Recoloring Reartworking

[McGee]

I have another question for all before i go to bed, where I should have been hours ago, but Im excited about finding this, Im excited to have a computer again after over a year, and Its hard to sleep with the pain of a broken foot and a travelling clot...but I digress. hamr
What is the accepted and respectful thing to do if you find a plane that is the same model that say maybe an uncle flew or has, and say the coloring is pretty much the same, but the tail call has different numbers, and you want to have the numbers represent his exact plane..Is it okay to change the numbers yourself in a graphic program, and alter the artists artwork, or do you ask the designer if its okay, or do you ask him to design one to match your needs. by just altering the numbers and any wing markings.
If you do alter the artwork for that personal need, what is a program you would use to do that to an image in a PDF file, or any file type for that matter.
As is obvious by now...I can build a model but when it comes to anything to do with the image or designing in the computer, and programs, beyond printing, I am pretty much..well...stock out of the box builder.
I only ask about the ethic engle as I wouldnt want to alter an image in a minor way, but before giving as a gift, I take a few pics and submit it to some forums, and several people including the creator, see the model they know, and see its been changed, and it causes a problem.
Sorry for my giant diatribes everyone. Foot pain, hydros and coffee...that'll do it.

 

[Cforrest900]

You can just do it on your own, as long as you don't post the retextured version here. MS paint would work fine, or if you have it you can use Adobe Illustrator.

 

[McGee]

when you say dont repost the retextured version here, do you mean dont post pics of the completed model build, or do you mean dont re post the re textured templates for anyone to be able to use and build?
If that's what you mean, then I definately agree and wouldnt do that. I'd never re post that anywhere. It would just be an alteration for me, just for that one time to build for my uncle for his plane.
Would it be okay to post the pics of the finished build though?
thank you for your reply. have a great modelling day.

 

[spaceagent-9]

its hard to know what is stepping on toes with this jaundra, but it is mostly this;
you can do anything for your own use, not selling built versions, or giving away mods-[modifications] anything else you will want to ask a moderator about before posting, and the original author if you can. and always include the original author's info no matter what you do, on all the model sheets to print.
if you cannot communicate with the author, ask a moderator to try, then you will be instructed how to proceed.
jim

 

[Revell-Fan]

when you say dont repost the retextured version here, do you mean dont post pics of the completed model build, or do you mean dont re post the re textured templates for anyone to be able to use and build?
If that's what you mean, then I definately agree and wouldnt do that. I'd never re post that anywhere. It would just be an alteration for me, just for that one time to build for my uncle for his plane.
Would it be okay to post the pics of the finished build though?
thank you for your reply. have a great modelling day.

I think he referred to the altered plans because that would be my answer, too. You may post the pics of your build here but please keep the re-coloured templates to yourself. This is what I and Rhaven have done with the Buck Rogers Thunderfighter by Martin Saenger. Martin allowed us to make add-ons (which are available exclusively on his site) but he asked us not to distribute any recoloured variants of his kit. We have made several recolours for our own enjoyment and showed them on this forum but we strictly obey the wish of the original creator and do not share the recoloured versions with anyone.

 

[McGee]

Thank you for your reply. That sounds right on. I would't try to redistribute or repost some one elses hard work with my artwork modifications, as my own, and definately not try to sell them.
Any artwork or coloring mods would always only be purely for my own personal build.
What program do you recommend to do that kind of thing? There is a plane that is a PDF file and i have no idea how to alster an image in PDF...shoot..i have no idea how to make ANY changes in any kind of file format or any idea of what programs to use for what file types. Any ideas at all...like what you used for the BR Thunderfighter mods that you did?
I actually have a couple of those modification versions, in process, that are made available on his site, and am very thankful for them.
Thank you very much again.

 

[Revell-Fan]

You may use any graphic program you like. There are quite a few out there like Paint.NET (free) and InkScape (free, vector editing). My favourite program is the Gimp: http://www.gimp.org/

It's powerful, (relatively) easy to use and it is free. It opens a wide variety of image files and imports *.pdfs. When you import a *.pdf make sure that you do not use a resolution below 300 dpi or the result will look bad. A normal A4 page would result in a 2480 x 3508 pix image.

Having imported the page(s) you may begin with exchanging colours, drawing new detail or removing parts. I recommend working with different layers which gives you full control of your development (if you would like to restore the original image just deactivate the layer). There are many tuts on the www which can show you how it is done. Just give it a try, once you have learned the basics it is really fun.

Then save the single parts pages in a format which does not suffer from compression. *.xcf is the native Gimp format. It saves all layers, paths and so on. For simple files without additional layers you may use *.png (lossless compression). Do not use *.gif or *.jpg if you would like to edit the files again later.

When printing the re-coloured pages do not use the Windows picture viewer. It does not print the pages at 100 %, no matter how hard you try. Export the pages to a *.pdf or print them with Gimp.

 

[McGee]

WOw...man Thank you so much. I really appreciate how thoroughly you explained that, as I'm really inept at computer stuff other than the basic straightforward button pushing to read my email, get to a site, etc. All that is so Greek to me, so I really appreciate it.

 

[Revell-Fan]

You are welcome! I almost forgot that there is another way: Assemble the model as is and then paint the finished product manually with acrylic paint or water colours. A white template would be best for that.

 

[McGee]

Hey yeah, that makes perfect sense. I imagine that if i put down a layer or two of a gloss coat to protect and seal the paper, I could do a decal treatment for things like numerals and letters, then do a light dull coat treatment after all that to finish it off. Thats a great idea, thank you.

 

[McGee]

Not sure why i didnt think of that, when ive been resin and plastic modelling for Yeeeeaars. That was a total no duh brain fart moment for me. I guess that because i was in modelling digital, pre colored and pre detailed models, my mind got stuck in that mode, which makes no sense, as i have no trouble using liquid resin soaked PAPER parts on otherwise fully plastic models, on the converse,
As I said.. momentary lapse of reason. Thanks again.hamr