Making profiles

[Nic C.D.]

Since I hardly get around to building models, I thought I'd show what I'm currently working on: making profiles. This is for a book that is commissioned by the Belgian Air Force on all the aircraft that have been active in it since 1946. There are over 60 different aircraft and helicopters - profiles have to be made of all of them, sometimes 2 or 3, totalling +/-130 in all. First time I do this, but it's fun. Here are a few of them:

 

 

This a Dassault Mirage 5 BA as it was flown by the the Crown Prince of Belgium (now King) Philippe I. A few years later, the aircraft crashed when a turbine blade broke off and got ingested into the engine. The pilot, flying at just 500 feet, was able to eject to safety though.

 

 

Here's an F-84F in a rather colourful livery. The jet was flown like this at airshows in the 1950s. 

 

Just one more: After a humanitarian mission to Africa, this C-130H returned with a huge nose-art depicting zebras running in front of Mount Kilimanjaro. The nose-art was removed the day the aircraft returned to its home base in Belgium... so just for one day, the C-130 was named "Nairobi Belle".

 

I hope you like these profiles, there are loads more!

 

Nic

 

 

[LSP_K2]

I love it!

[Out2gtcha]

Indeed, VERY cool! 

[dodgem37]

Great show.  Love Profiles.  Please show more when you have the time.

 

Sincerely,

Mark

[Kagemusha]

Outstanding work Nic, will the book be available commercially? 

[Jaro]

Great!

 

What rendering technique & software you use (if it's not top secret)?

[Juggernut]

I would love to know how to do this.... I have Adobe Illustrator but I have no idea on how to create aircraft profiles.

[Jack]

Awesome Nic, i love profiles, good show, btw that Mirage 5, was it stationed at Bierset in the past?

 

salut,

 

Jack

[Rainer Hoffmann]

Beautiful art work, Nic. Very professional!

 

Cheers

Rainer

[Nic C.D.]

Thanks for the feedback, everyone! It's the first time I do this but it is actually a lot of fun and much like modelling. 

 

It's no secret Jaro, this is how I work: First, I make the line drawing of the aircraft or helicopter. Because the BAF wants to use them on different designs and sizes later on, I make them in a vector file. I check the line drawings with the many photos I took of the real aircraft and correct or add detail where necessary. On some aircraft, you can hardly see some of these details such as rivets or armoured plates, but they are there. With the lines done, the colouring starts and this is done in Photoshop. Usually, a profile takes about 30 to 50 layers, most of them transparent, except for the base colours and markings. It really is a lot like painting a model: base colour, panelling, adding shades and light, chipping, ... When that is done, it's time for the "decals" - the markings and stencils are drawn in the same way as the baseline drawings (in the right colours) and then copied in the Photoshop file. There, you can adjust shape and size to match the reference photos. 

 

Like with modelling, it takes a lot of time to get it acceptable; it usually takes me 4 to 5 hours to colour a profile. The colour profiles are done in a rather large resolution and in a size of +/- 70 cm. Some are a real pain to do such as this one of an Alouette II helicopter:

 

This one took me about 15 hours to do. Because you see every detail of the framing and engine, I needed over 50 layers. Some are way easier, but you have to make sure the details of the first drawing is correct. That takes a lot of checking and time. With that done, it gets easier. Here's a famous Belgian Starfighter:

 

 

I tried to develop a style for the profiles; some people like them clean, some want to see these profiles very weathered or almost photo-like. I'm technically not good enough for the latter. But then I also have to consider that I have to do 130 of them in just 8 weeks. 

 

Jack, you're right, the Mirage was based at Bierset in the 1980s. Here's the profile of another Mirage, which has been restored and is maintained privately in Belgium:

 

The book has to be ready by the end of September and it should be available from the Belgian Air Force or a limited number of shops, yes. It will be a hardcover book of nearly 300 pages. When it is done (and if I didn't go crazy) I'd like to try some other profiles, like Fw-190 D9 or K4 or maybe a couple of F-15s, I'm not sure yet. Then again, I'd like to build a model too, it has been way too long since I was able to finish one.

 

Thanks again everyone!

 

Nic

[MikeC]

This is great stuff, they look really good.

 

13 hours ago, Nic C.D. said:

I tried to develop a style for the profiles; some people like them clean ...

 

I'm one of those people.  I really do not like the current fashion for "weathered" profiles; it becomes more about the artist and less about giving the reader an informative reference.

[Nic C.D.]

Hi Mike,

 

I understand your point, but working with photos as a reference, sometimes you have to weather the aircraft heavily. I received a photo of a Belgian Spitfire Mk.XVI from 1947 and the aircraft was really dirty in the picture, so I did the profile as close to that as I could:

 

 

There was so much dirt from the exhaust and mud that the marking were partly obscured. I agree that it shouldn't be about the person doing the profile, but trying to be as accurate as possible. Of course, some modern aircraft are often much less weathered.

 

Nic