Saturday lunchtime - sitting down to a sandwich lunch. Pumpernickel and sliced meat.

Well, that Cheyenne is finished and uploaded. Time to pack my bags again as I am off to France again tomorrow. For those who fancy a bit of Swiss, the paint is up on avsim and should be ready for your downloading soon.

Going ballistic!

Well, a parabola is a ballistic curve - and that's what the trouble is with this repaint I am working on.



Critical? Me? I only work in QA....

But take a look at the shot here (clickable to show full-size). You'll see what's getting my goat. That part of the fuselage covered by the trimlines consists of 10 segments on the 3D model. A Parabola drawn in Corel Draw is round - so it needs to be chopped into straighter bits...

If only I could paint 15 to 20 parallel lines - on the 3D model - it'd be a breeze! But we painters don't have the models at hand - nor the software all the time.

(Tobias - if you're reading this... )

I could then "unskin" the model and use the now curved lines to do the job.

The curved red and blue lines are straight on the Corew Paint image and the coloured trim lines are currently parabolic. If you look closely, you'll see a recurve towards the fuselage sides.

Now "that" is the annoying factor.

Curved lines

Have you ever been close to screaming? I have... You know those pinstripe lines that go along the side of a fuselage? Well how do you paint them on a flat texture so that they are rendered as a curve around the rear lower fuselage - especially when the fuselage vertical cross section is not circular.

Fun... Like a visit to the dentist - and yes, I do know - I have been there a couple of times recently. Pity the tooth fairy doesn't visit us oldies, when we have to give a tooth back!

Anyway - back ends of aeroplanes... I have been buggering around with this Piper Cheyenne for over a month, on and off. I am finally getting there. Pretty bird, isn't she? I even have the owner's permission to do this paint.

Well, so much for a first post on the blog - maybe someone will read this.

First Post

OK, just a test, but everyone does, don't they?-