Great! I am somewhat fond of the A6M

Just a question though, the rivets seem quite large and domed compared to the flush skin of the originals. Would a toned down version be possible? One version for flying and another for shooting at perhaps

Might be a good idea to take a look at the yellow ID stripes, as these were not introduced until later too.

Hope that doesn't sound overly critical. I'm a big fan of your work and consider you one of the true greats of the skinning community. Absolutely love your revised internals btw!

Thanks to your comments, mates...
To Feathered_IV: what's so strange about yellow ID bands?
http://wp.scn.ru/en/ww2/f/1039/65/6/42
http://www.simmerspaintshop.com/photopost/showphoto.php...to/616/size/big/cat/



To speak about rivets: yeah, I know, mate, I'd gladly have the rivets of 0,5 pxls, but it's impossible as you know. I know the rivets look truly great at such skins as FW-190/LaGG-3 that are rather "big" fuselage/wings void layout:

, but Zero has a twice smaller layout than 190's, so, unfortunately, 1024x1024 leave no choice...
(If you truly like my Zeros but my "rivets look" truly confuses you, I may just turn down the opacity to make them slightly-slightly visible and send it to your PM, O.K.?)

Best wishes,
Mangas.

A custom job? I'd be honoured

Regarding the yellow bands, I was refering to the ones on the wing leading edge, not the tail or fuselage bands. Sorry for not being clear.
The AeroDetail volume #7 on the Zero lists the wing stripes as coming into service in late 42 (Page 39).

Oh well, I must tell you this is a very good question about the yellow wing edges...
I re-visited some sites/profiles, PDFs I have and here's the situation:t most of the A6M2-21s and ALL other Zero models had them, though I'm not sure what date exactly from...
I wait for my account to approve to ask Jim Landsdale about the exact date.
Btw, here's a restored early A6M2 that has them:
http://www.j-aircraft.com/walk/dave_pluth/blayd/blayd.htm
And here're some b/w pics of A6M2 downed during Pearl Harbor attack, but it's hard to say:
http://www.j-aircraft.org/smf/index.php?topic=4539.0
Nevertheless, I decide to leave them at my skins 'cause I'm sure people'll use them in Campaigns/missions/events that took part and after the December, 1941 also...

P.S.: about custom work: just tell me what skin of the SkinPack you like most...

Regards,
Mangas.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Mangas_Rus,

I cannot speak as to the IJN, yet supposedly it wasn't until July 43 that wing ident markings were used on IJA fighters.....In fact, I can find numerous photos of 1953 A6m that do NOT have the ident marks....Look here and you'll even find some P.H. group a6m.

http://www.ijnafphotos.com/

http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/magazine/1997/02/stuff_eng_oscar.htm

K2

Big Thread mate, not been here for a while, geez, some catching up to do some beautiful work youve done here mate, glad to see you didnt blow skinning out in favor of flipping roadkill burgers,you have a talent mate, use it, also good to see youre experimenting & upping the ante so to speak, exceptional attention to detail,great weathering( an art in itself) not many skinners in any Sim community display much in the way weathering experimentation,never mind the advanced techniques you've incorporated
Mind you, I think thats prolly because they dont wanna make their hard work look like its been dragged unceremoniously through a WW1 Trench in the rainy season:

Top Stuff...Keep On Truckin
Regards Shooter

Thank you all, guys.
To Darren: I always have your skinwork around and study it carefully when I make my own...
Btw, I sent a PM to you at M4T while ago...
Hope to meet you some day, mate!
Good luck & stay in touch...

My best regards,
Mangas.

Hey Mangas,
what typeface are you using for those I 16's
on page 11? Particularly the bottom one.
It what I've been looking for for awhile.
cheers
Cam

Hello, kameron1974. What do you mean by "typeface"? If you mean color profile, I sent you a PM with the profile & photo of that "last of the four" I-16 you asked.

Regards,
Mangas.

I think he means font, the numbers you used. In particular White 75.

Oh, that! O.K... Well, unlike all RAF/USAAF or Luftwaffe planes that used their own stated/regulated font, most of Russian planes aquired their numbers in the fields, hand-made by technicans, almost every "eskadrillia" had their own, unique, unlike from all others, numbers fonts...
I must say I spent quite a lot of time while ago searching for "ready" fonts to use in Photoshop, but with no luck...
So now I always use Lasso tool and 1 px pencil (not brush) to make the required "distinct-looking" figures at soviet planes... Yeah, it's quite time consuming, but it's the best way I know...

Hope I could help...

Good luck with skinning,
Mangas.

Hi Mangas. I'm quite fond of the idea of a blank skin, but don't knock yourself out. No rush. Seriously!

Any luck signing up to j-aircraft? I've been waiting ages for my application to be looked at, but no joy yet. A shame because I've got a photo of a Zero that might solve a puzzle that appeared in this thread:

http://www.j-aircraft.org/smf/index.php?topic=5586.0

Maybe someone who is a member here could post it on my behalf...

quote:

Originally posted by Feathered_IV:
Hi Mangas. I'm quite fond of the idea of a blank skin

A PM with desired skin is sent. Check it out.
Well, it's been a week since I subscribed to j-aicraft, but my account is STILL wait for the approval also...

Lady K2 seem to be the only registered person there...

Best wishes,
Mangas.

O.K. WOW! thats the best ive seen. Very nice.
5 thumbs up

Got it

Cheers Mangas. Just got a chance to take it for a spin. Love it!

Manga....truly awesone skins, bro. My only prob is that I cannot login to flying Legends to down load them. My fave are the BF-110 with the skeletal hand and the P-40N, "Flying Dung", both on Flying Legends. Could we get these hosted on M4T while Legends gets it's stuff sorted out?

To david_jay: I ALWAYS upload my skins at Fl.-L. and M4T simultaneously for those who have any login probs...
The two skins you mentioned are stored at M4T more than a year already

http://www.mission4today.com/index.php?name=Downloads2&file=details&id=1906

http://www.mission4today.com/index.php?name=Downloads2&file=details&id=2253

P.S.: my name's Mangas...

Regards...

quote:

Originally posted by Mangas_Rus:
Oh, that! O.K... Well, unlike all RAF/USAAF or Luftwaffe planes that used their own stated/regulated font, most of Russian planes aquired their numbers in the fields, hand-made by technicans, almost every "eskadrillia" had their own, unique, unlike from all others, numbers fonts...
I must say I spent quite a lot of time while ago searching for "ready" fonts to use in Photoshop, but with no luck...
So now I always use Lasso tool and 1 px pencil (not brush) to make the required "distinct-looking" figures at soviet planes... Yeah, it's quite time consuming, but it's the best way I know...

Hope I could help...

Good luck with skinning,
Mangas.

I was afraid you'd say that.
Thanks
Cam

Hey All!
It's been quite awhile since I posted here as I have been away making profiles! So hello again to all my friends and Howdy to all the new skinners out there.
I maybe get back into skinning again, but not sure yet what to skin. I may go about making a new La-7 template to complement my La-5FN one, but again I dunno yet as I just may do the MiG 3 series first.

I just wish we had better modeling for the La series of airplanes though. Maybe in several years after SOW BoB is released we maybe see the Eastern Front all over again, but much better modeling and better skins to follow after that!

As for fonts for the Russian tatical numbers, I modify existing fonts I have (over 1,600 to date) that closely match what reference I use. Sometimes a combination of fonts to get what I need.

An example is this low resolution profile I have here of the MiG 3.


White 42 is using two fonts, Registration number ANA v3 font for the 2 and Zekton font for the 4. Both were then modified per the photo I used.

The Romanian MiG 3 is a cut up version of Registration number V3 font to get it exactly as shown in several photos of this bird.


So you see, it's just a matter of taking the time and patience to find something close to what you want.

Cheers all!

EXCELLENT! Those are beautiful!
(And thanks for the font info)