Small Propeller Aircraft Design (Mother of Pearl)

It is interesting how sometimes a seemingly insurmountable obstacle can really propel one to do something they probably would have never been able to do under normal circumstances. That is how I feel about the Mother of Pearl design. I was asked to paint the Beechcraft King Air 350, which is the most common aircraft in the LivewireExpress fleet. I had been putting off considering this because I knew that the only model available for the KA350 was the default model provided with MSFS. Unfortunately, that model has a number of severe problems, including texture mapping that causes much of the surface to distort any form of regular design, as well as the problem that the left and right sides are mirrored, meaning that text cannot be used.

Therefore, I looked for solutions to both of these serious problems. I decided to solve the mirroring problem by simply using no text. Instead, I would use recognizable symbols to make it evident that it is a LivewireExpress Birds of Paradise design.

The texture mapping problem, however, was much more serious. I eventually realized that I would either have to make the design very simple and avoid the many problematic areas on the surface of the model, or find a chaotic design that would hide the problem. I chose the latter course of action. And the first chaotic pattern that popped into my head was the Mother of Pearl surface found inside Abalone shells. I felt this was just perfect if I were able to actually paint such a design. Fortunately, I was able to simulate the look of Mother of Pearl using significant amounts of reflectivity and just the right texture. As hoped, this perfectly hid all the many flaws in the texture mapping on the model and turned out looking really attractive.

I went on to use this same design on the Baron 58, and then then three Cessnas: C172S, C208 Amphibian, and C182. All had the same issues as the KA350 to different degrees, and all fortunately took well to the design. This design is definately one of my proudest accomplishments both as a designer and a painter.


Hughes MD500 (Model by Peter & Tamas Nemeth)