Modele Kartonowe, free DL, Polikarpov I-16, 1:33 - reskin

    Hi all,
    i promised to create a separate thread for my next project, so here we go. I wanted to try reskinning a model in a graphic editor (i use paint shop pro). I was thinking of scanning some of my old Fly Model models, but then i decided for the "Ishak", Polikarpov I-16 from Modele Kartonowe. So now I'm struggling my way through the reskin - I want to give it a brand new (oh well, as weathered as possible :)) winter camo - so "red 21" is the choice (picture here, found @ Wings Palette). So far I'm working on the wings, trying to find the right way to display the ribs and the joints; almost all the other parts are done already, although i still do some touch-ups on them from time to time.
    So FYI, a split image (green is original, white the reskin) and a image i used to test print (upper part rescaled, at the bottom you can see a tiny bit of original 600 DPI image).

    Yesterday I did a test minibuild from a few parts printed on a common office paper, just to see how it looks. It was a really fast build - I had the parts printed, so I told a "why not" to myself and glued them together. Quite serious problem appeared - the outlines for the parts are too heavy if printed in original width and the black colour - tomorrow i'l try how it looks if i recolour them to some kind of gray and if it doesn't help, i'm afraid i'll have to redraw them or think up some other way to make them thiner. oh well, i'll see.

    Pawell, it's been so long. Have you ever finished repainting your I-16?

    "They say hard work never hurt anybody, but I figure why take the chance" - Ronald Reagan

    60 percent black for panel lines, etc., seems to be a figure that has worked for other designers, like Gabriel Panait. If you put all your lines in one layer you can easily change the opacity.


    Unfortunately, the free download I-16 does not come in a pdf-format that is possible to open in a vector graphic programme. However, I managed to get around that.


    There is nothing illegal about what I did. I just opened the download file on my Mac and "printed" it as a pdf file. The result came out as a ".cdr.pdf"-file, which indicates that the original programme is Corel Draw.


    Incidentally, later free downloads from Lech all open directly in vector-based programmes.


    The file will open in Adobe Illustrator at least (and probably in other vector-based programmes as well). If you PN me with your regular email address, I'll send the file to you. It is 2.1 MB.


    This way, you can easily isolate the lines (remove the colours) and change the opacity of the panel lines at a keystroke to what suits you best.


    Leif


    PS. Pawell, I didn't notice that the original post was so old. Perhaps you've gone on to other projects. However, anybody who wants the Polikarpov file to work on is welcome to it.

    Dankbar für die Gelegenheit auf Englisch schreiben zu dürfen, kann aber Antworten problemlos auf Deutsch lesen.

    Edited 2 times, last by Leif Ohlsson ().

    hi all,
    I've stopped this recolor a long time ago indeed - for two reasons:
    1) at first, I've put it on temporary hold because I didn't have reasonable printer at disposal
    2) temporary hold became a long-time one ;) - mostly because huge amount of work which was necessary to get something well looking from raster lines


    Leif, thank you for your offer, I've sent you an email.

    P.

    Burn the land and boil the sea
    You cant take the sky from me