Repainting w/out a paint kit ???

[MIKE JG]

Just curious how folks repaint different models if there is not a paint kit available for that model??  As soon as a new real life paint job comes out or a new model, the Airbus 380 for example, it seems like the new paint download is available within just a couple of days, even though there's no paint kit available for some of these models.

Is it a matter of going into the various bmp files, coverting them, and them basically painting them "blank" and starting over from there or is there another secret?

I've seen some aircraft that have a "base texture" file which is usually all white, sort of like a paint kit.  

I'm also curious how actual paint kits are created.  I've seen really good ones that are easy to use and I've seen others that are very hard to use.  

[Felix/FFDS]

The answer, of course, is yes.

I dare say that most repaints - those made by individuals and not belonging to the "original design" group - are straightforward repaints of the textures.

Some will create their own master textures (kits) to be reused.  that's the beauty of graphics programs with layers.

Paint kits (other than the master created by the original maker) for existing aircraft, such as those for the FS default aircraft, are created by a very masochistic person basically redoing the complete texture.

[MIKE JG]

The answer, of course, is yes.

I was afraid someone was going to say that.

[ben_thomas]

if your interested, go to www.bensrepaints.tk and see under tutorials, its a bog standard guide on what to do

[igorski]

For some of mine (eg F16, B-57/Canberra) I re-created the lines and markings (eg vents grills etc...) on layers in PSP, with appropriate transparency, effectively making my own simple paint kit, its not atcually too hard to do, and you can select just how much detail you want to include. Give me a shout if you want a hand doing this.