BT-13 Valiant, 10x20 digital painting

[Ol' Scrapiron]

 

 

Inspiration for this project was the BT-13A that I saw at March AFB -- one of nine different Valiants I have seen in museums and airshows. I had started painting and suffered a hard drive failure that cost me a ton in loss of files, stress and ultimately a chunk of $$$ to get a partial recovery. The in-progress psb file was among the salvaged portions of the disk, so I picked up where I had left off five months earlier. I suppose one of the advantages of painting with digital paint brushes rather than oils is that the paint never "dries". The digital painting was created at 500ppi to be output as giclee prints to fit 10x20-inch frame.

 

I really liked how the metal skin came out with sections being nice and reflective while other areas like the wings have that brushed patina. One of the areas I experimented with was the impressions of the vents behind the engine. Even though the front section and the main body were painted months apart, I am pleased with how it all came together.

 

Here are a few cropped areas that show the level of detail a little better.

 

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Among my favorite projects, in part because of the attention it took to keep track of details like which types of rivets were used in various areas of the plane -- raised, flush, rounded, large or small. Also special because it was a project I thought I had lost, but was resurrected and eventually finished (there were a couple other "in progress" projects at the time of the crash that I may or may not ever complete... ugh.)

 

 

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Edited October 20, 2022 by Ol' Scrapiron