I finally got this one done: My 190 D-9 painting. I had a lot of help getting some of the details correct thanks to the aviation art groups on Facebook, but it's not too late to make revisions and I know some of you could probably point out a thing or two. I welcome that!
Thanks to my illustrious Belgian source this piece was painted to accompany parts of a D-9 that was lost in action during Operation Bodenplatte. Unfortunately I don't have the aircraft's werk nummer or information on its pilot, but it was assigned to 3./JG 2 'Richthofen'. A couple of the pieces are amazingly well preserved. I'd say about 90% of all of the aircraft aluminum I see is corroded and has little or no paint at all, while these parts look like they came off of a crash that happened yesterday, and the paint is amazing. German paint often turns yellow with age. Some of the parts that I have that retain RLM 65, for example, look like a pale desert tan (I've sanded down a few samples of this and it can be restored, but it's laborious). This paint is mint and still has that original eggshell sheen.
Unrelated: I also completed this 190 A piece a few weeks ago, and I don't think I shared it here. A little different, more focused on the armor. I know - targets!
Regarding the use of day fighters at night: I believe that it was quite a source of anger in the Luftwaffe that day fighter units were repeatedly ordered by ignorant leadership to interdict RAF night raids. Some of these orders were refused, and in some cases I've heard stories where units took to the air only to fly around aimlessly and later claim a failure to make contact, and other cases where day fighters were used in the limited role of spotters. I'd like to think that so long as it happened at least once - I'm okay.
Not much to show yet - but this will eventually be Yamamoto's G4M 'Betty' being shot down in Operation Vengeance. I'm starting the the nose as it's closest to the viewer. I plan on revealing a crew attempting to save the aircraft. A bit 'violent' for my normal taste but I think it'll be dramatic.
I used to use 3D Studiomax for my architectural rendering back in the day, but it did strange things to the perspective - closer objects were rendered way too long, etc. Wings looked really distorted. It worked for buildings but not for aircraft. Other software was as unreliable, though maybe newer stuff is better. I paint organic things by hand, on canvas, and often the aircraft are painted by hand in Photoshop - as in this example. I ultimately merge everything together.