Misc Artwork for the Flight Demo

[Fatcat]

There's certainly a precedence in the Wing Commander universe -- there's fighters with "ground camo" and "stealth camo" in the novels... and then there must be a reason things like WC2's Broadswords are painted green.

Possibly because sensors can detect and lock a reticule on any ship at that point, and you'd want to be able to see your wingmen so you don't ram or shoot them, especially a big black-painted Broadsword.
I don't have Photoshop, could someone make a Claw Marks-style line drawing for the Pirate fighter?

 

[Magnum]

I don't have Photoshop, could someone make a Claw Marks-style line drawing for the Pirate fighter?

The best way to do that would be to export some orthographic views of the geometry in a vector image format like .dwg or .eps, then clean it up and adjust line weights and such in Illustrator.

Anyway, here's one quick idea I came up with for color schemes. Just a simple sun burst pattern in blue. You could always make it red if you want Japanese pirates . I didn't have time for proper masking on this one, but if I get some time, I will try to do some more.

Also, quick question: Do the textures need to be symmetrical?

 

[Howard Day]

Yes, they do need to be symmetrical (left-right). As for the environmental camo, I'm thinking some sort of "Asteroid" camo would be particuarly effective for ambushing pirates. I also like the nebula camo - since the nebulas in the game do affect the range and accuaracy of your sensors. I'll do a quick workup of the asteroid camo, and see what I can do for a clawmarks drawing. I'm not sure if the space camo idea will work, but I'll give it a shot. I'm afraid it might look a bit...silly. I guess we'll see soon.

EDIT: Okay, did a quicky claw marks drawing of the ship. It ain't perfect, but it's okay. Also, just for fun, I stuck an MFD image in there too.

 

[Howard Day]

And here's your color scheme, Magnum.

 

[Bandit LOAF]

Yes, they do need to be symmetrical (left-right). As for the environmental camo, I'm thinking some sort of "Asteroid" camo would be particuarly effective for ambushing pirates.

Which reminds us all that there's such a thing in the games -- the K'ha'haf. Clearly, camoflage is something that's done in the Wing Commander Universe.

For the schemes I mentioned earlier, I'm not thinking a literal "ship is black now" scheme... but some kind of geometric pattern that implies space. Maybe covered in black and gray hexagons with an occasional yellow one for space.

 

[Magnum]

Looks great Howard.

Loaf, you keep mentioning geometric camo, and all I can think of is the dazzle camo used during WW2. Google images has plenty of results if you're unfamiliar with it.

 

[Bandit LOAF]

That's not what I'm thinking of -- something more like this: http://www.wwiaviation.com/lozenge.html

 

[Cam]

If I had some time I would do one with a shark's mouth wrapping around fuselage between the nose and guns. Throw in some splinter camo red paint and you got yourself a fearsome looking killer.

 

[Fatcat]

Here's my attempt with my colored pencils. On second thought, I should have used a maroon red instead of green.

 

[Howard Day]

Oooh. I likey the space camo, LOAF. I'm ashamed I doubted you. I knew about the kilrathi asteroid fighter...I guess the only difference in my mind was that the asteroid fighters always seemed to be made out of small asteroids, rather than just painted to resemble them. Which is a good thing, I suppose - maybe the painters just did their jobs exceptionally well... Also threw your paint scheme in there too, Fatcat. Kinda garish - might be good for a pirate ace sort of deal. I'm going to try the asteroid scheme next.

 

[TurboTim07]

that fighter reminds me of the battlestar galactica fighter with longer wings... but keep up the great work

 

[Fatcat]

that fighter reminds me of the battlestar galactica fighter with longer wings... but keep up the great work

It more closely resembles a cross between the Razor and Scimitar. Either way, it looks awesome.
Howard: That was the look I was going for. The WW1 idea of aces painting their planes in garish colors for show felt appropriate. One of the things that annoyed me about Privateer was that every ship was just plain grey. I'd also be interested to see one like Magnum's scheme with tighter bands alternating red, gold, and white.

 

[Bandit LOAF]

I like Fatcat's WW1 concept. The most elite pirate group could be a space equivalent of the Flying Circus.

The odd thing about Privateer is that there are actually three separate paint schemes for the Talons... but the differences are unusually subtle.

 

[Magnum]

While we're on the topic of WWI schemes, check out this site with a few color schemes seen on Albatrosses from Mark Miller:

http://www.wwi-models.org/Images/Miller/render/Albatros/index.html

I particularly like the black and white stripes.

 

[Fatcat]

I like Fatcat's WW1 concept. The most elite pirate group could be a space equivalent of the Flying Circus.

The odd thing about Privateer is that there are actually three separate paint schemes for the Talons... but the differences are unusually subtle.

Yeah, I only noticed that after looking at the Talon page carefully. I did another one:

I went with an almost arctic theme here, but still with the garish paint scheme. I'm currently working on one resembling a B-24 formation leader plane.

 

[Bandit LOAF]

Here's all the Talons together:

 

[Fatcat]

Those are: Mystery Ship from Privateer 2, SWC Gratha, Church of Man, Militia, and Pirate.
... Do I get a cookie?

 

[Bandit LOAF]

Sure, one of those crummy cookies named after a city.

Re: your B-24 concept. I've always wanted to see WC bombers with various WW2 touches -- nose art, markers for kills and bombing runs, big numbers on the tail and so forth.

Frosty and I tried to add nose art to the WC2 Broadsword (whose green paint job was a good start), but it didn't quite mesh with the original 1991 textures:

 

[Magnum]

Yeah, those foot wide panel lines aren't exactly the pinnacle of realism and detail. More WWII touches are always a good thing to my mind though. Good choice with the Bawidamann pinup.

 

[Cam]

How about this, for a blood-thirsty pirate clan?

...it was uh, a little Reaver-inspired.