Photoshop Camo

[RaptorF22]

I'm working on a few Israeli Air Force paint schemes right now for various aircraft, and working on the camo, I'm finding it a little hard to get it looking right.
What is the best way to paint IAF-style camo in Photoshop CS5 (I also have Illustrator CS5 if there's a good way to do it in that).

Thanks,
RaptorF22

[J2Summit]

I recently did an IAF paint job for the A2A P-51 (posted on Simviation/FSX/Payware). I was probably having the same issues as you are. I wanted more control over the curves and the blurring of the edges that depict paint overspray. I used to do it manually, but that can make it difficult to get the overspray effect to match where different files meet.

What I do is create the camouflage pattern using vector graphics. I get the edges to line up perfectly before I blur the edges using trial-and-error between FSX and PSP/DXT. Once I get things positioned just right, I then "duplicate" the layer, turn off that original vector layer, then convert the new duplicate layer to raster.
After that I run through my SOP procedure of blurring the raster layer about 4 times using different settings. If I don't like what I see then I can delete the duplicate raster layer and start over again with the original vector layer group. This gives me total control over the situation.

I use Paintshop Pro, but should be the same techniquie with PS.

John

[J2Summit]

BTW, if you are doing the blue/tan scheme of IAF colors, here are the colors I came up with:
Blue is R37, G46, B58; Hue152, Saturation56, Lightness48.
Tan is R138, G81, B46; H15, S128, L92

I grabbed those from photos of IAF P-51s between spots of shadow and sunglare. These are my seat-of-the-pants conclusions and not based on anything posted on the internet. These were photos with good color, which is not always the case. Go with whatever seems right to you. Maybe you can use my numbers as a starting point. Or use them as is. It's not like I have them copyrighted. Hope that helps!