Transparency? How?

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Hi all,

Have just started messing around with repaints, I'm using DXTbmp & MS Paint (very basic, I know, but I don't want to use any payware at the moment), I was wandering if there was anyway in MS Paint to make the 'new paint' transparent so that the rivets & panels show through. At the moment the paints look rubbish because they mask all of the detail of the plane.

I have downloaded Pixia, but as of yet haven't tried it much as I still need to find my way around the different icons & what they mean.

PS: When I have painted one side of a fuselage, is it possible to just copy or 'mirror' that paint for the other side - or do I have just paint the other side as closely as possible by hand?

Cheers,

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[wji]

"I have downloaded Pixia, but as of yet haven't tried it much as I still need to find my way around the different icons & what they mean."

At some point, anyone wanting to repaint aircraft will have to learn how to use a paint program which supports layers with see-thru; in Pixia this is the Hybrid Layer.

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Ahh - I see, MS Paint doesn't support layers & that is why the 'paint' looks so thick & covers all the detail?

I'll have to have a play around with Pixia & the 'hybrid layer' then, thanks wji.

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[gryshnak]

I tried Pixia a while ago, but found PhotoPlus easier to use.  Layers are just about essential if you want to do a decent repaint without excess frustration.  These days I use Photoshop  ;D

But no matter which one you decide to use, you need to sit down and learn to drive it - there's no way around it.  Go through some tutorials, or just play around with various buttons and look at the Help function to see what they do.

You should be able to mirror a fuselage side easily enough, even with MS Paint.  Select the part you want to duplicate, Copy, Paste, then pull down the Image menu and select Flip/Rotate, and Flip Horizontal.  The part will flip left to right.  Drag it to where you want, line it up carefully, then click outside the selected area to 'let go'.  Don't forget to save your work frequently!

Gryshnak