
Maybe four blocks of colour (four different colours, on one sheet of paper)
Use standard palette colours like a common navy blue, lemon yellow,bright red, etc.
Make sure you record the name/code for these colours within the program you are using.
Now print that sheet and then hold it up to your screen that is still showing those four colour blocks.
Do they match?
This is where you adjust the colours/tint of your monitor to match the printed page as best as possible.
And then when you look at a colour on your monitor, you will be seeing something closer to the output colour that your printer will produce
(and probably much closer to what other printers will produce!).



sorry, for the long winded comments...had a lot to say there! lol
maybe I should have posted this somewhere else...didn't mean to hijack the thread.

[Amazyah]

You could call that long winded if you want to, Dave.
I would just say that it's informative.
The more help you can give, the better for everyone.

Thanks for the info!
You da man wit da plan!

Russell

[hawkman67]

AirDave; Thanks for the info every little bit helps, and I like to see things from folks' views. A few things you mentioned I actually do such as going off paint charts, model instructions and I do use a color pic when I have one and do exactly as you said, I load into PS and refer to it as I recolor. I don't mention P*****c modeling as I thought that could cause issues.
Feel free to share any thing you feel will be helpful.
Thanks,Jeff

[airdave]

plastic plastic plastic

come on!...come get me!!

plastic plastic plastic