Aircraft Paint Scheme Design Software

[NotarPilot]

Does anyone know of a paintshop or program that allows you to choose your model aircraft and paint it in 3D?  Mooney used to have this on their website before they got bought by the Chinese.  I really liked it but it wasn't fully customizable where you could create your own designs.  You could only pick a paint design and choose your colors.  Still, you could spin the plane around to see it three dimensionally.  

I have a design that I think would look really sharp but right now I'm resorting to using a blank Mooney side profile and using Microsoft Paint to do the designing.

[carusoam]

Adobe has a paint shop program... probably called PaintShop...

https://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop.html?sdid=KKQIN&mv=search&ef_id=EAIaIQobChMI1NHfn8Gw3wIVkFuGCh0LWgOlEAAYASAAEgJPvvD_BwE:G:s&s_kwcid=AL!3085!3!301413807794!b!!g!!adobe photoshop#hero-featured-video

It may require more skill than you want to develop though...

In the right hands it can sub out colors on surfaces of pictures of planes...

All would still require artistic talent unless you are copying what is there already...

Then there are these people that have these talents, that you can buy/rent...

 

There are a couple of paint scheme companies listed around here... One is better than the other... I guessed wrong while writing about them before... Byron has the experience to use...

They are expensive for toying around... but inline with reality considering what a paint project can be...

So if your serious about painting your plane, check in with Byron to see how he went through the design stage...

Other notable paint projects around here... (limited by my micro memory capacity, sorry if I left out someother good ones)

• jetdriven
• aviatoreb
• bob_belville
• PTK
• Special award that goes to the design expert to cover this one ugly beast, in nice clothing... Alan Fox...

Check their pic collections...

I left out the @ signs.... it’s pretty late. Don’t want to wake everybody up...

Best regards,

-a-

[Hank]

7 hours ago, carusoam said:

Other notable paint projects around here... (limited by my micro memory capacity, sorry if I left out someother good ones)

• jetdriven
• aviatoreb
• bob_belville
• PTK
• Special award that goes to the design expert to cover this one ugly beast, in nice clothing... Alan Fox...

Check their pic collections...

I left out the @ signs.... it’s pretty late. Don’t want to wake everybody up...

It's OK, Anthony. Emails beep when they come in, but the only notifications I've received from Mooneyspace is when someone sends me a PM, whuch results in an email.

Otherwise, it will beep when I open Mooneyspace. Neither tablet nor phone does anything about Mooneyspace when not actively on the site.

[Bob_Belville]

I worked with Scheme Designers (as did @jetdriven).

They will revise until you're satisfied. (This was version "O" as in A,B,C...M,N,O).

https://www.schemedesigners.com/mooneym20e-bellville/PlanO.html

[NotarPilot]

I like scheme designers but theyre a bit pricey and im still a few years away from painting so I was looking for something I could tinker around with myself until I get it “just right.”

[jetdriven]

It’s a $15,000 project. The $800 spent on planning is well worth it, and the difference between a professionally designed scheme and a mediocre layout guy with a roll of green tape is huge.  The first thing you notice is the proportions and the flow of the scheme. Then you look at the rest.  This matters especially when the owner wants a long body scheme on a shorter airplane or the reverse.  They don’t scale well.  

[aviatoreb]

I didn’t use a scheme designer.  I just sketched on a blank Mooney drawing.  The technical of my scheme are old school simple straight lines except the tail that is also a wavey checker pattern so a typical thing to do.

[Hank]

Sounds like the thing to do is to build a portfolio of airplane pictures that you like, then run off a bunch of copies of the 3-view in your POH and play with colored pencils. Save the photos you used the most, scan the sketches you like the most, and send them to your designer of choice when you are ready. In the meantime, you now have a side project, and the designer will have a good idea where to start. 

[jetdriven]

[bradp]

I used a freeware vector paint program that was highly rated. Will check to see what the name of it was.  Easy to use to create layered design elements.  I used a photo of my plane as a template.  Got what I would say is 80% scheme designer level results by fiddling.  I have a somewhat of a distant background in layout and design so that helped.  

In the end I used the original late 70s scheme with slight variation and got a result I was very happy with.  

 

[aviatoreb]

I also sketched on paper. I can't find my final sketch, but you see my design, and my sketches were very simple.  Straight lines, except for the checker tail.

 

 

Edited December 22, 2018 by aviatoreb

[GeneralT001]

Reviving an old post....any new programs to tinker with for a paint scheme?