RivetBangers.com

If anyone is interested, I thought I'd post some photos to show how these illustrations are made. I'm making an F-16 is for a customer so I thought I'd show some steps along the way.

All drawings start out with a line drawing. I make my own line drawings by painstakeingly tracing a suitable photo. This line drawing below required almost 8 hours to complete...



After the lines are drawn and the rivets added, the base color is added next. In this case, there are three shades of grey that are added. I always finish the landing gear and the canopy next because they are easy and relatively quick to do. All that is complete here...



After the base colors are added, the real fun begins. This is where the airplane starts to look 'real' and is my favorite part.



In the photo above, I'm starting from the front and working back. There's still a lot of shading and highlighting to do yet, but you can see the front end starting to look like a three dimensional airplane.

After the shading is complete, I will add the paint scheme and details like graphics. At this point in the process, I'm about 10 or 11 hours into this project with still lots to do!

Here's a little more progess. Some more highlights and shading have been added, a shadow, and some weathering. A few graphics have been added too. I still have to complete the nose gear door and the turkey feathers (and a few other things...)

Oops, I realized I never posted the finished airplane here! Here it is. I actually have more F-16 paint schemes, a couple of F-15's, and more on my Flickr page at http://www.flickr.com/photos/aerodraw/

Wow that is nice.

I just finished a Tucano T-1 and really liked the scheme. So, it may be a possible scheme for my RV-7A!

Here's my latest RV drawing-the RV-12