Recoloring ScissorsAndPlanes models with Inkscape

[sjsquirrel]

As many of you know forum member scissorsandplanes (Bruno) has been cranking out 1/300 scale aircraft models at a dizzying pace in is thread One model per non-working day. Bruno has graciously given his permission to anyone to recolor models and post them, taking credit for the recolor as long as the model remains free and he is credited as the original designer.

Several members (most notably Croden and Gerry1966) have been busily recoloring models in different liveries. The number of models available in the thread is now over 200 (not counting all the recolors).

I have prepared a tutorial (with permission from Bruno) on using Inkscape and PDFCreator to recolor and edit these models. Both of these tools are free and open source.

The primary benefit to using these tools is that you can create recolored versions of the models that retain the small file sizes of the originals, and that remain vector based rather than getting converted to raster images. This also allows you to easily edit the edited model using the same tools and techniques.

The tutorial, while focused on recoloring ScissorsAndPlanes models can also be used as a good general introduction to Inkscape.

Download the tutorial

Please post all feedback and questions here and I will update the tutorial if and as required.

Cheers,

Steve

[RunwayOneSixRight]

WOW- PERFECTO!

THANKS!!!

-RunwayOneSixRight (Matthew)

[croden]

Thanks! This will definitely help when my computer starts working again

[legion]

One thing, there is a much easier way to save multi page models. I use PDFMerge! - Merge PDF files online for free. to merge them, it leaves no watermark or changes the vector format to raster. And is less complicated as well.

[RunwayOneSixRight]

I also use that website, that and this converter which can convert JPG to PDF and others.

Zamzar - video converter, audio converter, image converter, eBook converter

-RunwayOneSixRight (Matthew)

[sjsquirrel]

Originally Posted by legion

One thing, there is a much easier way to save multi page models. I use PDFMerge! - Merge PDF files online for free. to merge them, it leaves no watermark or changes the vector format to raster. And is less complicated as well.

To each his own. PDFCreator does not leave a watermark or convert the vector format to raster, so that's a tie. As for complicated, I assume anyone working with paper models can print a file. Other than that it's a few extra buttons to click. Hardly complicated or difficult.

i also work on a laptop and can be at home or work, or a number of places where I may or may not have reliable Internet. Having a tool on my computer that can do the job without relying on an internet connection works for me.

And it works with anything that can be printed. Pictures, MS Office documents, email, whatever. The tutorial itself was written in OpenOffice Writer then printed to PDFCreator to make the PDF file.

Steve

[fahast]

Nice tutorial, really handy .....

Can you help me out with .... how to align all the livery on different parts of the model together ? (like the lettering of airlines on a 747 hump ) ( like a 2 tone coloured belly alignment with rest of the fuselage) ( like the PanAm band around the windows trough out the fuselage)

These aligning stuff is very complicated for me , i would greatly appreciate if you teach me all this .

Thank you ,

Fahd.

[sjsquirrel]

Originally Posted by fahast

Nice tutorial, really handy .....

Can you help me out with .... how to align all the livery on different parts of the model together ? (like the lettering of airlines on a 747 hump ) ( like a 2 tone coloured belly alignment with rest of the fuselage) ( like the PanAm band around the windows trough out the fuselage)

These aligning stuff is very complicated for me , i would greatly appreciate if you teach me all this .

Thank you ,

Fahd.

Good question. I'll put together a little something to illustrate how I approach it.

Steve

[legion]

Don't forget to explain layers as well. Using layers you can more easily show, hide and lock items, like one layer for panel lines, one for tabs, one for base color and one for fancy colors/patterns.

Also, right-clicking a group and selecting 'enter Group' allows you to edit the group as normal, but you don't have to ungroup and regroup.

[fahast]

Originally Posted by sjsquirrel

Good question. I'll put together a little something to illustrate how I approach it.

Steve

Thank you Steve !

Fahd.